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Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Karl? You better get in here. He's doing it again.
I'm gonna hold my breath until someone comes clean...
I dunno. You think CNN used that picture for a reason?
...and what does this mean?
President Bush said he welcomes a Justice Department investigation into any involvement his administration might have had in revealing the classified identity of a CIA operative. "If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of," Bush said.
"taken care of"? What? Shipped off to Camp X Ray? Cement shoes? Sentenced to two years of following Jenna around and keeping her hair out of her face when she pukes in the parking lot? Compulsory multiple viewings of Gigli? It sounds so ominous
posted by tbogg at 10:39 PM
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Meanwhile, back in the real world....
Opinions You Should Have has the Story You Should Read
World O'Crap bitchslaps the bitch known as Rush. She's talking about dumbass uninformed Rush, not dumbass racist Rush. For dumbass racist Rush you have to go to Skippy or Steve Gilliard.
Busybusybusy saves you the time you mind have spent reading dreary wannabe-Dominick Dunne-with-an-agenda, David Brooks. Here's Joe Conason, if you want a more detailed and just as precise overview.
Jon at San Diego Soliloquies points out that a chart that says you're winning is trumped by a spreadsheet that says you're not.
and Jim is back at Rittenhouse and there is lots to read. So go. Read.
Go on. Shoo. I'm done. Why are you still here? There are no outtakes in blogging...
posted by tbogg at 10:34 PM
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Bush twins, Cuervo and Olde English 800, tend to agree
Steve at No More Mr. Nice Blog brings us the story of a child named Timberland:
At age 3, Timberland is too young to be embarrassed about being named after a bestselling brand of footwear, but his mother cringes.
"His daddy insisted on it because Timberlands were the pride of his wardrobe. The alternative was Reebok," said the 32-year-old nurse, who is now divorced.
"I wanted Kevin."
I felt bad for the kid until I read this:
Yesterday, one parent, a father of three teenage children, hit back. And he is not just any parent. Bob Geldof, the rock star and charity hero, compared the publications to grown men who get sexual thrills from underage girls.
On a BBC2 programme, Grumpy Old Men, to be shown next week, Sir Bob asks: "Are they any less offensive than a 22-year-old man going to an 11- or 12-year-old girl and saying, 'I am going to talk to you about sex and how girls can give blow jobs to men?' If such a conversation happened, you would view it as odd, probably illegal and certainly predatory."
Sir Bob, father of Pixie, 13, Peaches, 15, and Fifi Trixibelle, 19, adds: "There is something predatory because they are made by adult men and women. Is it because of my age that makes me feel they are wrong? I don't think so. I would have objected to them when I was 20."
Dude. You should have objected to those names about 19 years ago....
posted by tbogg at 10:09 PM
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Let's not call him a racist...even though the Magic 8 Ball says "All signs point to yes"
Looks like the Republicans have kept a cross burning in the window for their favorite Son of the Confederacy, Charles Pickering. The NY Times says: Just say no.
Charles Pickering of Mississippi, whose nomination for an important federal judgeship was wisely rejected once, is scheduled to be voted on again tomorrow in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senate should again refuse to confirm him.
The Bush administration is pushing hard to put Judge Pickering, a federal district court judge, on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which covers Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. The first battle over Judge Pickering too often descended into a fight over whether he is a "racist." The real question is whether he would be the kind of judge the Fifth Circuit — one of the most heavily minority circuits in the country — needs. His record strongly suggests he would not.
Judge Pickering's actions in a cross-burning case alone should disqualify him. He took up the cause of a man convicted of burning a cross on the lawn of an interracial couple. He badgered prosecutors into dropping a key charge even after the man was convicted and called a prosecutor to lobby him, an unusual and improper move. That Judge Pickering, who has a record of being tough on criminals, was so passionate in this case shows, at the least, racial insensitivity. How he undertook the battle showed a lack of judicial ethics.
Other aspects of Judge Pickering's record are also disturbing. He has been dismissive of voting rights doctrines, including "one person one vote." He regularly sides with employers against workers who claim race and sex discrimination. And he has a troubling record of opposing abortion rights.
President Bush continues to present the Senate with bitterly divisive judicial nominees. Judge Pickering's renomination is a particularly bellicose move, because the Senate has already denied him confirmation once. The Senate should insist on being sent more appropriate nominees.
Time to send him back to Tara....
posted by tbogg at 9:54 PM
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Fun with numbers and stuff
The Bush Administration is all about creating jobs. Of course they've failed miserably at actually accomplishing anything close to that. But take heart Bushies, you can always misrepresent the some of the latest numbers. Just be clever (okay, ask someone to be clever for you):
Even as unemployment continued to mount last year, the number of jobs being eliminated fell below the level in the late 1990's, according to a new government report. But the number of jobs that businesses created in 2002 dropped to its lowest level since 1995. Compared with the size of the economy, the rate of hiring was even slower than during the weak recovery of the early 1990's.
The results come from a survey that the Bureau of Labor Statistics published for the first time yesterday, offering a fuller picture of the nation's long jobs slump. The government previously reported only the net change in employment, which does not explain whether a weak job market like the current one stems mainly from layoffs or from companies' unwillingness to hire.
The new numbers portray an economy stuck in neutral, with workers no longer losing their jobs at the rapid pace of 2001 but with relatively few new job opportunities popping up. In the last three months of 2002, 7.8 million jobs were eliminated, while 7.7 million were created, according to company records studied by the bureau.
See! Emphasize the 7.7 million created! With a bright cheery smile even the average unemployed Fox News viewer will believe it. The 7.8 million lost is just details, details, details...
Who will be the first Townhall contributor to run with this one?
...and remember: A "jobless recovery" is a lot like a meat-less hamburger. Not very satisfying, is it?
posted by tbogg at 9:41 PM
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Greetings women!
...or should I say poor dears who are unable to make decisions about your own body and so the pasty-white men in gray suits are going to do it for you.
House and Senate negotiators reached quick agreement Tuesday on what would be the first federal act in three decades to ban an abortion procedure.
Supporters of a ban on what they call "partial birth abortion" said it would end an inhumane practice and give momentum to their drive to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that declared women have the right to an abortion.
Opponents said the ban is unconstitutional and promised to challenge it in court as soon as President Bush signs it into law. Both the House and the Senate are expected to move swiftly to pass the compromise bill and send it to the president.
"We are just days away from prohibiting the gruesome and inhumane procedure known as partial-birth abortion," House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said at the House-Senate meeting. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio and Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., was approved on a straight party-line vote.
Any woman who votes for a Republican deserves what can happen to her. I know that sounds harsh, but tell me where I'm wrong.
posted by tbogg at 9:32 PM
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"That flightsuit pattern was a big hit. I can't get Bushie out of his...."
Laura Bush attends worlds inaugural First Ladies Butterick Conference and Fashion Show.
This years theme was Jackets That Help You Blend Into the Couch.
Later, margaritas were served.....
posted by tbogg at 4:12 PM
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Crap smear
You know, I wasn't going to write anything about the whole Wilson/Plame thing, but, jesus, does crap like this piss me off. Let's start with the sloppy logic of Glenn Reynolds whose credibility is rapidly approaching Ari Fleischer's:
THE REAL WILSON SCANDAL: Forget Valerie Plame, the big scandal is why anyone in the Bush Administration would ever have tasked a guy with Wilson's views with an important mission.
Regardless of the rest of the story, heads should roll for that.
Reynolds references Bill Hobbs' transcription of a speech that Wilson gave on June 14 of this year. Now let's keep in mind that Wilson went on his mission to Niger last year. So, in the timespace disruption that is Instapundit, why would the Bush people hire someone who has the views he expressed in 2003 for a job he did in 2002? Well, maybe here is a reason:
Ambassador Wilson is CEO of JCWilson International Ventures, Corp., a firm specializing in Strategic Management and International Business Development.
Ambassador Wilson served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from June 1997 until July 1998. In that capacity he was responsible for the coordination of U.S. policy to the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. He was one of the principal architects of President Clinton’s historic trip to Africa in March 1998.
Ambassador Wilson was the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of United States Armed Forces, Europe, 1995-1997. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Gabonese Republic and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe from 1992 to 1995. From 1988 to 1991, Ambassador Wilson served in Baghdad, Iraq as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy. During “Desert Shield” he was the acting Ambassador and was responsible for the negotiations that resulted in the release of several hundred American hostages. He was the last official American to meet with Saddam Hussein before the launching of “Desert Storm.”
Ambassador Wilson was a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service from 1976 until 1998. His early assignments included Niamey, Niger, 1976-1978; Lome, Togo, 1978-79; the State Department Bureau of African Affairs, 1979-1981; and Pretoria, South Africa, 1981-1982.
In other words, because he was qualified. What Wilson did in his speech was criticize the conduct of the war and attempt to predict what repercussions it might have on the Middle East, and somehow that makes him "political". You see, you can only be "apolitical" if you parrot the administration line and pretend to be impartial like Glenn Reynolds or Bill Hobbs.
But let's not listen to the advice of career Middle East diplomat who has served under both Republican and Democratic administrations. He's not "apolitical" enough for the diplomats of Franklin County.
posted by tbogg at 1:52 PM
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Pledging my allegiance to that bistro waiter with the nice ass across the street....God, I need to get laid...
You know, if Hillary Clinton had done this the freepers would be crapping fireballs:
For White House planners, the image had to be picture perfect: the first lady, the American flag and the Eiffel Tower all in the same photo frame.
So when Laura Bush raised the American flag today to signal the return of the United States to Unesco after a 19-year boycott, there was nothing subtle about the symbols.
[snip]
After her speech, in the courtyard, Mrs. Bush stood ramrod straight, her hand on her heart, as the mezzo-soprano Susan Graham sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the American flag was raised to join the flags of the 189 other members.
But Mrs. Bush did not face the flag as the anthem was sung; instead, she stood perpendicular to it, enabling photographers to capture her in profile, with the flag and the Eiffel Tower behind. The scene was carefully planned for days by a White House advance team, much to the amusement of longtime Unesco employees.
And, of course, there is the daily atrocity (no, not Laura's suit):
Mrs. Bush's 17-member delegation included Louise V. Oliver, the Republican fund-raiser nominated by the administration to be ambassador to Unesco, and some of Mrs. Bush's best friends from Texas, including Adair Margo, an El Paso art dealer who heads the White House committee on the arts and humanities. Ms. Graham, the singer, is from Mrs. Bush's hometown of Midland, Tex.
The choice of Ms. Oliver, a staunch conservative, as ambassador may indicate the direction the Bush administration wants Unesco to take. She is the former president of Gopac, the Republican political advocacy organization, worked in the White House personnel office in the Reagan administration, and was the first President Bush's commissioner of the National Council on Children.
Despite concerns among some Democratic lawmakers that she may be too politically extreme for the post, she is expected to win easy Senate confirmation. Asked about the wisdom of her appointment, Mr. Lantos declined public comment.
posted by tbogg at 10:06 AM
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Fellas drool like fools, but then again they're only human
The chick was a hit because her body was boomin'
Believing that there is a pony under a pile of horse poop, Rich Lowry tries point out that President Needs Translation Into English Too made some good points at the UN when he brought up something near and dear to Lowry's heart: sex trafficking.
In this little-noticed portion of his speech, Bush displayed a characteristic aspect of his foreign policy, which combines tough-minded American assertion with a high-minded humanitarianism. The assertion has been in evidence in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the humanitarianism in the administration's work against religious persecution, AIDS and now sex trafficking. These two tendencies are related in Bush's view of American power as a moral force, equally engaged in killing "evildoers" and in helping those to whom evil is done.
The relevant portions of Bush's "sex" talk (three sequential words you'll never want to see in print ever ever ever again. Just ask Laura.) can be found here:
Now I know what you're thinking ?– "what does an uptight Methodist right-winger know about SEX SLAVES?" Well let me tell you ?– I know plenty
Woo hoo! Bonus link to Lynne Cheney lesbian porn!
posted by tbogg at 9:43 AM
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Today, many news organizations are emerging from their summertime journalistic comas
Karl Rove speaks...
(Okay, it's not really Rove. But it could have been...)
posted by tbogg at 9:30 AM
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Don't bother me now...I'm in love
Pretend journalist Andrew Sullivan makes a half-hearted attempt to wrap his mind around the Plame affair that indicates that all of his research has come from a casual watching of Fox news. Perhaps he was distracted by his latest Reagasm.
It's a good thing that Ronald Reagan has two legs. One for Andy to hump and the one that has Peggy Noonan permanently attached...
posted by tbogg at 9:23 AM
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Crony capitalism one-two punch
The New York Times is getting all over the selling of Iraq. First there is Paul Krugman (who, unlike Donald Ruskin actually is an economist):
Iraq's reconstruction, by contrast, remains firmly under White House control. And this is an administration of, by and for crony capitalists; to match this White House's blithe lack of concern about conflicts of interest, you have to go back to the Harding administration. That giant, no-bid contract given to Halliburton, the company that made Dick Cheney rich, was just what you'd expect.
And even as the situation in Iraq slides downhill, and the Iraqi Governing Council demands more autonomy and control, American officials continue to block local initiatives, and are still trying to keep the big contracts in the hands of you-know-who.
For example, in July two enterprising Middle Eastern firms started offering cellphone service in Baghdad, setting up jury-rigged systems compatible with those of neighboring countries. Since the collapse of Baghdad's phone system has been a major source of postwar problems, coalition authorities should have been pleased.
But no: the authorities promptly shut down the services. Cell service, they said, could be offered only by the winners in a bidding process — one whose rules, revealed on July 31, seemed carefully designed to shut out any non-American companies. (In the face of strenuous protests the rules were revised, but still seem to favor the usual suspects.) Oddly, the announcement of the winners, originally scheduled for Sept. 5, keeps being delayed. Meanwhile, only Paul Bremer and his people have cellphones — and, thanks to the baffling decision to give that contract to MCI, even those phones don't work very well. (Aside from the fact that its management perpetrated history's biggest accounting fraud, MCI has no experience in building cell networks.)
Then there's electricity. One reason Iraq still faces blackouts is that local experts and institutions were excluded from the repair business. Instead, the exclusive contract was given to Bechtel, whose Republican ties are almost as strong as Halliburton's. And if a recent story in The Washington Post is accurate, Bechtel continues to ignore pleas by Iraqi engineers for essential spare parts.
Then there is this from Douglas Jehl:
A group of businessmen linked by their close ties to President Bush, his family and his administration have set up a consulting firm to advise companies that want to do business in Iraq, including those seeking pieces of taxpayer-financed reconstruction projects.
The firm, New Bridge Strategies, is headed by Joe M. Allbaugh, Mr. Bush's campaign manager in 2000 and the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency until March. Other directors include Edward M. Rogers Jr., vice chairman, and Lanny Griffith, lobbyists who were assistants to the first President George Bush and now have close ties to the White House.
At a time when the administration seeks Congressional approval for $20.3 billion to rebuild Iraq, part of an $87 billion package for military and other spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, the company's Web site, www.newbridgestrategies.com, says, "The opportunities evolving in Iraq today are of such an unprecedented nature and scope that no other existing firm has the necessary skills and experience to be effective both in Washington, D.C., and on the ground in Iraq."
The sleaze and rank opportunism is so thick that you can cut it with a knife.
posted by tbogg at 8:44 AM
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Enough Plame to go around
Everybody is blogging about Valerie Plame, so I think I'll just stay away from it, at least until Scooter Libby or Karl Rove do the perp walk. Kevin at CalPundit has the best roundup on it. In the meantime I think I will confine myself to observations on observations on the affair, as well commenting on the usual daily Administration atrocities.
posted by tbogg at 8:29 AM
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Monday, September 29, 2003
"I'm sorry Mr. President. Jenna is on line five screaming something about "Oh, the humanity...""
...and with midterms just around the corner.....
Tequila, the distilled spirit that fueled a decades-old margarita craze in the United States, has landed squarely in the middle of a trade fight between Mexico City and Washington.
Mexico is threatening to cut off all bulk exports of Tequila, claiming it needs to tighten quality controls on the gold-plated namebrand that is owned by the Mexican government and supposedly assures every bottle's high quality. If enacted, all Tequila would be bottled in Mexico.
Mexico is the only nation that produces the alcohol made from fermented sap from the blue agave plant.
posted by tbogg at 1:42 PM
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Lacking the depth and complexity of "I'm a uniter, not a divider"
Ronald Bailey over at Reason one-ups the braintrust at the Corner with this profoundly weak attempt at an analogy:
In Jerzy Kosinski's novel, Being There, vacuous statements made by a retarded gardener called Chauncey Gardiner get taken as profound insights by the rich and powerful around him. Is Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark the Chauncey Gardiner of 2004?
Consider this Chauncey Gardiner-like vacuity uttered by Clark at last week's debate among Democratic Presidential candidates: "I am pro-choice, I am pro-affirmative action, I am pro-environment, pro-health. I believe the United States should engage with allies. We should be a good player in the international community. And we should use force only as a last resort."
Ambiguous blather! As if anyone is pro-disease or anti-environment. What about the hard voter losing questions? What about parental notification of parents of minors seeking abortions? What about minority quotas in college admissions or company hiring? Does he favor oil exploration in Alaska? Does he want to socialize medical care in America? What does engaging with allies mean? Who's against engaging with allies anyway and who wants to use force as a first resort?
I assume that Bailey is just the guy who sweeps up over there and happened to find a computer that was left logged on.....
posted by tbogg at 10:27 AM
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Turning the children against our steely-eyed flight-suited leader
Reader g.s. writes:
Don't know if you read the Lemony Snicket books - how old are your kids - but my daughter and I came across this in the new volume, THE SLIPPERY SLOPE. In case you don't know, the character of Sunny is a baby whose babbling requires constant translation by the narrator:
pg. 107:
"Busheney," Sunny said, which meant something along the lines of, "You're an evil man with no concern whatsoever for other people."
We were happy to see this Bush-Cheney slam in what, as of next week, will probably be the #1 book in America (that's how it's been with the other volumes)
Heh. Indeed.
posted by tbogg at 10:03 AM
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What's good for Halliburton is good for the USA
Go to Open Source Politics and see what else our country needs to do for those impoverished folks over at Halliburton.
posted by tbogg at 9:58 AM
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The line for the salad bar is over there...this is the line to pick up your brown shirt.
According to a link found over at World O'Crap, it looks like the Ollie & Ann Show rolled into Gwinnett County over the weekend to support the Boy Scouts, and they both had plenty to say. One tried to be inspirational:
Col. Oliver North knows a thing or two about the Boy Scouts.
He was a scoutmaster and his son, Stuart, was a Boy Scout.
“It’s a great program,” North said in an interview before the Boy Scouts of America’s American Freedom Rally at Berkmar High School Saturday. “I encourage people to support it. It’s great for Gwinnett County and it’s great for America.”
North was among five speakers who spoke at the rally, which was a fund-raiser for the Northeast Georgia Council of Boy Scouts of America’s Scoutreach and Learning for Life programs.
[snip]
North spoke of the leadership shown by Todd Beamer, a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93 who helped three other men storm the cockpit in a successful effort to keep their plane from hitting the White House. Beamer, North said, had been a Boy Scout.
“Todd Beamer is one of these people who wants to be prepared,” North said. “Did Todd Beamer’s leadership skills make a difference? Well, that airplane didn’t hit its intended target, the White House.”
One of those three other men was Mark Bingham who was prepared too, but since he was a fag and they can't be in the Boy Scouts, it's probably not a good idea to mention him before impressionable little minds. And speaking of little minds, keep Ann Coulter in mind, next time you need a motivational speaker for teenage boys:
Conservative author and attorney Ann Coulter blasted liberals during her speech, specifically with regards to their positions regarding the war in Iraq.
“Let’s just say that this was a war just for oil,” Coulter told the crowd of about 300. “Why not go to war for oil? We need oil. What do Hollywood celebrities think fuels their jets? How do they think their cocaine is delivered? Now that we have liberated Iraq and uncovered the torture chambers, the mass graves, the rape rooms ... the world has seen this was never a war for oil.”
War...invading countries for their natural resources....cocaine...rape...just being in the same room with Ann should get the attending scouts their Fascism merit badges.
By the way, make sure you read World O'Crap's coverage of our gal Ann.
posted by tbogg at 9:42 AM
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All the news that's fit to ignore
White House being investigated
Mission not accomplished in Iraq
Ethnic conflict in our new colony
Gnat has an imaginary friend
Good to know that if Target puts Snapple on sale, Lileks will be on it.....
posted by tbogg at 9:06 AM
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Case closed....next!
Opinions You Should Have informs us that L'Affaire Plame is already over. Justice was swift, decisive, and very hush hush.
The Patriot Act is a wonderful thing," said Ashcroft. "I was able to go after these boys with the same vehemence I normally reserve for users of medical marijuana, sodomists, and would-be terrorists like Juan Padilla. And this time, we may or may not have gotten our man."
posted by tbogg at 8:56 AM
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Fair & balanced Iraq
Bad news from Iraq:
Backed by tanks firing cannons and jets dropping bombs, U.S. troops in Iraq on Monday engaged insurgents in a fierce battle that started with a bombing that killed a soldier. Other units, meanwhile, staged raids, including one that marked the largest joint operation with U.S.-trained Iraqi police.
SPORADIC, HEAVY gunfire rattled farming communities north of Khaldiyah, where resistance to the American presence is strong.
A military spokesman said the fight started about 9:10 a.m. when a homemade bomb exploded along the road as a U.S. convoy passed, killing one soldier and wounding another.
By late afternoon, the fighting was still raging about three miles north of Khaldiyah. It appeared to be the biggest engagement in the area in months.
M1A2 tanks fired 120-mm cannons as helicopters strafed farm houses with 50-mm machine gun fire. Two A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft bombed guerrilla positions while F-15 jets streaked across the sky.
Six U.S. armored personnel carriers — two of them ambulances — had earlier arrived as reinforcements. As the fight continued, eight Humvees carrying U.S. troops also could be seen heading toward the battle.
A U.S. armored personnel carrier left the area carrying six blindfolded Iraqi prisoners. In the distance, civilians, including women and children, could be seen fleeing on foot. An American recovery vehicle towed away two Humvees, one of which had a bullet hole in the windshield.
An Iraqi man, fleeing on foot with his wife, three other women, a nephew and five children, said at least 10 houses had been destroyed. He refused to give his name.
“Is this the freedom that we were promised?” he asked. “I had to get my family out. ... The helicopters were firing almost nonstop. My 7-year-old is too young to hate but how can he not hate them (the Americans) after this?”
You're a 7-year-old who has just been driven from your home due to an all out assault by tanks and 50-mm machine gun-wielding helicopters. Where are you going next? " I'm going to the soccer field!":
Some members of Congress are sounding the same theme. Georgia Democrat Jim Marshall says negative media coverage is getting our troops in Iraq killed and is encouraging Baathist holdouts to think they can drive the U.S. from Iraq. Marshall, a Vietnam vet, said there is "a disconnect between the reporting and the reality," partly because the 27 reporters left in Iraq are "all huddled in a hotel."
Marshall and a bipartisan group of six other representatives just returned from Iraq. The lawmakers charged that reporters have developed an overall negative tone and a "police blotter" mind-set, stressing attacks and little else. Ranking member Ike Skelton, D.-Mo., said he was impressed with the flexibility and innovation of the American military, including 3,100 projects in northern Iraq, from soccer fields to schools to refineries, "all good stuff, and that isn't being reported."
Of course, Glenn Reynolds will call all of this "lazy Vietnam-templating", because, you know, this is nothing like Vietnam. Except for the specious reasoning for fighting there, the daily deaths, blaming the American deaths on those who oppose the war, lack of an exit strategy, the failure to understand a foreign culture, the press bashing by the administration and its syncophants, the populace that hates us......
Nope. Nothing like Vietnam.
posted by tbogg at 8:44 AM
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Sunday, September 28, 2003
Why I Am A Republican
Thanks to the many readers who sent in their Why I Am A Republican submissions. I didn't do a Top Ten because, well, there were a bunch of good ones. The added bonus is that they have done my work so I could watch Alias. Thanks.
Enjoy:
I don't read the papers because they have "opinions" and stuff, and my objective handlers told me to be a Republican.- victor
Well, after the head injury, i just don't understand them democrats...- chris
Because my illegal Mexican pool boy doesn’t pay enough taxes- Michael
I am a Republican for many reasons - I believe in self-reliance, (like our fine president who is a self-made man), I believe in the infallibility of the free market (because we can trust big companies to police themselves), and I believe that God Hisself has blessed this fine nation (through his son Jesus Christ, whom all good people love and accept as their Savior). But mostly because I hate gays and darkies. – Maureen
I'm a Republican because.... I'm sorry, do I know you? I mean, I don't recognize you, are you even in The Club? Because if you're not in The Club, you know, I'm really not even supposed to be talking to you.- paul
Because my heart is a small, dark hole from which nothing, not even light or human emotion, can escape.- gunther
Because in America, hard work, individual initiative, and self-reliance allows someone like George W. Bush to rise from the gutter and achieve greatness- gunther
Because I’m convinced I’m as well off as all those folks I see on them TV shows.- gunther
Because I think that Blacks, Indians and other minorities have been getting a free ride in this country for the last 400 years.- gunther
I'm a Republican because I believe that freedom of speech is great, but you know, only within reason- matt
Allowed to "jump the line" to get on Limbaugh radio show to tell Rush that he's absolutely right about Hillary Clinton's complicity in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.- rich
Mandatory 7 a.m. Bible prayer meetings great place to meet former "Miss Teen USA" contestants.-rich
..government should be of, by, and for the RIGHT people- Alan
Because the only person I dislike more than myself is everybody else.-sac666
Because someone needs to stop that Hillary Clinton from flying around the country in her black helicopter dolling out crack and performing free abortions.- john
I'm a Republican because you can't make a Coulter and Ingraham sandwich with no wimpy liberal meat.- chris
I had sex once, but it wasn't all that great--why should anybody else enjoy themselves.- chujoe
I came for the tax cuts, but stayed for the intolerance-davis
I am a Republican because the Republicans stand for integrity and honesty and moral clarity and the absence of commas in lists.- damon
I am a Republican because the Democrats are the party of pie-in-the-sky dreamers and also because it really is possible that one day I may be rich enough to benefit from Bush's tax cut.- damon
I am a Republican because, like, my Dad read me 'Hop on Pop' when I was a baby but now he's like, 'I'll cut off your tequila and crack allowance if you ever vote Democrat,' and I'm all, 'Dude, you totally changed!' and then he's all ... Oh. My. God. That chick just totally puked all over her pledge dress! That is sooooo funny!- damon
I am a Republican because Democrats are pussies who won't fight in wars for their country and Republicans are heroes who unselfishly hold themselves out of dangerous combat as young men because the country will need them later on to run those wars from cool secret bunkers which probably have trapdoors that drop "No 2" into a shark tank if he screws up.- damon
I am a Republican because I am an elderly Jew who votes in West Palm Beach ... which technically makes me a Reform Party supporter, but why quibble, bubalah?- damon
I am a Republican because you're not the boss of me! So neener-neener Mr Poopy-Bossy Pants.- damon
Because being a Republican means never having to say that you miscalculated the post-war resistance, and that you are now responsible for an ever worsening occupation.- Arthur
There's nothing like putting people in jail on a "law and order" platform for doing the same drugs you did. Consistency being a hobgoblin and all.-dan
There's nothing like cutting services and funds to services men and women while exhorting people who don't want to send those same service men and women into war to "support the troops." Hobgoblins! Everywhere!- dan
I'm a Republican because it's better to be sure about something even if you're wrong.- noel
I'm a Republican because smart, well educated, well spoken, thoughtful people make me feel insecure and uncomfortable when they try to force me to use my own higher brain functions to sort through the problems and challenges facing our society on a global level- sterling
because thinking causes wrinkles.-julia
Because Tom Daschle wouldn't return my phone calls.--Governor Bill Owens (R-CO)(actually john)
I am a Republican because "I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more
interested in news . . . and the best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff," who currently are my two underpaid cats, Propecia and Kozmo.- obnoman
Because they're the only ones who'll stop Hillary Clinton from prying this homemade grenade launcher out of my cold dead fingers.- rich
Becuz librul teechers are filing our childrens branes with goddless evolushun and terning them into morans- tresy
Because the Nazi Party turned me down- moulinoon
I saw a badge that said "Do as you're told, vote Republican".-nabakov
~~~
If I mis-attributed anyone's quote, you have my apologies.
posted by tbogg at 10:16 PM
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Truning on the lights and watching the roaches scatter
For the five or six of you who come here and don't read CalPundit, he has a link to a Newsweek article that is going to be hugely damaging to the Bush Administration.
