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Friday, October 31, 2003
Your thought for the weekend
Dare to slack
posted by tbogg at 4:45 PM
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One more thing that we can thank Bill Clinton for...
U.S. pregnancy, birth and abortion rates decline in 1990s
Atlanta-AP _ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says pregnancy, birth and abortion rates dropped from 1990 to 1999.
Two words: blow jobs.
Oh, sure, there's still blow jobs going on today, but the only ones of note involve George W Bush and Howard Fineman.
posted by tbogg at 3:35 PM
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The Whoppers™...they are mine, I say. Mine.
Well it's Halloween at the tbogg house again. It probably is at your house too, depending on where you live relative to the International dateline, but whatever. In past years my daughter would do her trick and/or treating in her friend's neighborhood, but since it looks like this now, well, that ain't gonna happen. I on the other hand would stay at home with Satchmo the Wonder Basset (and before him, Cooder the Previous Wonder Basset who is now Cooder the No Longer Living Basset) and hand out candy to the little nippers who came to our doorstep.
Except they never came.
We have lived at our current home for over seven years and have been visited by three, count'em, three trick or treaters in all that time. Our neighborhood is mostly made up of retired couples, college students, and yuppie singles. Outside of my daughter, you could throw a fun-sized Butterfinger three blocks before you'd hit a kid.
But hope springs eternal. We have Whoppers, and Skittles, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (oh my).
Just in case any of the little collectivist welfare-state beggars show up demanding to share in the fruits of my labor.
Have a Happy Rand-ian Halloween.....
posted by tbogg at 1:27 PM
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Trouble at the Republican corral
Those stupid Republican Senators. Acting like they're all elected to do the people's business and stuff:
Congress is about to hand President Bush a big victory by approving the money he wants for Iraq, but privately many lawmakers are fuming.
Their ire is caused not so much by events overseas as by the high-handed way they believe the administration has treated the legislative branch at home.
The House approved the Iraq package on a vote of 298 to 121 early today, and the Senate was expected to follow on Monday to send Bush the legislation providing $87.5 billion for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. But beneath the apparent victory for the administration lie deep tensions even among members of Bush's party who have felt shut out and taken for granted.
"I don't think there is any one of us that hasn't been frustrated," said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and one of the most powerful members of Congress, who complained that he had been stood up by a senior administration official the day he was to begin writing the final version of the Iraq funding bill.
"They have treated us like a nuisance and appendage," said Sen. Charles Hagel (R-Neb.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
In an effort to smooth things over, President I'm The Boss of You is sending them each a little gift.
Wear them proudly, boys.
posted by tbogg at 11:37 AM
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Luskin speaks...Upton's thin pursed lips don't move
Setting the record straight:
Dear Internet Readers,
Recent comments on various web sites and 'blogs' call into question my dogged pursuit of economist Paul Krugman, suggesting that I am somehow stalking the evil New York Times columnist.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is entirely possible for a person to post to their 'blog' about an evil, bearded economist who has received all the accolades that person has ever wanted in their lives, stealing the glory from that person and their precise financial theories, forcing them to sit in a darkened room, mulling the fact that this so-called economist is going on television and publishing a best-selling book, getting all the attention that should be mine, mine!! The bastard! The conniving, attention-grabbing sonovabitch!! He'll never get away with it!!!
Oh. Where was I?
posted by tbogg at 11:13 AM
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You too can join the Vichy Democrats...just pick up your white flag over there...
I'm just all a-feared. I mean if we have lost semi-obscure Roger Simon (author of not-really-best-selling books about a washed-up sixties radical...insert your own joke ...here), semi-obscurer Michael Totten, and obscure-unto-non-existant Cara Remal, well, Jeebus!, we might just as well pack it in, force our wives to have more children, bust up the unions, trash the environment, invade more countries, privatize the government by turning it over to Halliburton, watch Fox news, and buy lots more guns and volumes 3 through 9 of the Left Behind series.
I mean, dude, it is so over. Or as Michael says:
Democrats: You had better snap out of denial and get your act together fast. You are in so much trouble and you have no idea.
Speaking of being in trouble and having no ideas, I see things are going swimmingly over in Iraq:
U.S. troops clashed with about 350 rioters on Friday in a suburb of Baghdad, including some holding Saddam Hussein’s picture aloft and calling the Americans “terrorists.” Meanwhile, a U.S. soldier was killed in a bombing in the hostile “Sunni triangle” area west of Baghdad, a U.S. military spokeswoman said.
[snip]
A U.S. officer at the scene, 1st Lt. Joseph Harrison, said someone tossed a grenade at American soldiers in the marketplace, wounding two Americans. About the same time, mortars fell on an Iraqi police station near the market.
U.S. forces responded with force. Col. Lee Quintas, with the 3rd Brigade, First Armored Division, said the mop-up operation in Abu Ghraib was the largest mounted in the area in four months, with airborne, tank and several infantry divisions called in for support.
After a three-hour interlude, when hundreds of Iraqis emerged from nearby mosques after Friday prayers, gunfire erupted again as U.S. armored vehicles moved into the area. Ten explosions and machine-gun fire were heard, and U.S. helicopters hovered overhead.
Among those arrested, the Americans said, were two Iraqis carrying a mortar firing tube.
The bodies of two Iraqi men — identified by friends and family as Mohammed Auweid, 45, and Hamid Abdullah, 41 — were carried from the area.
“God damn America!” shouted friend Ali Hussein, who said the men were simply passers-by. He said the Americans fired indiscriminately without warning when Iraqis began throwing stones at them.
“U.S. soldiers are the real terrorists, not us!” he said.
A photographer on the scene saw other civilian casualties being evacuated as well.
Vichy Democrats to the rescue!!!! Vive la non resistance!
