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Monday, June 30, 2003
I wanna be "Blunt, honest, easily comprehensible, Trumanesque".
Jay Nordlinger of the National Review writes:
I collect Bush talk, as you know (along with Rumsfeld talk and some other choice verbal specimens). I'm sure I was not alone in enjoying what Bush said when asked about a terrorist "ceasefire" in the Middle East: "I'll believe it when I see it." Blunt, honest, easily comprehensible, Trumanesque: That's Bush talk. I love the eloquent speeches, written by those marvelous speechwriters. But I love just plain, unadorned, from-the-gut W. talk, too.
WMD's in Iraq?
Taxcuts helping the economy?
Compassionate conservatism?
Adults are in charge?
"I'll believe it when I see it".
I feel Trumansesque already....
By the way..... this is a picture of Jay Nordlinger. The same Jay Nordlinger who refers to Michele Malkin as his "homegirl". When a dink like Nordlinger starts using "homegirl" that means the term is deader than Bob Dole's dick. Next thing you know, Nordlinger will start refering to himself as Jay-No.
posted by tbogg at 4:19 PM
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Belated birthday wishes to...
Sullywatch. 365 days of reading dreck, tapdancing, excuses, corrections, Raines-stalking, Beeb-bashing, Hitchens-humping, begging for cash, false leads, ridiculous conclusions, self delusion, and paens to the Pet Shop Boys.
There ought to be hazardous duty pay....
posted by tbogg at 4:11 PM
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Sure, I'm the Supreme Being, but what I really want to do is direct.
A couple of weeks ago, God was busy instructing the empty vessel that is George Bush to smite Al Qaeda, Iraq, and any mention of climate change in the latest EPA report. Proving that His work is never done, God is now working through His faithful instrument, as well as star of the thigh-slappingly hilarious Lethal Weapon movies, Mel Gibson:
Actor Mel Gibson has been getting closer to God.
On Thursday, that led him to Colorado Springs, where he visited New Life Church and Focus on the Family and previewed his upcoming film, “The Passion.”
Gibson, star of such films as the “Lethal Weapon” series and “Braveheart,” said it was his Christian faith that inspired “The Passion,” which depicts the final 12 hours in the life of Christ.
“I’m not a preacher and I’m not a pastor,” Gibson said. “But I really feel my career was leading me to make this. The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing traffic. I hope the film has the power to evangelize.”
God had earlier indicated a desire to work on Bad Boys II but lost out to Michael Bay who, although not God, thinks he's God's gift. God's next production, The Rapture and The Apocalypse is currently in preproduction while screenwriters John Ashcroft and Lynne Cheney polish the final script. Casting so far includes Nathan Lane as the Anti-Christ, Ben Affleck as The First To Die, and Drew Barrymore as The Blonde Lesbian.
posted by tbogg at 3:44 PM
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From the Battle of Yorktown to the Fall of Saigon
I wasn't sure if Lt. Smash was being ironic today or if his post was just a horrible historical analogy.
Over time, this model was applied to the colonial governments themselves. Many of the colonies formed representative legislatures, which addressed matters that were of concern to the entire colony, and made recommendations to the colonial governors.
Thus, a democratic tradition in America was born.
Unfortunately, while these colonists were developing means of self-government, the Atlantic Ocean was not getting any smaller. Without consulting the colonial legislatures, the British restricted colonial trade, levied heavy taxes and duties, and even forced an oppressive military occupation upon the colonies when they protested the harsh measures. As the cries of injustice from the colonial legislatures grew louder, the British authorities ordered them to dissolve.
But the democratic tradition in the Colonies refused to die. After an attempt by the British Army to seize a cache of weapons in a small Massachusetts town resulted in violence and open rebellion, representatives from each of the Thirteen Colonies gathered in the City of Philadelphia during the hot summer of 1776. The result of this Continental Congress was the document that we celebrate today as the Declaration of Independence. (My emphasis)
Maybe he didn't hear about this:
American forces carried out an aggressive series of predawn raids across central Iraq today, aiming to root out groups that have been attacking American and British soldiers and to project an intimidating display of power.
Carried out by the Army's Fourth Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse, the raids involved thousands of soldiers and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles. Army officials arrested more than 60 people, and seized several caches of weapons and documents.
But military officials said they did not capture anyone on their list of most-wanted Iraqis, and the relative absence of armed resistance suggested that they had not uncovered any major pockets of resistance.
Army commanders said they had staged more than 20 raids over a vast part of the Tigris River valley, beginning just north of Baghdad and going upriver beyond the city of Tikrit. There were no reports of American casualties in the raids, which are likely to continue in the days to come.
Today's almost simultaneous raids began around 2 a.m., and struck homes, farms and abandoned buildings that were suspected of housing loyalists to Saddam Hussein or other groups fighting the American-led occupation.
"We want to send a message of `Don't mess with us,' " said Lt. Col. Aubrey Garner, commander of the First Battalion, 68th Armor, which is part of the Fourth Infantry Division.
The Neocons were right, it isn't going to be like Viet Nam. Think back farther.....
posted by tbogg at 2:54 PM
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Lions and tigers and....gay marriage
Fortunately for the Administration the Supreme Court reversed the field and got everyone talking about gay marriage this weekend instead of mundane things like the quagmire in Iraq, the quagmire in Afghanistan, the missing WMD's, or how Victoria Clarke would dress if she were a wee bit younger.
So we've got Sen Bill Frist (R-Scourge of the Calicoes) weighing in on a Constitutional Amendment.
Bill Safire thinking it may cause opposite sex marriages to increase. (Hey. I don't explain 'em I just link 'em. Like Prof. Reynolds)
Chuck Colson mentions gay marriage after going on and on about sodomy, a subject on which he might have more background on than most, as a result of his prison time.
Don Buzee of Bayton, Texas has an opinion...and also wants the gays to "stay off my goddam lawn".
Calpundit Kevin Drum links to David Frum and has a lively discussion on gay marriage.
...and, of course, Newsweek features it on the cover this week.
posted by tbogg at 1:56 PM
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Filling in for Tom is....Alice.
Guest Blogger Alice sent this in to me over the weekend, but I just now got to it. Enjoy:
American Enterprise Institute Insider Trading
No organization was a more enthusiastic advocate of the war in Iraq than the American Enterprise Institute. So you might suppose that its Board of Trustees would have a optimistic view of the future, now that so many of their policies have been adopted.
It seems you would be wrong. In the months leading up to and during the war, four members of the AEI’s Board of Trustees were on the phone with their brokers dumping their corporate stock like it was a bad cold.
On January 28th, after Bush’s State of the Union speech, Martin M. Koffel, Chairman and CEO of URS Corporation, dumped 50,381 shares of URS stock worth $583,411.00. One month later, after Hans Blix made his report to the security council, William S. Stavropoulos, Chairman, President and CEO of Dow Chemical, exercised options on 33,750 shares of DOW and immediately unloaded 10,986 of those shares for $294,754.00 .
The spectacle of our courageous troops fighting their way across the desert apparently did not encourage Lee R. Raymond, Chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobile and Vice Chair of AEI’s Board of Trustees. On March 10 he exercised options on 100,000 shares of Exxon Mobile stock and immediately rid himself of them, netting $1,881.999.00. The following day J. Joe Rickets, Chairman and Founder of American Holding Corporation, made a non-open market acquisition of 26,883,315 shares of American Holding Stock. But apparently he did not want to hold on to them. That same day he made a non-open market disposition of the stock. The sums of money involved are not disclosed.
Lee Raymond was still dumping stock by the end of the month. On March 25th he exercised options on 43,708 shares of corporate stock and sold them the same day, netting $880,183.00
It lends a whole new meaning to the phrase Selling the Troops Short.
posted by tbogg at 1:19 PM
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Blogging Lite
Blogging will be light today (as you can see below). Stuff going on. Busy. Deadlines. etc.
Check out all the Hot Links to the left. Read them carefully.
There's going to be a test.
posted by tbogg at 11:32 AM
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Coulterblog watch day eight: Dude. Where's my skank?
Man-hands Ann is still a no show. Guess she used up all her lies in Treason.
posted by tbogg at 11:28 AM
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Okay. So the whores on Seventh Ave. aren't better looking.
"But seriously....I just flew in with the president today, and boy, are my knees tired"
posted by tbogg at 11:18 AM
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Straight to the point
Ann Telnaes, Ben Sargent, and Jeff Danziger don't mess around.
(Added): Tim says I missed Mike Lukovich.
posted by tbogg at 11:11 AM
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Sunday, June 29, 2003
Weekend at Thurmies....
Vice President Dick Cheney is going to take an enormous risk and represent the administration at the Strom Thurmond funeral, prompting his Secret Service detail to circulate pictures of the VP to the funeral home staff with the admonition that "No, he doesn't belong in a casket and yes, we'll let you have first dibs on him...just not today".