Kevin also has a list of possible suspects if you're thinking of setting up an office pool.
I'm taking Scooter Libby, in the White House, with a telephone.
posted by tbogg at 8:23 PM
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It's like reading Flowers for Algernon...
Go here to watch Glenn Reynolds discuss his ever-evolving view of the Valerie Plame affair.
To borrow the Rummy approach:
Obtuse? Maybe
Willifully ignorant? Doubtful
Blatant apologist for an administration that he supports right or wrong? You betcha.
posted by tbogg at 8:07 PM
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Friday, September 26, 2003
I like to think of myself as a Motivational Facilitator
and Corporate/Consumer Liaison.....
Resume padding.
You know. I "supervised" this, I "facilitated" that. Phony titles and euphemisms. You read them and you just know that you're not getting a complete or accurate story. Something that seems so innocuous can be...hiding something. Why do I bring this up? I'm glad you asked....
So, I'm like, killing time, looking for something or someone to make fun of, and I think "Hey, Tom. Why don't you cruise on over to the official Miss America site and check out this years Wind Beneath My Wings Belting-out Barbie dolls?" (I actually think like that. Really. Ask my wife.) So I'm checking out the various Misses representing all the great and wondrous states of our union, as well as Indiana, when I come across Miss Colorado. Hmmm. Let's see... Katee Doland:
Katee Doland
Arvada, Colorado
Age: 23
Education:
Arvada High School
Regis University Graduate
Platform Issue: Literacy: The Million Words Challenge
Scholastic Ambition: To obtain a master's degree in education and creative arts
Talent: Lyrical Dance
Scholastic Honors: Dean's List; Regis Board of Trustees Academic Scholarship recipient; Nominated for USA Today's All-Academic Team
Other Accomplishments: Motivational speaker for children and teens at 65 schools for the D.A.R.E. Program and the National Red Ribbon Campaign; founder of Reach Out and Read literacy program; 2002 and 2003 Denver Broncos Community Service Award recipient
Employment: Employed by Denver Broncos organization and a student teacher
Family: Father is the owner of a baseball academy. Mother is a kinderga------
Whoa there, little filly..
Employed by Denver Broncos organization?
Coach? Player? Trainer? Accounting department? Legal? Merchandising? or......maybe this.
Back row. Second from the left.
Yeah. That's what I figured.
I think the tip-off was Talent: Lyrical Dance
But this is pretty good too:
Occupation and how does Broncos cheerleading affect your work?
I have also been the head coach for a high school cheerleading team. I take from the experiences that I have received as a member of this team, and in turn, try to instill in my own cheerleaders the values of teamwork, integrity and dedication.
Who do you admire the most in the sports industry?
I admire anyone in the sports industry who takes on the responsibility and the opportunity to be a positive role model for our young people.
Favorite book?
The Bible
posted by tbogg at 3:25 PM
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Faced with fourth and long, Powell punts...
All the way at the end of today's NY Times lead editorial is a little nugget that shouldn't be missed. I'll start with the basic premise of the editorial before jumping to the fun stuff:
This page did not support the war in Iraq, but it never quarreled with one of its basic premises. Like President Bush, we believed that Saddam Hussein was hiding potentially large quantities of chemical and biological weapons and aggressively pursuing nuclear arms. Like the president, we thought those weapons posed a grave danger to the United States and the rest of the world. Now it appears that premise was wrong. We cannot in hindsight blame the administration for its original conclusions. They were based on the best intelligence available, which had led the Clinton administration before it and the governments of allied nations to reach the same conclusion. But even the best intelligence can turn out to be mistaken, and the likelihood that this was the case in Iraq shows why pre-emptive war, the Bush administration's strategy since 9/11, is so ill conceived as a foundation for security policy. If intelligence and risk assessment are sketchy — and when are they not? — using them as the basis for pre-emptive war poses enormous dangers.
A draft of an interim report by David Kay, the American leading the hunt for banned arms in Iraq, says the team has not found any such weapons after nearly four months of intensively searching and interviewing top Iraqi scientists. There is some evidence of chemicals and equipment that could have been put to illicit use. But, to the chagrin of Mr. Bush's top lieutenants, there is nothing more.
[snip] Here is somes:
This is clearly an uncomfortable question for the Bush administration. Yesterday, Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Times editors. Asked whether Americans would have supported this war if weapons of mass destruction had not been at issue, Mr. Powell said the question was too hypothetical to answer. Asked if he, personally, would have supported it, he smiled, thrust his hand out and said, "It was good to meet you."
Oh oh. Somebody's not being a team play-yur......
posted by tbogg at 2:46 PM
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Blowing all that money he saved on acting lessons
Bruce Willis is offering $1 million for the capture of Saddam Hussein and said ""If you catch him, just give me four seconds with Saddam Hussein", indicating that that little "quick on the trigger" problem he developed isn't limited to women.
Actor Bruce Willis has performed before US soldiers in Telafar, northern Iraq, and offered $1m (£603,000) to the man who captures Saddam Hussein.
"We're here to support you," the star told troops as he sang a set of blues songs with his band, the Accelerator.
"If you catch him, just give me four seconds with Saddam Hussein," he said.
Willis will next fly south to visit US soldiers in Tikrit - Saddam's home town - before performing two concerts for troops in neighbouring Kuwait.
...like those guys haven't suffered enough.
Too bad that Willis doesn't have the $50 million he blew on Hudson Hawk to put up....
posted by tbogg at 1:57 PM
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"Presidential elections, Rover! How many dang presidential elections have I lost?"
Karl takes a deep breath. "Well, sir, in my opinion, none."
KARL Rove walks into the Oval Office.......
(Thanks...again...to Chris for the link)
posted by tbogg at 12:37 PM
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I think this is pretty fcuking fcunny...
Nothing make me happier than seeing somone like Donald Wildmon get his skid-marked longjohns in a bunch. Thank the imaginary deity of your choice that he's protecting our dyslexic teens:
Would you believe Target has approved its Marshall Field's stores to sell a product called FCUK? Target must consider parents really naive to not know exactly what type of message they are "targeting" to our kids.
Here's how one mother put it:
I didn't see this on television but it was an advertisement insert in last Sunday's newspaper for Marshall Field's dept. store for a cologne and a clothing line aimed at teenagers called "Fcuk" and their advertising slogan to go with it is "scent to bed". I was really appalled at this and then a friend of mine saw huge posters promoting this IN the Marshall Field's store in my area. When she complained to a clerk about it she was referred to a manager who told her the corporate office makes all the decisions about what they advertise.
Another mother put it this way:
Not only does the name make an obvious grab at the mind to be misspelled as one of the vilest slang words ever used, it also goes further to make its point. A young, attractive, half dressed couple are snuggling on a bed with the words "scent to bed" superimposed over their picture. On the inside where you can pull the flyer apart to see what the product smells like you read "open here to try fcuk her" and "open here to try fcuk him". On the back page is an offer to "get your scent to bed t-shirt".
For a major retailer to promote and sell this type of product is reprehensible to me. I hope it is to you too! I think we need to pull out all the stops to let Target know they have crossed the line with our families.
Man, that is fcuked up......
This should do for FCUK what Fox's lawsuit did for Al Franken.
More on French Connection UK here
posted by tbogg at 11:56 AM
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The Offut Express is now leaving on Track 61
During President Bush’s two-day stay at the ritzy Waldorf-Astoria in New York this week — seeking international support for the U.S. resolution on Iraq — a special escape train was idling beneath the hotel, ready to whisk him to safety at a moment’s notice in the event of a terrorist attack, it was reported Friday.
THE SECRET SERVICE arranged for the Metro-North train to be parked at an abandoned platform, always running and ready for instant departure throughout the president’s stay at the hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday, the New York Post reported, quoting unidentified law enforcement sources.
The platform — identified as Track 61 on Grand Central Terminal blueprints — is accessible by an underground passage from inside the landmark hotel and by a freight elevator that descends from a brass-sheathed door next to the hotel’s parking garage, giving the president and his entourage a second egress route in case of emergency, the Post said. Had that occurred, the train would have sped off to an undisclosed secure location, it said.
How's about a chorus of that old Ozark Mountain Daredevils hit, Chicken Train:
chicken train
runnin' all day
chicken train
runnin' all day
chicken train
runnin' all day
I can't get on
I can't get off
chicken train take your chickens away
(HARP & JAWBONE BREAK)
Yee Haw
posted by tbogg at 11:26 AM
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Segways recalled. Sedentary, manatee-sized losers who are too lazy to actually walk fifty feet are saddened....
I'll leave the obvious Bush jokes to others. But, c'mon, the last thing this country needed was something that made walking two blocks to the 7/11 to buy a 2 liter of Pepsi Blue and a colostomy-sized bag of Fritos easier....
Oh, yeah. And another thing...get caught looking like this riding one of these and you will never ever have sex with someone who looks like this.
posted by tbogg at 10:54 AM
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Hey! I'm more Republican-er than you....
Joe Lieberman, the Manchurian Democratic Candidate, is upset with Wesley Clark for encroaching on his territory:
Igniting a spate of post-debate recrimination, Joe Lieberman (news - web sites) accused new presidential rival Wesley Clark on Friday of taking "a journey of political convenience, not conviction" from the Republican ranks to the Democratic Party. Clark's camp called Lieberman desperate.
On the day after a 10-way Democratic presidential debate, Lieberman took issue with Clark expressing support for the Bush administration's policies in a May 2001 address to the Arkansas GOP. Bush was pushing his tax-cut package at the time.
"I was fighting that reckless economic strategy while Wes Clark was working to forward the Republican agenda by raising money for the Republican Party," the Connecticut senator said.
Clark spokesman Mark Fabiani fired back: "I think Senator Lieberman is an increasingly desperate candidate and it's unfortunate that instead of articulating a vision for the future as General Clark has with his 'New American Patriotism,' Senator Lieberman is attacking other Democrats."
Wah wah wah....hold me, Hadassah. I'm going down in flames.....
posted by tbogg at 10:04 AM
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Can we call it a loan?....No.
You tax dollars at work going to Halliburton:
Those details include $100 million to build seven planned communities with a total of 3,258 houses, plus roads, an elementary school, two high schools, a clinic, a place of worship and a market for each; $10 million to finance 100 prison-building experts for six months, at $100,000 an expert; 40 garbage trucks at $50,000 each; $900 million to import petroleum products such as kerosene and diesel to a country with the world's second-largest oil reserves; and $20 million for a four-week business course, at $10,000 per student.
"If those are what the costs are, I'm glad Congress is asking questions," said Brian Reidl, a budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "If the White House wants to be portrayed as spending tax dollars in Iraq as cost-effectively as they spend [money] anywhere else, they're going to have to explain this."
Already, the administration's request for $400 million to build two 4,000-bed prisons at $50,000 a bed has raised enough questions in Congress to force Provisional Authority Administrator L. Paul Bremer to explain that cement must be imported to make concrete.
[snip]
In several closed meetings this week, Republicans questioned why the administration is piling more spending atop an ever-expanding federal deficit. Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, plans to offer an amendment making the package a loan, which the White House adamantly opposes.
"The people of eastern Tennessee want to know why the $20.3 billion couldn't be repaid by the Iraqi people from the oil revenues," Wamp said.
...and here's smooth talker Paul 'Never Served" Wolfowitz coming up with a recruiting pitch for the New Iraqi Army:
Meanwhile, at a House hearing yesterday, Democrats pressed Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz about whether the administration plans to withdraw troops right before the 2004 presidential election. He said no decisions are being made on political grounds.
"These are national security decisions; they have to be made on that basis," he said. Wolfowitz said that does not mean that "we're not trying to, in fact, get more Iraqis on the front lines, get them dying for their country so fewer Americans have to."
That ought to have them lined up at the recruitment offices....
posted by tbogg at 9:49 AM
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RIP George Plimpton
Tom Clancy, on the other hand, still walks among the living.....
posted by tbogg at 8:36 AM
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RIP Robert Palmer
Scott Stapp, on the other hand, still walks among the living.....
posted by tbogg at 8:09 AM
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I didn't get the memo
Apparently it's Talk Like Bill O'Reilly Day. On the one hand, I wasn't aware of it. On the other hand, I've never watched Bill O'Reilly so I don't have the vaguest idea of how he talks, so....I'm going to have to pass.
Atrios is all over it though....
It's kind of creepy.
posted by tbogg at 8:08 AM
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Thursday, September 25, 2003
A swift knee to the groin of the rightwing yahoos
Go here at Atrios and go read what Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks has to say.
If I were married to her, I would never want to get on her bad side. Nuh uh. Not me. No way.
posted by tbogg at 1:01 PM
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What he said....
Kevin over at CalPundit hits the nail on the head regarding school vouchers.
Full disclosure: We have sent our daughter to private school (Montessori & Catholic schools) for eight of the nine years she has been going to school.
posted by tbogg at 12:35 PM
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That was no celebrity, that was Peggy Noonan
Lt. Smash was visiting New York and got to have dinner with Peggy Noonan. No mention is made about any discussions about the Holy Dolphins of Elian or How to Read People's Minds in Candy Stores, but, then again, if Smash was wearing a uniform, I'm sure that Peggy had to run on home because she had "things to do".
Congratulations to Lt. Smash for filling a lonely divorcee's night... in ways he can hardly imagine.
posted by tbogg at 11:04 AM
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Only one more shopping day
Make sure to get your Why I Am Republican entry in today.
Our operators are standing by....
posted by tbogg at 10:30 AM
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Revising history
Ted Rall
posted by tbogg at 10:15 AM
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Hey Joe, where you goin' with that book in your hand?
Tuesday night I had the opportunity to go and hear Joe Conason speak at Current Affairs Bookstore (an outstanding independent bookstore in San Diego) in support of his latest book Big Lies. Speaking before a packed house (actually a packed backyard) Conason briefly spoke about his book and then proceeded to take questions.
A great majority of the questions dealt with the upcoming 2004 election and centered upon Dean, Clark, and Hillary Clinton. I think the overall mood of the crowd was one of anxious optimism, particularly since George Bush's plummeting poll numbers had just been released before Conason's appearance. After his talk, Joe autographed copies of his book (Current Affairs sold every copy they had) and spoke individually with many of the people who had turned out. I had a chance to briefly talk with him thank him for linking to my blog back when I first started it up, and he was very complimentary, and mentioned that he had had dinner with Kos just a few nights before. Joe Conason is a genuinely nice guy and if he's making an appearance in your town, make time to go hear him speak. You won't be disappointed.
If you haven't already purchased a copy of Big Lies, you need to do yourself a favor and buy it and read it. Since receiving my copy about four weeks ago, I use it almost daily as a reference for names and events. Buy it through your local independent bookstore or through Amazon or Powells or whomever, but you really need to read it.
posted by tbogg at 10:04 AM
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Wearing only my thigh-high jackboots and an eyepatch, I awaited the arrival of Adolph. I was wet...so very wet......
Pre-order Ann Coulter's latest book. Hurry before the freepers snatch them all up....
posted by tbogg at 9:28 AM
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Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Hope they die before they get old
Kicking Ass points out that the Bush Administration is about to piss off AARP, which should push those unfavorables even lower:
In a less than surprising move, the Bush administration is set to shut out 6 million seniors from the Medicare prescription drug benefit now being negotiated between the House and Senate. The bill, originally passed in June, included a flaw that would for the first time introduce unequal benefits based on income. The Bush-supported proposal would make low-income seniors ineligible for prescription drug benefits under Medicare and force them to rely on the patchwork system of Medicaid benefits.
So, to recap, who do we have opposing this damaging and unfair policy? Forty-six Senate Democrats and their Independent ally Jim Jeffords; AARP, the powerhouse advocacy group representing 35 million older Americans, who has said it "will not hesitate to oppose" any bill that treats poorer seniors differently than all Medicare recipients; and all 50 of the nation's governors. Who supports it? Oh yeah, George W. Bush.
posted by tbogg at 10:55 PM
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Some times big ears just means big ears....
Oh great. Now Satchmo the Wonderdog has ear envy.
posted by tbogg at 10:36 PM
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As a cause for war, it is a farce.
Richard Cohen sums up Spurious George and the Not-So-Successful UN Speech:
He appeared empty, leeched of his former passion and conviction. Events have conspired against him. His once infallible aides have turned out to be awfully fallible. They botched the aftermath of the war and they were wrong about weapons of mass destruction and Iraqi links to al Qaeda. They ought to be fired, but Bush would have to admit he was misled -- and he will not do that.
The oddest document in the archives today is the congressional resolution that the White House sought authorizing war in Iraq. It is less than a year old, but already it seems from another era. It is alarmist, written in the most purple of prose, saying of Iraq that it "poses a continuing threat to the national security of the United States." It says Iraq is "supporting and harboring terrorist organizations," specifically naming al Qaeda. As a historical document it is rich in irony. As a cause for war, it is a farce.
Bush's problem is that he has been repeatedly reprimanded by events. Most -- not all, mind you -- of his reasons for the war have proved untrue. Paul Wolfowitz, who ventured to New York earlier in the week, gave three reasons for the war at a forum sponsored by the New Yorker magazine: WMD, links to terrorism and wholesale human rights abuse.
Only the last is true -- and true enough to give war supporters such as myself reason for succor. All the rest is either a mistake or an exaggeration -- the former by intelligence agencies, the latter by imagineers such as Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney.
posted by tbogg at 10:29 PM
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Bizarro-world curriculum vitae
Hey I like Salon as much as the next guy, in fact Table Talk was where I got my start, but what the hell?
Economist Donald Luskin clearly doesn't believe that macroeconomic trends always explain fiscal performance. A recent post on Luskin's site, "The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid," questions the conventional rationale behind the New York Times' lowered earnings forecast released last week
Economist Donald Luskin? According to Luskin's own website:
Education
Attended Yale in 1973-1974; dropped out to rejoin the real world as soon as possible
Now maybe Yale offers a one year Economics degree, but I doubt it. What next? Geo-Political Strategist Steven den Beste? Ladies Man Ben Shapiro? Sane Ann Coulter?
posted by tbogg at 1:28 PM
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Didn't stick around for the drum solo
The Dick Cheney De-Fibbing Across America tour isn't exactly selling out:
New Hampshire Republican activists showed once again why the first-in-the-nation primary state can be the toughest place for even the White House to raise money.
Vice President Dick Cheney’s appearance at the Center of New Hampshire drew fewer than 90 supporters inside and roughly twice as many protesters across Elm Street outside Tuesday night.
Republican State Committee Communications Director Julie Teer said the total take from the fund-raiser for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign was at least $200,000.
If all of them paid $2,000 apiece to have their picture taken with Cheney – and not all of them did – that still means a lot of no-show money came in.
Cheney’s 17-minute speech focused heavily on a spirited defense of America’s pre-emptive strike policy against terrorist threats.
How good was that seventeen minute speech?
Gov. Craig Benson introduced Cheney and left with his wife, Denise, halfway through the vice president’s speech.
Why does it seem like Republican officeholders are avoiding Dick Cheney like three-day old potato salad that's been left out in the sun?
posted by tbogg at 12:11 PM
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I remember reading Straight Up or On the Rocks to little Jenna when she was just a baby. Her first words were "Harvey Wallbanger"...
Laura Bush, who worked as a librarian for four years and has droned on about it for twenty six, thinks that doctors should prescribe books for babies:
First lady Laura Bush, campaigning to boost literacy in America, urged doctors on Wednesday to prescribe books for babies during check-ups.
Mrs. Bush, a librarian and teacher, said when babies went for regular check-ups, doctors should write out prescriptions for books or, if possible, send them home with one.
"That really adds the whole authority of the medical community (on the importance of reading)," Mrs. Bush told ABC's "Good Morning America" show, which launched a campaign to get more books into school libraries.
"There are all sorts of studies that show if a child has been read to from six months old ... they start school at a huge advantage," said the first lady.
Those who had not been read to did not even know how to turn pages. "Your babies might want to chew on them, but that's all right," Mrs. Bush said
[snip]
She said the one of President Bush's favorites was the Dr. Seuss' book "Hop on Pop."
"George loved to read to our girls and they would actually act it out. He would lie on the floor and read 'Hop on Pop' and they would jump up and down on him."
Along with Hop on Pop, other George Bush favorites include Dad on Crack, Have You Seen My Discharge Papers?, Horton Hires A Ho, and Daddy Drinks Because You Twins Make Too Much Noise.
posted by tbogg at 12:02 PM
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Usually you can fit the Wit & Wisdom of Sean Hannity into a 20-second spot buy...but only if he talks.... real... slow
I thought this was a joke...but apparently it's not.
Volunteers are needed to be in the "Republican Values" TV show featuring President Bush and the wit & wisdom of Sean Hannity. The 30-minute national TV program is to be broadcast on Fox and CNBC and highlights the core values of the Republican Party by showcasing the major accomplishments of President Bush's first term in office.
The "Republican Values TV" show featuring President Bush is produced by RepublicanTV.org, a nonprofit, independent, educational organization created to educate the American public about Republican values and how important those values are to America.
I guess this calls for a contest.
E-mail me your best "Why I am a Republican" submission by Friday 9/26 and I'll pick a Top Ten and post it on Sunday night along with your name (or suitable-for-family-viewing nickname). Try and keep it to one line if possible. No bad words please, we're a Republican Family Values crowd around here. Please put Why I Am A Republican in the subject line so that I can sort it out from the regular Make It Larger emails as well as my correspondence with my Nigerian business partners.
(Thanks to Art for the link)
posted by tbogg at 11:04 AM
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Making a case for child abuse
The Pretentious Partizan smacks little Kyle Williams (aka Chubby McPokemon) around.
Written by a wet-behind-the-ears lad of 14, Kyle Williams, the books description drops the following bomb on us: "home schooled in rural Oklahoma, Williams brings a fresh perspective to the debate, shattering stereotypes about the apathy of young people."
Well, you can already guess the trite appeal to patriotic values behind his "rural OKlahoma" home, but it's the delicious title, a clever play on words stemming from that old [ultraconservative] standby, "children should be seen, and not heard," that really holds the key to the book's ostensible appeal: this is a child, nay, person, whose fresh insights you must observe, because dismissing them would constitute nothing less than an appeal to ageism and - clearly - cosmopolitanism. Sporting a haircut about as fresh as last year's cowpie and a few of the ripest freckles this side of Missoura, Kyle begs to be taken seriously.
But do tell, are William's dicta really so fresh?
If you've never read Kyle, well, you probably made a good choice. But here's a sampling of his "fresh perspective":
Rich Americans should pay for Iraq war, Democrat says: Sen. Joseph Biden from Delaware says that wealthy Americans should pay for the costs associated with the war in Iraq by giving up their tax break for a year, according to CNS News. "The choices are stark," said the senator, "but the answer to me is absolutely clear how to pay for this."
Well, the answer to me is absolutely clear: More class-warfare garbage from Senate liberals.
Arafat: I'll dismantle Hamas when Israel agrees to dismantle IDF: Yasser Arafat is now saying that Israel should be required to dismantle the infrastructure of the Israel Defense Forces. "I know what military infrastructure is," said Arafat, according to a report by Israel Insider. "Don't forget, you are talking to an army general!"
It seems that the point that we have reached with the Israel and Palestinian issue is apathetic – at least for me. I, along with everyone else, get passionate and upset when you look at the current state of Israel. But I know this for certain: Nothing is going to happen with peaceful negotiations.
I think that the point we have reached with his boilerplate musings is 'apathetic' - but that's just my opinion.
(Thanks to Kim for the link)
posted by tbogg at 10:39 AM
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Did I mention he's a.....
Michele Malkin went off the deep end this week. Okay, more so than last week or the week before or...well, you get the idea. Tired of bashing people who aren't as white as she is, she's stamping her little size 4 feet over Victor Salva. Who is Victor Salva?
Why he's "convicted child molester Salva", and we know this because Malkin uses that phrase 7 times in 666 words. I think her point is that he's a "convicted child molester", but I could be wrong. Anyway she writes:
After he was released on parole, convicted child molester Salva went on to write and direct the "critically acclaimed" 1995 movie "Powder," in which he worked with many young actors. Winters and his mother bravely went public to protest Salva's involvement. But his employers at Disney -- Disney! -- stood by him, as did liberal stars of the film, Mary Steenburgen and Jeff Goldblum. Also a staunch defender and patron of convicted child molester Salva's: director Francis Ford Coppola, whose company produced "Clownhouse" and the two Jeepers Creepers movies.
Convicted child molester Salva's saviors say their "talented" friend has paid his debt to society and should be left alone to express himself creatively and contribute positively to the movie industry. Separate the art from the artist, they preach. Just move on. That is patently impossible and irresponsible, however, when the director's "art" involves the continued sexual exploitation of -- and twisted obsession with -- young boys.
Then Malkin gets a little moist in the cleavage describing Salva's movie:
Consider the wretched plot of "Jeepers Creepers 2": An ancient demon dubbed "the Creeper" preys on teenage basketball players trapped in a broken-down bus on a rural highway. Convicted child molester Salva's camera lingers on the shirtless torsos of the boys, alive and dead. The boys, all buff and beautiful in that pedophilic Calvin Klein/Abercrombie and Fitch kind of way, sunbathe on the bus roof. The lascivious Creeper stalks and harvests his victims, devouring "certain parts of their anatomy while laminating the rest," in the words of one movie critic. This orgy of bare skin and blood splatter, the sophisticated artistes lecture us, is convicted child molester Salva's redeeming contribution to society. (my emphasis)
Actually I couldn't find any reference to anyone describing that the "orgy of bare skin and blood splatter" is a "redeeming contribution to society", but that doesn't stop Malkin form saying it just so that she can bash "Hollyweird". I can certainly understand Malkin getting her granny panties in a twist over Salva, but one would have to search far and wide to find her referring to Matt Glavin as "National Park Masturbator" Galvin, or Beverly Russell as "Stepdaughter raping" Bev Russell, or George Roche III.. as "Daughter in Law humping" George Roche
posted by tbogg at 9:19 AM
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Pastries of Evil
World O'Crap points out that the evil traitorous spying evil Muslim evil US Airforce evil translator was trafficking in forbidden pastries.