Whoops. Got that vacation planned and then the rumpus room needs panelling and I was thinking about taking that class down at The Learning Annex......
(Added): I see Kevin is letting this be discussed over at Calpundit. He's much more civil about this over there. I don't do civil discourse, although, when I do want to be civil I can sound a lot like Kevin, who is a lot taller than me as well as more civil. Got that?
posted by tbogg at 10:50 AM
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You're not supposed to see this...
We all know that every picture tells a story. This is the story the Bush Administration doesn't want told.
Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.
To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases.
In March, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S. military bases. "There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein [Germany] airbase or Dover [Del.] base, to include interim stops," the Defense Department said, referring to the major ports for the returning remains.
Here is a little reminder that everytime an American President wraps himself in the flag, some other American is also going to get wrapped in the flag, and not in the figurative sense.
(Thanks to the ReachM High Cowboy Network for the image)
posted by tbogg at 10:02 AM
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Listening in at the Chuck E Cheese Algonquin table....
Go here.
Read
Laugh
posted by tbogg at 9:13 AM
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Hoped they budgeted for a laugh track
According to No More Mr Nice Blog:
Dennis Miller, the sardonic comedian who delivered a fake newscast on "Saturday Night Live" and told jokes in the "Monday Night Football" booth, will host a prime-time political talk show on CNBC.
The network said Thursday it had inked Miller to a multiyear deal for the political chat show, set to begin in January.
Looks like the vast wasteland just got vaster and, um, waste-ier....
posted by tbogg at 8:08 AM
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Thursday, October 30, 2003
Now we know why he's a chickenhawk
I guess a man like Paul Wolfowitz just isn't made of the same kind of stuff as those who put their lives on the line defending freedom. Faced with an angry co-ed... he piddles like a pup:
US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz fended off hecklers at Georgetown University during a speech Thursday.
"We hate your policies!" shouted one young woman, standing ten meters (yards) from Wolfowitz who went pale and clenched his jaw.
"Killing innocents is not the solution but rather the problem," she said.
"I have to (infer) you'd be happier if Saddam Hussein was still in power," he replied dryly before recalling the regime's cruelties.
A lot of innocents were sacrificed and "the alternative would have been far more brutal, there is no question in my mind."
Two other students among the dozen that had lined up to speak to the man held up as the Bush administration mastermind of the Iraq war also attacked US policy there.
A visibly shaken Wolfowitz caught his breath to tell one of them, "You and I should both calm down."
He later said that the Iraq war was "not an ideological, but a moral issue."
"There is not much question in my mind about the morality of having gotten rid of this regime."
Yup. Sign him up for the Lilek's brigade of the 107th Fighting Keyboarders....
posted by tbogg at 6:41 PM
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Dingell Demands "Fair and Balanced" Portrayal of 40th President
Washington, D.C. – Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI) today joined the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Members of Congress and conservative pundits in demanding that CBS ensure that its upcoming two part mini-series "The Reagans" is an accurate portrayal of the Reagan legacy. In a letter to CBS President Leslie Moonves, Dingell wrote, "I trust that CBS will not be a party to a distorted presentation of American history."
Rep. Dingell, who served in the Congress during both of President Reagan’s terms in office, offered this advice to Mr. Moonves:
"As someone who served with President Reagan, and in the interest of historical accuracy, please allow me to share with you some of my recollections of the Reagan years that I hope will make it into the final cut of the mini-series: $640 Pentagon toilets seats; ketchup as a vegetable; union busting; firing striking air traffic controllers; Iran-Contra; selling arms to terrorist nations; trading arms for hostages; retreating from terrorists in Beirut; lying to Congress; financing an illegal war in Nicaragua; visiting Bitburg cemetery; a cozy relationship with Saddam Hussein; shredding documents; Ed Meese; Fawn Hall; Oliver North; James Watt; apartheid apologia; the savings and loan scandal; voodoo economics; record budget deficits; double digit unemployment; farm bankruptcies; trade deficits; astrologers in the White House; Star Wars; and influence peddling."
Rep. Dingell concluded, "I hope you find these facts useful in accurately depicting President Reagan’s time in office."
Link
(Thanks Susan...)
posted by tbogg at 6:28 PM
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I'm not a liberal, but I pretend I used to be one on the Internet
I guess I can't blame a guy for whoring himself out in order to find a job in the Bush economy. Which is why it's not too suprising to see "writer" Michael Totten doing his dancing monkey routine hoping for a few more Instapundit nods and maybe a treasured regulars spot on TechCentralStation where the Rand-ians go for their objective reality handjobs. Here's Michael today:
The Left Veers Right
Roger L. Simon captures my disillusionment with the left in two sentences.
I remember the day, and it wasn't so long ago, that liberals like me were attacking our government for supporting dictators. Now these new "liberals," or whatever they want to call themselves, attack our government for taking down dictators.
Yep. I suppose they could plead “isolationism” as an excuse for the inconsistency. But the left has never been isolationist. Never. That’s the position of the old right. The tragedy of the liberals is that a whole swath has run off the farm to join Pat Buchanan in Palookaville. And I used to say that if Buchanan were elected president I’d have to move to Canada.
You see, in "disillusioned" Michael's binary world there is only "isolationism" or "taking down dictators". Anyone who didn't support the war, supported Saddam. And if you protested the war, then you're probably a Stalinist dupe. Even if you opposed the war for good reasons, well, you just best just put your beliefs in escrow and join up (or, as in Michael's case, send others off to fight while you wave your little red-white-and-blue pompoms before taking that much needed vacation).
During a time when soldiers are dying in Iraq daily as a part of Bush's Folly, it must be really nice to be able to spend your days staring at your navel and trying to decide if you're a middle-progressive or a former-liberal-kinda-Libertarian or maybe disillusioned-progressive-Randian-God-I-need-work-conservative-quasi-liberal.