As usual the Secret Service will be bringing along the Cheneymaster 3000™.
You know. Just in case
posted by tbogg at 10:57 AM
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Saturday, June 28, 2003
Like money in the bank
Via Atrios we find that George W Bush, the pilot hero of USS Abraham Lincoln, who packs more penis into a flightsuit by 6am than you'll pack in a day, is fighting to keep our precious taxdollars out the hands of the parasitic widows and orphans of US soldiers who have died defending our equally precious freedoms.
For example, the White House griped that various pay-and-benefits incentives added to the 2004 defense budget by Congress are wasteful and unnecessary — including a modest proposal to double the $6,000 gratuity paid to families of troops who die on active duty. This comes at a time when Americans continue to die in Iraq at a rate of about one a day.
Why look. He saved us $6000 just today. With two hundred soldiers dead in Iraq so far, this is adding up to some serious money.
Time for another tax cut. Grover Norquist needs a new cumberbund....
posted by tbogg at 11:12 PM
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George Bush gets himself a trained dancing monkey.
More on the fascinating decline of Dennis Miller's career:
Miller Emerges as New Voice for Bush Re-Election
A new voice has emerged in the re-election campaign of President Bush, that of Dennis Miller, who is gaining a reputation as a conservative comic by attacking Democrats with biting humor.
Miller flew on Air Force One from San Francisco to Los Angeles with the president on Friday, and later gave a stand-up routine at a Bush fund-raiser in Los Angeles.
"I spent an amazing couple of hours with Dennis Miller," Bush said during his Los Angeles speech after Miller's routine. "He keeps you on your toes."
He added: "I was also honored to meet his wife, Carolyn. Like me, he married above himself. It may not be all that hard, in his case. But I'm proud to have his help."
Miller, who was an analyst on ABC's "Monday Night Football, had an HBO comedy show and does commentary for Fox News, adds a celebrity touch to Bush's re-election campaign, much like actor Bruce Willis did in 1992 when Bush's father ran for re-election.
Bush remained offstage until after Miller's often caustic comic performance during the fund-raiser that drew in $3.5 million, most of it in $2,000 checks from 1,600 people.
For instance, he took aim at West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, a Democratic elder statesmen who has questioned the Iraq war and its chaotic aftermath.
Even some in the crowd of Republican loyalists booed when Miller said of Byrd: "I think he must be burning the cross at both ends."
Responding to the boos, Miller said: "Well, he was in the (Ku Klux) Klan. Boo me, but he was in the Klan."
How pathetic do you have to be as a comedian if you have to explain your jokes?
posted by tbogg at 10:53 PM
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What I could have been doing this weekend...
You really can't make stuff like this up. Let's say you're the head of a large conservative religious organization or a family values-styled foundation (it's hard...but imagine real hard), and you want to get together with like-minded folks who are appalled by what is happening with the youth of America, what with the flaunting of their budding sexuality and their firm buttocks and taut little tummies and....well, you know, kids having sex. What are you going to do about this sad state of affairs? Have a convention. And where are you going to have it?
Las Vegas.
Yes, this weekend in Las Vegas, thousands of proper, unsullied, Godly, moral citizens who couldn't spell "sodomy" if you spotted them the T and the A, are going to get down by not getting down in Sin City at the Abstinence Clearing House Conference.
Here's the kind of festivities that you have to look forward to (since you won't be having any hot sweaty sex):
7:00-8:00 a.m. Breakfast (Optional: at attendees expense)
8:00-8:30 a.m. Funding for Marriage
8:30-9:00 a.m. Abstinence Across the Globe
9:00-9:30 a.m. Making Virginity Possible: Empowering Parents
10:30-11:30 a.m. Medical Perspective: The Physical & Emotional Consequences of Pre-marital Sex, Dr. Eric Keroack
11:30 a.m. Box Lunch Picnic (Optional: at attendees expense)
Breakout A: Certification Track
1:00-2:00 p.m. Certification Class 1, The Institute for Abstinence Education
2:00-2:15 p.m. Break
2:15-3:15 p.m. Certification Class 2, The Institute for Abstinence Education
3:15-4:00 p.m. Certification Test, The Institute for Abstinence Education
Don't forget to attend the highly anticipated, sold-out morning meeting on " The Faces of Abstinence".
....and you can make your own joke about the box lunches.
And remember....some people choose abstinence, others have it thrust upon them.
(thanks to "P" for the link)
posted by tbogg at 10:37 AM
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Weekend updowndate
So what do you do when your career goes down faster than Ann Coulter at a Heritage Foundation smoker? Why, you sell out completely:
The lunch at the San Francisco Airport Marriott was the first Bush fundraiser to include entertainment. The crowd was placid, listening politely to comedian Dennis Miller as he referred to the Democratic field as “an empty-headed scrum” with debates that look “like Pez dispensers having a séance.”
His performance earned him a ride on Air Force One down to Los Angeles, where he delivered a similar routine but noted the freeway’s “smooth flow of traffic in the illegal-alien lanes.”
That's just the kind of crowd a comedian wants: placid and polite.
"empty-headed scrum", "Pez dispensers", "illegal-alien lanes". Jesus. I can smell the flop sweat 150 miles away.
posted by tbogg at 9:35 AM
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Friday, June 27, 2003
Thirty four years ago today
I was somewhat suprised to see that no one mentioned that today is the 34th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Visit the online museum. And read more here and here.
posted by tbogg at 9:59 PM
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Datenight USA
Well, it's Friday night and that means it's Datenight USA...what to do?...what to do?.
If you live in Denver you can always go see the Dixie Chicks at the palatial Pepsi Center. Oh wait. You can't. It's all sold out. Bummer
Why not head over to Cadott, Wisconsin for a chance to see Toby Keith at Country Fest 2003 with Emerson Drive, Steve Holy, Terri Clark, and SHeDAiSY ? There's plenty of tickets available and, hey, you can camp out too! All your friends are going to be there.
Yee. Haw.
....and don't miss Rock Fest 2003 in July featuring Dokken, Night Ranger, Grand Funk Railroad, Lynrd Skynrd, Eddie Money, Jackyl, and Loverboy.
Aoooooo! Freeeee Biiiiiirrrrrrrd!
posted by tbogg at 4:00 PM
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Getting on the list
The federal government Friday launched a national "do-not-call" registry aimed at stopping most telemarketing phone calls to people who regard the sales pitches as invasive and want them blocked.
Within hours, 370,000 phone numbers had been registered, the Federal Trade Commission said. Officials said they expect 60 million people to register eventually.
[snip]
"When Americans are sitting down to dinner or a parent is reading to his or her child the last thing they need is a call from a stranger with a sales pitch," President Bush said at a White House ceremony inaugurating the project. "So we are taking practical action to address this problem."
I'm glad that they cleared this up with President Xbox. He spent most of this morning at www.donotcall.gov trying to order Krispy Kremes....
posted by tbogg at 1:11 PM
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San Fransiscoans leaving the partie because of Hillary Clintoon. Oh noh!
I had no idea of the power of the written word until I read this review of Hillary Clinton's Living History over at Amazon:
Disgusting, obscene and full of lies, June 21, 2003
Reviewer: A reader from San Fransisco, CA
I don't get it. I used to be a sharply left-wing Democrat, but after reading Living History, I changed my party to Republican, and I became a strict conservative. This book is absolute trash, and proves my former partie's point that too many trees are being destroyed for human "needs". Clintoon (yes, toon) didn't even write this example of totalitarian propaganda on historical happenings, and she is a huge disgrace to all of her miserable likspittles. I thank Clintoon for showing me which way of thinking is moral, just and on the correct side of history (the conservative way). Don't waste your hard earned, welfare money on this liberal bible.
That's quite a conversion within one week. Particularly from someone who lives in "San Fransisco".
posted by tbogg at 12:55 PM
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Rick Santorum supporters breathe sigh of relief
Senate candidate's nude photos cause debate
No. It's not him.
...and speaking of Santorum... now that Supreme Court has mandated, condoned, and strongly hinted at sodomy and hot gay sex for all Americans, all hell is breaking loose. This is just the kind of thing that Santorum was talking about. My god...it's everywhere.
Sit Ubu.
posted by tbogg at 11:04 AM
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Because it's the last time we'll probably link to it.
Aimee Mann once wrote a song called Jimmy Hoffa Jokes that starts out:
he's infinitely wise
but he infinitely lies
we're no longer just plain folks
no, we're old and sad and bored
and we're not funny anymore
we're like Jimmy Hoffa Jokes
...which made me think that, oh, maybe a year or two from now, we won't be making any more jokes about Strom Thurmond. Unless, of course, you're a hack like Jay Leno, who still makes Judge Ito jokes. Anyway, with that in mind, I thought it only fitting that we observe the passing of Senator Thurmond with the last great profile written about him.