I've been searching the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but I can't find anything under Pastry Pimping. Maybe it's under Mass Breadstuffs of Destruction....
posted by tbogg at 8:22 AM
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Karma comes knocking with a pink slip
As a rule I hate to see anyone lose their job. The devastation to their family, the anxiety, the fear of what the future might hold. But (and you knew there would be a "but") I couldn't help but smile when I read this this morning:
The Wall Street Journal, which is published by Dow Jones & Co. Inc., said it is cutting 12 editor jobs in three key cities to streamline its news desk operation and reduce costs.
In a company announcement made available to the press on Tuesday, managing editor Paul Steiger said the positions would be eliminated from Wall Street Journal offices in New York, Brussels and Hong Kong.
...yet John Fund and Peggy Noonan still draw a paycheck. That's got to be salt in the wound.
posted by tbogg at 8:08 AM
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Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Suffragette City
World O'Crap takes a look at what Dennis Prager thinks about how those irrational wimminfolk vote...now git back in the kitchen and make me a sammich....
You really need to go read this. Funny and biting.
posted by tbogg at 1:41 PM
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Human Test Pattern lands job
According to Atrios CNN has announced that they have hired former Pentagon Spokeswoman and living Carpet Swatch Book Victoria Clarke to do something on Paula Zahn's show.
CNN still is putting the final touches on its new prime-time lineup, but the first two weeks' worth of ratings are down compared with last year.
The network said Monday it has hired contributors -- including former Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke and Time magazine columnist Joe Klein -- for the 8 p.m. show, "Paula Zahn Now."
At least we know she wasn't hired for her good looks...or fashion sense...or ability to tell the truth.
Either way...do not adjust your set.....
posted by tbogg at 1:12 PM
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Clark has them really really really really worried
Josh Marshall has several items on the lengths that the Bushies will go to to destroy Wesley Clark.
Their fear of Clark makes him look more appealing every day.
posted by tbogg at 12:16 PM
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tbogg links aren't working
Links to my individual posts below aren't working due to some problem at Blogger. I'd complain, but, hey, it's free. The links to other articles are as right as rain.
waddyagonnado?
posted by tbogg at 10:27 AM
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Things don't look good for the patient. Actually, the patient is dead, so it really doesn't look very good. But we're hopeful.
The Daily Kos points out a stunning quote that reminds us of why we are happy that President Speaks Without A Net didn't become our family doctor:
"Obviously, I think they're going badly for the soldiers who lost their lives, and I weep for that person and their family. But no, I think we're making good progress," he said.
...and the rightwing complains when we call him "stupid".
posted by tbogg at 10:21 AM
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Rummy World
Looks like this is going to be a fun week for Doonesbury.
Yesterday
Today
Does Rummy thinks this is funny? Probably not.
Is it accurate? Yes.
posted by tbogg at 10:05 AM
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On the other hand, you can get Fox News 24/7
Part of the freedom that we have brought to Iraq is the freedom to censor:
Iraq’s U.S.-appointed Governing Council has issued a decree temporarily barring two of the Middle East’s most popular Arab satellite news channels access to government buildings and press conferences, saying it had suspicions that Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya were aware of attacks on American troops before they occurred. L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, holds a veto over all Council actions and he has yet to comment on whether he approves of the move.
THE DECISION “is a positive step to protect the Iraqi people from the poisons being broadcast by the channels,” said Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for Ahmed Chalabi, the current president of the Governing Council.
Qanbar said the council wanted to close the stations for a “relatively short” time. It would then issue regulations for them to follow, and punishments to be applied if they did not.
Meanwhile back in our nation's capitol John Ashcroft was heard to exclaim, "Dude! I wanna get me some of that action.".
posted by tbogg at 10:02 AM
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Thank the imaginary diety of your choice that they're not breeding, and the fact that the odds are against it happening in the future too.
Jay at Needles on the Beach takes up the evolutionary disruption known as Bush Youth.
It’s not simply because they’re smug, witless writers. It’s not just because they exude all of the smarm of Alex Keaton, without having a hot sister to distract me. It’s not merely because the writhing vipers of the pundit world (a world most unlike yours and mine) think it’s soooo cute for grim young men to hack out trite, boilerplate National Review Jr. essays. It’s because their presence on this planet represents a lifeforce draining reality – kids today SUCK.
Heh. Indeed.
posted by tbogg at 9:43 AM
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I just got my Merit Badge in Perjury and now I'm working on one in Skankitude....
The Boy Scouts of America build our leaders of tomorrow. And what better way to teach good solid American values to these strapping young men than to have a benefit featuring a convicted perjuror and a woman who thinks that you spread democracy by invading countries, killing their leaders and forcing the people into Christianity, just like Jesus would. That's right. It's the Ann and Ollie show coming to Gwinnett County.
A patriot night promoting American values and speeches from some of America's top media personalities in television, radio and print. Join this special group promoting the good things about our great country.
Y'all c'mon down now for a night of food, fun, fascism and faggot-bashing, y'hear?
(Thanks to Tim)
posted by tbogg at 9:35 AM
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When the words don't match the music
Our living National Nightmare today before the UN:
“The Security Council was right to vow serious consequences if Iraq refused to comply,” Bush said. “And because there were consequences — because a coalition of nations acted to defend the peace, and the credibility of the United Nations — Iraq is free.”
Paul Bremer yesterday:
The Associated Press, quoting a senior U.S. official it did not identify, said Bremer would use his veto to prevent an early transfer of power and would pre-empt plans by some Security Council members who want to set up a militia to replace U.S. troops as Iraq’s primary security force.
Freedom's just another word for "we're calling the shots here, Sparky".
posted by tbogg at 8:53 AM
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All the young girls love Moonie....
Roger Ailes gives us all the evidence we need to know that the Reverend Moon is nuttier than a Payday bar.
I always keep women away, at least one meter. Now some women go crazy to get close to Father. I have to be careful. Why do women want to be close to me? Because I'm the king of the family, of man and woman and all humanity. I have to be careful because some women would even like to cut off my finger, so that they could keep it for a treasure in their purse!
Never mind the finger, it looks like Moon has been nutted by reality.
posted by tbogg at 8:26 AM
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Monday, September 22, 2003
Luxuriating in my own splendiferous postulations
There was much rejoicing in the Conservative camp when the New York Times took on David Brooks (possibly in atonement for the sin of hiring Jayson Blair because he was black a liar). There must have been a party complete with cigars, WASPY beverages, and (to amuse the President) balloon animals. And presents! A MontBlanc pen from Bob Bartley. Some Cuban cigars from Jeb and Columba Bush. A bottle of Courvoisier and a Directors Cut DVD edition of Big Butt Sluts Vol. 14 from Clarence Thomas. And then there was the gift certificate for the Adjective Store that David got from George Will.
Looks like Brooks went on a shopping spree:
During the first half of the 90's, I spent some time on the "Whither NATO?" circuit. I'd sit in stately European palaces with diplomats, parliamentarians and multilateral men who used the word "modality" a lot, and we'd discuss the post-cold-war international order.
There were disquisitions on multipolarity, subsidiarity and post-nation-state sovereignty. I recall a long debate on whether the post-cold-war United States would face east or west, as if we were phototropic.
The people at these conferences tended to be paranoiaphiliacs. They believed there was a secret conspiracy running the world, but they were in favor of it because they thought they were it.
But even as we were ratiocinating in those palaces, the Russians were tossing out Gorbachev, the Ukrainians were breaking away from Russia and the Serbs were massacring their neighbors
As our illustrious President Golf Cart Cowboy might say:
Gee Mr Brooks, you use your tongue purtier than a twenty dollar whore.
And he would know...
posted by tbogg at 10:30 PM
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Basra Hills, 90219
Water, sanitation, power, zip codes....
The administration wants $100 million for an Iraqi witness protection program, $290 million to hire, train and house thousands of firefighters, $9 million to modernize the postal service, including establishment of ZIP codes.
A Bush administration document, distributed to members of Congress and obtained by The Associated Press, goes far beyond the details officials have publicly provided for how they would spend the $20.3 billion they have requested for Iraqi reconstruction.
The 53 pages of justifications flesh out the size of the task of rebuilding the country, almost literally brick by brick. It also paints a painstaking picture of the damage Iraq (news - web sites) has suffered.
"The war and subsequent looting destroyed over 165 firehouses throughout the country. There are no tools or equipment in any firehouse," according to the report, written by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led organization now running Iraq.
Just a few of things that American taxpayers are being asked to go further into debt for. Why? Well, Bush's oil buddies take the oil, so there is no money to pay for infrastructure repairs, unless it comes out of the pockets of the American middle class and poor. It's like a reverse Robin Hood...but with a Middle Eastern flavor.
posted by tbogg at 9:55 PM
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Wealthy Republican dips
To understand the letter to the editor below, you have to understand that the owner of the San Diego Chargers (0-3) is a multi-millionaire contributor to the Republican party as well as a Bush Pioneer. He's a real free market kind of guy, except when it comes to taxpayers subsidizing his joke of a football team.
Spanos’ company develops and manages apartments and other real estate. He also owns the NFL’s San Diego Chargers. Three years ago, taxpayers agreed to spend $78 million to renovate the Chargers’ Qualcomm Stadium in return for a pledge that the Chargers would stay in San Diego until 2020. The city also has agreed to buy any leftover tickets that the Chargers do not sell at games. While this all seems like a sweetheart deal, Spanos now says the Chargers need a new stadium. If there is something wrong with the current one, this comes as news to the NFL, which is holding the Super Bowl there in 2003. “Given the current climate,” the team recently announced, “the Chargers do not expect the public to pay” for any new stadium.
What is unmentioned in the link is that Spanos wants the city to lease him prime real estate in the center of town for pennies, as well as declare it a redevelopment district for further tax breaks. Which leads us to this letter in this mornings San Diego Union:
The cost of war and of stadiums
To put the cost of the Iraq war in perspective, if the City of San Diego were given the amount the military spends in one week on Iraq we could pay for 2112 stadiums.
Given that both the war and the stadium lack objective reasons to exist other than to enable wealthy Republicans the opportunity to dip from to public trough, I will leave arguing the comparative waste of either endeavor to others.
JOSEPH S. MITCHELL
Mission Hills
Someone buy that man a drink.
posted by tbogg at 9:40 PM
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The Vast Right Wing Network at Work
You have to wonder sometimes where the money comes from to keep the army of right wing hacks and flacks busy churning out the swill, lies, and other effluvia that eventually ends up on Fox News as gospel. We all know about Richard Mellon Scaife, that man who was more interested in Bill Clinton's penis than Bill himself. With the announcement today of the Bradley Awards, it's probably a good time to take a look at just who these Bradleys are:
With over $700 million in assets1, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee,Wisconsin is the country's largest and most influential right-wing foundation. As of the end of 1998, it was giving away more than $30 million a year [The Bradley Foundation 1998 Annual Report].
Its financial resources, its clear political agenda, and its extensive national network of contacts and collaborators in political, academic and media circles has allowed it to exert an important influence on key issues of public policy. While its targets range from affirmative action to social security, it has seen its greatest successes in the areas of welfare "reform" and attempts to privatize public education through the promotion of school vouchers.
What Bradley Money Buys:
Within Milwaukee, Bradley money goes to a host of local organizations and institutions, most of which are not political in character. Virtually all the cultural institutions and most of the local colleges receive grants. The money buys good will and helps secure the hometown base.The overall objective of the Bradley Foundation, however, is to return the U.S. - and the world- to the days before governments began to regulate Big Business, before corporations were forced to make concessions to an organized labor force. In other words, laissez-faire capitalism: capitalism with the gloves off.
To further this objective, Bradley supports the organizations and individuals that promote the deregulation of business, the rollback of virtually all social welfare programs, and the privitization of government services. As a result, the list of Bradley grant recipients reads like a Who's Who of the U.S. Right. Bradley money supports such major right-wing groups as the Heritage Foundation, source of policy papers on budget cuts, supply-side economics and the Star Wars military plan for the Reagan administration; the Madison Center for Educational Affairs, which provides funding for right-wing research and a network of conservative student newspapers; and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, literary home for such racist authors as Charles Murray (The Bell Curve) and Dinesh D'Souza (The End of Racism), former conservative officeholders Jeane Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp and William Bennett, and arch-conservative jurists Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia.
So, who won the inaugural Bradley $250,000 awards?:
Mary Ann Glendon, Leon R. Kass, Charles Krauthammer and Thomas Sowell.
Considering the Bradley's history when it comes to racism, sexism, and their daliance with the John Birch Society, I guess that we should be impressed that they selected a woman, a Jew, a handicapped Jew, and an African-American.
I guess the price for washing away the sins of the past clocks in at a cool million these days....
(Make sure you read all of Media Transparency's info on the Bradleys and their involvement with Charles Murray, the war against the poor, and their above-ground racism)
posted by tbogg at 2:39 PM
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Stop dragging my sorry-assed, over-the-hill career around....
Stevie Nicks the swirly-twirly Fleetwood Mac headcase who pioneered the singing like a baby goat approach to pop music, is miffed or irked or incredibly envious of the Madonna/Britney/Christina spit swapathon, and thinks those gals ought to just cool their jets and cultivate the I-believe-in-witches-dragons-and-unicorns mystique that has served Nicks so well these many years, although it's vaguely creepy in a 55 year-old woman who still goes by the name "Stevie":
STEVIE Nicks rates the notorious Madonna-Britney kiss as the most obnoxious television moment ever.
"First of all, Madonna is too old to be kissing someone who is 22," the Fleetwood Mac singer told the Herald Sun.
"And Britney should be smarter than that. Hopefully, she will figure a way out of this hole she has dug for herself."
Original rock chick Nicks, 55, said Spears and Christina Aguilera should wear more clothes and try writing decent songs.
Leaving aside the fact that Stevie, for some reason, thinks Britney is smart, perhaps Ms. Nicks can play Master Kan to Spear's Grasshopper and teach her the ways of songwriting. After all, when you write something like this:
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Whoo... whoo... whoo...
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo
And the days go by...
Like a strand in the wind...
In the web that is my own...
I begin again
Said to my friend, baby...
Nothin' else mattered
..you must have something to offer....
posted by tbogg at 1:49 PM
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The Bride was resplendent in a nicotine-stained Vera Wang accompanied by a bouquet of unmarked, non-sequential $100 bills
The Slacktivist points out that some Congressmen are honorable enough to buy the cow, even though the money is free.
posted by tbogg at 1:23 PM
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That would explain all those crucifixions I see on the road to Golgotha work everyday
David "Fredo" Limbaugh has written a book standing up for the poor oppressed Christian majority who are being driven from their homes and having their children sold into slavery...or something like that.
"This book chronicles discrimination against Christians in American society. While tolerance is touted as the highest virtue in our popular culture, Christians are often subjected to scorn and ridicule and denied their religious freedoms."
Yeah. Those nightly Christian pogroms are starting to get out of hand. Then again, we do have to do something before they start wanting to marry our daughters....
posted by tbogg at 1:10 PM
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Rock star
As Kevin at CalPundit pointed out, Paul Krugman was in San Diego recently. SD Union Book Editor Arthur Salm was there to see him too:
It wasn't Bruce Springsteen, but you'd hardly have known it from the buzz. Last Saturday afternoon, when New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman stepped to the microphone at the Book Works in Del Mar, the overflow crowd – the largest in the store's history, according to owner Milane Christiansen – exploded into wild, sustained applause.
This was Krugman's first appearance in support of his new book, "The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century" (Norton, $25.95), and he seemed taken aback by the intensity of his reception. An economics professor at Princeton in addition to being a twice-a-week opinion slinger, Krugman is unused to rock-star status; as he said in a brief interview before his talk, "I taught Econ 101 all through the Iraq war and the jobless recovery."
Go read it, as well as this review (written by a former college professor of mine) of Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude. Larry McCaffery was the professor who introduced me to Steven Millhauser, Robert Coover, Ursula K LeGuinn, Phillip K. Dick, Max Apple, and Carolyn Forche. Best teacher I ever had.
posted by tbogg at 12:58 PM
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They must really be worried
Nitpicker is on the latest smear of Wesley Clark.
posted by tbogg at 10:34 AM
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That was then.....
Civility through the ages. Now:
President Bush on Sunday described as "uncivil" Sen. Edward Kennedy's remarks critical of the administration's policies in Iraq.
Kennedy said last week the case for going to war against Iraq was a fraud "made up in Texas" to give Republicans a political boost. The longtime senator also alleged that the money for the war is being used to bribe foreign leaders to send troops.
In an exclusive Oval Office interview with Fox News' Brit Hume, Bush said that while he respected Kennedy, the senator "should not have said we were trying to bribe foreign nations."
"I don't mind people trying to pick apart my policies, and that's fine and that's fair game," Bush said in the interview that will air Monday night. "But, you know, I don't think we're serving our nation well by allowing the discourse to become so uncivil that people say -- use words that they shouldn't be using."
and then:
Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer criticized Gov. George W. Bush Tuesday for making fun of an executed Texas woman in an interview Bush gave to Talk magazine.
"I think it is nothing short of unbelievable that the governor of a major state running for president thought it was acceptable to mock a woman he decided to put to death," Bauer said of Bush.
Bush is portrayed in Talk as ridiculing pickax killer Karla Faye Tucker of Houston for an interview she did with CNN broadcaster Larry King shortly before she was executed last year. Just before her execution date, Tucker appealed for clemency on the grounds that she had become a born-again Christian.
" `Please,' Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, `don't kill me,' "
posted by tbogg at 10:17 AM
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Joe Conason
will be at Current Affairs Bookstore in San Diego, tomorrow night. You should go, buy his book, and thank him.
I already have his book, but I'm going just the same.
posted by tbogg at 9:49 AM
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Unsexy
Thanks to Bill for sending me this link to all that is unsexy in our world. Some favorites:
5. Lord of the Rings. The movies are fine, but did you know that if you read the trilogy three times in a year you actually get your virginity back?
14. Fan fiction. That gangbang between the Backstreet Boys and the cast of Buffy is much hotter in your head than on your website. Please keep it there.
40. Ann Coulter. Oh, look! Psychotic neo-Nazi tendencies and pretty hair! Isn't that cute? No. And think about it: it's not hard to be the belle of the conservative-pundit ball when all the other guests are Rush Limbaugh.
posted by tbogg at 9:14 AM
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Drive like I say, not as I do
Would-be Governor Gangbang is now an environmentalist:
Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was dogged by persistent protesters and hecklers Sunday, as he tried to seize the environmental mantle, proposing a $60 million "hydrogen highway" he said would provide a statewide chain of hydrogen fueling stations to help clean the air.
"As governor, I will create a network of . . . clean hydrogen fueling stations every 20 miles," said Schwarzenegger, who provided few specifics on paying for such a plan.
"These hydrogen highways funded by private-public partnerships will allow car manufacturers to make good on their pledge to deliver hundreds of thousands of clean hydrogen cars on the California roads before the end of the decade," the actor said.
[snip]
The event handed environmental protesters a chance to assail the record of the actor-turned-candidate, who arrived in a large SUV, a GMC Yukon.
"You just don't wake up one morning and decide you're an environmentalist," said Pedro Nava of the California League of Conservation Voters, pointing toward Schwarzenegger's role in promoting the Hummer -- the behemoth military vehicle which is one of the least fuel-efficient cars on the road.
[snip]
Asked how he could boast of being an environmental advocate when he owns five Hummers, Schwarzenegger instead took credit for the vehicle's popularity.
"Eleven years ago, I took the military Hummer and I wanted to prove you could turn it into a civilian Hummer. . . . Now, as you know, it's the most popular SUV."
As to his new interest in hydrogen-fueled vehicles, Schwarzenegger said his advisers told him only four weeks ago about efforts to convert vehicles, including Hummers, from standard gasoline to hydrogen fuel.
"The things I've learned in this last month running for office have been spectacular," he said.
Well, at least he didn't say "fabulous".
...and this can't be good news:
But longtime GOP fund-raiser Bob Grady, a managing director of the Carlyle Group, said that as an environmental adviser to Schwarzenegger he is convinced of the actor's credentials
posted by tbogg at 8:49 AM
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An Army of One Cannon Fodder
This must be part of President AWOL's master plan.
The slumping American economy has proved to be a boon to the Army's efforts to recruit the 100,000 enlisted soldiers it says it needs this year to fill its active-duty and reserve ranks, senior Army officials say, so far relieving concerns that the turmoil in Iraq could crimp new enlistments.
[snip]
The Army has raised signing bonuses to as much as $20,000 for badly needed positions like intelligence analysts. It has also increased college aid. And it has nearly doubled its advertising budget, to $227 million, in the last four years, shelving its 20-year-old "Be All You Can Be" slogan in favor of the "Army of One" campaign, aimed at Generation Y youths. It has ramped up a cyberrecruiting operation, with daily online chat rooms in English and Spanish. Next month it is rolling out a 15-month enlistment option (the current minimum length for a tour is two years) aimed at college students, an increasingly important target group.
Emphasis on "target".
posted by tbogg at 8:03 AM
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Gettin' the yee-haw out
In entertainment news, the Dixie Chicks have decided to leave country music behind:
The Dixie Chicks say they don't want to be a country music band any more.
Violinist Martie Maguire told Spiegel magazine: "We don't feel part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home any more."
She said she was disappointed other country singers didn't back up the Dixie Chicks in their criticism of George W Bush's politics on Iraq.
"A few weeks ago, Merle Haggard said a couple of nice words about us, but that was it," Maguire complained.
"The support we got came from others, like Bruce Springsteen."
This should allow the chicks to expand their following to the coveted higher income/college educated/got more than 14 teeth demographic.
posted by tbogg at 7:54 AM
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Friday, September 19, 2003
Blogiversary
tbogg is one year old today.
Awwwwww.
So what has happened in one year?
Over 630,000 visitors. 960,000 page views.
340 Americans have died in Iraq while making the world safe for Halliburton.
Unemployment is up.
The deficit is up even more.
Bush's poll numbers are down.
Dick Cheney took the lead from Condoleeza Rice in the coveted White House Liar-athon.
Over 1 million new blogs have been created, seriously depleting the nation's Irony & Snark Reserves.
Peggy Noonan went on hiatus
Michael Kelly went on permanent hiatus
Glenn Reynolds became 34% more wingnuttier
John Lott came out of the closet
Rick Santorum did for dog sex what Bill Clinton did for oral sex.
Jayson Blair was fired for lying. George Will still draws a paycheck.
Andrew Sullivan now has more pledge drives than PBS
Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore, and Al Franken all had bestsellers, without the need for conservative foundation bulk sales.
Thousands of bloggers made Bill O'Reilly cry.
Michael Savage imploded on TV like a big Michael Bay car explosion shot from five angles .
Atrios and Josh Marshall brought down Trent Lott.
Warren Zevon and Johnny Cash discovered that, unfortunately, death is a good career move. Scott Stapp hasn't taken the hint.
The Bush twins turned 21 and ceased being any fun.
Noelle Bush picked up the slack.
Tom Ridge finally got a job...but he's not very good at it.
The Supreme Court commanded us all to commit sodomy. Virginia Thomas, wife of Clarence, was not amused.
Dr. Laura tried on Judaism, decided it made her ass look big.
Every Hollywood celebrity in existence said something bad about the President, causing Freepers to stay away from the movies, making it a more pleasurable experience for the rest of us.
Ann Coulter's herpes flare-ups have slowed but her chlamydia is still giving her that "not so fresh feeling".
Darryl Issa graduated from stealing cars to overturning elections. A big bully joined the race. Darryl cried.
Mickey Kaus became even more difficult to read (Ed: Really?) not that there was anything worth reading there in the first place.
My daughter started both high school and playing high school football.
My dad had a stroke.
Bush is still an idiot
Ben Shapiro is still a virgin
And I am still amused and baffled by it all.
posted by tbogg at 9:28 AM
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Tom Toles
...has a hit streak rivaling Joe DiMaggio's.
posted by tbogg at 8:59 AM
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...the cute Christian grinder of humorlessness and sexual rigidity and homophobia
Mark Morford:
Instead they get this, a sweetly uptight, revisionist Bible cross-bred with a bad fashion magazine, full of Top-10 lists and quizzes and Q&As, telling them to "pray for a person of influence" every day and check the "godly" quotient of the boys they date, and that Jesus doesn't really like it when they wear, you know, thongs and sexy bras and low-slung jeans. Yep, that should clear things right up.
"A 'Revolve' girl makes a point of dressing modestly. She might wonder to herself, Would God find this too revealing or too suggestive?" That's a direct quote from the ultra-prim Laurie Whaley, one of "Revolve's" editors over at Thomas "Bibles 'R Us" Nelson publishing house, whose picture graces a recent interview in the Mew York Times.
Wonder not, my children, at the status of Laurie's chastity. Wonder not at what kind of pristine white underwear she might be wearing. Wonder not at her desperate need for a Hitachi Magic Wand and a bottle of Anejo Silver and a long, hot summer night, all alone. Oh, Laurie. Come back to us.
posted by tbogg at 8:53 AM
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The violent pleasure of an Objectivist
Apparently quite a few readers felt compelled to go on an anthropological expedition on all that is Amber Pawlik. Slyblog investigates her mating habits.
You know you're going to click on it. Go ahead....do it.
(Added): Roger Ailes has more on Ms. Amber.
posted by tbogg at 8:48 AM
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Thursday, September 18, 2003
Can you fit the whole thing into a two-screen PowerPoint presentation?
The Washington Post points out that President Plays With Tariffs threw gas on the unemployment fire when he was pandering for the votes of people who actually work for a living:
In a decision largely driven by his political advisers, President Bush set aside his free-trade principles last year and imposed heavy tariffs on imported steel to help out struggling mills in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, two states crucial for his reelection.
Eighteen months later, key administration officials have concluded that Bush's order has turned into a debacle. Some economists say the tariffs may have cost more jobs than they saved, by driving up costs for automakers and other steel users. Politically, the strategy failed to produce union endorsements and appears to have hurt Bush with workers in Michigan and Tennessee -- also states at the heart of his 2004 strategy.
"They tried to play politics, and it looked like it was working for a while," said Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist with ties to the administration. "But now it's fallen apart."
Here's my favorite part with proper emphasis added:
The issue is being brought to a boil by the scheduled release today of voluminous progress reports by the U.S. International Trade Commission. The ITC's mid-session assessment of the three-year tariff program's impact will examine not only the tariffs' effects on the steel industry but also on the hard-pressed manufacturers that shape steel into products.
White House officials said Bush will not make a decision until he has digested the ITC reports. But his top economic advisers have united to recommend that the tariffs be lifted or substantially rolled back this fall, and several administration officials said it is likely he will go along.
For a man with the attention span of a six-year old after downing an entire box of Ding-Dongs, one has to wonder how long it will take Incurious George to get through "voluminous progress reports by the U.S. International Trade Commission". By the time George gets through them, civilization will have moved on from steel.
Does anyone really believe that he's going to actually look at these things and not get a double-spaced single sheet of paper from Karl Rove telling him what to say in short easy to pronounce words ?
I didn't think so.
posted by tbogg at 10:59 PM
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...and gimme back my Springsteen CD's..
Looks like Eric Alterman has taken Ralph Nader off of his AOL buddy list.