Particularly when it keeps you from thinking: Jesus. I am one big puss.
posted by tbogg at 2:25 PM
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I smell another lawsuit....
Busybusybusy
He's really good at those....
posted by tbogg at 10:58 AM
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News you can use....
It's a Crappy world out there...
posted by tbogg at 9:38 AM
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Raiding the Treasury....
Offered without comment....
Companies awarded $8 billion in contracts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan have been major campaign donors to President Bush, and their executives have had important political and military connections, according to a study released Thursday
[snip]
Major contracts for Iraq and Afghanistan were awarded by the Bush administration without competitive bids, because agencies said competition would have taken too much time to meet urgent needs in both countries.
“No single agency supervised the contracting process for the government,” the center’s executive director, Charles Lewis, said. “This situation alone shows how susceptible the contracting system is to waste, fraud and cronyism.”
The top contract recipient was the Halliburton subsidiary KBR, with more than $2.3 billion awarded to support the U.S. military and restore Iraq’s oil industry.
Halliburton was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney before he resigned to run with Bush in 2000.
Halliburton’s top executive, Dave Lesar, said Wednesday he was offended by criticism of the company’s Iraq work but believed it was “less about Halliburton and more about external political issues.”
“As a company uniquely qualified to take on this difficult assignment, we will continue to bring all of our global resources to bear at this critical time in the Middle East. We have served the military for over 50 years and have no intention of backing down at this point,” he said.
posted by tbogg at 9:30 AM
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Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Le-enough already.....
I don't really follow the NBA because, well, until they start calling traveling, it ain't basketball. But I know enough about it to be kind of dangerous. With that in mind, read this from Anthony Gargano at MSNBC. It's about LeBron, and it's not. Sample:
Funny, the castigation of the system by the It Was Better Back In The Day crowd usually prompts a shrug with me. I hear the line — “It’s all that’s wrong with sport” — tossed around as often as a bad Ricky Davis shot. Alas, they have a point here. I don’t want my MTV with my sports, and the MTV mantra of sell before substance, prostitute before proficiency, BMW before 17 and Crystal before 8 a.m., has poisoned society, let alone sport.
Seriously, pop culture has no class, anymore. It’s loud and obnoxious and stupid and selfish and crippled by ADD. It’s just a lot of noise. It’s Joe Millionaire and Britney Spears and Jackass and Leon and Hummers and Anna Nicole Smith and 15-second celebrities. It’s just a turnoff. And it’s permeated sport, particularly the NBA, where the show tramples over the game.
Even if you hate the NBA (actually, especially if you hate the NBA) you need to read the whole thing.
posted by tbogg at 10:24 PM
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Syrup of Ipe-lileks
We read it and twenty minutes later we twow up...
We have discovered the charms of the Hokey Pokey. Gnat likes to stand on her bed, sing along, and thrust out the various appendages as the song commands. I am still unclear as to which portion of this dance constitutes the Hokey Pokey.
Put your right foot in. This is done by putting your right foot out. It’s “in” only inasmuch as you are imagining some space before you, the occupation of which comprises a necessarily element of this ritual.
You put your right foot out. This is done by withdrawing your foot - e.g., pulling it in.
You put your right foot in and you shake it all about. Noted.
You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around. Now, hold on, mister. Is the turning one’s self around the Hokey Pokey? No. The turning around is clearly separate, otherwise we’d sing You do the Hokey Pokey by turning yourself around or You do the Hokey Pokey which, to be specific, consists of rotating your body either clockwise or counterclockwise or something like that. But no. The actual mechanics of the Hokey Pokey (or, as we call it here, the Unconvincingly Amateurish Lancing) are never described. Worse yet, that’s what it’s all about.
Every parent has wondered these things. Every damn one. That’s what makes us different from children. We agonize over the meanings of this doggerel. Kids just do the frickin’ Hokey Pokey.
We anxiously await more heartwarming stories about Jim's other not-quite-as-cute kids: Tick and Chigger.....
posted by tbogg at 9:27 PM
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Wednesday night naturalism lesson...
Tonight we take up the Common or Least Weasel:
The common and least weasel of Eurasia (Mustela nivalis) and the least weasel of Russia and North America (M. rixosa) are closely related but somewhat different in appearance and breeding biology, and there is still no agreement on the relationship between them. At the moment, M. rixosa is generally regarded as a subspecies of M. nivalis.
The common/least weasel is a specialist predator of small rodents, and also takes small birds and lizards whenever opportunity offers. It probably evolved in the far north during the glacial ages, and became well adapted to hunting voles and lemmings under snow. It is active any time of the day or night, but rarely seen. It is among the more common and widespread of the native carnivores of Britain and much of Europe, but is less common in North America. The absence of voles in New Zealand is a disadvantage to weasels, and is probably the reason that they are much less common there, and are of less concern to conservation, than are stoats.
Check back next week when we take up the Greater Northeastern Skank
posted by tbogg at 9:15 PM
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Someone want to help Andy out with this one?...I didn't think so.
Jeebus. It's like explaining a knock-knock joke.
THE FRENCH AND AMERICAN CASUALTIES: Some in Paris are ecstatically happy at the thought of dead Americans.
Andrew Sullivan. Irony-impaired or just plain stupid?
I report. You deride.
posted by tbogg at 4:24 PM
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PI to Nethercutt: Bite Me....
Poor George Nethercutt. Looks like he's got that context problem that seems to crop up whenever not very smart people try to speak off the cuff.
It started with this:
Rep. George Nethercutt said yesterday that Iraq's reconstruction is going better than is portrayed by the news media, citing his recent four-day trip to the country.
"The story of what we've done in the postwar period is remarkable," Nethercutt, R-Wash., told an audience of 65 at a noon meeting at the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs.
"It is a better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day."
He added that he did not want any more soldiers to be killed.