I hope you enjoy it. I know it brought a tear to my eye.
posted by tbogg at 10:00 AM
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Coulterblogwatch day four: Distraught over loss of former lover, Strom Thurmond.
Professional Republican fluffer, Ann Coulter, still hasn't made it to her blog yet. Disappointed freepers are renewing their Adult ID's so they can bone up on all the hot sodomy websites now that it's legal.
hotcheneyoncheney.com sets record for hits nudging out laurasbush.com and schlaflygrannysex.com.
posted by tbogg at 9:41 AM
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Editorial cartoon of the year.
Wrap up the Pulitzer and label it for Ann Telnaes.
Because they wouldn't dare give it to Ted Rall.
posted by tbogg at 8:56 AM
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Thursday, June 26, 2003
The Strange Case of Dr. Frist and Senator Lied
Billmon shows us that Bill Frist kills the truth with the same surgical skill he used killing kitties.
posted by tbogg at 10:39 PM
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He's Strom gone
Former Republican Sen. J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the longest-serving member of the upper house of Congress, died Thursday night. He was 100.
The colorful and sometimes controversial lawmaker, who held his first public office in the late 1920s died at 9:45 p.m at a hospital in his hometown of Edgefield, South Carolina, where he had been living since retiring earlier this year, family members said in a statement released to local media.
He was best known for his longevity in public office and his once-fiery opposition to civil rights -- a stance he abandoned, like many one-time supporters of segregation, in later years.
'Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings,
and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.'
- Noah Cross. Chinatown.
...and that's all I going to say about this.....
( Update): I lied. I couldn't help myself.
posted by tbogg at 9:55 PM
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Sterling on Rummy
Maybe I'm a little late to this party, but I just got around to reading this article by Bruce Sterling, obstensibly about Donald Rumsfeld, from the June issue of Wired . Someone has probably already posted it, but I thought I would share it anyway:
Rumsfeld's maxims offer deep insight into why the American republic has survived and thrived. They also explain why this presidency is scaring the world into a tizzy. The administration has Rumsfeld on board, and yet observe how it's trampling his rules:
"Think ahead. Don't let day-to-day operations drive out planning." Bush's look-ahead routine crashed on September 11. Now what's the golden objective? The path ahead leads to war, economic decline, alienation from friends, and endless surveillance.
posted by tbogg at 7:48 PM
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Tastes like Teen Spirit
When it comes to fouling the local environment, there seems to be a race between the states of Texas and Florida. So this should come as no suprise:
Every day, 640 million gallons of sewage in Florida is injected deep underground, where it's supposed to stay far away from drinking water supplies.
But what goes down is coming up, migrating into portions of the aquifer that cities and counties tap for their water supplies, a violation of current federal regulations governing drinking water.
Officials from the federal Environmental Protection Agency were in Tampa on Wednesday to get public opinion about a controversial proposal to relax those rules and allow what's called deep-well injection of sewage to continue, even if the treated effluent is mixing with drinking water.
Changes are opposed by environmental groups, but utilities - mainly in South Florida - want the regulations altered. The change would apply only to Florida.
It's really not so bad if you strain it through your teeth. It kind of tastes like chicken politics....
posted by tbogg at 5:35 PM
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"You might find her book in our Mental Health section. Start there..."
Rich P. had a buying experience similar to Peter La Barbera's (see below) at his local Borders:
I recently picked up a thin book called "TREASON" by Ann Coulter at a Borders Bookstore here in Santa Monica. It bills itself as "The Guide to Liberal Treachery From Abe Lincoln's Capitulation To Abolitionist Outside Agitators to Just Before Our Beloved President Bush Mis-Led Us Into Our Sacred War To Rid Iraq of Non-Existent Weapons of Mass Destruction." This so-called "Guide" promotes hard-core Joe McCarthy Worship, Reagan Ideo-Porn, and Promiscuous Use of Bogus Statistics to crucify the 99% of Americans who disagree with her agenda. It preaches "conservatism" to confused young people, and makes drunken, filthy truth-perverters like McCarthy out to be "oh-so-cool." I take no joy in predicting that many of these same kids will be dead in 5 years on some godforsaken battlefield while Ms. Coulter and Mr. Wolfowitz and Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Bush are enjoying retirement on some gated community golf course in Texas. These boys will pay the price if we follow her advice and capitulate, just as babies will pay the price for conservatives "Destroy Our Tax Base and Spend Us Into Bankruptcy" ethical/fiscal convenience agenda.
the horror....the horror.......
posted by tbogg at 3:18 PM
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Republican slap fight.
Nothing like sodomy and gays and the possibility of gay marriage to get the conservatives all bitchy and pissy and looking to deliver such a slap...
It's Jonah "Couch Potato" Goldberg
Calls me a coward and capitulationist. Frankly, I think this one is simply intellectually and factually dishonest about what I wrote and have written and reads to me like a piece of direct mail fundraising propaganda more than an argument. All I will say on the issue of my alleged cowardice is this: considering where my bread is buttered, it seems to me I have a lot more to risk by taking this position than I have to gain. I've also found that people who shout the word coward in situations like this tend to be saying a lot more about their own intellectual insecurities than the intestinal fortitude of their opponents. I've got no problem with people saying I'm wrong or even very wrong, but I can do without the beer muscles from people like this guy. I'm not intimidated.
vs. Peter "Beverly LaHaye's Bitch" LaBarbera
I recently picked up a thick magazine called XY Survival Guide 2 at a Borders Bookstore in northern Virginia. It bills itself as: "Everything you need to know about being young and gay." This "survival guide" promotes hard-core homosexual porn, drug use and promiscuity to thousands of confused boys who've bought the lie that they're "gay" (or maybe they're just considering it). It makes youth homosexuality out to be oh-so-cool. I take no joy in predicting that many of these same kids will be dead in 30 years while Mr. Goldberg is enjoying retirement at his beach house in Florida. These boys will pay the price if we follow his advice and capitulate, just as babies pay the price for liberals' selfish "pro-choice," convenience agenda.
"Magnanimity in victory"? What planet is Goldberg living on? Not mine. The “gays” will come after us in our churches and Christian organizations; they already are! (Two words for Jonah: Boy Scouts.) They want nothing short of government-mandated full affirmation and scowl at the notion that they should merely be tolerated. Already, homosexual lawyers calmly discuss "religious-motivated bigotry" (see Canada's “gay-marriage” court decision). They're fighting for the "right" of gay men to give blood and open homosexuals to be in leadership roles at Christian organizations. Far from magnanimous, they want to censor us out of the public square, slowly if need be but rapidly when they are able. (Again, events in Canada are instructive here: there the country's leading homosexual activist is trying to ban anti-gay "hate propaganda" (translate: critical and religious speech). We have no alternative but to oppose this movement the best we can, while lovingly drawing people out of its grip—just as we fought and continue to fight against abortion while trying to save every baby we can.
Meee- ow! Hiss hiss.
Okay now, boys. Let's try and stay calm here. We don't need this escalating into the two of you circling each other with broken Zima bottles in the wreckage of a fern-bar, caught in a lambada-like dance of death.
Okay. Maybe we do, but put it on pay-for-view. I wanna watch...
(Purple font in honor of Tinky Winky)
posted by tbogg at 12:47 PM
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Easier than lying and saying you're a Canadian.
Traveling abroad this summer? Afraid of the locals?
Tell them it's not your fault.
(Thanks to Chris)
posted by tbogg at 11:08 AM
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Coulterblogwatch day 4: Skank held hostage.
Still nothing from our man, Ann.
My guess is that she is being held hostage by the So Called Liberal Media (SCLM) which has been denying her existence by having her on Good Morning America and The View this week. Thank jebus she escaped to the safety of Sean Hannity's show last night, after which she and Sean went to a cheap hotel and commited a few acts that only became legal this morning thanks to the Supreme Court. Ann should make an appearance soon, and, if you see Sean today, and he looks like he's walking funny, well, blame Ann. That strap-on Santorum she owns looks like a Louisville Slugger.
posted by tbogg at 11:03 AM
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You can read it in the Sunday papers
Kevin over at Calpundit had some thoughts about bias in the comics
Now, it's quite possible (indeed probable) that comic books themselves trend pretty liberal these days. They certainly seem that way to me, although I suspect some of that is inevitable since superheroes by their very nature are bound to stick up for the little guy. But if that's the case, then any documentary that accurately portrays the industry is going to talk about that. That doesn't mean the producers are biased, just that they're describing reality.