Speaking of people who need their (metaphorical) butts kicked, but good, Ralph Nader whines, “Old-timers years ago would have wondered what the Mayor means by marketing NYC. Cities were viewed more benignly when they were more livable, more employable at good wages, more replete with public institutions like good libraries, good public transit, good schools, good hospitals and clinics and good recreational facilities in the neighborhoods. New York City is crumbling on these measurements.”
Hey Ralph, no one, and I mean no one on the planet, is more responsible for the deterioration in the quality of life of my city than you are, bud. All you had to do was say, “I ran a great race and thanks for your support but this guy Bush is scary. Vote for Al, not me and we’ll we what we can get at the bargaining table….” But no, you wanted to elect Bush. And you did. Congrats.
All U.S. cities are struggling under the weight of the president’s malign neglect and the costs of his fiscal policies and needless war. And with all the damage you’ve caused the country, you’re worried about Snapple in New York schools. So shut up about my city, fella, and go get some help for that martyr complex of yours. You call yourself a progressive and yet you even tried to defeat Paul Wellstone. Sure, you’ll get your millionaire’s tax cut, but poor and working people in this city have enough burdens to bear without another hypocritical pro-Bush intervention this time around.
Get lost, Ralph. In fact, check with your buddy Dick Cheney. I hear he knows some really comfy out-of the-way, millionaire-only spots to get loose. And boy does that guy owe you a favor…
Boy. That must have felt good...
posted by tbogg at 3:22 PM
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Single like me
What's in a salutation anyway? What starts off like a essay on feminism and labels, ends up looking like a singles ad.
Meet Amber Pawlik:
When we used to use Miss and Mrs., it emphasized the fact that a woman was a woman. When single women were called “Miss,” it highlighted their femininity. They were feminine, single, and available. When married women were called “Mrs.,” it highlighted their mature womanhood. It denoted a very respectable and strong matronly figure.
If you addressed women by “Miss,” men would be alerted that they could pursue the single maiden. If you called women “Mrs.,” it would alert men that she was taken, and to respect the institution of marriage.
“Ms.” changes that. Indeed, is “Ms.” not the most cold, sexless word you’ve ever heard in your life? Kind of like “comrade”?
Feminists argue that the only way for women to gain independence is to be treated like men. Hence, they wanted to be called “Ms.,” the way men are called “Mr.” The terms Miss and Mrs. define a woman based on her relationship to a man, and we can’t have that!
But what does one’s marital status have to do with female independence? What does it matter if people are aware of the fact that a woman is single or married? Is this, really, holding a woman back from actualizing on her full potential as a human being?
Feminists’ goal becomes increasingly clear. They do not want to create strong women, but to de-sexualize women, i.e. create women uninterested in and unattractive to men. I have argued before that the sole purpose of feminism was to confuse male and female (hetero)sexuality. This is further proof. Using Ms. versus Miss and Mrs. has nothing to do with a woman “retaining her identity.” It does, however, have to do with de-sexualizing women and destroying the family structure.
[snip]
Here I thought that by gaining independence it would allow them to be treated like adult humans, which is not necessarily the same as being treated like a man. Anyway...
Leftists don’t really like being reminded that Orwell’s critiques were against communism. They usually like to claim the book to be in their camp, and try to show how Orwell was talking about conservative movements. But it is a fact that Orwell was critiquing the communists. Insights like the one he provided regarding being called “Mrs.” further aides in that proof.
Mrs. and Miss are not oppressive titles. As Orwell pointed out, when Winston was at his neighbor’s house, he was supposed to refrain from calling her “Mrs.,” but he did anyway. Not because he thought less of her, but because the woman herself commanded his respect. Feminists serve to take this kind of respect away from women.
Ayn Rand obviously used Miss and Mrs. in her writings. In The Fountainhead, Dominique is referred to as “Miss Francon” throughout. And, in the very end, when someone asks her who she is, she proudly says:
“Mrs. Howard Roark.”
I will tell you now, casually, you can do the politically incorrect thing and call me Miss. I am definitely single, available, and looking, and certainly have no problem with people having access to that knowledge. And when I am married — given I will be proud to be married and of my husband — there will be no hyphenated names for me (which has to be the most impractical and stupid practice ever). In my personal life, I will embrace the role demanded of me fully. Socially, you can call me: “Mrs. (his full name).”
Here's the future Mrs.(his full name) (She's second from the right. Next to the ugly guy in the black jacket)
For any of you guys looking for a woman who's into Ayn Rand, objectivism, "hanging out at cool bars", and criticizing forebearers who won you the freedoms that you now enjoy, you can find Amber here.
No freaks, please.
posted by tbogg at 1:27 PM
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In a word or two...
Shorter-than-an-MTV-attention-span CD reviews:
Rancid- Indestructible...not Clash good, but good nonetheless
A Perfect Circle- Thirteenth Step...stunning and excellent
Liz Phair- Liz Phair......fun. HWC will stick in your mind, and apparently on your face.
Fountains of Wayne- Welcome Interstate Managers....a classic pop CD ala Squeeze, Posies, Nick Lowe, and the Replacements when they were sober.
Neil Young- Greendale....boring, really really boring
Pat Metheny- One Quiet Night...pristine
Michael Bolton- Vintage...do I look I've suffered blunt head trauma?
Dashboard Confessional- A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar...I had a chance to buy a new copy for $5.99. I passed.
posted by tbogg at 12:57 PM
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Hmmmm...Taken to the extreme you could say it was April Glaspie's fault.....
Tom Tomorrow points out that former sportscaster, future stroke victim, and all-around dumbass, Congressman J.D. Hayworth's playbook hasn't been updated.
posted by tbogg at 10:56 AM
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Fever - in the morning , fever all through the night .
Gnat is sick, and for some reason this has made James Lileks feverish. Usually I'm not inclined to link to Lileks because he occupies a circle of banality that usually isn't worth the price of a click, but today he goes off a rant that has more strawmen than a Kansas cornfield, and reads like a cut-rate midwestern-Mark Morford plucked out of a Target discount bin. Just reading it you can hear his voice getting higher and higher until the dogs in neighboring Wisconsin start fidgeting and looking for places to hide.
I can’t help but come back to the central theme these edits imply: we should have left Iraq alone. We should have left this charnel house stand. We should have bought a wad of nice French cotton to shove in our ears so the buzz of the flies over the graves didn’t distract us from the important business of deciding whether Syria or China should have the rotating observer-status seat in the Oil-for-Palaces program. Afghanistan, well, that’s understandable, in a way; we were mad. We lashed out. But we should have stopped there, and let the UN deploy its extra-strong Frown Beams against the Iraqi ambassador in the hopes that Saddam would reduce the money he gave to Palestinian suicide bombers down to five grand. Five grand! Hell, that hardly covers the parking tickets your average ambassador owes to the city of New York; who’d blow themselves up for that.
There's lots more like that that should provide the warbloggers with painful erections as they sit before their monitors in their camouflage jammies.
In the binary world of James Lileks, hysterical fear crowds out the ability to reason and live in a world with shades of grey.
posted by tbogg at 10:41 AM
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Welcome to Viet Nam
I found this column through the comments section over at the Daily Kos, and I thought it deserved attention. Max Cleland in the AJC:
A quarter of a million troops are committed to the Iraq war theater, most of them bogged down in Baghdad. Morale is declining and casualties continue to increase.
In addition to the human cost, the war in dollars costs $1 billion a week, adding to the additional burden of an already depressed economy.
The president has declared "major combat over" and sent a message to every terrorist, "Bring them on." As a result, he has lost more people in his war than his father did in his and there is no end in sight.
Military commanders are left with extended tours of duty for servicemen and women who were told long ago they were going home. We are keeping American forces on the ground, where they have become sitting ducks in a shooting gallery for every terrorist in the Middle East.
Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President. Sorry you didn't go when you had the chance.
That's gonna leave a mark....
Go read the whole thing.
posted by tbogg at 10:05 AM
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Tom Toles...
...you may pick up your Pulitzer in the lobby.
Karl Rove is probably in a foul mood this morning. Good.
...and you know things are going badly when Foxtrot (!) starts making fun of you.
posted by tbogg at 9:09 AM
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Okay...so two blowhards walk onto a TV show....
You can't make stuff like this up. The Savage Weiner on O'Reilly:
O'REILLY: You don't go to church. You're not a real strong God guy. So why are you so...
SAVAGE: Wait, wait. No, no. Bill -- Bill -- Bill, I'm a very strong God-believing man. I just don't go to houses of worship, except maybe once or twice a year, because whether you -- well, whether people accept it or not, I am in touch with God all day long.
O'REILLY: All right. That's fine. That's your belief.
SAVAGE: I talk to God.
O'REILLY: But, you know, very rarely do you get somebody like you who are -- who was so angry -- well, you're an angry -- you know, you do that anyway, I mean, just to get attention. I understand...
SAVAGE: Oh, no.
O'REILLY: Oh, no, no, no, no. Part of your schtick deal is to overstate. Look...
SAVAGE: Well...
O'REILLY: You and I talked before. You're not...
SAVAGE: It's wrong. You're wrong.
O'REILLY: You're not a stupid man. You've got...
SAVAGE: Bill -- there are things worthy of anger, Bill.
O'REILLY: ... a Ph.D.
SAVAGE: Bill, Bill, Bill. There are things worthy of anger.
O'REILLY: But you overstate -- you overstate to get attention, and that's a legitimate technique.
SAVAGE: I disagree. I think you understate to get attention.
O'REILLY: Well, if you...
SAVAGE: That doesn't mean that you're doing it for effect.
O'REILLY: ... think I'm understated, that just shows how overstated you are!
[snip]
O'REILLY: Yes, I would. I mean the secularists don't want any -- look, why is Mel Gibson being, you know..
SAVAGE: Crucified.
O'REILLY: Right. Pardon the pun. Because they don't want this movie to be seen by millions of people to regenerate interest in Jesus who had a strict moral code. They don't want any moral judgments. They want legalization of drugs, gay marriage. You go down the list, no moral judgments.
You want to have two guys making out in front of your 4-year-old? It's OK with them. A guy smoking a joint, blowing the smoke into your little kid's face? OK with them. And I'm not exaggerating here. This is exactly what the secular movement stands for.
SAVAGE: Bill, be careful. You're overstating now, Bill.
O'REILLY: I'm not. I've seen both of those things happen, and...
SAVAGE: I have, too.
O'REILLY: ... I've -- and I've confronted the people who did that...
SAVAGE: Yes.
O'REILLY: ... and I know how they're thinking.
I have seen monkeys in a cage having a more intelligent conversation...
(Thanks to the Jm for the link)
posted by tbogg at 8:52 AM
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San Diego Hurricane Isabel alert
We're holding up okay with temperatures in low 70's, a few clouds, and winds of 6 MPH out of the northeast. We have stocked up on bottled water and batteries for our Walkmans.
Pray for us.
posted by tbogg at 8:40 AM
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Paul Bremer is making Condi Rice look competent
Things are going smoothly I see:
At least two U.S. soldiers were wounded Thursday in what may have been a single incident west of Baghdad, military officials in Baghdad said.
The soldiers were wounded when they came under small-arms fire and their Humvee drove over an improvised explosive device, said a coalition press office spokeswoman in Baghdad.
She said more than one vehicle was involved in the incident.
The soldiers were from the 82nd Airborne Division.
In Khaldiya, east Ramadi, townspeople who may have been describing the same incident said a convoy of vehicles was ambushed and a number of soldiers were wounded in the ensuing gunbattle, which lasted for several hours.
Word of the attack was met by a celebration, during which hundreds of Iraqis -- many of them carrying pictures of Saddam Hussein -- fired weapons into the air, CNN Correspondent Nic Robertson reported.
Iraqi-Turk oil pipeline burns
An oil fire along the Iraqi-Turk pipeline in north-central Iraq Thursday morning is believed to be sabotage, an Iraqi official said.
Nadhim Thanon, Iraq's chief engineer of the pipeline, said an explosion caused the fire north of Baiji, near Tikrit, ousted leader Saddam Hussein's hometown.
Coalition officials said they were uncertain of the explosion's cause. Officials have blamed two pipeline fires since mid-August on sabotage.
Iraqi officials, along with coalition forces from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit, are investigating and working to control the fire.
The explosion reduced the flow of oil from Iraq to Turkey.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, said the coalition is examining how to improve security around oil pipelines.
"We lose ... up to about $7 million a day when we cannot export that oil," Sanchez said, noting the money is for Iraqis.
Thanon said he expected to have the fire under control later Thursday and then would be able to determine the amount of damage. He said his crews are overworked and hindered by a lack of parts.
Good thing it's not a quagmire...
posted by tbogg at 8:34 AM
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War profiteering...it's not just for Richard Perle anymore....
Josh Marshall points out that war afficianado Doug Feith has more than a few reasons to go after Islamo-facists.
She interviewed Joe Klein and former Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke about the whole Cheney Halliburton business. They were chatting back and forth and at one point Klein said that Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith shouldn't be rustling up clients who want to get business in Iraq for his old law firm, Feith & Zell.
Now, I hadn't heard that.
posted by tbogg at 8:25 AM
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Damn...I thought it might be Creed.....
I got all excited when I saw this Drudge headline this morning:
Band's plan for onstage suicide is investigated.
But then my hope was shattered.
posted by tbogg at 8:08 AM
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That Bush Doctrine thingy is working out pretty well....
Saudi Arabia, in response to the current upheaval in the Middle East, has embarked on a strategic review that includes acquiring nuclear weapons, the Guardian has learned.
This new threat of proliferation in one of the most dangerous regions of the world comes on top of a crisis over Iran's alleged nuclear programme.
A strategy paper being considered at the highest levels in Riyadh sets out three options:
· To acquire a nuclear capability as a deterrent;
· To maintain or enter into an alliance with an existing nuclear power that would offer protection;
· To try to reach a regional agreement on having a nuclear-free Middle East.
Well if the Saudis need a nuke, they've already got the company that can get them one on speed-dial.
posted by tbogg at 8:03 AM
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Iraqi flypaper
Middle Eastern terrorists baited us with 9/11 and now Americans are dying everyday:
Iraq is thus where we must stand and fight. For if we do not defeat the terrorists there, we will have to fight them in our cities.
So runs the argument. The natural response of Americans is to nod in agreement. After all, we Americans are not cowards. When attacked, we fight as long as we have to, and we win our wars.
But our enemies know us better than we know ourselves. We are reacting exactly as they anticipated and doing exactly what they want. Full of wounded pride and outraged patriotism, we lunged right into the trap baited for us on Sept. 11.
The terrorists who drove those airliners into the Pentagon and World Trade Center did not expect to bring down the U.S. government or force the surrender of the United States. They are fanatics, not fools. The wanted to wound, bleed and provoke America into lashing out.
[snip]
Our smashing of Iraq and our huge military footprint there now have turned millions of Muslims against us and forced friendly Arab regimes into making a painful choice: Side with America and face the resentment of your countrymen, or separate and risk alienating the superpower upon whom your survival depends.
To save themselves from Islamic wrath, the Saudis told us to take our troops out of their country, and the Turks, our old allies, refused – even with huge bribes – to join our invasion.
By sending an American army to occupy Baghdad, the seat of the caliphate for 500 years, we played into al-Qaida's hands. We are where they want us. We are where they can get at us. We are where they can kill us on their timetable, on their own turf.
The author may suprise you, but it shouldn't.
(Thanks to JS for the link)
posted by tbogg at 7:47 AM
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Wednesday, September 17, 2003
The persistent illiterate writes a column
Does Ann Coulter have an editor or is her audience so deeply brain-damaged that editing is considered superfluous?
Ann:
During my recent book tour, I resisted the persistent, illiterate request that I name traitors. With a great deal of charity – and suspension of disbelief – I was willing to concede that many liberals were merely fatuous idiots. (In addition, I was loathe to name names for fear that liberals would start jumping out of windows.)
"the persistent, illiterate request" ?
On a lighter note, later on, she seems to be a big fan of Pinochet.
Suprised? You shouldn't be.
...and remember, Ann was once "Dubbed "One of the 20 Most Fascinating Women in Politics" by George magazine. And people wonder why George went out of business....
posted by tbogg at 9:57 PM
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Bush reviews original Constitution
"Yeah. Those skid marks belong to Ashcroft"
posted by tbogg at 9:48 PM
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Too bad. You should have been born a man....
If you're a pregnant woman in need of a late-term abortion because there is a possibility you may not survive childbirth...tough. The pasty white men don't care:
The first federal law that would restrict a woman's right to abortion moved a step closer to President Bush's signature today when the Senate, which had refused to send the bill to conference with the House, agreed unanimously to do so.
Backers of the measure, which would outlaw the late-term procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion, say they hope to have it on Mr. Bush's desk later this fall. The only remaining obstacle is a provision, contained in the Senate bill but not the House version, that affirms Senate support for the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.
As part of today's action, the Senate voted 93 to 0 to affirm that right again and disagree with the House bill.
But the unanimous vote — which opponents of abortion said reflected their desire to get the larger bill to conference — provided little comfort to advocates for abortion rights because both Democrats and Republicans expect the Roe language to be stripped from the final measure.
"It won't be a problem," said Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania and a chief sponsor of the larger measure. "It's extraneous to the matter at hand."
On the brighter side, you can gamble like the Santorums and maybe you'll live to take your dead baby home for pictures.
Karen Santorum had a choice...you won't.
posted by tbogg at 9:33 PM
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"...the memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces."
It's things like this that remind us of why baseball is our national pastime and the greatest sport ever created:
I've been to every stadium in the major leagues. I've spent delightful afternoons with a beer in hand in the bleachers at Wrigley Field. I spent a game posting scores inside Fenway Park's Green Monster. I camped out overnight in Pac-Bell Park with a couple hundred fans who paid $300 for the experience, as "Field of Dreams'' played on the scoreboard.
I've been to bigger fields than this one. I've been to more luxurious fields. I've been to more authentic fields set smack dab in the Minnesota cornfields and lovingly maintained by local Minnesota townball teams. In fact, I drove by one in Miesville, Minnesota, on the way here.
But I've never been to a field that provokes emotions the way this little one does in an Iowa cornfield about 20 miles west of the Mississippi. The field is just as you remember it from the movie, with the added benefit that -- despite James Earl Jones' vision -- there is no admission fee.
Do I ever see emotional responses here? Only every day,'' says Becky Lansing, who lives with her husband, Don, in the lovely white farmhouse where Kevin Costner's character lived in the movie. "The biggest emotional reaction I can remember was by this one man. He was a big, strapping guy, and I saw him down on all fours, sobbing at home plate. I gave him his space and then a little later I started chatting with him and he said it was all about his dad. He was reconnecting with him or apologizing to him for something.
"A movie that can bring a person to his knees is as heartfelt as it gets."
posted by tbogg at 11:59 AM
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I coulda gone to West Point if I didn't have that problem with my ass...
According to K-Lo at The Corner:
GEN. ASHLEY WILKES [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Is what Rush Limbaugh is calling Clark.
Posted at 12:32 PM
This coming from Pfc. Anal Cyst.
Meanwhile, here's the kind of hard-hitting political commentary and analysis that makes NRO the place where the conservative intelligentsia gather:
WHY I'M OPPOSED TO WES CLARK [Jonah Goldberg]
Besides the fact that the Clinton mafia is mysteriously supporting him (If they think he can win, then you'd think Hillary wouldn't want him to run since a Clark Presidency would ruin her chances to be president) I'm opposed to Wes Clark running for President because he is the only Democrat it's hard to make fun of. It's hard not to make fun of Sharpton, Kucinich, and Braun. Lieberman looks like a rodeo clown who hasn't had his foundation make-up removed yet. Edwards is a trial lawyer who would still be a trial lawyer if he looked like Kucinich. I think I've said this before, but Dean's the sort of arrogant liberal who yells at you for buying the wrong book at his used book store. John Kerry looks like some suction-cup-fingered demon sucked-out his soul through his temples. Graham thinks he's doing history some great favor by recording his bowel movements on notepads.
But what am I supposed to say about Wesley Clark? He's too neat? I'm sure we'll find something, but for now it's vexing.
Glad to see that Lucianne's crotchfruit is earning his pay....
posted by tbogg at 11:21 AM
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Happy happy burger burger
McDonalds is thinking about creating Happy Meals for adults:
McDonald's Corp. has enlisted the aid of Oprah Winfrey's personal trainer Bob Greene to promote an adult version of the Happy Meal, the fast-food giant's latest effort to offer healthier products.
Instead of Happy Meal standards like a burger and a toy, the new Go Active meal will include a salad, an exercise booklet and a pedometer meant to encourage walking.
You know, I'm not sure that someone who eats regularly at a McDonalds is going to suddenly become interested in a salad and a pedometer just because Oprah's personal trainer has his name on the box. But that's just me.
On the other hand, Ann Coulter is ready to dive right in.
posted by tbogg at 11:02 AM
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It's Ass-Kickalicious
Go here daily for updates from the DNC.
Kicking Ass....I like that.
At what point will the delicate flowers of Republicanism complain about the name.
"Vulgar" ~ George Will
"Offensive and unseemly" ~ Carol Devine-Molin
"We only used that word when I was with the Panthers...have I mentioned I used to be with the Panthers?" ~ David Horowitz
"My mom won't let me use that word....poopy!...hee hee...shhh...don't tell..." ~ Ben Shapiro
"Major league assholes" ~ George W. Bush
"When he wasn't sleeping in a pool of his own vomit, Sen. Joseph McCarthy would have kicked their in their traitorous asses. God, I need a cigarette and my coffee enema" ~ Ann Coulter
posted by tbogg at 9:42 AM
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A wingnut's guide to Gen. Wesley Clark
If you want to now how the Moronic Right is going to go after Gen. Clark you need to go to Wingnut Central where the wingnuttiest of them all, Lowell Ponte, is shoveling shit into the smear machine.
“It’s interesting that a man who is not even a registered Democrat is being drafted by voters of a Democratic Party which already has nine candidates, including five sitting Senators and a former governor,” a Republican Party official told the London Telegraph. “What does that say about the desperation of the Democrats, even at this early stage?”
What it means, General Clark told the Telegraph, is that Democrats “have an enormous hunger for leadership. I think the Draft Clark movement is evidence that this hunger is still out there, despite the number of candidates in the race.” The purportedly-independent “Draft Clark” campaign has already raised $550,000 for its non-candidate.
What this political party – generally perceived as weak on national security issues and patriotism in the midst of our War on Terrorism – desperately needs is a fig leaf to conceal its shortcomings.
The Democratic Party has not seriously courted a General for its ticket since 1952, when World War II Supreme Allied Commander Dwight David Eisenhower chose instead to seek the White House as a Republican. (General Colin Powell was already a Republican and had denied any Oval Office aspirations by the time Democrats hinted that he might be considered for a place on their national ticket.)
But would the inclusion of General Clark be enough to create a winning Democratic ticket in 2004? No, not if the American people learn who and what Wesley Clark really is.
Clark is a very peculiar man with facets to his personality, behavior and history that will seem creepy and frightening to people of both the Right and the Left. To know him is not to love him.
Astonishing revelations from Ponte include:
Born December 23, 1944, he spent most of his childhood in Little Rock, raised by his mother Veneta and stepfather Victor Clark. Only during his twenties, he says, did Wesley discover that the father who died suddenly of a heart attack at age 51 when he was five was Jewish – and that his own middle name Kanne was that of his father Benjamin Jacob Kanne.
[snip]
General Wesley Clark speaks fluent Russian and could become the first American President to do so. Why he has not boasted of this in campaigning for Leftist Democratic support is a mystery.
[snip]
His father Benjamin was an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Chicago, a Fourth Ward candidate for office, and a local Democratic activist. After his death, Wesley’s mother and her son – like Hillary Clinton – moved from Illinois to Arkansas. (my emphasis)
[snip]
Like Bill Clinton, Wesley was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. While Clinton spent his time in sexual dalliances (and one alleged rape) and leading anti-American demonstrations in Europe and visiting the Kremlin in the dead of winter by special invitation, Clark was more studious. In August 1968 he emerged with a Master’s Degree in philosophy, politics and economics.
The Rhodes Scholarships had been set up by British imperialist Cecil Rhodes to educate the brightest American youngsters in England, a once-secret codicil in his will made clear, so that they would go home and help bring America back under the political sway of the British Empire. (my emphasis...again)
[snip]
On a late winter day in 1993, Texas Governor Ann Richards suddenly called the base, later meeting with Clark’s Number Two to discuss an urgent matter. Crazies at a Waco compound had killed Federal agents. If newly-sworn-in President Bill Clinton signed a waiver setting aside the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits the military from using its arms against American citizens within our borders, could Fort Hood supply tanks and other equipment?
Clinton did. Wesley Clark’s command at Fort Hood “lent” 17 pieces of armor and 15 active service personnel under his command to the Waco Branch Davidian operation. It is absolute fact that the military equipment used by the government at Waco came from Fort Hood and Clark’s command.
The only issue debated by experts is whether Clark was at Waco in person to help direct the assault against the church compound in a scene remarkably similar to the incineration of villagers in a church by the British in Mel Gibson’s movie “The Patriot.”
What happened at Waco was the death, mostly by fire, of at least 82 men, women and children, including two babies who died after being “fire aborted” from the dying bodies of their pregnant mothers. (my emphasis...for the last time)
So what we have here is a "creepy"-Jewish-Russian-speaking-moved-from-Illinois-like-Hillary-fellow-traveling-Rhodes-Scholar-like-the-Clenis Christian-compound-assaulting-fire-abortionist running for President.
I can see how that would be troubling to the peoplewho have grown quite fond of our alcoholic-coke-snorting-baby-aborting-military-service-deserting-insider-trading-deathrow-prisoner-mocking -State-of-the-Union-address-lying-drunk-driving-bible-thumping-running-away-on-9/11-flightsuit-donning Commander in Chief.
It's gonna be a fun 2004.
posted by tbogg at 9:12 AM
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Well that's not what Fox News says....
If one were to listen to the warbloggers favorite pet rock you would think that the troubles in Iraq are caused by Baathists and such.
Well, considering that the “Iraqi resistance” is made up of Baath Party remnants and foreign theocratic jihadists, I’d say they are a bunch of evil freedom haters.
Of course, if you thought that...you'd be wrong:
New intelligence assessments are warning that the United States' most formidable foe in Iraq in the months ahead may be the resentment of ordinary Iraqis increasingly hostile to the American military occupation, Defense Department officials said today.
That picture, shared with American military commanders in Iraq, is very different from the public view currently being presented by senior Bush administration officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who once again today listed only "dead-enders, foreign terrorists and criminal gangs" as opponents of the American occupation.
The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were concerned about retribution for straying from the official line. They said it was a mistake for the administration to discount the role of ordinary Iraqis who have little in common with the groups Mr. Rumsfeld cited, but whose anger over the American presence appears to be kindling some sympathy for those attacking American forces.
[snip]
"To a lot of Iraqis, we're no longer the guys who threw out Saddam, but the ones who are busting down doors and barging in on their wives and daughters," one defense official said.
There's good news though:
However, Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, took issue with the assertion of broad Iraqi dissatisfaction with the presence of American troops, declaring that the United States was making headway in the places like Baghdad and Tikrit, where much of the resistance is centered.
"But there is, even in that part of the country, progress," she said in an interview. "People finished their university exams, the Iraqi symphony orchestra performed and took a tour up to the north. Kids went to school."