But, you see, that little part about "more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day" is hurting his faltering Senatorial campaign:
U.S. Senate candidate George Nethercutt has bought newspaper advertisements to lambaste the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for a news story he called "the equivalent of a negative political commercial against me."
In ads appearing today in the P-I and The Seattle Times, the Republican congressman from Spokane accused the P-I of publishing a story that "deliberately distorted" remarks he made about Iraq in a speech at the University of Washington Oct. 13.
The P-I reported Oct. 14 that Nethercutt said Iraq's reconstruction was going better than news media portrayed it and that he added, "The story of what we've done in the postwar period is remarkable. ... It is a better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day."
The story, paraphrasing Nethercutt's next words, said the congressman "added that he did not want any more soldiers to be killed."
Nethercutt criticized the P-I for not quoting his remarks fully. He said his full remarks that the paper partly quoted and partly paraphrased were these: "So the story is better than we might be led to believe in the news. I'm just indicting the news people, but it's, it's a bigger and better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day which, which heaven forbid is awful."
The PI responded today:
Consider Rep. George Nethercutt's media condemnation over six words. He wants to be quoted in full, instead of a reporter's paraphrase that said: "He added that he did not want any more soldiers to be killed."
Let's concede that Nethercutt believes the death of U.S. soldiers is, heaven forbid, awful.
But that does not change the notion that Nethercutt wants the news media to concentrate on painting Iraq in wonderful pastels. We're making progress, don't you know? (Please ignore today's headlines.)
Sorry, George. You want it both ways. You want citizens to know that you care about their sons and daughters who are overseas in harm's way -- but the story you want told is not about the dangers and chaos troops face. No. You want the news to report the steady progress in Iraq as reported by the Bush administration.
Consider, again, the quote in question -- fleshed out a bit more.
"The story of what we have done in the postwar period ... is remarkable," Nethercutt said, because the coalition has been rebuilding power plants, police stations, schools and other infrastructure, as well as taking early steps toward self-governance. "So the story is better than we might be led to believe in the news. I'm indicting the news people. It's a bigger and better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day, which, which, heaven forbid, is awful."
A bigger and better story? Thank you, George, for clarifying your callow, shallow position.
I guess an endorsement from the PI is out of the question, now, isn't it?
(Added): Boy. They don't like Nethercutt at all.
posted by tbogg at 4:05 PM
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A Frolic of His Own
Donald Luskin is getting all litigious and stuff.
Hope he goes after this guy too.
I'm not one to judge whether Donald Luskin is a stalker or not, although some guy named Donald Luskin says he is, but I do know a thin-skinned prick when I see one.
posted by tbogg at 3:28 PM
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This guy is really good
Tom Toles hits another homerun
posted by tbogg at 3:08 PM
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Quoth the Democrats...
Kos has the good quotes on Mission Accomplished boy. Hey... Liberman can be sarcastic! I still won't vote for him though....
posted by tbogg at 10:18 AM
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On the other hand, if the Freepers collect 'em all, that's just less money they'll have for ammunition...
Conservatives are supposed to be a sober lot concerned with tax cuts, illegal immigrants, national security, and making sure that people of the dusky hue stay in their place, so it should not come as any surprise that they need to unwind sometimes. What with the pressure of ensuring freedom in countries that sit upon massive stocks of potential petroleum products, well, sometimes a pasty white guy needs more than a stiff drink and a female lobbyist to boink to let the pressures of the world run down the drain like so much toxic run-off from a campaign contributor. That's why they have dolls.
There is, of course, the George Bush action figure that allows them to recreate those halcyon days when Whistle Ass was defending Texas from the godless gooks by avoiding service and spending his time huffing Krylon while practicing his rudimentary Spanish skills on underaged Mexican hookers.
Then there is the Donald Rumsfeld doll with its 28 "Rummyisms" all of which are rhetorical questions that Lil Rummy answers himself.
The Ann Coulter action figure which are just recycled Ilsa, Nazi She-Wolf dolls that have had the charm removed. Sure she's not as slutty looking as a Bratz doll, but you should see her go-go-go after you buy her a Happy Meal.
And now, showing that no bar is ever too low, you can hold little unattended-USO shows with the Dennis Miller doll that really is anatomically correct. Just pull the string and the Miller doll makes an obscure cultural reference followed by the sound of crickets chirping and then silence...It's like you're really at an open mike night with Dennis! Flop sweat sold separately....
Unfortunately the Dick Cheney doll has been held off the market for the time being due to the fact that it needs new batteries everyday....
posted by tbogg at 10:07 AM
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Why we are staying inside
It's not too pretty out there.
Here's a collection of images from San Diego
posted by tbogg at 6:54 AM
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George Bush is a miserable failure
There. Now I've said it and you should too.
(Thanks to Kim for getting me on board)
posted by tbogg at 12:04 AM
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Tuesday, October 28, 2003
"...this dour, dyspeptic, sanctimonious persona"
Camille Paglia is back at Salon and she's just as vital and important to our great national discourse as she was two years ago, which is to say that she's not.
I'm sure her description of Howard Dean (used above) was lifted verbatim from her "mirror, mirror, on the wall" session that starts her day off every morning. Fortunately we are spared her usual reference to her partner Heather, intended to remind us that she is still loved and desirable. But then who needs to be desirable to others when you've got a big fat love affair with yourself to tend to:
Blog reading for me is like going down to the cellar amid shelves and shelves of musty books that you're condemned to turn the pages of. Bad prose, endless reams of bad prose! There's a lack of discipline, a feeling that anything that crosses one's mind is important or interesting to others. People say that the best part about writing a blog is that there's no editing -- it's free speech without institutional control. Well, sure, but writing isn't masturbation -- you've got to self-edit.