Back in October of last year I mentioned that I was reading Comic Book Nation and was suprised at how liberal 1939's Superman was. To quote from the book:
The young creators cast their superhero as a "champion of the oppressed...devoted to helping those in need!" In his initial episode, Superman saves a falsely accused prisoner from a lynch mob, produces evidence that frees an innocent woman on death row, and defends a woman about to be beaten by her husband. In the second issue of Action Comics, Superman crushes a conspiracy involving a U.S. senator, a lobbyist, and a munitions manufacturer who wish to embroil the United States in a foreign war. He then ends the fraudulent Latin American war by informing them that they have been manipulated by greedy American industrialists. Echoing the Nye Committee's conclusion that "merchants of death" had conspired to involve the United States in the Great War, Superman warns that moneyed self-interest remained a menace to the national welfare.
snip
Other Superman stories explore the conflict between corporate greed and the public welfare. One finds Superman crushing a plot by wealthy American financiers working for a foreign power to manipulate the stock exchange and plunge the nation into another depression. His mission accomplished, Superman assures readers that "the nation is once again returning to its march toward prosperity!"
snip
In another story, Superman encounters a pair of wealthy and murderous stockbrokers who sell worthless stocks to hundreds of clients, some of whom commit suicide after losing their life savings. Superman, not content to simply turn the crooks over to the police, first devises a complex scheme to swindle them out of all of their cash and investments so that they must endure the humiliating poverty that they inflicted on others. Once the brokers are themselves broke, Superman delights in their misery and advises them to stop selling stock and start selling shoelaces instead.
posted by tbogg at 10:31 AM
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TBOGG gets converted
Blogger has moved me to a new server and changed my interface. Whether this a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen. The archives are now monthly, and I hope that the permalinks will start working consistently.
I'm still....feeling my way around in it.
Can't complain though, it's free for you and me.
posted by tbogg at 10:21 AM
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Shivaree
Recently I wrote that it was hard to find good music, in particular a CD that was good from start to finish. I want to thank reader Kevin for suggesting Shivaree's I Oughtta Give You a Shot in the Head for Making Me Live in This Dump. Lead singer Ambrosia Parsley (what a terrific name) makes me think of what Hope Sandoval would sound like if she were alternately possessed by Maria McKee, Ricki Lee Jones, and Josie Cotton, and then produced by Tom Waitts. The outstanding muscianship is a bonus. What a great band. What great songs.
What a great CD.
posted by tbogg at 10:02 AM
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Like Geoffrey Firman, but without the charm, wit, brains, and other socially redeeming qualities.
One need only glance at a picture of the greasy drunken flap of skin that is Christopher Hitchens before we start to agree with Michelle Malkin that we have to do something about those immigration laws. It takes a special kind of hypocrisy for the author of No One Left To Lie To to defend George Bush's lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And it takes a really oily scumbag to mount a sneering attack on a bonafide war hero like John Kerry for fighting in an unpopular war. That would be the same war that Iraqi War Cheerleaders like Bush, Cheney, Lott, DeLay, Wolfowitz, Perle, and Divinity student, George Will, hid out from.
So, the junior senator from Massachusetts has finally come up with a winning line. "Vote for me," says John Kerry. "I'm easily fooled." This appears to be the implication of his claim to have been "misled" by the Bush administration in the matter of WMD. And, considering the way in which Democratic Party activists generally portray the president as a fool and an ignoramus, one might as well go the whole distance and suggest a catchy line for the campaign: "Kerry. Duped by a Dope."
Given that Kerry once went all the way to Vietnam under some kind of misapprehension about a war for democracy and launched a political career on the basis of what he finally learned when it was much too late, one might be tempted to discern a pattern here. But that temptation should probably be discarded. The Tonkin Gulf resolution was fabricated out of whole cloth (by a Democratic president, building on the legacy of another JFK from Massachusetts), and not even the most Stalinized of the Vietnamese leadership ever ran a regime, or proposed an ideology, as vile as that of Saddam Hussein. Indeed, Ho Chi Minh in 1945 modeled his declaration of independence on the words of Thomas Jefferson, appealed for American help against France, and might have got it if FDR had lived. Uncle Ho shared in the delusion that there could be an anti-colonial and anti-dictatorial empire. If that is indeed a delusion. …
Basically Hitchens is attacking Kerry and defending Bush by using the Animal House defense: " Hey, you f****d up. You trusted us.".
It's amazing the kind of spew you can wring out of a declining journalist for $200, a bottle of Canadian Club, and a fifteen-year old hooker.
posted by tbogg at 9:38 AM
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How Fat Tony builds consensus...and why he probably eats lunch alone.
Tony Scalia (R-God's Mouthpiece) just can't help making friends with the people that he works with on the Supreme Court (I'd call them his peers, but I think that Tony would disagree..he has no "peers"). In a Supreme Court decision today overturning a death sentence, Scalia, and his faithful shadow and manservant, Clarence the Porn Clown, dissented:
The Supreme Court sided with a convicted killer in an important test of legal standards for death penalty cases, ruling Thursday that inexperienced lawyers failed their client at trial.
The court, by a 7-2 vote, threw out the death sentence of Kevin Wiggins, a borderline retarded man convicted of drowning an elderly Maryland woman who employed him as a handyman. The jury that sent Wiggins to death row never heard that he was repeatedly raped, beaten and denied food as a child, or that his mother burned his hands on the stove as punishment.
If jurors knew the ghastly details, they might well have chosen a life sentence for Wiggins, the high court majority said. Wiggins' conviction stands, but the court ordered a new sentencing hearing.
The Supreme Court has said the Constitution guarantees the right to an effective lawyer. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing for the court, said the jury in Wiggins' case might have decided differently had it been given more information.
At issue was defense lawyers' constitutional duty to look into a client's past in hope of turning up something that could sway jurors against imposing a death sentence.
[snip...]
Justice Antonin Scalia, in a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, said the court's reasoning in the ruling ranged "from the incredible up to the feeble" in giving Wiggins a second chance.
Nice.
posted by tbogg at 9:14 AM
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Another victim of the Bush economy
James Lileks (whose popularity is as inexplicable as Brooks & Dunn's) wife just got cut loose.
What caused my spasm of doubts over the Bleat’s future was prompted by the immediate and stark realization that a sizable portion of our income had evaporated. My first thought was to stop spending my evenings writing for nothing and start writing for money. My second thought: this is, in a way, writing for money; people visit the site and buy the books. So it might not be wise to give this up. Don’t quit your night job, in other words.
Good luck to Ms. Lileks in finding a new job.
posted by tbogg at 9:04 AM
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Weiner-free in 2003
Sorry. No Michael Savage Weiner humor here today. Why? Because I have never seen the Weiner, I have never heard the Weiner, I have never read the Weiner, I have never touched the Weiner. Basically, I live in a Weiner-less universe. To write about something that I know nothing about would be...Steven Den Beste-ian of me, and, well, we can't have that.
If you want to celebrate Weinerfest 2003 I suggest you go here or here or here or here....
posted by tbogg at 8:53 AM
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"I have nothing against gays....not that there's anything wrong with hating them"
Fat Tony, who managed to use " equal protection" to keep Florida from counting the votes, doesn't seem to think it's important when it come to gays:
Today's opinion is the product of a Court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct. I noted in an earlier opinion the fact that the American Association of Law Schools (to which any reputable law school must seek to belong) excludes from membership any school that refuses to ban from its job-interview facilities a law firm (no matter how small) that does not wish to hire as a prospective partner a person who openly engages in homosexual conduct. See Romer, supra, at 653. One of the most revealing statements in today.s opinion is the Court.s grim warning that the criminalization of
homosexual conduct is .an invitation to subject homosexual persons to discrimination both in the public and in the private spheres.. Ante, at 14. It is clear from this that the Court has taken sides in the culture war, departing from its role of assuring, as neutral observer, that the democratic rules of engagement are observed. Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children.s schools, or as boarders in their home. They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive. The Court views it as .discrimination. which it is the function of our judgments to deter. So imbued is the Court with the law profession.s anti-anti-homosexual culture, that it is seemingly unaware that the attitudes of that culture are not obviously .mainstream.; that in most States what the Court calls .discrimination. against those who engage in homosexual acts is perfectly legal; that proposals to ban such .discrimination. under Title VII have repeatedly been rejected by Congress, see Employment Non- Discrimination Act of 1994, S. 2238, 103d Cong., 2d Sess. (1994); Civil Rights Amendments, H. R. 5452, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. (1975); that in some cases such .discrimination. is mandated by federal statute, see 10 U. S. C. §654(b)(1) (mandating discharge from the armed forces of any service member who engages in or intends to engage in homosexual acts); and that in some cases such .discrimination. is a constitutional right, see Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U. S. 640 (2000).