...and we know how often Condi has been right.....
posted by tbogg at 8:12 AM
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Re-run
Tom Toles
Jeff Danziger
posted by tbogg at 7:35 AM
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Tuesday, September 16, 2003
It's a family talent
Now that Penthouse has gone belly-up, David "Fredo" Limbaugh doesn't know what to do the time he used to spend writing letters to the Penthouse Forum (" I'm a slightly pudgy freshman at a small midwestern college and I never thought this would happen to me...") so he took his talent for making shit up and made up an interview with the Democratic Presidential candidates:
Since the Bush Administration can do nothing right in Iraq according to the Democratic presidential candidates, we really should revisit what they might do differently if in power.
Let's imagine what they might say if pressed.
Hey! I have a better idea. Why don't you actually try interviewing one of them and let them explain their positions for themselv----
Oh wait. I forgot. You're a Limbaugh.
Carry on.....
posted by tbogg at 10:45 PM
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Quote of the day
Paul Krugman:
Krugman also has little time for how the media has done in covering Bush, including reporting by the Times.
"There's a confusion between objectivity and even-handedness, they are not the same thing," Krugman said. "If Bush said the earth was flat, the reports in the mainstream media would say, 'Shape of the Earth: Views Differ."'
Heh. Indeed.
posted by tbogg at 9:50 PM
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Straight eye for the fashion-blind First Lady
Not many people can wear orange. Laura Bush isn't one of them.
What? Did the Clinton's steal the mirrors too?
I do have to give credit where credit is due. She looks almost lifelike....
Creepy, isn't it?
posted by tbogg at 9:33 PM
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The California Moneytree
Kevin Drum points out that some of us in California are tired of some of the Red States leeching off of us.
Why don't you guys go out and get a job?
Oh yeah... this is why.
posted by tbogg at 9:30 PM
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The Pharisees are angry. They say you are cutting into their action.
The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus.
posted by tbogg at 9:20 PM
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Pure gobbledygook
It's been awhile since we looked in on Carol "Scary Hair" Devine-Molin, but this time we promise to actually read her column as opposed to sitting and staring at her hairstyle and wondering how it can simultaneously defy the laws of gravity and good taste. Anyway, as Carol sees it, George Bush's problem is just so much bad PR what with soldiers dying and the public having second thoughts about dropping another $87 billion down the Halliburton/Exxon/Bechtel/Lockheed rathole:
You would think that Americans would be grateful for the wonderful job President Bush has done in the wake of September 11th, keeping our nation free from further terror attacks over the past two years. Unfortunately, public opinion indicates otherwise. According to the latest Gallup poll, the president's overall approval rating has slipped to 52%. Why? Memories are short, and people are being swayed by an onslaught of hate-filled, anti-Bush propaganda. The incessant carping and trash-talking by President Bush's detractors are having an impact. There's no denying it -- The Bush team must contend with some significant PR difficulties regarding the Iraqi situation. And it's now pivotal that administration members staunchly combat the lies and disinformation being bandied about the public arena.
The Left-leaning elites in both media and politics, aided and abetted by their cohorts, the phony-baloney "conservatives" that have labeled themselves the paleoconservatives, continue to viciously beat upon President Bush and the US efforts in Iraq. What is it with this "blame America first" crowd? Apparently, they get their cheap thrills by repeatedly denouncing President Bush and members of his national security and defense team as "Neocon warmongers" and "American imperialists". How shall I put this delicately? They are not only spouting pure gobbledygook, but they're terribly unseemly! And the Lilliputians running for the Democratic presidential nomination, who are thoroughly entrenched in this Bush-bashing circus, are particularly disgraceful. My hunch is that the churlishness of these Democrats will eventually backfire on them.
You know, once someone points out that my criticism of the President is "unseemly" I have to step back and consider whether I'm being unfair. Maybe George W Bush is doing a wonderful job, maybe we're being too hard on this wonderful man who has done so much for our country when it comes to the conduct of war, foreign relations, the economy, and the environment. Maybe he is a good man and President.
Nah.
(thanks to the moeman for sending me the link...)
posted by tbogg at 9:01 PM
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Grammys little brother four times removed and completely out of touch.
Everything you need to know about the American Music Awards and how seriously people should take it.
Nominees for Pop-Rock Male Artist:
Clay Aiken, Kid Rock, John Mayer, Justin Timberlake
Nominees for Pop-Rock Female Artist:
Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, Jennifer Lopez.
Nominees for Alternative Music:
Coldplay, Linkin Park, Metallica
Nominees for Pop-Rock Album of the Year:
"Fallen," Evanescence; "Come Away With Me," Norah Jones; "Cocky," Kid Rock; "Justified," Justin Timberlake.
Nominee for Lamest Award Show Ever:
the 31st annual American Music Awards
posted by tbogg at 1:54 PM
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Sure it wasn't as funny as when I killed Karla Faye Tucker, but it was still a knee-slapper
Via michaelmoore.com (link provided to me by Anand) we see that 9/11 wasn't just tragedy, pain, and suffering for some Americans:
The following is an interview with the First Couple from the current issue of one of my favorite magazines, Ladies Home Journal (Oct. '03). They are asked about what September 11, 2001, was like for them personally, and, although over 3,000 people had just perished, George W. was able to find some humor by the end of that day:
Peggy Noonan (the interviewer): You were separated on September 11th. What was it like when you saw each other again?
Laura Bush: Well, we just hugged. I think there was a certain amount of security in being with each other than being apart.
George W. Bush: But the day ended on a relatively humorous note. The agents said, "you'll be sleeping downstairs. Washington's still a dangerous place." And I said no, I can't sleep down there, the bed didn't look comfortable. I was really tired, Laura was tired, we like our own bed. We like our own routine. You know, kind of a nester. I knew I had to deal with the issue the next day and provide strength and comfort to the country, and so I needed rest in order to be mentally prepared. So I told the agent we're going upstairs, and he reluctantly said okay. Laura wears contacts, and she was sound asleep. Barney was there. And the agent comes running up and says, "We're under attack. We need you downstairs," and so there we go. I'm in my running shorts and my T-shirt, and I'm barefooted. Got the dog in one hand, Laura had a cat, I'm holding Laura --
Laura Bush: I don't have my contacts in , and I'm in my fuzzy house slippers --
George W. Bush: And this guy's out of breath, and we're heading straight down to the basement because there's an incoming unidentified airplane, which is coming toward the White House. Then the guy says it's a friendly airplane. And we hustle all the way back up stairs and go to bed.
Mrs. Bush: [LAUGHS] And we just lay there thinking about the way we must have looked.
Peggy Noonan (interviewer): So the day starts in tragedy and ends in Marx Brothers.
George W. Bush: THAT'S RIGHT-- WE GOT A LAUGH OUT OF IT!
You see, it's funny because it's true...or happening to someone else...one of those.
By the way....I can't let this little comment from President Abyss-mal pass:
"I knew I had to deal with the issue the next day and provide strength and comfort to the country, and so I needed rest in order to be mentally prepared."
We're still waiting...
posted by tbogg at 1:36 PM
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Shorter...shorter still
I was going to write something about William Saletan's crapulent NewsMax-ish column this morning, but I didn't have time to do it justice. Fortunately, Elton did, and did it better and more succinctly than I ever could.
He's really good at that.
posted by tbogg at 1:23 PM
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That isn't what "suffer the children" is supposed to mean....
Greg at The Talent Show has a few things to say about some "godly" parents.
I agree with him wholeheartedly....
posted by tbogg at 1:10 PM
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The circular firing squad
Wonder why Democrats in California are generally a happy lot? Check out our Republicans:
Inside the hotel lobby, a small group of Latino Schwarzenegger delegates sat around a coffee table discussing the race. Jim Lopez, a stocky, middle-aged man from rural Kern County, asserted that, contrary to the prevailing wisdom, many Mexican-Americans side with conservatives on immigration issues. "My parents came in this country the right way," Lopez said. "The Mexicans now are coming in wanting to take over this country. What do you want to become? A Third World country?" As his friends nodded in agreement, he continued with a joke: "You know why Mexico doesn't field an Olympic team? Because anybody who can run, jump or swim is already in the U.S."
While Schwarzenegger and McClintock are in apparent agreement on immigration, many of McClintock's most ardent supporters at the convention were driven by their opposition to abortion and gay rights. They demonstrated little patience for Schwarzenegger's appeals for party unity. "The first thing I look at is if a candidate's pro-life," remarked Bob Liepert, a 50-year-old McClintock delegate from suburban Torrance. "If any pro-lifer knew the facts about Arnold, they wouldn't vote for him." Earlier in the parking lot, two anti-abortion protesters carrying a huge poster of an aborted fetus that looked like a baby lathered in marinara sauce heckled Schwarzegger supporters, leaving his speech shouting, "Arnold Schwarzenegger supports the butchering of human beings!"
Racism, homophobia, and anti-choice is all they have to offer.
We're not Texas.
posted by tbogg at 12:59 PM
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Like father, like son
The Senate bitchslaps Michael Powell just like Rummy slaps his dad around.
By a vote of 55 to 40, the Senate approved a resolution that would roll back the F.C.C. regulations allowing television networks to own more local stations and that would have permitted conglomerates to own newspaper, television and radio stations in a single metropolitan market.
Based on the initial reaction in the Senate to the F.C.C. rule changes, today's resolution, which was introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, had been expected to pass.
Senator Trent Lott, the Mississippi Republican, co-sponsored the legislation that was approved this morning.
The measure faces a tougher battle in the House of Representatives. And President Bush, who has yet to veto a single piece of legislation, has threatened to veto this bill if it reaches his desk.
On Monday, the commission's chairman, Michael Powell, warned that the Senate bill would "create a legal morass that will unsettle media regulation for years to come."
posted by tbogg at 10:36 AM
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War, terrorism, massive unemployment, environmental destruction, office parties....
As we slog our way through Year Three of the Destruction of America Due To Poor and Corrupt Leadership, many people ask, "How can I make America a better place to live?" Dennis Prager tells us how....
One of the most common questions I am asked is, "What can I, a simple citizen, do to make our country better?"
The answer: Change the little things first. Most people who are worried about the direction of our country think that all the battles are big ones. But we cannot win any of the big ones if we keep losing the small ones.
Here is a seemingly small project that any American who works at almost any company can initiate. If successful, it will send shockwaves through the country: Rename your company's "holiday" party a Christmas party.
Nothing is quite as symbolic of the narcissism at the heart of contemporary "progressive" policies than the belief that because there are non-Christian employees at a company, its Christmas party may not be called one. Who do 5 percent of the employees think they are that they feel empowered to demand that the other 95 percent not celebrate their party with the name that they want? And what kind of mindset denies a company the right to celebrate a national holiday?
One has to wonder what any right-thinking company is doing by employing those 5% non-Christians in the first place. Don't they know that there are millions of unemployed Christians out there who would love to exchange crappy Secret Santa gifts with fellow employees they don't know while eating some potluck mystery meal out of a crockpot in the office kitchen?
...and wouldn't that make America a better place to live?
posted by tbogg at 9:01 AM
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Why waste money on starving Americans when we can waste money on Halliburton Americans?
You've got to hand it to Mona Charen when it comes to defending President Roadblock Before The Abyss (see below). Sure $87 billion is a lot of money, but we'd just fritter it away anyway. And, according to Mona, what would we be wasting that money on? Education and hungry kids:
The president has asked for $87 billion to rebuild and solidify Iraq and Afghanistan. That's a lot of money. But the federal government spends $65 billion annually on student loans to college students -- enduring about a 40 percent default rate. We spend billions on hot lunches and breakfasts for schoolchildren, though the greatest health threat to the poor in America these days is not hunger but obesity.
Besides, why can't poor children take their lunches to school in a brown bag, as my kids do? How much does a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple and a yogurt cost? Maybe $1.50. For a family receiving food stamps, it's even less. So why subsidize the lunches for children whose families already receive food aid in the form of food stamps?
You see, if those kids weren't getting those hot lunches and breakfasts, they wouldn't be obese.
Starve a kid...feed a military-industrial complex.
Polish it up a little and the Republicans just may have a new campaign slogan...
posted by tbogg at 8:25 AM
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Monday, September 15, 2003
Leg Hump of the Year
Peggy Noonan, Howard Fineman, and Andrew Sullivan are going to have to put in overtime to top this appreciation of the Steely Eyed Rocket Man:
...my brother was moved to note, somewhat dramatically but strictly on the level, "All that stands between us and the abyss is George W. Bush."
This took me aback at first, the notion that such a man -- any man -- could fend off the frightening chaos of the void, metaphoric or otherwise. But there's something about Mr. Bush, something we had little reason to expect upon electing him, that is singular: namely, his seemingly unshakeable determination to do what it takes to defeat global terrorism inspired by a 21st-century jihad against the West.
People say his mettle comes from strong faith. A doctor-friend of mine wonders whether his is the stubborn steel of the successfully reformed alcoholic. Whatever fuses his backbone, the fact is, George W. Bush gets it: Freedom is under assault, and it is left to the United States and its few true allies to do what it takes to defend it.
"All that stands between us and the abyss is George W. Bush."
Jesus. If that doesn't pucker your ass and make you reach for a bottle, nothing will....
posted by tbogg at 3:45 PM
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New and improved.... and with less penis! A lot less penis......
Atrios points out that the Bush Administration is turning back to the Clinton plan for North Korea since the current policy of "ignore them and they'll go away" isn't working this time.
posted by tbogg at 2:44 PM
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His Gap khaki slacks, his plaid shirt, his firm manly buttocks. Oh god! I hope he's a fireman and a Catholic!
Peggy's back!
...and she's talking to some bishops:
I had planned to address the teaching of Catholic doctrine, which is something the American Catholic Church doesn't really like to do in any depth, at least for the people in the pews. But it seemed to me that earlier speakers had so much to say on so many topics that are crucial and pending that the scandals were given short shrift. So I rearranged my speech as others spoke.
There were some central questions behind my remarks. Do these men understand the extent and depth of the damage done by the scandal, and is still being done by it? Do they understand the church must move comprehensively to stop it?
To speak of a problem so difficult and yet so delicate, and to do it in front of men who lead the wounded church, and who came up through a system that we now know to have been marked by institutional sickness, seemed to me--well, delicate is the best word I can come up with. And so I thought the only fair way to begin was to say that I meant to speak with candor, as one does among friends, that we all love the church and love Christ, and that candor demands candor about myself, too. I said that I speak from no great moral height, that I was certain I had "the least impressive personal biography in the room," that I am no moral exemplar, "far from it." I said I wanted to make this clear because "Who we are both as individual people and as a church, who we really are, is at the heart of things."
Then I said my piece. I told them the scandal was in my view "the worst thing ever to happen in the history of the American church"; I told them they had to stop it now, deal with it fully; that if reports of abusive priests "continue to dribble out over the next two and four and six years, it will be terrible; it could kill the church." I spoke of how terrible it is that just the other day a priest in Maine was finally removed from his parish two years--two years!--after it was revealed that he was one of the priests who had set up the pornographic Web site "St. Sebastian's Angels." I said, "Two years after he was found to be doing what he was doing--and he's still in business!"
Here's where Peggy started imagining her Mystery Date..and started to lose the bishops:
I attempted to paint a picture of a man in the suburbs of America, taking his kids to church. He stands in the back in his Gap khaki slacks and his plaid shirt ironed so freshly this morning that you can still smell the spray starch. He stands there holding his three-year-old child. He is still there every Sunday, he is loyal and faithful; but afterwards--away from church, with his friends, at the barbecue and the lunch, he now feels free to say things about the church that only 10 years ago would have been shocking. "He thinks the church is largely populated by sexual predators, men whose job now is to look after their own." And then perhaps he says, "But not my priest." But maybe these days he doesn't say "but not my priest" anymore.
...and here's the part where Peggy completely lost them by making a suggestion that probably had the bishops laughing over their drinks later that evening while mimicking her sing-song voice:
What choked me was thinking of Jesus. And thinking of how we all want to be new again, and can be if we rely on him; but it's so hard, and deep in our hearts while we believe we do not believe, could not believe, or else we'd all be new again.
Anyway, I regained my composure and concluded my remarks with some hard advice. I said the leaders of the church should now--"tomorrow, first thing"--take the mansions they live in and turn them into schools for children who have nothing, and take the big black cars they ride in and turn them into school buses. I noted that we were meeting across the street from the Hilton, and that it would be good for them to find out where the cleaning women at the Hilton live and go live there, in a rent-stabilized apartment on the edge of town or in its suburbs. And take the subway to work like the other Americans, and talk to the people there. How moved those people would be to see a prince of the church on the subway. "They could talk to you about their problems of faith, they could tell you how hard it is to reconcile the world with their belief and faith, and you could say to them, Buddy, ain't it the truth."
Those Catholic divorcees...aren't 'they a stitch?
posted by tbogg at 8:54 AM
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When you've got a heart like mine, the forseeable future is one year...and I never buy green bananas
De-fib Dick hit the talk shows yesterday and fibbed:
Vice President Dick Cheney, appearing on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," made the case for the administration's request for an additional $87 billion, the bulk to go to stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq, with some for Afghanistan as well.
"It's all that we think we'll need for the foreseeable future, for this year," Mr. Cheney said. He did not rule out the possibility of subsequent requests for more funds.
[snip]
"There's no question but what we've encountered resistance," Mr. Cheney said. "But I don't think anybody expected the time we were there to be absolutely trouble-free."
He said the administration had anticipated "holdover elements from the regime that would fight us and struggle," and had planned for violence from non-Iraqi terrorist cells that would aim attacks at American forces and United States interests in Iraq.
Mr. Cheney conceded that he had misspoken when, during a television interview last spring, he said Iraq had "reconstituted nuclear weapons," but he expressed confidence that evidence that Mr. Hussein had a program for unconventional weapons would be uncovered. He also said he had played no role in obtaining contracts for the Halliburton Company, which he once led, for projects in postwar Iraq.
Watch out for the exploding polygraph shrapnel...
posted by tbogg at 8:24 AM
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How'd I get up this creek? Where's my paddle?
Hi. I'm Becky Bunting, and now everyone in New York knows that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed:
Becky Bunting, a 45-year-old job recruiter, was a big supporter of the invasion of Iraq and applauded the fall of Baghdad and President Bush's execution of the war. But these days, Mrs. Bunting is growing concerned about what is taking place there, unhappy with the mounting costs, disturbed by the casualties and, most of all, wondering how it is all going to end.
"I am very worried about it," Mrs. Bunting, a Republican, said today as she lounged in the crisp September sun in the Old Market district here. "I have two brothers in the Navy. I think there are going to be a lot more casualties. I think we are in there for the long haul.
"I believe we did the right thing," she said. "But I don't see a winning situation here for anybody."
Meanwhile:
"I think it's going to go on forever," said Mike Gallagher, 34, an independent voter from Chicago. "The U.S. opened a can of worms that should have never been opened in the first place."
In Pensacola, Fla., Betty Enfinger, 59, a Republican, said: "I knew it was not going to be easy. Bush seemed to have a good game plan for the war. But things have gone very, very poorly after the war."
Here in Omaha, Paul McGill, 39, an independent, said he supported the war, but added tersely: "I'd like to see the reins handed over. I would like to see an exit strategy — mapped out in detail."
At that, his wife, Virginia, who did not support the war, sighed. "I think we are locked in, and I don't see any way out," she said.
Buncha Murica haters.....
posted by tbogg at 8:11 AM
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Never mind what he said, I've got a point to make
Poor Sullivan. He quotes someone but he obviously doesn't read the quote before shooting his mouth off:
BEGALA AWARD NOMINEE: "Obviously part of the premise of my book is that this is not the most honest administration. So I don’t know what to think of his religiosity. I really can't tell you – but I’m suspicious. I'm very suspicious of the way he uses it. I'm suspicious that it's done for political purposes and that he really isn’t as religious as he makes out to be. But he might be. I don't know." - Al Franken, not even giving George W. Bush the benefit of the doubt about his religious faith. Is there nothing the Bush-haters won't accuse him of?
For the Sullivan impaired:
I'm suspicious that it's done for political purposes and that he really isn’t as religious as he makes out to be. But he might be. I don't know.
Al Franken, not even giving George W. Bush the benefit of the doubt
Is it me, or when Franken says "He might be", isn't he giving Bush the benefit of the doubt?
Is there nothing the Bush leg-humpers won't say to justify soliciting contributions to their blog?
posted by tbogg at 7:56 AM
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Friday, September 12, 2003
There's going to be a test Monday morning....
Everyone in America should read this.
All that is why what is now occurring in Iraq is so profoundly and viscerally offensive to those of us who thought we had moved past this point in American history. It is simply inconceivable to me that a U.S. administration could have made so many of the same mistakes made by the Johnson-McNamara group of thirty years ago. In a word, I’m outraged. This is the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. And this Administration should be held responsible for its conduct in the next election. Once again, the politicians have handed the military the nightmare scenario.
[snip]
And though I believe long-term victory in Iraq is, at very best, a long shot, we have a sacred responsibility to the military men and women who have been and will be lost to finish the job. Indeed, the enduring lesson of Vietnam was not, “Never engage,” it was “Engage responsibly.” What does that mean? It means winning this time. It means returning to the U.N. and obtaining U.N. backing at any price. It means going to the allies we have arrogantly disregarded and asking for help. It means dramatically internationalizing the force and, more importantly, the reconstruction of Iraq. This is, quite simply, the only way we will ever get our troops home. Our greatest strength is our capacity to spend and build. We must coordinate a vast international effort to do just that in Iraq. And though we have not seen a shred of compelling evidence suggesting Iraq was ever a serious player in the terror war before our invasion, it has become just such a player now. We have significantly strengthened the very monster we seek to defeat, and, even worse, handed our enemies home-court advantage.
This ain't no squishy liberal talking.....
posted by tbogg at 11:35 PM
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Book alert
I know that there a lot of Neal Stephenson ( Cryptonomican) fans out there (cuz I've heard from you) so here's a heads-up. Stephenson will be doing a book signing in San Diego on Saturday 9/27, 2:30 pm at Mysterious Galaxy for his new book Quicksilver. Copies of Quicksilver may be purchased at Mysterious Galaxy starting 9/23 and include a free ticket to the signing.
Consider yourself notified.
posted by tbogg at 4:10 PM
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Thanks
I have been remiss in not thanking the mysterious UnaBlogger for dedicating some cheesecake my way.
***BIG HONKING NAKED WOMAN WARNING***...You can find the Unabloggers site here but don't go there if you are at work or have kids floating around or are offended by pictures of naked women and their long supple legs, pert upturned breasts, delightfully firm buttocks.....
You know, someone once told me there's a lot of this stuff on the Internet, but I've never been able to find any.....
posted by tbogg at 2:30 PM
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Now Opelusas is a dim-lit town by night*
We all observed 9/11 in some unique way, but then there were others who observed in a more...unique-r way:
OPELOUSAS — A 16-ton armored personnel carrier accidentally rolled into a police car here on Thursday, during a simulated terrorist attack that included a captured and handcuffed “terrorist” portrayed by a police officer wearing a Middle Eastern-style headdress.
The scenario played out during a ceremony to commemorate the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America.
Timshel tries to explain.
Okay. There really isn't any explanation or excuse for this, but you really have to read and see it all.
* Opelousas (Sweet Relief)
posted by tbogg at 2:22 PM
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I got them Construction Guy Bad Music Blues
My neighbor has been having an addition built for about, oh, six months or so. The work is being done by construction friends of his on days when they don't have work at their real construction jobs. Because of this, on the days that they work, we are subjected to hours of Music Construction Guys Listen To When They Are Hammering Nails and Yelling At Each Other. In other words, bad 70's/80's rock stations.
When was the last time your heard Three Dog Night do Black and White? When was the last time you wanted to hear it? How about Dreamweaver? Chevy Van? I can live with occasional Hot for Teacher or even Midnight Confessions, and I appreciate Heard It Through the Grapevine and California Man, but wasn't there a law passed against playing Hitchin' A Ride?
Today Johnny Cash's Hurt came on, but within seconds the station was switched to another one that was playing the Clash's Train in Vain...but that wasn't good enough, so he moved onto another station that was playing Alice Cooper's Only Women Bleed, and that...is...where...he...stopped.
Huh?
...and don't get me started on my neighbor who plays Matchbox 20 every friggin' night.
posted by tbogg at 1:49 PM
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This is only important because it's funny.
Found over at Daniel Drezner. This is Conan O'Brien's Commencement Speech to the Havard Class of 2000, back when we are all September 10 Americans and when we still believed that in America, everyone's vote counted. We were such kids back then....
Students of the Harvard Class of 2000, fifteen years ago I sat where you sit now and I thought exactly what you are now thinking: What's going to happen to me? Will I find my place in the world? Am I really graduating a virgin? I still have 24 hours and my roommate's Mom is hot. I swear she was checking me out. Being here today is very special for me. I miss this place. I especially miss Harvard Square - it's so unique. No where else in the world will you find a man with a turban wearing a Red Sox jacket and working in a lesbian bookstore. Hey, I'm just glad my dad's working.
Think about speeches like this next time your college invites Alan Greespan to speak...
posted by tbogg at 12:39 PM
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My mom wants a bunch of copies and she's putting the clipping on the refrigerator!
Rich Lowry, the Greg Marmalard of The Corner, wants everyone to know that he was quoted in the New York Times;
HERE'S MY TWO CENTS [Rich Lowry]
In the New York Times story on the ACLU's new anti-Bush ads: "As far as the celebrities go, they obviously have a right to speak their minds and a right to be morons, and they usually exercise both," said Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, a conservative journal. "This is typical uninformed hysteria from the two places you expect most to get it: the A.C.L.U. and celebrities."
Rich, honey? Is it supposed to be this soft?
Nitpicker picks on the nits at The Corner.
posted by tbogg at 10:57 AM
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Why yes, we are winning their hearts and minds. Thanks for asking....
Iraqis celebrate next to a burning U.S. Army Humvee following a bombing near Fallujah on Friday. Three U.S. soldiers reportedly were wounded. Many Iraqis in the area are loyal to Saddam Hussein.
U.S. soldiers mistakenly opened fire on a group of Iraqi policemen chasing bandits Friday, killing eight Iraqis and wounding seven others, witnesses said. It was the deadliest friendly fire incident since the end of major fighting. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in a firefight during a raid earlier Friday in the town of Ramadi, 30 miles west of Fallujah, a stronghold of Saddam Hussein supporters, the military said.
THE AMERICAN troops were killed during a shootout in Ramadi.
Seven other soldiers were wounded in what the military described as a raid.
The deaths raise to 72 the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in combat since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. Since the war began, 295 American soldiers have died in combat or non-hostile incidents.
The head of U.S. forces in Iraq said this week that there were an average of 15 guerrilla attacks a day.
I'm sure the heads of the European nations are asking themselves "How can I get piece of that action?"
Thank the imaginary deity of your choice that it's...not...a...quagmire.....
posted by tbogg at 10:25 AM
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How I want to remember the guy
South Knox Bubba has my favorite picture of the late Johnny Cash up. Cash didn't think much of the Nashville establishment that spent its time promoting no-talent hat heads.
I think everyone should save Johnny as their wallpaper today. (Just right-click......oh, hell, you know...)
posted by tbogg at 10:20 AM
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Counting is hahd. Vant to see my pecs move?