Now and then one sees the claim that Kausfiles was the first blog. I beg to differ: I happen to feel that my Salon column was the first true blog. My columns had punch and on-rushing velocity. They weren't this dreary meta-commentary, where there's a blizzard of fussy, detached sections nattering on obscurely about other bloggers or media moguls and Washington bureaucrats. I took hits at media excesses, but I directly commented on major issues and personalities in politics and pop culture.
Okay. Maybe that wasn't writing as masturbation, but I think it at least qualifies as a dry hump...
posted by tbogg at 11:54 PM
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Jonah's mom is a bitch
shes a big fat bitch
shes the biggest bitch in the whole wide world
shes a stupid bitch if there ever was a bitch
shes a bitch to all the boys and girls
Yeah. We're talking about Lucianne. The antidote for Viagra. While there are some people who want to know why the Administration was asleep at the wheel come 9/11, Lucianne thinks it's just not that important. And that Thomas Kean guy who was appointed by President Whistle Ass to look into the matter? Well he's getting a little too big for his britches what with all his demands for that "super-secret" information that Dick Cheney has hidden in Lynne's lingerie drawer just under her merkin collection:
Governor Who? No one has paid any attention to former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean for so long he's O.D.-ing on his current star turn. Appointed to head a commission to study 9/11, he's gone all grand and put himself above the White House in his demands for super-secret information. In a statement to the New York Times yesterday he stated, "any document that has to do with this investigation cannot be beyond our reach . . . I will not stand for it." Kean and John Kerry should do lunch. They are both so...French.
You see, the widows and widowers and children without parents don't need to know why their government failed them two years ago, because Kean is so..."French". You can bet that Lucianne would be singing a different tune if Jonah had been in the towers on 9/11 and there wasn't enough of her boy left to fill an ashtray...
Meanwhile, John Podhoretz defends the cover-up with a unique twist: What we may discover might divide us and we would lose faith in those who led us into an idiotic war:
THE horrors in Baghdad over the past few days have reminded us of the inhuman nature of our militant Islamic foes - and how their mission now as ever is to dishearten and divide us so that we will eventually run away from Iraq and the Middle East and give them free rein.
The multiple attacks are certainly disheartening. And the rancorous divisions inside the United States about the war in Iraq and the War on Terror are only growing.
The race for the Democratic nomination is now entirely dedicated to the proposition that a) the war on Iraq was a mistake and b) that the major domestic effort in the war on terror - the USA Patriot Act - is a dangerous and horrible piece of legislation.
The mainstream media have taken the gloves off, investing enormous resources and newsprint space in service of the contention that the administration went to war with Iraq for no good reason.
And now the independent commission chosen by the president to investigate the inability of the U.S. government to prevent the 9/11 attacks is showing signs of becoming a runaway train. Unnamed officials declare themselves "frustrated" by the White House's refusal to turn over certain internal documents and are threatening to subpoena them.
[snip]
Why would the White House withhold such information when it can be so easily accused of a coverup? Because if the White House accedes to the notion that any and every piece of paper the president sees can theoretically be accessed by anybody at any time, that is the end of any capacity for the government to keep secrets.
That's the principle of the thing. Here's the hard reality behind the need for executive privilege: There are 10 members of the commission, and a staff. Perhaps Kean can be sure that the details of this ultimate classified information will not leak. But given his own clear hunger to grandstand, Kean offers scant comfort that he will have any disciplinary power over his fellow members and his staffers.
Kean wants these documents. To get them, he has decided to wage public war against the administration. "There are a lot of theories about 9/11, and as long as there is any document out there that bears on any of those theories, we're going to leave questions unanswered," Kean told the Times. "And we cannot leave questions unanswered."
In the name of clearing up conspiracy theories, Kean has now made it inevitable that the conspiracy theorists will never accept the commission's findings. With the preening self-righteousness that characterizes his blessedly anachronistic brand of liberal Republicanism, Thomas Kean has now only added to the ugly divisiveness of the present moment.
Shorter John Podhoretz?: Accountability = Anti-Americanism among a people who can't handle the truth.
Secrecy is good. Don't remember 9/11. Go back to sleep....
posted by tbogg at 11:09 PM
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I brought my baseball bat...so where's the beehive?
I think I liked Trent Lott better when he was just a harmless garden-variety country club racist. According to Billmon:
Asked whether he favored any policy changes in Iraq, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) responded: “We need to have a different mix of troops, is the key. We may need to move some troops around”...
In a sign of frustration, he offered an unorthodox military solution: “If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens. You’re dealing with insane suicide bombers who are killing our people, and we need to be very aggressive in taking them out.”
This must be part of Operation Make Boykin Look Sane.
It's working...
posted by tbogg at 10:44 PM
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Playin' with dollz...
The Concerned Women of America are taking a few days off from handing over control of other women's second & third trimesters to Penis-Americans™ in order to take up an even greater threat to Godly Christian Womanhood®: Bratz.
Somebody needs to take the chip off of some Lefty’s shoulder and hurl it down the aisle at Toys R Us and do a little damage. While we’ve all been distracted by big-ticket culture war skirmishes, like the recent Madonna-Britney kissing spectacle, toy manufacturers have been suavely working on another seduction of our pre-teen girls.
The weapon is the heir to the Barbie kingdom, a new doll line called “Bratz,” modelled on hooker chic. Nobody seems to have listened when Whoopi Goldberg warned, “White parents have no clue that their kids are being indoctrinated into ghetto values and culture.”
Apparently not, indeed. The delivery method for the “Bratz” line is even more direct, and dangerous, than MTV: it’s parents. The New York Times is reporting that the makers of Bratz dolls, MGA Entertainment, has racked up $1 billion in sales since the dolls’ introduction in 2001, and that their market research indicates that mothers of pre-teens are the prime customers.
Nice gift.