Let me be clear that I have nothing against homosexuals, or any other group, promoting their agenda through normal democratic means. Social perceptions of sexual and other morality change over time, and every group has the right to persuade its fellow citizens that its view of such matters is the best. That homosexuals have achieved some success in that enterprise is attested to by the fact that Texas is one of the few remaining States that criminalize private, consensual homosexual acts. But persuading one's fellow citizens is one thing, and imposing one's views in absence of democratic majority will is something else.
posted by tbogg at 8:35 AM
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Happy Santorum Day!
If Laura Bush's smile looks a little grimmer and you see Virginia Thomas at Costco buying gallons of mouthwash....well, you can blame the Supreme Court.
posted by tbogg at 8:14 AM
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Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Department of Embarrassing Admissions
Jonah Goldberg fesses up:
AH, THE MIRTH OF BACHELORHOOD [Jonah Goldberg]
I'm cleaning up my cave and I found this metal sign I used to have hanging in my kitchen when I was a single man. It reads:
WANTED: GOOD WOMAN
Must Be Able To Clean, Cook, Sew, Dig Worms And Clean Fish.
Must Have Boat and Motor.
Please send picture of boat and motor.
It's not the message of the sign so much as the idea that he at one time found this somewhat witty that makes me wonder how he ever got a date in the first place, much less married. Kind of reminded me of this.
posted by tbogg at 10:31 AM
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Kid lit
Jeanne over at Body & Soul is talking about kids book, and links to a great post over at Eve Tushnet that includes a fairly long list of excellent books for kids to read. I want to add a bit more obscure book that is both a feast for the eye as well as for the ear, when read aloud: The Voyage of the Basset by James Christensen. The writing has a overlush breathless quality that children enjoy, and the illustrations are beautiful. Don't let the Amazon review put you off. Kids love it.
On the home kid-reading-books front, you may remember that my daughter has to get through Cold Sassy Tree, The Great Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451, and Watership Down before she can have her DVD copy of Buffy Season 4 (which currently sits in all its shrinkwrapped glory on a shelf above the TV). After slogging through the firt 30 pages or so of Watership Down I relented and allowed her to substitute Lord of the Flies in its place. She has knocked out Flies and bonus book The True Meaning of Cleavage and started attacking Fahrenheit 451 today.
Buffy beckons....Harry Potter is just going to have to wait.
posted by tbogg at 10:12 AM
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When the Pentagon buys a reporter...they stay bought.
Milwaukee Magazine reports:
To prepare for duty as embedded journalists during the war in Iraq, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Katherine Skiba and Nahal Toosi received thousands of dollars worth of combat training at media boot camps. After meeting her assigned unit, Skiba later flew to Kuwait on a chartered Northwest Airlines jet full of soldiers. Toosi, joining her unit in the Kuwaiti desert, donned an imposing military gas mask during gas and Scud missile drills.
Who paid for this media training, transportation and equipment? Unwittingly, American taxpayers picked up the tab for these and many other expenses in the military's embedded media program.
"That's one way of looking at it," concedes Maj. Tim Blair, Pentagon officer in charge of the program. Another way of looking at it is the embedded media, by accepting military handouts at taxpayer expense, betrayed the public's trust and venerable journalism policies against freebies.
These hidden costs of the program have gone curiously unreported, perhaps because the top news organizations accepted this bargain for their own embedded employees. Or maybe it's because the Pentagon didn't disclose any media expenses in its $60 billion war budget. Either way, taxpayers had no reason to suspect they would foot the bill when the Pentagon recruited 775 embedded journalists to tell the military's story. For critics who already feared embeds were too beholden to report objectively, this sweetheart deal will likely cast further doubt. The bottom line is that Pentagon officials, to attract as many journalists as possible, offered free training, transportation, food, shelter, medical care, protection, gas masks and chemical suits, Blair tells Milwaukee Magazine.
"The military is paying for these guys," says Blair. "We went into this program saying we weren't going to have reimbursement." In effect, the Pentagon offered free trips to Baghdad and hundreds of journalists jumped on board without packing their ethics codes.
Just ask Judith Miller.
(Thanks Dave)
posted by tbogg at 9:44 AM
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Day 3: Coulterwatch
No sign yet of Ann on her blog. Freepers sit before their computers waiting...waiting...waiting...a box of tissues at hand.
America yawns. Dogs bark. Creed still sucks.
(ADDED): Freepers are so cute. Here's one who is a BIG Coulter fan:
To: bigghurtt
...but, her cuteness is outshoned by her writing and intellectual skills when compared to Shrillary...no insult intended...Miss Coulter, you'er much better in many ways... :))
6 posted on 06/25/2003 4:55 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid,doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. :)
Awwwwww. They're so adorable when they try to conjugate.
posted by tbogg at 8:49 AM
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"I mean, he was, like, acting all guilty, and stuff."
It's really a shame that they don't supply a laugh track for Rummy's appearances at news briefings:
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in an energetic endorsement of prewar intelligence on Iraq, said today that "virtually everyone" had agreed that Baghdad had "weapons of mass destruction programs."
Mr. Rumsfeld said Saddam Hussein's own behavior contradicted statements that Iraq had destroyed all stockpiles of biological or chemical weapons and had disbanded its development program in advance of the American-led invasion.
"If he had in fact disarmed, he had everything to gain and nothing to lose by cooperation with the U.N., yet he continued to lie and to obstruct the U.N. inspectors," Mr. Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon news briefing.
What Rummy didn't say is that not "vitually everyone" thought it was a good idea to invade their country, particularly with no plan on how to run it afterwards.
Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard B. Myers probably inspired a great deal of confidence when he said:
"Intelligence doesn't necessarily mean something is true," General Myers said. "It's just — it's intelligence. You know, it's your best estimate of the situation. It doesn't mean it's a fact. I mean, that's not what intelligence is."
George W Bush couldn't have said it any better.
That's what is frightening.
posted by tbogg at 8:29 AM
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Incompetent Condi.
That star you see fading in the east belongs to Condoleezza Rice. She had a chance to get bin Laden before 9/11, but let it get derailed by infighting between the CIA and the Pentagon.
When President Bush took office in January 2001, the White House was told that Predator drones had recently spotted Osama bin Laden as many as three times and officials were urged to arm the unmanned planes with missiles to kill the al-Qaeda leader.
But the administration failed to get drones back into the Afghan skies until after the September 11 attacks later that year, current and former U.S. officials say.
[snip]
Nearly a dozen current and former senior U.S. officials described to AP the extensive discussions in 2000 and 2001 inside the Clinton and Bush administrations about using an armed Predator to kill bin Laden. Most spoke only on condition of anonymity, citing the classified nature of the information.
These officials said that within days of Bush taking office in January 2001, his top terrorism expert on the National Security Council, Richard Clarke, urged National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to resume the drone flights to track down bin Laden, citing the successes of late 2000.
The drones were one component of a broader plan that Clarke, a career government employee, had devised in the final days of the Clinton administration to go after al Qaeda after the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. Clinton officials decided just before Christmas 2000 to forward the plan to the incoming Bush administration rather than implement it during Clinton's final days, the officials said.
Expect Condi to blame this on the Clenis™.
posted by tbogg at 8:12 AM
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Tuesday, June 24, 2003
"Oh, don't grovel. One thing I can't stand, it's people groveling."
Digby has returned to let us know that God, or someone who looks like him (tall, bearded, white, wearing a robe, deep resonant voice) is talking to George:
According to Abbas, immediately thereafter Bush said: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."
As Lily Tomlin once said: When we talk to God we are praying; when God talks to us, we are schizophrenic.
posted by tbogg at 11:29 PM
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The liars club
There's nothing like one blogger who can't seem to figure out Google and another who hopes nobody else knows how to use it. We're talking about Ann at A Frustrated Artist and good ol' Bill Hobbs talking about Dick Gephardt. Let's start with Ann.
Ann says:
I just want to say that this is exactly the kind of thing that makes me not ever want to vote for a Democrat ever again; it makes me want to see the Democratic Party go down in vicious flames. When one of the nation's top Democratic politicians declares his contempt for the Constitution so openly, you know the sickness has spread into the mainstream.
Thing is, Bill Clinton (my least favorite person in this country, aside from serial killers and the like) actually governed this way. I forget where I saw the statistic, but the fact is he issued more executive orders than any President in history. While it was going on, it made me sick. The way his aide, Paul Begala, offhandedly characterized the power of executive order as "Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda Cool" made me even sicker. The power of the executive order was designed to be used sparingly, not as a means to get around the Legislative and Judicial branches.
Clinton's abuse of this power, and Gephart's stated intent to similarly abuse it, should be well enough to demonstrate that the agenda of the Left is in opposition to the way the Founders set up our government to run.