Soundbitten let's us see that the Steroid Gangbanger isn't really a numbers kinda guy.
posted by tbogg at 10:14 AM
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I gotcher context right here
Busybusybusy points out that Wholly Without Merit Fox News is .... wholly without merit.
posted by tbogg at 10:08 AM
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Tom Burka
is really funny.
So is Tom Toles.
Its a Tom thing...
posted by tbogg at 9:35 AM
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September 12th Americans
Finding the link through Atrios yesterday, I read Lawrence Kaplan's somewhat elliptical WSJ column on, those he calls, September 10 Americans. They would be those of us who apparently don't get it; that, on 9/11, (can we all say it together?) the "world has changed"...when actually it hasn't. Terrorism didn't begin on 9/11, it began when man picked up a stick. And we should know that. The tragedy of 9/11 brought out the best in Americans, the ones who are helpful, loving, supportive, giving, and brave. Those who would sacrifice something, even their own lives, for their fellow man. But it also brought out the worst in some Americans: the ugly racism, the opportunism, the paranoia, the self-centeredness ("that could have been me!"), and a need for revenge that became so indiscriminate that it would lash out at anyone didn't look right, think right, or fall in line with what the opportunists were selling. A part of us became America:The Mob.
Kaplan writes:
That most of us have resumed living by September 10 rules would hardly matter but for the inconvenient fact that America's foes still play by September 11 rules. Alas, the conceit that the war on terror will not require broad sacrifice, which persists even when circumstances do not justify such a conceit, has obscured this unpleasant truth. Preventing a repeat of September 11 will be difficult enough. Even more so if an attack that should have prompted a special vigilance prompts only a glance backward.
There is a fine line here between becoming vigilant and becoming obsessed. If we become September 12 Americans willing to sacrifice our civil liberties, provide a blank check to an opportunistic and inept Administration, and wallow in our fear and grief and revenge fantasies, then the terrorists have won.
I'll take my chances on just being a smarter September 10 American.
Meanwhile Andy Sullivan, safely ensconced at a corner table at Starbucks, says:
The paradox is that the more he (Bush) succeeds and the more the threat of terror recedes, the more his opponents will take the calm as evidence that nothing much has to be done, that nothing much has been done, that America, by acting, is the real source of world conflict, and that retreat and amnesia are the cure-alls. I don't think most Americans believe this. I think they are still angry and still afraid and still determined. But they will suffer more than a thousand cuts from the September 10 brigades in the coming months and years. I remember thinking two years ago that support for the war was easy then; but the real test would be in a few years when forgetfulness would set in and complacency revived. Which means, of course, that the real test of our mettle is now. So the question is not, once again: what have we done wrong? It is: Where are we going to hit those bastards today?
I disagree. Allowing George W. Bush to meander about in a garden full of hornets nests like a big dumb child with a baseball bat is a sign that we are a Not Ready For Prime Time Superpower. He creates one new Bin Laden every minute of his failed presidency.
(Added); Via Kevin Drum we find Jack O'Toole pointing out what a tool Andy is.
posted by tbogg at 9:15 AM
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Ah, patriotism
Mark Morford:
And yep, sure enough, the world, as promised, has never been the same. Not one single heartfelt notion of large-scale, tangible peace and unity and tenderness among nations, no true sense of stunned, sad coming together in the wake of tragedy has managed to survive, has made it through the warmongering onslaught of the BushCo juggernaut. Nice time to be an American, really.
Do you remember? The days immediately after 9/11? That rich feeling of global sympathy and sincere concern and this powerful, overarching sense that maybe, just maybe, if we work together and reach out to each other without snide bias or prejudice, we can re-make the world in an entirely new, politically purified, blazingly conscious, peace-seeking vision? No? It's OK. Neither does anyone else.
So here we are, the biggest deficit in U.S. history and the worst interstate financial crisis since the Depression and millions more people without jobs every day, the environment and independent thought and your civil liberties slowly being hacked away as more money is spent on our barbaric Iraqi occupation this year than on U.S. education. Ahh, patriotism.
(Added): Michele at A Small Victory doesn't like Morford's column. My take is that
A) She didn't really read it or
B) It hits too close to home
posted by tbogg at 8:14 AM
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Thursday, September 11, 2003
Money for nothing and the bile is free
Atrios already made the obvious observation about Ann Coulter here, but then there is this:
Gov. Howard Dean has been issuing diatribes against the Bush administration that would surpass even Tariq Aziz with severe menstrual cramps. This strategy has made him the runaway favorite of the Democratic Party. Even Mr. War Hero, John Kerry, is getting shellacked by Dean. At times Kerry seems almost ready to surrender, making him look even more French. (If only Kerry had a war record or an enormously rich spouse to fall back on!)
The next obvious question to ask is: who pays for this shit? I mean, are there papers that really think that she has anything to offer to political discourse? She's not funny or even ocassionally witty. She's a notorious liar. She has never written a column that has shown any evidence that she has any knowledge about the subject at hand, and besides, she can't write for shit. Her work is a collection of disjointed slurs strung together by misrepresentations and non-sequential outbursts. I've met people who have Tourette's Syndrome, I've just never met anyone who typed out their impulses.
For example...what the hell does this mean?
In the wake of Dean's success, the entire Democratic Dream Team is beginning to sound like Dr. Demento.
That's it...no follow up. No indication of what this Dr. Demento sound would sound like. Just a banal moronic soundbite that wouldn't raise a chuckle out of even the stupidest, lamest Freeper, and believe me, there's a shitload of them to try it on.
I guess I just don't get it. And I'm proud of that.
posted by tbogg at 10:37 PM
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And you like the Pet Shop Boys. What's your excuse....?
Andy Sullivan can't seem to get over Howard Dean's fondness for Jaspora, and even after he gets a translation he still gets it wrong.
Reads like a screed against assimilating Haitian immigrants to me; and theatens violence against those who assimilate a little too thoroughly. This is Howard Dean's favorite song?
Better stick with Neil Tennant, Andy:
You dress me up, I'm your puppet
You buy me things, I love it
You bring me food, I need it
You give me love, I feed it
And look at the two of us in sympathy
With everything we see
I never want anything, it's easy
You buy whatever I need
But look at my hopes, look at my dreams
The currency we've spent
(Ooooh) I love you, oh, you pay my rent
(Ooooh) I love you, oh, you pay my rent
Sounds like a Sullivan pledge drive...
posted by tbogg at 12:30 PM
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Working the corner of Rightwing & Deluded
Things must be tough at the Heritage Foundation, they've taken to pimping Kathleen Parker out:
I didn’t know I was a “conservative” until my columns began appearing on Townhall. I just thought I was smart, amusing, clever, witty, endowed with a vast reservoir of common sense and right about most things. Just like all the other people whose columns appear on Townhall and whose company I treasure, if only virtually. Then I started getting hundreds of emails from regular visitors to Townhall extolling my conservative virtues. And I was glad.
What is a conservative? I’m not sure, but if I were to offer adjectives about my fellow scribes, I would say that conservatives as a group are smarter, funnier and wiser than those other guys. Who wouldn’t want to belong to such a club? Who wouldn’t pay to keep such company? Ah, excellent question. Apparently lots of folks who may have forgotten the driving conservative principle of a free market economy. Distilled herewith: the best things in life are not free.
At the top of the list of un-free things, we find freedom. At the top of the list of those working to educate others and preserve the fundamentals of freedom is Townhall. All kidding aside, there’s no better website out there for finding news, commentary and research about our world, never more fragile than now. Townhall is among my first stops each day. If you’re reading this, it’s probably one of yours, too, and as such deserves some token of appreciation for hard work nobly executed. In lieu of first-born sons, I’m sure Jonathan would be happy to accept a small donation commensurate with your appreciation of, well, freedom. Any amount is a small price to pay.
I've always thought that Parker's columns were worth every penny I paid for them. Bitch better not be holdin' out on Jonathan "Huggy Bear" Garthwaite or he's gonna reach back like a pimp and slap the hoe' in the back of his Escalade....
(Go here to get your own damn Pimp name...Mine's Bling B. Frosty)
posted by tbogg at 11:19 AM
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What we lost. What George Bush squandered.
When words fail us
Chris, who created the site, wrote this:
This is a site I built a couple of days after 9-11. I took it down about six months later because it seemed outdated.
Something I will never forget: On the Thursday after 9-11, a user-group forum I subscribed to was discussing the attacks and one of the members was skeptical that anyone else in the world cared. Shortly afterward, pictures such as these started pouring in from the international members.
An American member said, “We thought you hated us.”
A member in France (yes, that one) replied, “Of course we don’t hate you. Most of us owe our freedom to the U.S. It’s just that you can be such assholes sometimes.”
I collected the pictures and built the site that evening.
I resurrected the site on its second anniversary to remind us not to be such assholes.
-Chris
posted by tbogg at 11:06 AM
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Because he's going to topple...now!....okay...now! ....here it comes...now!...wait for it ..c'mon....now!....
Ever mindful of sucking up to the vocal and permanently disgruntled Florida Cubans, El Presidente Arbusto says no! to travel in Cuba:
The Bush administration on Monday repeated a threat to veto any repeal of the restrictions on travel to Cuba, saying that tourism would not help get rid of President Fidel Castro
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday on an amendment that would deny the Bush administration the funds it needs to enforce the travel restrictions.
"Sunbathers are not going to liberate Cuba nor is upgrading the brunch at Cuba's isolated tourist enclave hotels," Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega told an event at the Center of Strategic and International Studies.
The U.S. government requires licenses to visit Cuba but does not give them to tourists, arguing that tourism dollars strengthen the government without benefiting the people.
A coalition of business organizations and human rights groups have been making a determined push to overturn the embargo and the travel restrictions, saying they have failed to topple Fidel Castro and have provided the leader with an excuse for the island's economic woes.
[snip]
Last week the White House said that lifting sanctions now "would provide a helping hand to a desperate and repressive regime at the expense of the Cuban people" and that "the President's senior advisers would recommend a veto.
...and because the embargo has worked so well to bring down the dictatorship of Fidel Castro who has so far outlived Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan (any minute now...).
George W Bush isn't going to be the one to roll over for no olive-drab clad Cubanian, no siree....
posted by tbogg at 10:47 AM
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President bows head. Calls it a day.
Fortified with a double dosage of anti-smirk medication, President It Happened On My Watch made an appearance on the South Lawn this morning, saw his shadow, and then immediately retreated back into the White House, signifying eight more years of massive deficits. President Bush and the vaguely old-man-smelling Dick Cheney then headed for the White House Gameroom for an afternoon of Madden NFL 2004, while Laura and Lynne sat at the White House kitchen table drinking Harvey Wallbangers, smoking, and discussing Jenna and Barb's college hijinks, Elizabeth Cheney's job at State, and how Mary Cheney's softball team is doing.
Later, lunch was served.
posted by tbogg at 10:23 AM
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Busy work at the State Department
Now that Donald Rumsfeld has taken over foreign policy, as well as leading the fight against evildoers, the good folks at the State Department have to find something to do all day besides play Tetris and enter Fark photoshop contests.
The State Department has issued a "worldwide caution," warning U.S. citizens and employees of the threat of more terror attacks on the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, saying there are "increasing indications that al Qaeda is preparing to strike U.S. interests abroad."
The State Department also said al Qaeda is pursuing actions "more devastating" than the deadly plane hijackings two years ago.
[snip]
A Bush administration official, however, said there is no immediate plan to change the nation's threat level from yellow, or "elevated," to orange, or "high," despite recent intelligence over the threats of terror strikes.
...but they might later, after lunch or maybe after the three o'clock Starbucks run. Whatever.
(Added): Todays Non Sequitur seems to agree.
posted by tbogg at 10:01 AM
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Next week, Karl Rove takes his tips from Marmaduke
The Washington Post 9/10/03
President Bush paused in his Labor Day remarks about jobs and told his audience of union members, "I want you to think back to that fateful day, September the 11th, and what happened afterwards."
Usually his reminder is more subtle, but Bush is invoking the terrorist hijackings frequently as he ramps up his reelection campaign and tries to defuse the political risk posed by persistent joblessness, setbacks in Iraq and accusations that he exaggerated evidence on the road to war.
In the past six weeks, Bush has cited "9/11" or Sept. 11, 2001, in arguing for his energy policy and in response to questions about campaign fundraising, tax cuts, unemployment, the deficit, airport security, Afghanistan and the length, cost and death toll of the Iraq occupation.
Now see
Doonesbury 8/6/03
posted by tbogg at 9:36 AM
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Go Mo
The lovely Ms. Dowd kicks some pasty-white Cheney ass:
Far from being the swift and gratifying lesson in U.S. dominance that Cheney & Co. predicted, our incursion into Iraq is turning into a spun-out, scary lesson in the dangers of hubris. Democrats are combing through the $20 billion part of the White House request involving rebuilding Iraq, trying to make sure there isn't any Halliburton hanky-panky.
I've actually gotten to the point where I hope Dick Cheney is embroiled in a Clancyesque conspiracy to benefit Halliburton. Because if it's not a conspiracy, it's naïveté and ideology. And that means our leaders have used goofball logic and lousy assumptions to trap the country in a cockeyed replay of the Crusades that could drain our treasury and strain our military for generations, without making us any safer from terrorists and maybe putting us more at risk.
On 9/11's second anniversary, seven in 10 Americans still believe Saddam had a role in the attacks, even though there is no evidence of it, according to a Washington Post poll. That is because the president has done his level best to conflate 9/11 and Saddam and did so again in his speech on Sunday night.
Iraq never threatened U.S. security. Bush officials cynically attacked a villainous country because they knew it was easier than finding the real 9/11 villain, who had no country. And now they're hoist on their own canard.
posted by tbogg at 12:04 AM
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Wednesday, September 10, 2003
President Grifter
Con men have long known that a good time to take advantage of a mark is within days of a death in the family when a grieving relative is off balance and not thinking clearly. George Bush, known for selling a brand of snake oil known as "compassionate conservatism", knows this all too well:
President Bush, seeking still greater powers to fight terrorism, appears to have calculated that the renewed memories of the Sept. 11 attacks evoked by their second anniversary will be enough to outweigh rising concerns over civil liberties.
Mr. Bush's proposal for stronger counterterrorism laws, made in a toughly worded speech today, faces a hard sell in Congress, as the administration tries to persuade skeptical lawmakers in both parties that the authorities will not abuse their growing power to investigate and lock up suspects.
He couldn't be any more obvious if he wrapped a bloody flag around his shoulders.
posted by tbogg at 11:58 PM
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Lying liars and the liars they work for.....
Looks like Scott McClellan picked right up where Ari Fleischer left off:
Some have suggested repealing at least some of the nearly $2 trillion in tax cuts enacted since Bush took office.
"I heard somebody say, well, what we need to do is have a tax increase to pay for this. That's an absurd notion," Bush told reporters.
"You don't raise taxes when an economy is recovering. Matter of fact, lower taxes will help enhance economic recovery.
"We want our people going back to work. We've got good momentum now in our economy; we don't want to destroy that momentum. But the $87 billion is worth it and I look forward to working with Congress to get that number completed and get the job done. "
Bush's spokesman was asked later about a potential Democratic proposal to repeal the tax cuts for just the top 1 percent of Americans.
"Sounds like a tax increase to me," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
"There are a lot of small-business owners in that top bracket. These are the job creators, the economic backbone of our economy," McClellan said.
posted by tbogg at 11:49 PM
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Amuse yourself
I'm going to be in meetings for most of the day so just go to here and enjoy the show. (Broadband recommended)
Thanks to Chris for the link.
posted by tbogg at 9:17 AM
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Pleased to MECHa, hope you guessed my name
Brian at Ain't No Bad Dude takes up the great Bustamante/MECHa debate.
posted by tbogg at 8:33 AM
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The devil fools with the best laid plan
I haven't been following the tax referendum in Alabama because, well, honestly, the less I know about Alabama the better I feel about America. But Steve over at No More Mr. Nice Blog lets us know what it all meant and what the people of Alabama can expect now. It's pretty appalling. No, it's really really appalling.
If you want to know where the Bush administration is leading us, Alabama provides a look at our future.
posted by tbogg at 8:21 AM
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The content of his character
The Self Made Pundit discusses the character of President XBox
posted by tbogg at 7:43 AM
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Threes
They die in threes, don't you know.
Leni Reifenstahl
Edward Teller
and
Warren Zevon
I'm sure this means something, I just don't know what.
posted by tbogg at 7:34 AM
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003
Reasons not to vote for Lieberman and Kerry.
Joe Lieberman primes the pump for the Media Whores to start a "Dean is an anti-semite" smear.
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) clashed sharply here tonight in a lively debate among the Democratic presidential candidates, with Lieberman asserting that Dean would reverse half a century of U.S. policy in the Middle East and Dean accusing his rival of demagoguery.
Dean denied that his recent comment saying the United States should not take sides in the Middle East represented a shift in U.S. policy, but Lieberman accused him of abandoning American values by turning away from longtime ally Israel.
"It doesn't help, Joe, to demagogue this issue," Dean said. "We're all Democrats; we need to beat George Bush so we can have peace in the Middle East."
Saying Dean was wrong in asserting that his statements put him in the same place as former president Bill Clinton, Lieberman replied, "Howard Dean's statements break a 50-year record in which presidents . . . have supported our relationship with Israel based on shared values."
[snip]
Lieberman and Kerry both attacked Dean on Monday for his comments on Israel. They said that, if Dean is serious, his stance would represent a radical departure from decades of U.S. policy that has tilted toward Israel. Kerry repeated that criticism this afternoon before television cameras. Dean said that while the United States long has had an important alliance with Israel, the situation in the Middle East demands that it take a more evenhanded approach to the region
Lieberman and Kerry can't beat Dean on energy or ideas, so they take the Rove-ian road.
Swell.
Chris at Interesting Times recaps.
posted by tbogg at 8:39 PM
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Jesus say knock you out.
Remember Christianity? Religion of peace? Blessed are the peacemakers?
An Indiana Baptist Minister must have missed those days in Bible school:
A Indiana Baptist pastor has been accused of spewing "hate speech" after he posted the following message on his church's marquee: "Sunday sermon 10:30 a.m. 'Islam: America's No. 1 Enemy.'"
Marc Monte has been pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Avon, Ind., for five years, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star. He says his sermon would include important information the pubic is not getting from the media.
"I want to stir interest, not alarm, but Islam is a false religion, dangerous and hate-promoting," Monte told the paper.
"If I were a pastor who read KKK literature or Hitler's 'Mein Kampf,' I would hope the members of my church would head to other churches. It is awful stuff. I repudiate it, and I put Islam in the same camp."
[snip]
Monte says he met with Syeed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks and afterward decided to study the Quran to learn more about Islam.
"I met with Syeed, and it got me very curious. In this personal conversation, there were things that struck me as odd," he is quoted by the Star as saying. "I opened the Quran and smelled a stinking, bloated, dead rat on every page."
Eloquent, ain't he?
posted by tbogg at 8:11 PM
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A heapin' helpin' of spite from a 9/11 survivor
Get the Salon daypass if you have to, but go read Kristen Breitweiser's comments on the Showtime movie and the dunce who inspired it.
It is understandable that so little time is actually devoted to the president's true actions on the morning of 9/11. Because to show the entire 23 minutes from 9:03 to 9:25 a.m., when President Bush, in reality, remained seated and listening to "second grade story-hour" while people like my husband were burning alive inside the World Trade Center towers, would run counter to Karl Rove's art direction and grand vision.
It's a good thing she's a high profile person when it comes to 9/11, otherwise John Ashcroft would be figuring out how to get his sweaty palms on her real soon.
(Thanks to Jeff for the link)
posted by tbogg at 1:46 PM
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I was born a poor white cheerleader in the backwoods of Mississippi....
Trent Lott has himself a book deal:
ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, today announced that a deal has been finalized with former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott for a memoir to be published in the fall of 2004. The book will cover the entirety of Lott’s life and career, from his birth in the backwoods of north Mississippi, through the political battles won and lost throughout his long career in the House and Senate, to his fall from power in 2002 in a political firestorm over remarks made at the late Sen. Strom Thurmond’s birthday party.
“In the past years, many people have suggested that I write a book about my rise to power in Washington. While I was a leader, I resisted the temptation,” says Lott. “But I now feel the time has come for me to tell my side of the remarkable events that I have been privileged to experience.”
Tenatively titled White, Like Me, it will tell the tale of little Trent's coming of age in Yoknapatawpha County and the true story behind that whole barn burning misunderstanding.
posted by tbogg at 12:56 PM
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....and they didn't even have to head to Offut.
From Drudge:
Air Force One aborts landing at Jacksonville Naval Air Station at 11:14 a.m. Someone in the control tower waved the president's plane off after spotting a police car on a road near the runway. The 747, just moments before landing, pulled up and circled around, touching down successfully at 11:17 a.m. Turns out the police car was there to lead the presidential motorcade to a Bush-Cheney fundraiser....
No tin-horn terrorist crocker-croaker, pretending to be a policeman, is gonna keep President Bring Em On from getting to a fundraiser, by god. "Come and get me, you bastards!", the president screamed while shaking his tiny little fist. Meanwhile Condi breaks out a fresh adult diaper and checks her bag for a package of baby moist wipes...
posted by tbogg at 11:18 AM
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From World O'Crap
And Leni Riefenstahl Dies At 101. "Leni Riefenstahl, whose hypnotic depiction of Hitler's Nuremberg rally, "Triumph of the Will," was renowned and despised as the best propaganda film ever made, died Monday, a German magazine reported Tuesday, quoting a long-time friend. She was 101." Sadly, she did not live to see the Showtime premiere of her last movie, "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis."
Man. I wish I had written that....
posted by tbogg at 10:12 AM
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Moral equivalency
Avedon Carol links us to this great quote:
Nigel Richardson admits he was snowed by anti-Michael Moore smears, but he's all better now. He also answers the question of whether Moore is the left's equivalent to Ann Coulter: Moore gets angry because kids get shot, Coulter gets angry because liberals get to write for newspapers. Yeah, they're really both as bad as each other....
posted by tbogg at 10:10 AM
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This week: A Very Special 9/11 Memorial brought to you by McDonalds...."I'm lovin' it!"
Jay over at The Daily Rant doesn't care for the bashers of those would wallow in sorrow on this 9/11 second anniversary . I disagree with him to a certain degree. My reasons are in his comments.
posted by tbogg at 9:58 AM
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Go for the B average, stay for the D cup
They really are co-ed strippers!:
A chain of strip clubs is offering to pay tuition for co-eds who work as strippers -- and keep up their grade-point averages.
With classes beginning this week, a full-page color ad, featuring a voluptuous blonde and the promise "We pay your tuition," appeared on the back cover of The Lance, the student newspaper at the University of Windsor in Ontario.
"A girl who wants to better herself, who wants to progress, makes for a higher level entertainer," said Robert Katzman, who is recruiting talent for his adult clubs in Windsor and in Detroit, Michigan. "They're happier young ladies. They're doing something with their lives."
Katzman said his company will pay $1,500 to $2,000 in educational expenses per year to women or men who work three or four seven-hour shifts in his clubs. The money is on top of the $10 an hour that dancers are paid, in addition to cash they get from tips and private dances.
But there is a catch.
"They have to maintain a B or above average," Katzman said. "They have to bring in their transcripts and prove they got the grades."
posted by tbogg at 9:24 AM
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Dammit. Why can't the Times hire a good conservative liar?
Besides Safire, I mean.
Poor & Stupid Donald Luskin thinks that the role of a good conservative columnist is to chant the party line and not go off the reservation with their own opinions. Today he thinks that new New Yourk Times columnist David Brooks is "disrespectful" when it comes to the Bush administrations failings in Iraq:
Yes, it has "on the other hand" material that Krugman would never include. In that sense, you could read it as generally flattering to President Bush's evolving Iraq strategy, noting Bush's ability to constructively adapt to difficult challenges. But in the context of the column, the flattering parts are essentially by way of irony -- they are used to set up the dichotomy between the "Bushies" good accomplishments and its bad lies.
I'm not passing judgment about whether Brooks is right or wrong. If anything, I find the administration's communication style just as infuriating as he does. But if we're talking about the New York Times edit page and whether it's achieved any ideological diversity by hiring Brooks, well, the answer is clearly no. It's just a cleverly disguised way of putting out the same old party line: Bushies are crooks.
I love the line about Bush's evolving strategy. As if President MBDuh didn't have a history of running a business into the ground and then looking around for someone to bail him out with money.
In the West Texas energy business, George W. Bush started out researching who owned mineral rights. He later traded mineral and royalty interests and invested in drilling prospects. He had started his own oil and gas company by 1978, taking $17,000 from his education trust fund to set up Arbusto Energy (arbusto means Bush in Spanish). The company fell on hard times when oil prices fell. He made several attempts to revive the business, first by changing the company's name and later by merging with other companies. In 1983, Bush’s company was rescued from failure when Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation, a small oil firm owned by William DeWitt and Mercer Reynolds, bought it. Bush became chief executive officer. Harken Energy Corporation acquired Spectrum 7 in 1986, after Spectrum had lost $400,000. In the buyout deal, Bush and his partners were given more than $2 million worth of Harken stock for the 180-well operation. Bush became a director and was hired as a "consultant" to Harken. He received another $600,000 of Harken stock, and has been paid between $42,000 and $120,000 a year. By the spring of 1987, Harken was in need of cash. So Bush and his fellow Harken officials met with Jackson Stephens, head of Stephens, Inc., an investment bank in Little Rock, Arkansas (Stephens contributed $100,000 to the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1980 and gave another $100,000 to the Bush dinner committee in 1990.) Stephens arranged for Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) to provide $25 million to Bush’s company in return for a stock interest in Harken. As part of the deal, Sheikh Abdullah Bakhsh, a Saudi real estate tycoon and financier, joined Harken's board as a major investor. Stephens, UBS, and Bakhsh each had ties to the infamous, scandal-ridden Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). In 1990, Bush sold his remaining stock options and left the oil business. Writer Jack Colhoun revealed some details of that stock sale, referring to Bush by his childhood nickname “Junior”:
On June 22, 1990, George Jr. sold two-thirds of his Harken stock for $848,560-a cool 200 percent profit. The move was well timed. One week after Junior sold his stock, Harken announced a $23.2 million loss in quarterly earnings and Harken stock dropped sharply, losing 60 percent of its value over the next six months. On August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops moved into Kuwait and 541,000 U.S. forces were deployed to the Gulf.
"There is substantial evidence to suggest that Bush knew Harken was in dire straits in the weeks before he sold the $848,560 of Harken stock," asserted U.S. News & World Report. The magazine noted Harken appointed Junior to a 'fairness committee' to study possible economic restructuring of the company. Junior worked closely with financial advisers from Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company, who concluded "only drastic action could save Harken."
posted by tbogg at 8:58 AM
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Enhancing overseas quality time and optimizing the potential
for life-shortening experiences
One weekend a month their ass....
Army officials defended the new deployment order, saying the scarcity of active-duty forces and security concerns in Iraq made it necessary to keep a large number of Guard and Reserve troops in the country for as long as possible. Many of the specialties most required in postwar Iraq are almost entirely provided by Guard and Army Reserve units.