With their glazed expressions, pumped lips and trampy clothes, these dolls are light years away from the American Girl dolls that too many little girls now consider “babyish.”
In these days of anorexia anxiety, some are celebrating the dolls’ “more realistic” body proportions. And true enough, these dolls don’t seem to have Barbie’s surgically enhanced chest. But is it any better to replace one advertisement for cosmetic surgery with another one? These Bratz dolls all obviously make regular trips to the plastic surgeon for collagen lip injections. And their makeup, on dolls targeted at 8 to 14-year-olds, would make a Broadway performer playing to the back of the hall feel underdone.
Hmmmm. Let's look at a Bratz doll Dana. As you can see....she's a ho.
Compare her with American Girl, Molly.
That's a tough call. On the one hand, Bratz Dana looks a little too ethnic, a little too stylish, a little too exotic. American Girl Molly, on the other hand, is quite, well, white, very sensible, and exotic too, but only if you live in Utah.
But let's get back to Ms. Crouse's point:
This is worth thinking about and emphasizing as Halloween approaches and legions of wannabe “bratz” hit the streets. Our three young granddaughters, ages 3, 6 and 10, are excited about the upcoming opportunity to dress up. They have been invited to a party this weekend to celebrate All Saint’s Day, for which they are encouraged to dress up as a saint. Hannah Ruth and Sarah Shaw, have obvious choices. The third, little Helena Gilbert, declared that she would dress as Mary, after observing sadly that everyone except her, including her brother John, has a name from a Biblical character.
Our daughter then told her that, actually, in addition to her Aunt Helen, for whom she was named, there is a saint named Helena. The historian Eusebius tells us that Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, was a devout woman, committed to advancing the cause of Christ’s church. A very wealthy woman, Helena worked avidly in aiding the poor and destitute, and built several magnificent churches. She was granted the title “augusta” by her son the emperor, and coins inscribed nobilissima femina were minted in her honor, so Helena was certainly able to afford a “passion for fashion” herself. But apparently her sights were set elsewhere. Eusebius adds that Helena was “continually worshipping in church, humbly dressed among the women praying there.”
When our Helena, who is a devoted doll owner I might add, heard of her illustrious namesake, she sighed contentedly.
“This,” she said, “is the happiest day of my life.”
But only till the day she gets her first one of these...
posted by tbogg at 10:29 PM
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Must be some kind of America hater....
America's most dangerous liberal pundit:
The public relations campaign isn't working.
That's because there comes a point where you can't spin reality.
In the past 48 hours, suicide blasts have killed dozens of people in Iraq, and Paul Wolfowitz has escaped injury in an attack on his hotel. American troops are simply not in control of a significant chunk of the country.
Six months ago, Iraq seemed a large feather in the commander-in-chief's cap. Now when the Democrats get together to debate, they seem far more impassioned about Iraq and the $87 billion than their bread-and-butter issues of jobs and the economy.
Are some things getting better in Iraq? Sure. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's "long hard slog" memo may be as good a summary as we're going to get out of this administration. It's pretty scary to think that we can't even protect the Baghdad hotel where most American officials were based.
All this might not have quite the same resonance if the president had gone to war with more widespread support from Americans, not to mention from around the world. And if he hadn't sold the war as a showdown over WMDs that still haven't materialized. This has fostered a sense that we waged a war of our choosing without adequately planning for the consequences, or with a lousy plan whose weaknesses are now on display each day.
The war over the postwar, in short, is now as heated as the war over the war itself. And we are stuck, for now, because abandoning Iraq simply is not an option.
How can this Saddam-loving, blame-America-first, fifth columnist get away with such treason?
posted by tbogg at 8:13 PM
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I'm sorry. How many in your party...?
Here we see the embarrassed maitre'd realizing that he seated the bin Zayed Al Nahayan party by the fireplace when they had specifically asked for a booth....
posted by tbogg at 7:38 PM
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Wu you talkin' to...?
Steve over at No More Mr Nice Blog points out that Condoleeza " It's Not Raining Men" Rice has a new nickname:
"The Unsticker." Not quite as catchy as, say, Ghostface Killah, but, well, maybe if she spells it "Tha Unstikka"....
If he had done his homework he would have known that Condi (as all the homes down at the NSC call her) already has a Wu Name: World-Class Programmah, yo.
posted by tbogg at 7:29 PM
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Well you wish upon a star that turns into a plane
And I guess that's right on par
Who's left to blame?
The Republican Party is getting all star-struck...even when the " star" is just a burnt-out not-quite-a-flash in the pan.
IS CALIFORNIA READY for Dennis Miller as its next United States senator? Laugh if you like, but some Republican strategists (including a few who just sent a certain movie star to Sacramento) see Miller, the sardonic comedian whose late-night talk show lasted just a little longer than Wesley Clark's Iowa campaign, as wholly capable of defeating incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer next year.
Yes, that's the same Dennis Miller who does commentary Friday nights on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes"--and also has a recurring role on Fox's "Boston Public." The same Dennis Miller who was unceremoniously drop-kicked from ABC's Monday Night Football. The same comedian and author whose "Dennis Miller Live" ran for nine years on HBO, following a turn on "Saturday Night Live" as the Weekend Update anchor.
It's also the same Dennis Miller who emerged earlier this year as the loudest pro-Bush/pro-war voice in Hollywood--and, during recall, was one of Arnold's biggest boosters in the entertainment community. So supportive of the Governator was Miller that he took part in post-debate spin following the infamous Arnold-Arianna insultfest.
"There's a lot of us who'd like to see him campaign," Rob Stutzman, the governor-elect's communications director, told the Los Angeles Times in late September. "Dennis Miller is at the cutting edge of biting political commentary."