Ann couldn't be bothered to actually look anything up. I mean, why let a few facts (as we will see) get in the way of a semi-coherent rant, or even let it go down in "vicious flames" for that matter. She forgot where she saw the statistic but, hey, this guy in line at the liquor store said his cousin told him that he thinks he heard it on either Fox News or maybe at the barbershop...so that's good enough for Ann to post. Don't look for her over at A Frustrated Historian any time soon.
Now on to Bill Hobbs, who should know better. Bill says:
Gephardt's Wish Was Clinton's Command
Ann over at a frustrated artist reminds us the President Bill Clinton issued executive orders at a blistering pace, often using them to circumvent the judicial and legislative branches of government.
[snip]
I've been Googling trying to find out just how many EOs Clinton issued. Answer: 364.
Clinton issued a blizzard of EOs, in an effort to use presidential diktat to write into the law that which he couldn't achieve through the democratic legislative process. But he didn't issue more than any president in history. That honor falls to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, according to a phenomenal research paper on the history of executive orders by presidents all the way back to George Washington, published Feb. 21, 2001, by Todd F. Gaziano is Senior Fellow in Legal Studies and Director of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
Bill Googled alright...but he doesn't tell you everything that he found. Here's a list of Presidents since Hoover and the number of Executive Orders they signed. Let's see how Clinton's "blistering" "blizzard" matches up:
Hoover 1929-33-----------------1011 EO's
Roosevelt 1933-45-------------3728
Truman 1945-53-----------------896
Eisenhower 1953-61-----------486
Kennedy 1961-63---------------214
Johnson 1963-69----------------324
Nixon 1969-74-------------------346
Ford 1974-77---------------------169
Carter 1977-81-------------------320
Reagan 1981-89-----------------381
G.H.W. Bush 1989-93----------166
Clinton 1993-01------------------364
G.W. Bush 2001-03-------------110*
(*At his current rate and assuming that "W" finally gets elected for an additional 4 years, he is on track for approx. 340 executive orders)
So let's recap the two termers: Ike: 486.....Reagan: 381.....Bill Clinton: 364.
So...is Bill bad at math or just dishonest? Did I miss the part where Bill said, "Oh, I'm not counting Republicans in my little screed."? I mean the FDR mention was a semi-clever feint to keep people from fact-checking his ass, but you know us curious West Coast lefty elitists. As a former Governor of ours once said "Trust but verify".
Thanks for playing kids, it's been fun.
(UPDATE): Bill Hobbs is gracious enough to admit that, yes, he didn't list all the presidents. He does go on to link to Todd Graziano's paper regarding the quality of presidential executive orders. Fair enough. But, maybe it's me, I would prefer so see something on this topic by someone other than a paid flack at The Heritage Foundation. They seem, I don't know, kind of....partisan.
(UPDATE II): Prof. Pollkatz has more on EO's.
Ann the Frustrated Artist admits she brought this down on herself and then selectively quotes some emails she has received. I don't think that she gets it.
(SON OF UPDATE II: Bloggers Revenge): Jesse weighs in.
posted by tbogg at 10:33 PM
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Ask Raymond Carver.
Despite my love of the story Cathedral, I found this pretty darn funny.
posted by tbogg at 1:57 PM
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Meanwhile, Mrs. Flake sighs deeply while gazing longingly at the plethysmograph
Maybe it's just me, but I find it interesting that Republicans are outraged at a study on sexual dysfunction. Oh, wait. It's about female sexual dysfunction:
The National Institutes of Health continues to fund sex studies despite protests from members of Congress who say projects such as paying women to watch pornography take taxpayer dollars away from potentially lifesaving research.
The critics' latest target of outrage: $26,000 in federal funds for a conference on sexual arousal next month at the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington, Ind.
Discussion topics will "include the relationship ... between sexual motivation and arousal," and development of "guidelines for ... measurement of sexual response," the conference organizer wrote in his grant application.
"If this conference needs funding, they ought to hit up [pornographer] Larry Flynt, not taxpayers," said Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican.
[snip...]
It was a $147,000 NIH grant for a Bailey project — paying women to view pornography while using an instrument called a plethysmograph to measure their sexual responses — that prompted 20 Republican members of Congress to sign a letter to the agency's director, demanding an explanation for what they called "a bizarre spending decision."
[snip...]
Christine Bachrach, chief of the NICHD's Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch, defended the grant for the Kinsey Institute conference.
"The purpose of the conference is to assess current scientific knowledge of behavioral, psychological and biological factors relevant to sexual dysfunction and sexual behavior — including behaviors that spread sexually transmitted diseases," she said. "This information is important for developing treatments for sexual dysfunction and for preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases."
Such explanations do not appease congressional critics.
"The federal government is pretty efficient at wasting money, but this may be a new low," Mr. Flake said. "Talk about being out of touch. How do you think the average taxpayer is going to feel about having $26,000 of their money spent on a conference to study sexual arousal?"
Mr. Flake didn't add that what those women really needed was "just a little hot Flake lovin' " as he leered at his wife who smiled grimly as she searched her purse for her antidepressants.
posted by tbogg at 12:36 PM
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Hot Cohen on Blumenthal action
Via Julia over at Sisyphus Shrugged we get a link to Richard Cohen's comments on "The Clinton Wars".
The same has to be said about Filegate, Travelgate and all the other scandals, including the overriding influence China supposedly exercised over the Democratic Party. In each and every case, there was a nugget, an infraction, something suspicious. But now, all these years later, it is hard to recall just what these scandals were about. That's hardly the case, say, with Watergate. To this day I can tell you it was about abuse of power by the Nixon White House -- and White House aides went to jail. None of Clinton's White House aides was even indicted.
It certainly wasn't for lack of trying. Starr was preceded by Robert Fiske, who was removed from office by Republican judges on account of a disabling conflict of interest -- experience as a prosecutor, fair-mindedness and estimable professionalism. Starr, in turn, was succeeded by a third prosecutor, Robert Ray, another pro. The FBI was in the hands of Louis Freeh, who loathed Clinton. Various congressional committees were run by the likes of Al D'Amato, who -- in the manner of naming a nunnery after Hugh Hefner -- just got his name put on a Long Island courthouse. As for the news media, they went after both Bill and Hillary Clinton full time. The result? Zip.
posted by tbogg at 12:05 PM
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Speaking as an author-ity.....
Mickey Kaus is worried the Simon and Schuster is going out on a limb, what with printing all those Hillary books:
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Hillary Clinton's book "scanned" sales of 438,701 in its first week according to Nielsen Bookscan data cited on Drudge. That's a lot of books. On the other hand, Simon & Schuster spokesman Adam Rothberg told the N.Y. Times on June 11 that "after initially printing a million copies the publisher has ordered an additional 300,000." In other words, S&S says it has printed at least 1,300,000 copies, yet it's sold 439,000 (that Nielsen's counted). Since this is probably a book whose sales will decline fairly sharply after the initial burst--S&S claimed 200,000 sales the first day, and obviously didn't sustain that pace for the week--then isn't Simon & Schuster at risk of having a gigantic number of unsold books on its hands? Like, hundreds of thousands? ... That is, if you actually believe S&S's claim about the number printed. ... Oh well. They can always sell them at Home Depot as bricks for constructing ecologically sound houses. If hay bales work, why not Hillary bales? I would think they have excellent insulating properties. 10:56 P.M.
Perhaps S&S should listen to the Mick. He knows all too well what happens to unsold, over-produced books. In fact, you can buy one here:
End of Equality
by Mickey Kaus
$9.50
Very good Seller: beautyandthebook (based on 73 ratings)
Ships from: OR, United States
Expedited shipping available
International shipping available
Comments: - signed by author - first printing - remainder mark
Remaindered is sad. Signed by the author and remaindered is friggin' pathetic.
posted by tbogg at 11:49 AM
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Whoops. Our bad. Sorry. You better have somebody take a look at that.....
Nearly a week after U.S. commando forces attacked a convoy of suspected Iraqi fugitives near the Iraqi-Syrian border, Pentagon officials on Tuesday were backing away from previous statements indicating that Syrian border guards engaged the Americans in a firefight. Defense Department officials also said they had no evidence that Saddam Hussein or his sons were in the convoy.
THE PENTAGON has said little publicly about the incident last Wednesday, and calls to the Syrian Embassy in Washington went unanswered. But officials who briefed reporters provided a few new details about the confrontation, which resulted in casualties from both sides of the border, including several Syrian border guards.
The Pentagon said that U.S. forces on Tuesday were still occupying a town where at least some of the fighting occurred. Defense Department officials said the U.S. troops have released some 20 people who were detained and have yet to say whether the operation netted any significant fugitives.
Working partly on information from the highest Iraqi captured so far — Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti — special operations soldiers attacked a convoy of several vehicles in an attempt to stop what they believed were high-level fugitives linked to the fallen Iraqi government.