“Because of the dynamic situation in theater, we had to take a look at our overseas forces to make sure we were maximizing their deployment opportunity,” one Army official said, asking that he not be identified by name.
posted by tbogg at 7:47 AM
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Monday, September 08, 2003
Art for art's s----uck
Greg at The Talent Show points out that art (well, someone would probably call it art) can be well intentioned and still blow....
posted by tbogg at 11:09 PM
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Race Card Paul and the Estrada Ejection
Paul Greenberg is throwing a snitty about Lil Miguelito:
Clearly he would never do. A brilliant attorney, a hard-driving lawyer with the solicitor general's office, an upward-bound immigrant devoted to his adopted country ever since he got here from Honduras, Miguel Estrada had a crippling political disability. Two of them, actually. As if being a Republican weren't bad enough, he had to be Hispanic, too
Miguel Estrada might have been spared if he'd been only one or the other -- a thoughtful conservative or a genuine compadre. But in tandem, those two qualities sank his nomination. The very thought of such a twofer shatters too many stereotypes, How demonize Republicans as stupid, xenophobic haters if they're nominating a bright, young immigrant for the appellate bench? Can't have that.
To repeat one more time:
Pryor
Owens
Pickering
Guess those are "ethnic" names down in Arkansas.
posted by tbogg at 10:57 PM
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The torture chamber of William Murchison
So, where is Amnesty International when Bill Murchison is torturing analogies:
This scarcely obviates the reality that in the conflict over Iraqi democracy, Bush, Bremer & Co. are to the Saddamists as Andy Roddick is to a junior high tennis squad. With this exception only: that no one in tennis gets murdered by gangs of die-hard extremist losers.
Okay, Bill...
posted by tbogg at 10:40 PM
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Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, I must be a Bush.
Prior to September 11 (remember 9/11? Some people are afraid it might slip by without notice...) President Dude Ranch and his sidekick, Hop-Along Condi, were given information that indicated the possibility of a terrorist attack using an airplane, but since Condi figured it would just be a hijacking , she and the Brush Cutter-in-Chief just went back to playing Woody & Jessie down at Rancho Borracho in Crawford.
You know the rest.
Now we find out that in his hurry to get Operation Inigo Montoya underway, he ignored his intelligence service...again:
U.S. intelligence agencies warned Bush administration policymakers before the war in Iraq that there would be significant armed opposition to a U.S.-led occupation, according to administration and congressional sources familiar with the reports.
Although general in nature, the sources said, the intelligence agencies' concerns about the degree of resistance U.S. forces would encounter have proved broadly accurate in the months since the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his inner circle.
Among the threats outlined in the intelligence agencies' reporting was that "Iraqis probably would resort to obstruction, resistance and armed opposition if they perceived attempts to keep them dependent on the U.S. and the West," one senior congressional aide said. The general tenor of the reports, according to a senior administration official familiar with the intelligence, was that the postwar period would be more "problematic" than the war to overthrow Hussein.
As U.S. military casualties mount and resistance forces wage a campaign of targeted bombings in Iraq, some administration officials have begun to fault the CIA and other intelligence agencies for being overly optimistic and failing to anticipate such widespread and sustained opposition to a U.S. occupation. But several administration and congressional sources interviewed for this article said the opposite occurred. They said senior policymakers at the White House, Pentagon and elsewhere received classified analyses before the war warning about the dangers of the postwar period.
Looks like Condi and George failed America again...and more people are dying.
posted by tbogg at 10:20 PM
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Some Democrats are stupider than others....
We often hear that Democrats think with their hearts and not their heads. Sometimes it's true:
Dan Conaway is a trial lawyer, a Democrat and no supporter of President Bush. But when it comes to foreign policy, he places himself "somewhere between Bismarck and Winston Churchill." So he was cheered, he says, by the president's speech on Sunday night, especially when Mr. Bush made clear that the time had come to gain the help of other nations in bringing order to postwar Iraq.
"If we can stabilize Iraq," the 41-year-old Mr. Conaway said today at the Perimeter Mall, north of the city, "it means we'll have more influence over Iran, and less dependence on Saudi oil, which means we can deal harder with the Saudis, which 9/11 made clear we need to do."
Yeah. We'll "deal harder with the Saudis". Right. And we'll all wake up and find ponies in our backyards....
Note to self: If I need a lawyer in Atlanta, ix-nay on Conaway....
posted by tbogg at 9:43 PM
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Nothing quite says "freedom" like being compelled to recite a loyalty oath.
Texas, the embarassing state that we keep locked in the attic whenever the neighbors come over, is naked and shouting in the street again:
Teachers in Texas are accustomed to leading their students in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance (search) every day, but this is the first school year that students are required to say it.
The attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, sparked a resurgence in patriotism, and now with the war on terror, more and more states think it's a good time to remind students what the United States is fighting for.
"I think that with the passing of this law by the Legislature, we are fostering patriotism, which is a good thing," said parent Clelon Houet.
Texas is now the largest of 34 states in the nation to require that students pledge their allegiance to the flag. Six other states encourage saying the Pledge and a handful of others have a variety of guidelines on the issue. For example, in Missouri, students are to recite the Pledge at least once a week, whereas in Mississippi, it's once a month.
Despite the Texas law, students do still have the option not to take part, though to be relinquished from duty, students must get a note from mom or dad.
"As a teacher I haven't come across a parent or a child who did not want to say the Pledge so I haven't had to deal with that," said first grade teacher Kelly Moore.
If I believed in a god I would thank him hourly that I don't live in Texas. My apologies to the reasonable people of the state, but Texas is flypaper for morons.
posted by tbogg at 10:38 AM
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You make the call II
Peggy Noonan or Michael Ubaldi?
So Bush met his detractors tonight indirectly, speaking only in near-certainties and down-to-earth rhetorical phrases. His counters were dispassionate. No challenges; no begging for controversy. About halfway through the speech, as Bush listed a number of accomplishments and challenges, I caught myself checking each one off in my mind as familiar and thoroughly discussed in politics: yes, known about that for weeks; yes, that too; yes, that's been making the op-ed rounds since June.
[snip]
He made similar remarks throughout the speech. Call it religious, call it instinctual: going beyond oneself is another value that resonates. The "Why" of it all is often irrelevant, a mystery that makes even preachers choke up. We're America, Bush seems to be saying. We do these things. We just do. There's no arguing with it; either we act accordingly in our lives or we don't.
Hoping for a speech that would engage them, journalists and politicos will probably reject this one as unremarkable. But for its intended audience - once again, the American public - Bush delivered tonic. As a pundit suggested, "He needs to do this more often."
Answer here.
Creepy, huh?
posted by tbogg at 10:26 AM
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Fred Phleps goes to New York. Civilization recoils.
Barry & James have pictures of Fred Phelps Christianity in action.
Phelps and pals should be beaten until they are little greasy smears on the sidewalk...which would be wrong, even if Jesus approved which I'm sure he would.
posted by tbogg at 10:11 AM
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Todays timesaving tip
You could read all the major newspapers and watch 24 cable news TV all day long....or you could just read Tom Toles every morning.
See. Wasn't that easy?
Here's Ann Telnaes.
(Added): I would be remiss if I didn't link to yesterdays Non Sequitur.
posted by tbogg at 9:31 AM
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Dazzled by her man hands
Man-Hands Ann gets a powderpuff interview with Stephen Goode in Insight where it appears that Stephen has an agenda of his own:
Q: You show in splendid detail in your book how liberals time and again over the last half-century have chosen to pay no attention to evidence that challenged their prejudices. Liberals still claim that McCarthy uncovered no communist spies because there weren't any, even though the record shows there were many. But, as you point out, "No amount of evidence proving anyone was a Soviet spy could ever be enough." Why do liberals fail to credit the evidence before them that they have tolerated and defended a half-century of treason?
A: There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Q: One of the most depressing factors you describe in Treason is the endurance of liberal mendacity, the lies they continue to tell about the men and women they regard as heroes but who in fact were traitors. McCarthy charged Owen Lattimore with close ties to communism and questioned the role that Lattimore played in U.S. foreign policy, especially toward communists in China, which Lattimore famously claimed threatened America in no way.
Lattimore has been shown frequently to have stonewalled questions about his views and activities and to have lied about those things. He was editor of Pacific Affairs, the official journal of the Institute for Pacific Relations - a notorious and officially cited Soviet front. He was formally described by the Senate Internal Security subcommittee as "from some time in the 1950s a conscious, articulate instrument of the 'Soviet conspiracy.'" Former top communist Louis Budenz testified to five separate experiences within the Politburo of the Communist Party in the United States in which Lattimore was involved as a Soviet conspirator. Yet, as you point out, "In April 1995, Lattimore's harangue [claiming innocence and attacking McCarthy as "base and despicable"] was described in the Washington Post magazine as 'eloquent' and 'convincing.'" How is it that these untrue liberal claims have such staying power?
A: After a while, conservatives get tired of arguing with liberals. They wear you out with their constant jabberwocky.
Well, its not like Goode is a real journalist or anything....
posted by tbogg at 9:27 AM
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How did I ever miss this guy?
Opinions You Should Have
posted by tbogg at 8:27 AM
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It don't matter if I get a little tired
I'll sleep when I'm dead
Warren Zevon has gone to the great Trader Vics in the sky. My flirtation with Zevon's music ended long ago with Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School. His eponymous album was a gem though, with Frank and Jesse James, Hasten Down the Wind, Mohammed's Radio, and Desperados Under the Eaves, all of which epitomized Southern California music at the time.
Like Steve Goodman, it took his impending death to get people's attention. I'm glad to see he went out on top with The Wind.
posted by tbogg at 8:15 AM
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It ain't easy talking out your ass with a pilonidal cyst
Looks like El Rushbo was El Suckbo in his football debut:
His first "challenge" came during a discussion of Lawyer Milloy, the All-Pro safety cut this week by the Patriots and signed by the Bills, the Pats' division rival and opening day opponent. All three former players denounced the move, saying that New England coach Bill Belichick had ripped the heart and soul out of the team on the eve of the first game by cutting a team leader.
"This is the reason I am on this program," Limbaugh said with his trademark arrogance. He defended Belichick's move, arguing that the coach believes Milloy isn't doing the job anymore. "He's thinking, 'I'm not going to stay with someone just because of sentiment,'" Limbaugh said, adding that he'd "done some research" and learned that "the Patriots are not flat. They've had great practices this week." He said the Pats were professionals who should know the score, and they were going to beat the Bills.
Jackson persisted in his argument that players seeing a star get cut would take it to mean that they too were expendable, a deflating thought. "Don't all of you know that from the minute you get in this league?" Limbaugh asked, rhetorically. But then Irvin stepped in. "Jimmy Johnson used to say all the time, you have that totem pole, and if you're on the top of that totem pole, you can get away, and you're going to always be around," Irvin said. "If you're on the bottom, you're out of here. So everybody looks at that totem pole and says, 'I just gotta be like him and I'm untouchable.' And then they learn, hey, nobody's untouchable. And it does scare your football team."
Who was right? Bills 31, Patriots 0. The Patriots looked horrible and out of sorts. Lawyer Milloy was one of the stars for the Bills.
posted by tbogg at 12:04 AM
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Sunday, September 07, 2003
You make the call
Andrew Sullivan or Glenn Reynolds?:
WATCHED BUSH'S SPEECH: It was an outright challenge to the neo-McGovernites, and even more of a challenge to those wafflers (and several are beginning to appear) among the Democratic presidential candidates, specifically mentioning Somalia and Beirut (bipartisan bugout history there), and noting that lessening our commitment would be a disaster, and play into the terrorists' hands. ("They want to shake the will of the civilized world.") Not bad, but the Administration will have to keep on the ball. The best point was his direct reference to what he said after 9/11, to the effect that this would be a long and multifaceted war. This isn't a time to go wobbly, and Bush made that clear. If he sticks to it, we'll win, and so will he.
Answer here.
posted by tbogg at 11:49 PM
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For the Showtime deprived...
Jesse provides a capsule review of Whistle Ass Falls Asleep At The Wheel
Considering the lack of substance in tonight's speech, I'm almost of the opinion that the speech was a deliberate attempt to keep people from watching the the movie on Showtime. The film sounds like the backend of a Crapfest double feature with Braveheart. I'm almost sorry I didn't see it.
But then, I could have passed on his whole administration in the first place too...
posted by tbogg at 11:29 PM
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Quick. Call Santorum! Marmaduke is humping little Jeffy from Family Circus.
Brent Bozell finally finds a topic he's knowledgeable about:
This great country may still have a debate about decency in the newspapers, where community-based publishers have the power to refuse syndicated material they deem inappropriate. It's sad that there's nothing close to this kind of debate at the nation's TV stations, where station managers are either working for stations owned by networks or bullied by network brass not to "censor" sexually explicit programming, even in the family hour. On TV, the M-word is not yet common, but references to masturbation are constant, and growing.
Take NBC's "Friends," first up during the family hour every Thursday night. In one plot, Monica is disturbed that she found her husband Chandler "molesting himself" to a shark attack show. "Yes, Chandler watches shark porn." Later, Chandler reassures her he was switching channels from "some good old-fashioned American girl-on-girl action," and Monica replies, "Can I tell you how happy that makes me?"
When it comes to masturbation and cartoons, Bozell is a big proponent of strict abstinence until swimsuit season in Cathy, at which point it's time for Brent to "lube up and lock the door"...
posted by tbogg at 11:02 PM
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No, really. He gets paid for this.
Must be a new Fox show: When Comedians Stop Being Funny:
Fox News commentator Dennis Miller is fretting about American safety.
"We now have better security at Borders bookstores than at our actual borders. Meanwhile, all we can do is kvetch about how wrong it is to search and profile people," Mr. Miller noted in a column yesterday.
"Here's one way we can solve our border problems: Why don't we just buy Mexico and Canada? I mean the continent is already called North America. Somebody was trying to tell us something."
Mr. Miller continued, "You know, we've got the best country in the world and its greatness is based on inclusion. But someone should turn over that plaque on the Statue of Liberty and check underneath because I'm pretty sure it'll say, 'But for God sakes, don't let people in who want to blow up this statue!'
"By the way, I find it ironic that the French gave us the Statue of Liberty because you know when it comes to being gracious to foreigners, well, the French wrote the book on that, didn't they?"
But seriously folks, I just flew in from LA and, boy, is my act tired....
posted by tbogg at 10:48 PM
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But he never said the comments weren't true....
Republican Chairman Ed Gillespie doesn't like the tone of the coming political discourse:
GILLESPIE EXPLAINED ON NBC'S MEET THE PRESS: "IF YOU SAW THE DEBATE THE OTHER NIGHT WITH THE NINE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES, I THINK HISTORY WILL SHOW THIS FIELD HAS TAKEN PRESIDENTIAL DISCOURSE TO A NEW LOW. THE RHETORIC YOU HEAR, ON EITHER SIDE OF THE AISLE, RONALD REAGAN NEVER SAID JIMMY CARTER COULDN'T FIND COUNTRIES IN HIS OWN HEMISPHERE.
"MONDALE NEVER SAID REAGAN WAS A MISERABLE FAILURE. WHEN BILL CLINTON RAN AGAINST GEORGE BUSH, HE DIDN'T COMPARE HIM TO SADDAM HUSSEIN OR THE TALIBAN. WHEN BOB DOLE RAN AGAINST CLINTON, HE DIDN'T SAY HE WAS A PHONY OR LIAR. THE WORDS WE'RE HEARING FROM THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES IS SO BEYOND POLITICAL DEBATE. THIS IS POLITICAL HATE SPEECH.
"I THINK THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL REJECT THAT APPROACH. THEY APPRECIATE THE PRESIDENT'S STRONG AND PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP, THAT HE HAS A POSITIVE AGENDA AND THEY HAVE NOTHING BUT NEGATIVITY AND PESSIMISM TO OFFER."
Hey Ed. TFB.
posted by tbogg at 10:29 PM
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Hey Bambi. Do those look like headlights to you?
The leader of a not-so-free world.
Jesus. What a whistle ass.....
Meanwhile....
President Bush said tonight that he would ask Congress for $87 billion in emergency spending for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that Iraq had now become "the central front" in the campaign against terrorism.
In a nationally televised prime-time address, his first from the White House since he announced the bombing of Baghdad on March 19, Mr. Bush said defeating terrorists in Iraq "will take time, and require sacrifice," but he left open-ended how long United States troops would remain in Iraq and how much the conflict and occupation would ultimately cost.
"Yet we will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom, and to make our own nation more secure," Mr. Bush said, speaking from the White House Cabinet Room in a straightforward, unemotional manner that lacked the drama of his major war speeches to the nation.
With the terrorism focus on Iraq and his willingness to spend whatever it takes there, this looks like a win-win for Osama Bin Laden and Halliburton.
posted by tbogg at 10:19 PM
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Friday, September 05, 2003
Bwahahahaha
Atrios has the link, but I just couldn't resist posting this exchange:
It is precisely at this point when "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis" becomes a full- blown comedy. In trying to spin furiously and make Bush out to be not only confident and nurturing but also unquestionably in command, the film pulls a muscle addressing "the Cheney myth," as one character calls it. In scene after scene we're shown Cheney meekly doing the president's bidding or nodding with awe at the commander-in-chief's macho posturing.
Who, it should be asked, could be so insanely out of touch with dramatic structure as to include this hard-sell exchange in which Bush and Cheney agree that the response needs to be fast and furious?:
Bush: "We always knew it might come to this."
Cheney: "You always said that if it did, this is how we'd earn our pay."
Bush: "And we will. It's a war."
I gotta get Showtime .....
posted by tbogg at 1:52 PM
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A high-tech pinata bashing....
It's a warm and sultry Georgetown evening, and what is a long-suffering wife to do while her husband is locked in his office watching Big Butt Teenaged Sluts Vol. 12? Why, write a Wall Street Journal editorial, silly:
Not only is this a sad day for Miguel and Laurie Estrada, but we have all let something unfortunate occur in Washington. We allowed the U.S. Senate to erect a "glass ceiling" in our courts--you can do all the right things in America, but if you do not agree with Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, you need not apply as a federal judge. This is the message that Democrats hope minorities, in particular, get from their victory as they succeeded in repelling a talented man, who happens to be Hispanic, from public service. For the hard left, Miguel Estrada was not qualified to be a federal judge because he would not march to their drumbeat.
You see, it's all about the race. Just ask Guillermo Pryor, Pilar Owens, and Chachi Pickering.
At my husband's side through his Supreme Court confirmation ordeal, I know the personal toll and pain of these tactics. Being a nominee means putting one's life on hold. The process is all consuming, even though those in decision-making offices seem nonplussed. Your telephone rings. You learn that there are people calling your friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers who are engaged in "digging up dirt." You spend untold hours filling out repetitive forms on every place you've lived, every place you've traveled, every contribution you've made, every word you've uttered, and so on.
The women you've stalked, the stroke videos you've rented, a cataloging of your extensive collection of Big Juggs magazine. And all so you can land a lifetime appointment on the highest court of the land to perform a job that you're painfully unqualified for. I mean, where is the justice in that?
Whether we are on the right or left, whether we are political or nonpolitical, each of us is partly responsible for Miguel's decision to withdraw his nomination. What did you and I do to discourage an honorable man who is mainstream and qualified from serving his country? It's not enough to look the other way as the left makes charges that go unanswered. Miguel Estrada is no extremist. It is the left that wants to capture the federal judiciary, as it claims is the goal of the right. I've seen this before--when those on the left accuse you of something they are guilty of themselves.
As I wrote previously on March 14, 2002, in this very space, the battle is whether there will be an independent judiciary or a liberal litmus test to transform our courts into another political branch. Miguel Estrada said yes to public service for 29 months; what did we do in that same time frame and what can we do now to help good people serve?
Now you'll have to excuse me while I go fetch Clarence a fresh box of tissues...
posted by tbogg at 1:10 PM
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It's all fun and games until someone gets
crushed by a speeding Cadillac.
Republican Road Rules:
U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow had a close call with another vehicle late last year at the same Moody County intersection where he was involved in a fatal accident two weeks ago.
Jennifer Walters told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Janklow nearly collided with her after he ran a stop sign on Dec. 29.
Walters and her family were headed to a relative's house for a holiday dinner when they heard the screech of tires behind them at the rural intersection. When she turned, she said she saw a white Cadillac trying to stop after running a stop sign.
"A split-second difference and the Cadillac would have hit us," said Walters, 30, of Trent. "That's how fast the car came through."
Walters, who was riding in a pickup truck with her husband and two sons, said she called Moody County authorities to report the driver and describe the make and color of the car. Within the hour, she said, a dispatcher called her back to say an officer had stopped the car and identified its driver as Janklow, who was then South Dakota's governor and had been elected to the U.S. House
[snip]
Walters said the dispatcher who called her back that day never told her whether the Cadillac was speeding when the driver was stopped. But Walters said that when she asked the dispatcher why the driver ran the stop sign, the dispatcher "chuckled under her breath and said, 'It was Gov. Janklow.'"
Over the years, Janklow has developed a reputation for speeding and joked about it in one State of the State address and made reference to it in another.
His driving record shows numerous citations from the early 1990s, when he was ticketed 12 times for speeding and paid more than $1,000 in fines. In several cases, he was stopped for driving 15 to 20 miles per hour faster than the posted speed limits and once was caught going 90 mph in a 65-mph zone.
This should ruin him as a politician but would not disqualify him from becoming First Lady.
(Yes. That was cold. Too bad...)
posted by tbogg at 12:29 PM
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I went to sleep as the Washington Post and woke up
as the Washington Times
From the so-called "liberal" Post:
"A VICTORY FOR the Constitution, for the nation's judicial system and for the American people," crowed Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) of the decision by Miguel A. Estrada to withdraw as President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. People for the American Way credited "a courageous Democratic filibuster" for the triumph. Remember those words, because they will surely be thrown back the next time a Democratic president tries to nominate to the court a highly qualified individual about whom Republican senators -- for whatever frivolous reason -- may harbor suspicions. Mr. Estrada's case will be cited as a critical precedent: A nominee of substance and quality can be filibustered until he quits in frustration because he refuses to answer detailed questions about his views of specific cases and because the administration refuses to turn over his confidential attorney work product for political scrutiny by the Senate. Who exactly will have the credibility to demand fair treatment for that next qualified nominee?
The handling of Mr. Estrada's nomination is a low point in a steadily degrading judicial selection process. Opponents acted on little more than whispers about his supposed right-wing extremism, fears that he would some day be elevated to the Supreme Court and the disgusting charge that he was inadequately Hispanic -- whatever that means. Meanwhile, many Republicans, including some in the White House, happily sought to use the controversy to score points with Hispanic voters -- making the nomination into a gross spectacle of ethnic politics. Even more dangerous, Mr. Estrada was subjected to a kind of extortion by the Senate: Answer the sort of detailed jurisprudential questions nominees have long balked at addressing, he was told, or you get no vote.
We would like to think that this might be a moment for some sober second thoughts -- that all involved might wonder what they had done to bring the nomination process so low. Senate Republicans might consider to what extent their own disgraceful treatment of President Clinton's nominees fueled the fire.
But they won't.
As for the handling of Estrada being a "low point". Here's how low they can go:
He couldn't have known it at the time. But on Oct. 4, 1999, when Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft rose on the floor of the United States Senate to oppose the nomination of a black Missouri judge to the federal bench, the conservative Republican was about to give the most politically damaging speech of his 25-year career.
At that moment it represented a triumph for Ashcroft. He'd dropped plans to win the 2000 Republican presidential nomination due to little support, and he'd made an equally lackluster run to become chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1993. So Ashcroft's ability to convince every one of his GOP colleagues to join with him in voting down the nomination of Missouri Supreme Court Justice Ronnie White -- the first time Republicans had publicly rejected one of President Clinton's judicial nominees -- signaled real influence within the Republican Party.
Standing on the floor of the Senate, Ashcroft seemed to go out of his way to belittle and ridicule White. The Missouri senator labeled the Democratic judge "pro-criminal," and cautioned colleagues that White would substitute "personal politics" for the law, and "improperly exercise his will" if confirmed. That, despite the fact that White's judicial record was not all that different from judges Ashcroft had appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court when he was governor.
After the vote Ashcroft crowed that White's defeat was a victory for Missouri law enforcement. Instead, the "victory" haunts Ashcroft to this day. It ended his elected political career last Nov. 7, when Ashcroft lost his first statewide runoff in more than two decades. And now it appears to be the only obstacle standing in the way of him becoming George W. Bush's attorney general, as critics prepare to use the White nomination to question both Ashcroft's racial tolerance and his sense of political fair play.
This was a contributing factor in Ashcroft becoming ex-Senator Can't Beat A Dead Man. Unfortunately he arose from the grave to become Attorney General Torquemada.
Getting back to the Washington Post, it looks like they wish to reclaim the title as paper of record for the Pet Rock Democrats™. You know, the ones like Alan Colmes, Margaret Carlson, and Michael Totten who end up being quoted by the Freeperloids, as in "Well, even ( insert Pet Rock here) says that....."
Someday they may wonder why the rope hanging from the gallows looks so familiar.
posted by tbogg at 12:11 PM
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Tom Toles
Genius.
The flightsuit comment is just icing on the cake.
posted by tbogg at 11:57 AM
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Score one for the girls
Yesterday, with five minutes left in the first quarter, a small pony-tailed kicker trotted onto the field and kicked an extra point giving her team a seven point lead, making her the first female athlete to compete in a boys sport in her schools 46-year history.
There was great rejoicing throughout the land....
posted by tbogg at 9:43 AM
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Look! We can do our jobs and drink....
European leaders taunting President Dry Drunk.
posted by tbogg at 9:20 AM
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Thursday, September 04, 2003
Big Lies
I'm almost done with Joe Conason's Big Lies, which I highly recommend. After that I plan on reading Franken's book. I'm not ready to write a review of either of them like some people I know who judge a book before they've ever picked it up, so you should stop by Cheeseweasel for a nice review of current literature and some great talking points.
Go along now....
posted by tbogg at 1:35 PM
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Today's Tom Sawyer*
As I read about Germany and France saying " Bite me" to President Whistle Ass, it reminds me of Tom Sawyer attempting to lure the neighborhood kids into painting the fence for him.
"Send our military into a viper pit? Provide money to rebuild a country that you destroyed, against the wishes of the world, so that your political contributors can reap the reward? Sure. Where do I sign up?"
Somehow the Bush Administration braintrust got it into their heads that the European nations are made up of Fox-News-watching, mouth-breathing, Toby-Keith-listening, gun-loving dumb puppies with short memories. You mainly find them in Georgia**. The fact that these countries are saying "No" isn't an indication that they are elitist or arrogant or coddlers of "Islamo-facists" (whatever they are). They're just not dumbasses....
(*My use of Today's Tom Sawyer should not be construed to mean that I approve of Rush. While technically talented, Rush sucks)
(**The state of Georgia still has some explaining to do to make up for choosing Chickenhawk Saxby Chambliss over Max Cleland.)
posted by tbogg at 1:10 PM
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Tom Toles looks into his crystal ball...sees a moron
Tom Toles this morning.
President Whistle Ass this afternoon:
The U.S. economy is “showing signs of promise,” President Bush said Thursday in his second speech in 10 days in Missouri, a state he narrowly won in 2000 and has doggedly courted ever since.