Did someone say the "cutting edge of biting political commentary"? Here's some of that " cutting edge". Careful, it's mighty sharp:
Hey, get this...I want to talk about space travel.
was drawn to the topic by this week’s story of China sending up their first astronaut. I was shocked that it took the Chinese this long. How could a nation that prides itself on being on the cutting edge of quelling independent thought have taken this long to launch a man into space?
It made me think about our Space Program and how awe-struck we all were at the beginning and why we should now discontinue it for a while. Sure, it really mattered at one time when we had to put the Soviet Union in its place. But the USSR has since disintegrated like (Boris) Yeltsin's liver and the hard truth is that the Space Program is now just a bunch of guys from the A.V. team wearing a Kon-Tiki raft of Bic pens in their shirt pockets and renaming Martian rocks Snagglepuss.
"Kon-Tiki raft of Bic pens..." Heh heh heh. Cutting...witty in that South Park Republican kind of way that I don't get because you know us " square" liberals...
posted by tbogg at 7:14 PM
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My Big Fat Mission Accomplished Lie
George W Bush lied today.
I know...It is sooooo unlike him.
Kos has the details.
posted by tbogg at 3:33 PM
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Darkness at noon
We've been asked to leave our offices. Apparently there's a new fire in the Encinitas area, and they have now closed part of Interstate 5. The sky outside my window has gone from a dim yellow to orange (Mild Cheddar-looking with a possibility of turning Colby), so I guess I'll be posting from home today.
You know, this never happened when Clinton was President......
posted by tbogg at 1:14 PM
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I will try not to breathe
We're okay. ...but San Diego is sure messed up.
I'm at work and we're a few miles from the Scripps Ranch fire and the smoke is still pretty bad. We're allowing any employee who wants to go home that option, and some of the people who want to stay are sitting at their desks wearing masks. Visibility from my office window (corner office...I rock) is about a half mile, with the air a dirty grey-brown.
We have confirmed that my daughter's best friend and her family lost their house. Their whole street is gone except for one house. Oh, and since it has become a big discussion over at Atrios, their roof was composite, not shake. The fire was unimpressed.
I'll be back later today.
Meanwhile (because the world is still turning) read this about crime in the Bush era, and this about gay rights and this because we need something to laugh at today.
posted by tbogg at 10:35 AM
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Sunday, October 26, 2003
Live...from hell
We're a few miles from the devastation in San Diego. We are fortunate to live right on the coast, so we're not directly affected, since the problems are more toward the eastern suburbs. Unfortunately we have many friends who live in the Scripps Ranch area which has taken the brunt of the disaster. Based on news reports, we believe that a few of these dear friends may have lost their homes, possibly including the family of my daughter's best friend. We just don't know now. Additionally, due to freeway closures, I can't get to my parents who are within a few miles of one of the new outbreaks, but they are safe for now.
Virtually all schools have been canceled for tomorrow and employers are being asked to keep their employees at home. As bad as it looks on TV...it's worse. I'm miles away from the fires and enough ash has fallen throughout the day that it has started to form drifts. Satchmo the Wonder Basset and I walked three blocks to pick up a paper this morning and we both came home coughing. It's that bad.
Again, we're fine and safe, and we appreciate your concern, but there are so many people who need help. Check with you local Red Cross.
Blogging may be a little light for a few days as I have other concerns regarding friends and family.
Jon at San Diego Solilioquies has more. I've met Jon's brother, and Jon's niece is a friend of my daughter's from school. I hope Jon is wrong about their home.
Here's some more from Matt Hoy. Nothing from Steven den Beste yet. I assume that he's working on a treatise on the origins of fire.
posted by tbogg at 7:55 PM
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Friday, October 24, 2003
Your thought for the weekend
Motivation
Thanks. I'll be here all next week.....
posted by tbogg at 2:56 PM
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Glad to help you out, Andy. Can I introduce you to Google?
Poor Sully. A crusader in search of a crusade:
NYT WEIRDNESS: Two oddities leaped out at me this morning, reading the (much improved) New York Times. The first was the Machiavellian assertion that Donald Rumsfeld leaked his own memo. here's the editorial:
Mr. Rumsfeld is a canny player who knows exactly what he is doing when he drafts internal memos and makes them public.
This would be big news. So what evidence does the NYT have for it? The original leak was to USA Today. Does the NYT know something about USA Today's source? Or is this just made up?
From the original USA Today article:
Three members of Congress who met with Rumsfeld Wednesday morning said the defense secretary gave them copies of the memo and discussed it with them.
"He's asking the tough questions we all need to be asking," said Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas.
You see...it wasn't a leak....oh, never mind. Here, Andy:
Bush said an attack from Iraq was IMMINENT.
Go, fetch, play with that in the yard for a few days...
posted by tbogg at 12:54 PM
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Dewey beats Truman! We want Boykin's head on a stick...whoopsie... strike that.
Since all the editors over at National Review are hip deep in Rich Lowry's Legacy at the moment, they couldn't manage to get the right editorial up on Christian Crusader Boykin:
CORRECTION ON BOYKIN [NR Editors]
National Review, in the issue out today, runs an editorial paragraph that it did not mean to run. We had a debate among the editors--as we debate many things--about Gen. William Boykin, who recently made some highly provocative remarks about the war on terror. Some editors felt that he should be fired forthwith; others demurred. A draft editorial paragraph was prepared, stating the position that Boykin should be fired; at just about the last minute, we decided to withhold judgment--to see how the investigation into the general’s behavior proceeded, and to reach a conclusion then.
Because of a production error, that paragraph--the one calling for Boykin’s head--went to the printer. And thus appears in the magazine. We removed it from our html edition, but about the “hard copy edition,” we could do nothing.
We will weigh in again--finally and definitively--on General Boykin, when we, along with everyone else, know all that we should know.
What they meant to say was:
It's Clintons fault.....
posted by tbogg at 12:32 PM
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Nope. Your reason isn't this shell. Nope. Not that one either. Wanna try again?