A senior Pentagon official told NBC News on Sunday that there were indications that Saddam or his sons, Odai or Qusai, were in the convoy, but on Monday defense officials said that they had no specifics on who was in the convoy and that they had no evidence it included Saddam or his sons. U.S. forces planned to conduct DNA testing on remains of some of the dead, the officials said.
As George Bush might say: ""This foreign policy colonial-power-hearts-and-minds-finding-the-evildoers-getting-our-oil-out stuff is a little frustrating."
posted by tbogg at 11:18 AM
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Fair and unbalanced
The so-called liberal media is helping Slanderin' Ann Coulter spread her very special type of effluvia over the masses with an appearance on Good Morning America this morning and an excerpt from her new book No. That's Just A Coldsore...Really. Since Ann couldn't bother to post on her blog (again) here's a sample of swill from the new "book":
Liberals demand that the nation treat enemies like friends and friends like enemies. We must lift sanctions, cancel embargoes, pull out our troops, reason with our adversaries, and absolutely never wage war -- unless the French say it's okay. Any evidence that anyone seeks to harm America is stridently rejected as "no evidence." Democratic senators, congressmen, and ex-presidents are always popping up in countries hostile to the United States -- Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea, Iraq -- hobnobbing with foreign despots who hate America. One year after Osama bin Laden staged a massive assault on America, a Democratic senator was praising bin Laden for his good work in building "day care centers." At least we can be thankful that in the war on terrorism, we were spared the spectacle of liberals calling Osama bin Laden an "agrarian reformer."
The ACLU responded to the 9-11 terrorist attack by threatening to sue schools that hung god bless america signs. Is the ACLU more or less patriotic than the Daughters of the American Revolution? Public schools across the nation prohibited the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance. Is it more patriotic or less patriotic to prevent schoolchildren from saying the Pledge of Allegiance? University professors called patriotic Americans "naive" and described patriotism as a "benign umbrella for angry people."(2) Is it more patriotic to love your country or to ridicule those who do as "naive" and "angry"? These are not questions impenetrable to human logic.
Liberals want to be able to attack America without anyone making an issue of it. Patriotism is vitally important -- but somehow impossible to measure. Liberals relentlessly oppose the military, the Pledge of Allegiance, the flag, and national defense. But if anyone calls them on it, they say he's a kook and a nut. Citing the unpatriotic positions of liberals constitutes "McCarthyism."
In the 1988 presidential campaign, Vice President George Bush pointed out that his opponent Michael Dukakis had vetoed a bill requiring students to begin their day with the Pledge of Allegiance. Liberal heads spun with the dark reminders of the McCarthy era. Dukakis instantly compared Bush's dastardly trick of citing his record "to Sen. Joseph McCarthy's Red-baiting during the 1950s."(3) Despite this slur against his patriotism, Dukakis said, "The American people can smell the garbage."(4) At least sophisticated Americans could smell the garbage. As one journalist said of Bush's unwarranted reference to Dukakis's record, it was intended to "rile up" ignoramuses in the American populace: the "folks who don't know any better," whose inferior "education or experience has not taught them that the right to speak out is the rudder of this great big boat we call America."(5) The only people whose "right to speak out" is not part of this great big boat we call America are Republicans who dare to mention that a Democrat vetoed the Pledge of Allegiance. Free speech is a one-way ratchet for traitors. While journalists assailed Bush for creating an atmosphere of intolerance for those who "object to patriotic oaths," they didn't mind creating an atmosphere of intolerance toward those who support patriotic oaths.(6)
There you go...bite-sized chunks from Ann so simple that even Sean Hannity can have them explained to him.
By the way, that picture of Ann reminds me that Seabiscuit will be hitting the theaters on July 25th. Read that book instead.
posted by tbogg at 10:21 AM
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Zucker!
From Seeing the Forest via a whole bunch of other blogs is this:
"A woman throws a soft drink at her boyfriend at a restaurant, then slips on the floor she wet and breaks her tailbone. She sues. Bingo -- a jury says the restaurant owes her $100,000! A woman tries to sneak through a restroom window at a nightclub to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She falls, knocks out two front teeth, and sues. A jury awards her $12,000 for dental expenses."
Great stuff -- and, unfortunately for Zuckerman, totally bogus. Two Web sites -- StellaAwards.com and Snopes.com -- say the cases of the soda-slipping Pennsylvania woman and the window-wriggling Delaware woman are fabricated, and no public records could be found for them.
Kaus and Sullivan are frantically trying to figure out a way to blame this on Howell Raines...
posted by tbogg at 9:51 AM
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...and this is just the start.
PM'S POPULARITY PLUMMETS
The Prime Minister's popularity has taken a nosedive since the end of the war in Iraq, according to a new opinion poll.
An ICM poll commissioned by the Guardian gives him a personal rating of minus 13, compared to plus 8 during the hostilities.
The failure to provide evidence of Iraq's weapons, the controversial Cabinet reshuffle and the recent row over taxes are all given as factors.
Labour's lead over the Tories is at its narrowest since the fuel crisis.
The poll puts Labour on 38%, down three points since last month and just four points ahead of the Conservatives, who moved ahead five points from 29% to 34%.
This isn't going to help either:
Six British soldiers died in southern Iraq on Tuesday, and an ambush on a patrol and a helicopter wounded at least eight others in one of the deadliest days for U.S. and British forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The ambush was the first significant attack on the British since major combat was declared over on May 1. While Americans have been under fire in central Iraq for weeks, the British in the south have felt secure enough to patrol the country’s second-biggest city, Basra, without flak jackets or helmets.
Officials at the Pentagon said insurgents were ratcheting up anti-U.S. attacks, staging 25 of them in the past day alone. American troops battled Iraqis at a checkpoint in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, on Tuesday, leaving three Iraqis dead and one American wounded.
How long before George Bush points out that the English don't have a word for "quagmire".
posted by tbogg at 9:42 AM
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Stadium Full O' Losers redux
Amy over at Rubber Nun points out that Promise Keepers is back and they're after young boys now.
Last weekend, nearly 10,000 men showed up at the two-day, sold-out Promise Keepers gathering at the Peoria Civic Center in Peoria, Illinois. As Kris Wernowsky pointed out in the Peoria Journal Star, one of the exhibits that attracted the most attention was a PK mini-market selling all sorts of Christian goods including CDs, movies, books and a new Christian-based clothing line called "Soul Armor, which was "geared toward a younger, hip Christian crowd."
"Soul Armor" is the creation of Southern California native Jodi Hannah. The clothing line, Wernowsky reports, "is sold at skate and surf shops across the country." Hannah and other company reps go from conference to conference "selling their Christian wares," and Promise Keepers gets "a percentage of the money Hannah made over the weekend in exchange for the exhibition space."
The Promise Keepers, the Christian men's evangelical organization that took the nation by storm in the late 1990s, is on the comeback trail. And no matter how "jiggy" PK may try to get, it's facing an uphill battle.
If you're interested in the type of man who joins Promise Keepers, I suggest you read the section on them in Susan Faludi's Stiffed. Having coached Little League baseball with a couple of members of Promise Keepers, I can vouch for her portrait of them. Think about Kirk Van Houten (Milhouse's dad) from the Simpsons and you've pretty much got the picture.
posted by tbogg at 8:56 AM
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...and I thought I was the only one to remember The Spike
Roger Ailes writes about Moonie Editor Arnaud de Borchgrave
(I read The Spike when it came out over twenty years ago and thought it blew then. I'm sure time has not been kind to it)
posted by tbogg at 8:37 AM
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He may be a fool but he's our fool.
Bill Hobbs, one of the Tennessee spinners, is wondering why the "left" is silent on Gephardt's comment:
When I'm president, we'll do executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does tomorrow or any other day.
Perhaps it's because we've become used to comments like these:
"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 19, 2003
"I think war is a dangerous place." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 7, 2003
"You're free. And freedom is beautiful. And, you know, it'll take time to restore chaos and order — order out of chaos. But we will." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 13, 2003
"Now, we talked to Joan Hanover. She and her husband, George, were visiting with us. They are near retirement — retiring — in the process of retiring, meaning they're very smart, active, capable people who are retirement age and are retiring." —George W. Bush, Alexandria, Va., Feb. 12, 2003
"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself." —George W. Bush, Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 29, 2003
"There's only one person who hugs the mothers and the widows, the wives and the kids upon the death of their loved one. Others hug but having committed the troops, I've got an additional responsibility to hug and that's me and I know what it's like." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 11, 2002.