“OUR ECONOMY IS starting to grow again,” Bush said at the Kansas City Convention Center. “Americans are feeling more confident. I am determined to work with the United States Congress to turn these hopeful signs into lasting growth and greater prosperity and more jobs.”
Meanwhile 413,000 new jobless claims.
posted by tbogg at 11:19 AM
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Patriot Day had a much nicer ring to it than Haul Ass for Offut Day
Besides checking out the boxscore on the previous night's Ranger's game, President Chicken Run II has made plans for the morning of September 11:
Then the president, his wife, Laura, and members of his staff will gather on the South Lawn to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the moment when the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
In the afternoon, Bush will go to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, to meet with troops wounded in Iraq (news - web sites).
McClellan, who announced Bush's schedule, said he also would sign two proclamations, one of them designating September 11 as a national day of prayer and remembrance and another designating the day as Patriot Day.
It also will call on Americans to hold candlelight vigils and prayer services to mark the day and will direct the nation's governors to fly the flag at half-staff in honor of the victims of the terrorist attack, McClellan said. He said it would also encourage ordinary citizens to fly flags at home at half-staff.
Meanwhile the Pentagon is going all Milli Vanilli when honoring the dead:
Chronically short of musicians for military funerals, the Pentagon (news - web sites) has approved the use of a push-button bugle that plays taps by itself as the operator holds it to his lips.
Only some 500 buglers are on active duty on any one day, but about 1,800 people with military service die across the country each day and are eligible for honors ceremonies, Air Force Lt. Col. Cynthia Colin, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Thursday.
So the Defense Department worked with private industry to invent the "ceremonial bugle," which has a small digital recording device inserted into its bell to play the music.
A member of the honor guard at the funeral simply presses a button on the device. A five-second delay gives the guards time to raise the instrument to their lips as if they are going to play it.
posted by tbogg at 10:46 AM
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Who cares about a celebrity's opinion..unless he's running for Governor
L'affaire d'Depp:
Depp joins a chorus of complaint over U.S. policy expressed recently by actors including Harrison Ford, Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon.
Coming a few days after the one-time Indiana Jones knocked the Bush administration, Depp's dig prompted a counterattack of punditry.
"There's no puppy love for a bunch of terrorist killers who slew 3,000 people in New York City not long ago," Larry Kudlow, of CNBC's "Kudlow and Cramer," told us. "Maybe Mr. Depp should think about that. Unfortunately, a lot of good actors say very stupid things. Frankly, I'm sorry he said this, because I was looking forward to seeing 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' but I'm not going to now."
Kudlow failed to mention that he's a big fan of Depp's Blow. Hell, he didn't just see the movie...he lived it:
Now let's examine the contrasting case of a more fortunate druggie -- a prominent Reaganite not altogether unlike the current Republican presidential front-runner. Lawrence Kudlow, the conservative Ivy-educated son of a rich New Jersey businessman, once served as chief economist for the Office of Management and Budget during the Reagan administration. Later, he earned $1 million a year at the investment house of Bear Stearns. He was also a cocaine addict who checked into the Hazelden clinic in 1995, after he blacked out and his third wife threatened to divorce him.
Following successful treatment, the reformed Kudlow has told his sad story on television and returned to the good graces of his sympathetic fellow Republicans. He currently advises the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee on tax and budget policy, no doubt urging big cuts in domestic spending (including publicly funded drug treatment programs for those who can't afford Hazelden or the Betty Ford Clinic).
In short, Kudlow has benefitted from liberal attitudes toward drug abuse, which prescribe medicalization rather than criminalization. Among his Republican peers, however, that kinder, gentler approach is considered too lenient to be applied to the poor.
posted by tbogg at 9:01 AM
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Another lying liar who lies
Tim Graham over at The Corner:
Enron-connected Tom White, who the press hounded to resign from the Pentagon, is now suddenly the new top expert on how the Pentagon failed to anticipate postwar Iraq. He appeared this morning via tape kicking off the interview segments at both ABC and NBC this morning.
Reality:
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanded U.S. Army Secretary Tom White step down Friday, a senior Pentagon official said, a move that follows two years of contention between the two.
The official said Rumsfeld called White into his office and demanded his resignation, which White provided.
In a short statement released Friday, the Pentagon said White had resigned but offered no explanation. The statement said Rumsfeld accepted the resignation and expressed appreciation to White "for his long and able service to the country, first as a career U.S. Army officer and then as secretary of the Army."
Notice Graham's sneering reference to Enron as if to indicate that Enron was some sort of scandal that had nothing to do with the administration. Enron only becomes an epithet to people like Graham when the administration is under attack.
More on White here from the Beltway Bandit.
posted by tbogg at 8:22 AM
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Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Fear of a brown planet
I stumbled into the blog of one Stefan Sharkansky today and was quite impressed at his high-toned racism. He almost sounds reasonable.
Here's Stefan riding the MECHa horse hard:
Can you think of many of other immigrant groups (e.g. Jews, Poles, Irish, Koreans) who speak in terms of self-determination, of building a "nation within a nation" and equating their identity with a particular part of the United States? I can't. Put this mural and the Aztlan movement in the broader context of: demands for bilingual education, demands for preferential treatment in hiring and admissions, demands for full privileges for illegal immigrants; not to mention Mexican irredentism.
Yes, I think there is a significant separatist movement among Mexican Americans. I don't know how many Mexican Americans support it and to what extent, but it seems to be enough of a force that it should be taken seriously and actively rejected. Cruz Bustamante has failed to renounce it, and is therefore encouraging it. He has in my view, disqualified himself as a viable statewide official.
But the problem goes beyond Bustamante. The separatist movement is being encouraged and nourished in the public universities at taxpayer expense. Okay, the UW mural above is 30 years old. But that's not an excuse for the university to continue to celebrate it. Public policies that encourage separatism will inevitably lead to something like this.
He thinks there is a "significant separatist movement among Mexican Americans" but he doesn't know "how many Mexican Americans support it " and so he feels that since Bustamante hasn't "renounced" this thing that may or may not exist, he must be supporting it. Evidence of a "separatist movement " being encouraged at our public universities? A thirty year old mural.
Hey. You can't argue with that kind of deductive reasoning. Well you could, but it looks like it would be a big waste of time.
Meanwhile, he seems to be proposing that we could save the young black men of Washington DC by sending them to Iraq.
According to this week's story from Scripps Howard News Service, there are 140,000 troops in Iraq, and there have been 286 fatalities from all causes since the war began in March (about 24 weeks ago). That gives us an annualized death rate of 443 per 100,000. Only about half of these deaths (147) were in combat, for a combat death rate of 228 per 100,000.
According to Center for Disease Control / National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, there were 21,836 young black men (age 18-30) in Washington DC in 2000, the latest year that mortality data is available. The total number of deaths in this group from all causes was 132, with 95 homicides. i.e. the death rate for this group was 604 per 100,000 and the murder rate was 435 per 100,000.
In other words, a young black male soldier from Washington DC would have been 36% more likely to die by staying at home than by serving in active duty in the Iraq war, and almost twice as likely to be murdered at home than to be killed in combat. Yes, that's horribly sad, but it puts a few things in perspective.
I'm glad he threw that "horribly sad" in there so we wouldn't think that he was insensitive or something.
posted by tbogg at 10:32 PM
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Como usted dice: estupido?
Jon at San Diego Soliloquies provides the Fox News crowd with a language lesson.
(Sorry...couldn't do the little upside down question marks)
posted by tbogg at 3:37 PM
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Welcome...
Open Source Politics
Too much good stuff.
posted by tbogg at 3:24 PM
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We should all look this good
Emmylou Harris is 56 years old and this is what she looks like on her new CD.
Gawd.
posted by tbogg at 2:28 PM
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Shane! Don't go!
Dwight Meredith over at PLA is closing up shop. That's a shame because Dwight's blog is the best of all worlds when it comes to blogging: a little politics, a little personal, a lot of insight. He's a good writer and I hope we see him around again soon, possibly in another format. I can understand his desire to move on. I've been doing this for almost a year, mainly to amuse myself, and it can be consuming at times. When I don't blog I feel like I'm letting people down and we can't have that now, can we?
Good luck, Dwight. I expect that I'll click on your link in a few weeks and find a Starbucks there in its place.
posted by tbogg at 2:14 PM
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Bon mots from the Chuck E Cheese Algonquin table
Oh, the drollery!:
North Korea's performance as a dictatorial pariah is something of a tautology. What more can be written about than the DPRK's congenital unreliability in civilized conduct, brutality towards the North Korean population and obsession with catastrophic weapons? It's like putting together a script for The Three Stooges: maybe a little something unexpected but for the most part, variations on a theme. James Robbins busts the average:
This instrumentalist view of international agreements may not come as a surprise to students of Soviet history, but if there are any of them in the State Department, they were probably reading Lenin for the wrong reasons.
Dennis Miller, move over!
I dare confess that I guffawed and chortled so at such whimsy, such gay repartee, that I hastened to my bedchamber for a lie-down and a nip of laudanum to sooth my fevered brow. How deliciously naughty....
posted by tbogg at 8:52 AM
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That existential dread you feel when you realize that he's an idiot with his finger on the button
The natives are getting restless:
Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, reflecting a sense of anxiety heard by members of both parties, said he wants to "combat a sense of drift" about U.S. policy in Iraq and bring in more international assistance.
Most of the half-dozen senators interviewed yesterday said they sensed mounting unease over the series of bombings in Iraq and the continuing loss of American lives. But few reported any demands for an American pullback.
"Mainly, people want reassurance that the administration knows what it's doing," said Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah), "that things are going better than CNN would have us believe."
Some Democrats described the anxiety level at home in starker terms. "There's a real deep concern now," said Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (S.C.). "People are wondering how much this will cost in money and lives and how are we gonna get out of there? I had one teacher say, 'We've got a tar baby on our hands.' "
Just tell them that there is light at the end of the tunnel that leads to a quagmire which is just across a busy intersection from peace with honor. That ought to hold'em.
posted by tbogg at 8:24 AM
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More fun with Bush numbers
Googling reader Jennifer came up with these:
Bush + Antichrist = 32,900
Bush + playground bully = 5,980
Bush + cancer on democracy = 90,100
Bush + evidence of the death of the republic = 191,000
Bush+sex change deviant = 7,230
Bush + tiny penis = 73,800
Bush + justification for retroactive abortion = 289
posted by tbogg at 8:08 AM
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This looks like a job for Pseudo-Hero
Be the first one on your block
(Thanks to Chris)
posted by tbogg at 7:59 AM
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Our branch of Christianity believes that when you die your soul gets stuck under a desk.
The Rubber Nun links us to bubblicious Jesus.
posted by tbogg at 12:01 AM
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Tuesday, September 02, 2003
"Por La Raza todo. Fuera de la Raza Nada"
Mickey and Glenn and Tacitus and all the other strawgrabbers are desperately trying to hang something, anything, on Bustamante. Of particular interest to them is the (translated) phrase "For the race, all; Outside the race, nothing."
Isn't this really more of an issue for the Republican Party? After all, it's their trademarked slogan.
I'm sure Fox can lend them some intellectual property attorneys who are just sitting around licking their wounds...
(Update): David Neiwert is all over this like white on Cheney....
posted by tbogg at 11:48 PM
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I give up...oil?
Ed Cone is either worried that 9/11 will pass unremarked upon, or he seems to be under the delusion that Iraq was responsible:
Invading Iraq when we did and how we did was not my preference, but it is the policy we are pursuing. We’ve got to succeed. This isn’t a matter of revenge. It’s not bringing anyone’s husband or father back to life. But as the anniversary approaches, let’s remember what started this whole thing.
We'll give a probably well-meaning Ed a mulligan and assume that he knows that 9/11 is been used as a pretext for The Great Cheney Halliburton Iraqi Hostile Takeover and Bush Manhood Makeover featuring a cast of thousands and the death of thousands more.
posted by tbogg at 11:34 PM
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Virgin Ben's dry spell is over
No, he didn't get laid. This isn't exactly the Age of Miracles. But what we love about our little unsullied flower of Jewish boyhood is when he goes where no Ben has gone before: talking about S-E-X. Shhhhhh....
Britney Spears was 12 years old when Madonna did a performance in Sydney, Australia, titled "The Girlie Show." It's unlikely she viewed Madonna dressed as a man, flirting outrageously with female performers while singing "Like a Virgin." But if she did, did she hope that one day she would be able to make out with Madonna herself?
If she did, the 2003 MTV Awards ceremony must have been a dream come true for her. Spears and fellow Mickey-Mouseketeer-turned-slut Christina Aguilera joined Madonna in a tribute to "Like a Virgin." Spears and Aguilera were dressed in mock bridal gowns, with Madonna dressed in black, as the groom. After the three danced around like strippers starved for tips, Madonna turned to Spears, Spears opened her mouth, and the two played a round of tonsil hockey. When she was done cleaning Spears' teeth with her tongue, Madonna turned to Aguilera, and they shared an open-mouthed kiss. Throughout the lesbian orgy, the crowd roared its approval.
Let's stop right here. You know, if I had known there was going to be a lesbian orgy, I would have watched. But only in the fevered mind of Lil Ben would this qualify as a "lesbian orgy". Hell, Lynne Cheney could knock out a better lesbian orgy scenario ballgagged, oiled up, and sitting astride Dick...and she has. And shouldn't we ask how it is that Ben knows how "strippers starved for tips" dance?
More from the Prince of Nocturnal Emissions:
Crossing the line has been a staple of the MTV Awards since its start. Each year, someone has to do something outrageous. And Spears has a history of pushing the envelope. Two years ago, Spears gyrated half-naked with a giant Freudian snake around her neck. That's quite a distance from Spears' all-American, solid-Christian, virgin-until-I'm-married image of a few years back.
"giant Freudian snake". "Giant Freudian snake"? What the fu--. Is this what happens when someone spends their time in Psych 101 coloring in the basketball player on their Pee-Chee folder? "Giant Freudian snake"? Somebody call the Psych Department at UCLA...
What happened to Britney? She started to lose popularity. She was too old to maintain popularity as a "virgin." Society expected her to lose her virginity -- now. So she lost it retroactively, by admitting that she had slept with longtime boyfriend Justin Timberlake years before. But it wasn't enough. Society wanted a rebel, someone who could break the rules. Britney obliged by suggesting to Madonna that they swap saliva on MTV.
Society doesn't just demand rebellion and over-the-line behavior from its entertainers. It demands that girls (and boys) have sex before marriage, at younger and younger ages. It demands that young women (and men) "experiment" with their sexuality. It demands that biblical values be kept out of schools and that condoms be kept in them. Society demands that dignity take a back seat to salaciousness.
Let's hop into the wayback machine and check out young innocent 17-year old Britney:
Oh baby baby
the reason I breathe is you
boy you've got me blinded
Oh pretty baby
there's nothin' that I wouldn't do
It's not the way I planned it
Show me
how you want it to be
tell me baby
'cause I need to know now
Here's Britney not selling sex at age 17.
I'm sure Ben, who is quite the cultural omnivore, would like us to believe that he was unaware of such doings back in the day, but I think Ben's mattress (and long-suffering mother) may tell another grimmer story...
posted by tbogg at 11:17 PM
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McCarthy era watch
I don't imagine Feral Republican Ann Coulter will be watching American Masters tomorrow night on PBS, when they show " Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and the Blacklist: None Without Sin," by documentarian Michael Epstein. No sense in her taking the risk and actually learning something.
posted by tbogg at 10:13 PM
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George W Bush by the numbers
Prior to the 2000 (s)election, the popular line on the presidential candidates was that Gore was a "liar" and George W Bush was "stupid". A quick check with Google finds some interesting numbers.
A search of Bush+stupid will get you 1.1 million links.
Gore+liar only gets you 48,400 links.
I guess George 'beat' Al again, and without help from Fat Tony this time.
Here's some more fun numbers:
George W Bush+liar will get you 51,700
Bush+AWOL 43,000
George W Bush+monkey 84,900 (This is suprising close to Clinton+penis which would garner you 84,800...go figure)
Bush+drunk 438,000
Bush+coward 92,000
Isn't the internet fun?
posted by tbogg at 11:29 AM
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But seriously folks....
David Frum who has just finished writing a book with war-profiteer Richard Perle says the darndest things:
Is it possible that the brilliant original formula that made Crossfire a success in the 1990s--all opinion, no information--is out of date in a world in which Americans are threatened by dangers about which they crave information. You can learn things by listening to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, or by watching the Fox News Channel or CNN's Aaron Brown. But who has learned anything from Crossfire" recently?
Exactly how stupid do you have to be to "learn" something from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Fox News?
posted by tbogg at 11:00 AM
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One man's "moral fall" is another man's "hot gay sex"
His heart belonged to Jesus...but his penis had other ideas:
Five years after starring in a national advertising campaign claiming gays can change their sexual orientation, Michael Johnston experienced a “moral fall” and left behind his ministries, two conservative Christian groups that worked with Johnston confirmed this week.
“I received a call from [Johnston] asking forgiveness as a Christian brother and asking for our prayers, indicating that he was working with his pastor and his church to try to find some restoration in his relationship with God,” said Buddy Smith, American Family Association administrator.
The Mississippi-based AFA partnered with Johnston to promote ex-gay programs, including Johnston’s National Coming Out of Homosexuality Day.
The annual event is unlikely to continue following Johnston’s “moral fall,” but Smith said the AFA won’t abandon its claims that gays can change.
Then there is this unfortunate quote:
“Many people are still behind him, and we think he did the responsible thing by closing the ministry down,” LaBarbera added.
Must...not...make... obvious ....joke......
posted by tbogg at 9:59 AM
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Win a dream date with Jesus, one of you may still be a virgin...
It's Tiger Beat for the good Christian Girl:
We have here, and I'll show our viewers, of course, the traditional Holy Bible. We also have here the complete New Testament, your Holy Bible, called "Revolve." It's a pretty different look, although the words inside are the same. A lot of the sidebars, as you point out, are different.
Why did you do this?
KATE ETUE, SENIOR EDITOR, TRANSIT BOOKS: Well, we spend a lot of time with teenagers at Transit. We try to see them once a week, whether online or face to face. And although 82 percent of America's teenagers say that they are Christians, only 32 percent say that they read the Bible. And we decided we needed to give it to them in a format they know how to use, which is magazines.
BLITZER: And if you look inside the magazine, it is amazing how you've done it, very cleverly. For example, there are some beauty tips that you put in, beauty secrets. Shopping tips, "Make sure that Jesus would be pleased with what you wear. You don't have to look frumpy, just make sure you look like a child of God."
What Thong Would Jesus Wear?
...and how did somone write this with a straight face?
If you, because even if you look through, you start flipping through the pages, as I have, you see all sorts of techniques, editorial production values taken from some of these magazines that we're talking about.
Another one, a beauty secret involving sunscreen with a headline that says, "The Bible Is Like Our Spiritual Sunscreen, It Acts as a Filter, Letting in the Good and Keeping Out the Bad."
You can purchase Evolve over at Amazon where I found this book description:
In focus groups, online polling, and one-on-one discussion, Extreme for Jesus has found that the number one reason teens don't read the Bible is that it is "too big and freaky looking." This fashion-magazine format for the New Testament is the perfect solution to that problem. Teen girls feel comfortable exploring the Scriptures and over 500 further-study notes because of the relevant format!
" Too big and freaky looking"? Are they sure they weren't looking at The Clenis™?
posted by tbogg at 9:19 AM
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Drop the big one and see what happens
Jeanne over at Body and Soul is having second thoughts about Randy Newman's Political Science.
If you don't have a copy of Sail Away and Good Old Boys, you life is not complete.
posted by tbogg at 8:54 AM
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Meanwhile...back at the ranch
Ted Rall
posted by tbogg at 8:44 AM
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Just slip the wounded in the night deposit slot
If a soldiers is wounded in Iraq and they don't issue a press release, does that mean they don't bleed?
THE NUMBER of those wounded in action, which totals 1,124 since the war began in March, has grown so large, and attacks have become so commonplace, that U.S. Central Command usually issues press releases listing injuries only when the attacks kill one or more troops. The result is that many injuries go unreported.
The rising number and quickening pace of soldiers being wounded on the battlefield have been overshadowed by the number of troops killed since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations May 1. But alongside those Americans killed in action, an even greater toll of battlefield wounded continues unabated, with an increasing number being injured through small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, remote-controlled mines and what the Pentagon refers to as “improvised explosive devices.”
Indeed, the number of troops wounded in action in Iraq is now more than twice that of the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The total increased more than 35 percent in August — with an average of almost 10 troops a day injured last month.
Fifty-five Americans were wounded in action last week alone, pushing the number of troops wounded in action since May 1 beyond the number wounded during peak fighting. From March 19 to April 30, 550 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq. Since May 1, the number totals 574. The number of troops killed in Iraq since the beginning of May already has surpassed the total killed during the height of the war.
[snip]
With no fanfare and almost no public notice, giant C-17 transport jets arrive virtually every night at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, on medical evacuation missions. Since the war began, more than 6,000 service members have been flown back to the United States. The number includes the 1,124 wounded in action, 301 who received non-hostile injuries in vehicle accidents and other mishaps, and thousands who became physically or mentally ill.
“Our nation doesn’t know that,” said Susan Brewer, president and founder of America’s Heroes of Freedom, a nonprofit organization that collects clothing and other personal items for the returning troops. “Sort of out of sight and out of mind.”
One can only imagine how bad it would be if Iraq was a quagmire. We'd have to imagine, since they don't seem to want to tell us....
posted by tbogg at 12:13 AM
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I'm a West Coast elitist...so sue me
I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel this way, but the idea of Rick Bragg, who is an outstanding writer, writing the story of Jessica Lynch, is like hiring William Faulkner to write an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. The material just isn't there.
...and who the hell is going to buy this thing? Oh wait....attention Wal-Mart shoppers.....
posted by tbogg at 12:02 AM
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Monday, September 01, 2003
The Michael Bellesiles of the barrel-stroking set
It's surprising to see that there are still media organizations that still take John Lott (he of the flexible sexuality) seriously. These days it's the Chicago Sun-Times:
The tragic attack on Wednesday at Windy City Core Supply left six people murdered. What can be learned from the attack? Acting Chicago Police Supt. Phil Cline was already being described in the press as taking ''a swipe at lenient U.S. gun controls.''
The attack took place in a city where new handguns since 1982 are already banned, a giant so-called ''gun-free safe zone.'' Yet, consider the following: Suppose you or your family are being stalked by a criminal who intends on harming you. Would you feel safer putting a sign in front of your home saying ''This Home is a Gun-Free Zone''?
[snip]
People's reaction to the horrific events displayed on TV is understandable, but the more than 2 million times each year that Americans use guns defensively are never discussed--even though this is five times as often as the 450,000 times that guns are used to commit crimes over the last couple of years. Seldom do cases make the news where public shootings are stopped or mothers use guns to prevent their children from being kidnapped. Few would know that a third of the public school shootings were stopped by citizens with guns before uniformed police could arrive.
I wonder out of whose ass Lott pulled these numbers? Guess we'll never know.
posted by tbogg at 11:37 PM
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One down, 8,999,999 to go
President Lucky To Have A Job wants to create more jobs, something he has been saying for three years now as we have shed close to three million of them during his reign of error:
"We're committed to helping those who've got a job to keep a job and for those who are looking, to find a job," Bush said to cheers. "That's the commitment this Labor Day."
Bush's trip to Richfield, Ohio, on a damp, overcast holiday marked his third visit this year to the Buckeye State, which he narrowly won in 2000. He spoke to members of the International Union of Operating Engineers, which represents 400,000 construction and maintenance workers in the United States and Canada.
Tucked between the Democratic strongholds of Akron and Cleveland, Richfield has leaned toward Republicans in past elections. The site of Bush's speech, the union's training facility, was well-prepped for his visit. A half dozen construction cranes provided the backdrop where Bush was to speak on a damp, overcast day.
Bush defended his administration's handling of the economy at a time when the civilian jobless rate is at 6.2 percent and more than 9 million people are out of work.
At least he created one job today:
Bush also announced that he asked Commerce Secretary Don Evans to create the position of assistant commerce secretary for manufacturing to give more attention to a sector of the economy that has been especially hard hit. Bush will nominate that person but there is no timetable for his selection, said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan.
Everybody please fill out your application and get in line. All nine million of you. And no shoving....
posted by tbogg at 10:23 AM
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Yeah. Because nobody ever talks about 9/11 anymore....
How to take the vicarious thrill of tragedy, claim it as your own, and fill up an otherwise empty life:
MB posted a rant yesterday about the media stealing our Day To Remember and trying to hide it in the closet as though it were some dirty little secret. "They" believe "they" have some ordained right to deny us any recognition &/or remembrance of those outrageous attacks on our country, our people, and our souls. They are doing token little gawpy, mewling pieces here and there about individuals whose lives were damaged or destroyed by what they demean as 'incidents', as though this brutal assault were just another mundane 'accident'.
Those were not 'incidents' or 'accidents'; they were the opening salvos of the war in which we are now engaged. In 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared 7DEC1941 a Day Of Infamy. We must declare 11SEP2001 a Day To Remember and preserve its importance to us all. This battle is for the very life and soul of not only our country but for the peace, prosperity, and heart of the entire world.
The "media" be damned! We WILL NOT forget how we were attacked. We WILL remember and gather strength and purpose from it. We WILL persevere and prevail.
What a great idea! " declare 11SEP2001 a Day To Remember", because the media, will, you know, probably not even mention it...
(Update): Here's what started this weeks outrage:
Let me get this straight - I have to be subjected to hundreds of hours of programming about Laci friggin' Peterson over the last nine months, on regular news, breaking news, news magazines, even some A&E program - but "nothing special" about 9/11 on its second anniversary? That's just one example. The news people spend completely obnoxious amounts of time on "special" programming for all manner of utter and complete crap, but only TWO YEARS after the worst day in America's history, they're not going to bother devoting primetime air to commemorate that catastrophe?
I don't get it. I don't get it. I. Do. Not. Get. It.
You see 9/11 was the "worst day in America's history". Not that attack on Pearl Harbor that plunged us into war. Not Gettysburg where over 51,000 Americans died. It was 9/11, because, well, it happened just recently during the short lives of people who have known no other tragedies, and everyone knows that what happens now is the biggest or best or most popular or most tragic or....
What we lack in perspective, we make up for in self-obsession and navel gazing and patting ourselves on the back. And god knows we love a good wallow. Especially one that will get the blood pumping for more foreign blood to wash away our own which is exactly what these "commemoration" shows would do...
posted by tbogg at 9:35 AM
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Happy Labor Day...if you have a job
Even though the recession ended nearly two years ago, polls show that American workers are feeling stressed and shaky this Labor Day because the nation continues to register month after month of job losses and wages are rising more slowly than inflation.
One factor above all has fueled the insecurity: the nation has lost 2.7 million jobs over the last three years. The recovery has been so weak since the recession ended in November 2001 that the nation's payrolls are down one million jobs from when economic growth resumed.
Indeed, the current economic expansion is the worst on record in terms of job growth. The average length of unemployment, more than 19 weeks, spiked this summer to its highest level in two decades.
"American workers are doing very badly," said Carl Van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. "All the trends are in the negative direction. There's high turnover, high instability, a reduction in benefits and a declining loyalty on the part of employers. At the same time, expectations for productivity and quality are going up. It's a bad situation from a worker's standpoint."
Thank you, red states...
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