These people don't have tanks. They don't have ships. They hide in caves. They send suiciders out." —George W. Bush, speaking about terrorists, Portsmouth, N.H., Nov. 1, 2002
"I was proud the other day when both Republicans and Democrats stood with me in the Rose Garden to announce their support for a clear statement of purpose: you disarm, or we will." —George W. Bush, speaking about Saddam Hussein, Manchester, N.H., Oct. 5, 2002
"You see, the Senate wants to take away some of the powers of the administrative branch." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002
"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
"There's no cave deep enough for America, or dark enough to hide." —George W. Bush, Oklahoma City, Aug. 29, 2002
I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here." —George W. Bush, speaking at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002
"There was no malfeance involved. This was an honest disagreement about accounting procedures. ... There was no malfeance, no attempt to hide anything." —George W. Bush, White House press conference, Washington, D.C., July 8, 2002
"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." —George W. Bush, as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002
"And so, in my State of the — my State of the Union — or state — my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation — I asked Americans to give 4,000 years — 4,000 hours over the next — the rest of your life — of service to America. That's what I asked — 4,000 hours." —George W. Bush, Bridgeport, Conn., April 9, 2002
...and finally and prophetically:
"There may be some tough times here in America. But this country has gone through tough times before, and we're going to do it again." —George W. Bush, Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002
So, I'm sorry Bill, what exactly we supposed to be concerned about?
Tell you what. I'll match my nine candidates comments against your one any day.
(Added): Instapundit, Junkyard Blog, and Rachel Lucas are all over this too. I assume the good folks over at the Corner will be jumping up and down about this too...once they are done chewing over gay marriage/gay sex, something they apprently can't get enough of.
(Added II): Now Sullivan chimes in:
HE SAID WHAT? I'm as mystified as Eugene Volokh by this statement by Dick Gephardt about the possibility of Supreme Court decisions with which he disagrees: "When I'm president, we'll do executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does tomorrow or any other day." Does Gephardt understand even the basics of constitutional law? Or does he think his audience is too craven to notice an obvious piece of nonsense. You expect it of Kucinich who is - let's put this politely - not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. But Gephardt? Fibber, dumb-ass, or panderer?* I report. You decide. (my emphasis)
* Don't look into any mirrors today, Andy.
posted by tbogg at 8:28 AM
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Monday, June 23, 2003
Jenna Bush Aaaaooooo! Bill moves forward.
According to Ramesh Ponnuru:
A lot of the damage done by the first President Bush on taxes has been repaired. The "luxury taxes" he increased are now gone. But he also doubled the federal tax on beer, from $9 to $18 a barrel, and that levy remains in effect. Taxes (not just the federal ones) account for 44 percent of the price of beer. Now Republicans Chris Cox of California and Phil English of Pennsylvania, both House members, have introduced a bill rolling back Bush's tax increase. It would knock $1.25 off the price of a case of beer. What's not to like?
Asked to comment, Ms. Bush belched the entire alphabet then went looking for her panties in the bushes...
posted by tbogg at 10:15 PM
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400,000 served
I broke the 400,000 hits barrier today. I don't really know what that means or if it's important or if it will get me a free smoothie at Jamba Juice...but thanks to all who have stopped by.
It's been a pleasure.
I'll be here all week and please remember to tip the waitresses.....
posted by tbogg at 10:11 PM
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He did put Bo Derek on Kennedy Center board....
President Borracho y Loco is having Hispanic problems:
Democrats aren't suffering politically among Hispanic voters for blocking the nomination of Miguel Estrada to an appeals court seat, according to a new poll out this week.
"The Hispanic electorate doesn't care. They don't know about it, they are not well informed and they don't consider it to be an important issue," said Sergio Bendixen, a Miami-based Democratic pollster who conducted a survey of 800 Hispanic voters for the New Democrat Network.
[snip]
Mr. Bendixen's poll found that 28 percent of Hispanics support the nomination, while 11 percent opposed it and 61 percent weren't aware of the nomination or didn't have an opinion.
He said that, based on listening to some of the poll interviews, it was clear many of those who supported Mr. Estrada were also confusing him with actor Erik Estrada, who was on the 1977-1983 television police drama "CHiPS" and is now a popular Spanish-language soap-opera star.
"Many of them think President Bush nominated Erik Estrada — I'd say a good third think that way," Mr. Bendixen said, adding that he heard one person say Mr. Estrada should be confirmed because he did such a good job playing a policeman on "CHiPS." (my emphasis)
Meanwhile:
The poll found that Mr. Bush would receive 34 percent Hispanic support against an unnamed Democratic opponent — down from the high of 44 percent he polled in May 2002. The 34 percent is about the same as the 35 percent of the actual Hispanic vote he received in the 2000 election.
"The president of the United States has an important credibility problem with Hispanic Americans," Mr. Bendixen said, citing numbers that show nearly 70 percent think Mr. Bush has failed to keep his word to make Latin American policy a priority and to complete an immigration agreement.
Mongo Santamaria!
posted by tbogg at 3:18 PM
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Added to the Hot Links
The Daily Harrumph.
Go check him out.
posted by tbogg at 2:07 PM
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Hide the women and the guns.....
John Lott is coming to San Diego tomorrow with an appearance slated at the Current Affiars bookstore. If you stop by to pick up an autographed copy of The Bias Against Guns, ask John to make it out to " Mary Rosh".
He'll appreciate that.
posted by tbogg at 1:33 PM
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Waving goodbye to Ari
I originally had my doubts about Ari. Here he was, the son of New York Democrat parents, a graduate of homo-marrying Vermont's liberal Middlebury Community College, and who hadn't even made the effort to pick up a fake Texas twang. Sure, he was a Republican convert, but he was also a Liddy Dole staffer – and we all remember how that death-warmed-over carpetbagging bitch talked shit about me during the 1999 Republican primaries. Could I ever trust him? Well, they say that every GOP White House needs its token yarmulke monkey, and so I decided that like it or not (mostly not), I needed to take a leap of faith and bring this fella on board for awhile before the rapture arrives and God casts him and the rest of his Christ-killing gypsy kin into an eternal lake of fire.
This could only be.
posted by tbogg at 11:01 AM
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Teresa Heinz Kerry
Maybe there should be a Draft Teresa movement.
She finally left the Republican Party, she says, not only to support her new husband but because she was revolted by the GOP campaign against former Georgia senator Max Cleland, a Vietnam vet who lost both legs and an arm in that war but was defeated last year after his commitment to country was questioned. (“That they could think of doing that to a guy who left three limbs on the ground in Vietnam,” Kerry said in a separate conversation. “It rankles.”) His wife was even more pointed. “Whoever did that,” she says, “will one day rue the day.”
Yeah. I know. She can't run for President because she's foreign born.
posted by tbogg at 10:46 AM
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Coulter misses her period. And her comma's and nouns and verbs.....
Today was supposed to be the day that Ann Coulter was to begin her blog. But we get this:
Monday, June 23 2003
We think that maybe she has more to say . . . Beginning soon, Ann regularly will offer her thoughts on issues and ideas of the day here on her blog, CoulterGeist, exclusively on Human Events Online.
If she were a writer, she could claim "writers block".
(Added): Kevin over at Calpundit thinks we should ignore Ann , and to a certain degree I agree with him. On the other hand, like Tom DeLay, her offenses against humanity shouldn't passed over. Anyone who could publicly say something like "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." and still get face time on prime time TV, needs to be watched. Evil won't go away if you ignore it.
Fact check her skanky ass and call her on it.
posted by tbogg at 9:23 AM
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The black and white world of Professor R.
The ever-so-subtle Glenn Reynolds:
It remains, of course, an open question which is worse: If Galloway was defending Saddam's interests because he was being paid off, or if he was doing so out of genuine sympathy for a mass-murdering dictator. Either way, Galloway seems unfit to hold office in a civilized country, and it surprises me that anyone on the left would feel moved to defend him. (my emphasis).
Let's see...bribed or a genocide fan? Please take one from column A or one from column B, or both.
Some of the things that Reynolds says would make Ari Fleischer blush.
posted by tbogg at 9:00 AM
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The compassionate Mr. Pryor.
No More Mr. Nice Blog provides us with a few more things that are truly appalling about Bush appointee Bill Pryor. (Link is bloggered...scroll down):
In Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730 (2002), Pryor vigorously defended Alabama’s practice of handcuffing prison inmates to hitching posts in the hot sun if they refused to work on chain gangs or otherwise disrupted them....The post was a horizontal bar to which inmates were handcuffed “in a standing position and remain[ed] standing the entire time they [were] placed on the post.” The plaintiff in this case, Larry Hope, charged that he had been handcuffed to a hitching post twice, one time for seven hours, during which he was shirtless “while the sun burned his skin. . . During this 7-hour period, he was given water only once or twice and was given no bathroom breaks. At one point, a guard taunted Hope about his thirst. According to Hope’s affidavit: ‘[The guard] first gave water to some dogs, then brought the water cooler closer to me, removed its lid, and kicked the cooler over, spilling the water onto the ground.’
Pryor’s brief contended that Mr. Hope had not been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment
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