Billmon points out that some of our soldiers didn't believe the administration when they said; Yours is not to reason why, yours is but to do or die.
posted by tbogg at 12:24 PM
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Our Lord is standing by to take your calls....
You know God. He gets all busy on the weekend what with all the football players he has to help score the big touchdown while leading their team on to Godly victory over the other team that just wasn't praying hard enough. Anyway, because he's all booked up this weekend (Notre Dame is playing, aren't they?) it's imporatnt that you get your prayers in early to beat the weekend crush. According to the Presidential Prayer Team, worthy prayer recipients this week are:
Attorney General
John Ashcroft
Secretary of Labor
Elaine Chao
White House Chief of Staff
Andrew Card
Director Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Bradley A. Buckles
Remember, when praying for John Ashcroft, you don't have to mention him by name. Your Son will suffice...
posted by tbogg at 10:48 AM
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They're funny because they're true...
Telnaes...as usual.
and
Ben Sargent
posted by tbogg at 10:36 AM
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How's that career death-spiral going...? Good. Good. Glad to hear it.
It's good to see that the right's favorite yuckster (okay, he's not their favorite. I mean, c'mon, who can compete with Mallard Fillmore?) Dennis Miller has landed a gig (as he would assuredly would call it in that 70's hipster patois he seems trapped in) on Fox's Boston Public.
Next on Boston Public:
Chapter Seventy-One
Convicted of securities fraud, an investment banker (Dennis Miller) avoids incarceration by teaching math at Winslow High School; a woman (Sherilyn Fenn) crashes into Guber's vehicle.
Tonight at 8:00 p.m.
As soon as I saw "fraud" I said to myself: There they go again. Typecasting.
Unfortunately for Miller he's only good for three episodes of BP and then it's back to being the opening act at Chamber of Commerce Pancake Breakfasts mainly because he didn't manage to land that role on CBS's Two and A Half Men. Sadly, the role of the half a man was already filled. I hear he's kinda bitter about that....
posted by tbogg at 9:58 AM
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A daily dose of crap....
From World O' Crap:
MARK STEYN JOINS NRODT
If you subscribe to NR Digital (or NRODT--Digital is included) you could be reading Mark Steyn's first "Happy Warrior" column for NRODT RIGHT NOW.
NRO, which fired Ann Coulter after her "invade their countries" column, probably would have hired her back, since they know how popular she is among perverts who want to see her naked. But after she called Jonah Goldberg a "girly-man," it made things too awkward.
So, they hired Ann Coulter-impersonator Mark Steyn (yes, this IS just like Victor/Victoria), who also calls for invading countries and killing leaders, but who has expressed only the highest regard for Jonah's manliness.
I soooo wish I had written that...
posted by tbogg at 9:42 AM
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It's probably some kind of media bias thing...
I've often wondered (well, not often, but I did think about it once or twice) about the complaints about Paul Krugman. One of the main thrusts of their argument is that, as an economist, he has no standing or qualifications to write on political matters. As Kevin Drum might say, I'll leave that determination to others. But I find it interesting that the same class of people who condemn Krugman for straying off the economics plantation so wholeheartedly clasp Thomas Sowell to their collective scrawny bosoms.
I have a theory about this:
I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the punditocracy. The talking heads has been very desirous that a black economist do well. There is a little hope invested in Sowell, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of the Republican Party that he didn't deserve. The Religious Right carried this team.
Thanks for listening. If you need me, I'll be in rehab.....
posted by tbogg at 9:36 AM
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Gilead Illustrated...the Swimsuit Edition
It only makes sense during a time when the Administration is using George Orwells 1984 as a blueprint, that the people who believe that the human body is the devil's Dave & Busters would also seek literary inspiration from some of the books that they haven't burned...yet. Taking a tip from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale, comes next summer's fashions for the woman whose body is a sacred temple that all eyes must be averted from, and who only want to shave from the ankles down...
Are you ready for WholesomeWear?
Check out these sultry little vamps.
Yup. Deck out your little eternal virgin in one of these numbers and you can guarantee her a lifetime of social awkwardness, Saturday nights with a Josh Groban CD and and a Diana Galbaldon novel, and a roomful of cats named after all the children she never had....
(Thanks to Chris...again)
posted by tbogg at 9:08 AM
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Thursday, October 23, 2003
Everyone's a critic....
He does not like how He is being portrayed:
Jesus actor struck by lightning
Actor Jim Caviezel has been struck by lightning while playing Jesus in Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion Of Christ.
The lightning bolt hit Caviezel and the film's assistant director Jan Michelini while they were filming in a remote location a few hours from Rome.
It was the second time Michelini had been hit by lightning during the shoot.
Jesus is still pissed that Vin Diesel didn't get the part, but, hey, that's what happens when you give up creative control....
(Thanks to emma)
posted by tbogg at 11:15 PM
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Facts, statistics, and other Cheney lies.
Looks like Dick Cheney (pasty guy? bad heart? talks out the side of his mouth?... that guy) doesn't play well with others work. Zogby is not amused:
“There was a poll done, just random in the last week, first one I’ve seen carefully done; admittedly, it’s a difficult area to poll in. Zogby International did it with American Enterprise magazine. But that’s got very positive news in it in terms of the numbers it shows with respect to the attitudes to what Americans have done.
“One of the questions it asked is: ‘If you could have any model for the kind of government you’d like to have’ — and they were given five choices — ‘which would it be?’ The US wins hands down. If you want to ask them do they want an Islamic government established, by 2:1 margins they say no, including the Shiite population. If you ask how long they want Americans to stay, over 60 percent of the people polled said they want the US to stay for at least another year. So admittedly there are problems, especially in that area where Saddam Hussein was from, where people have benefited most from his regime and who’ve got the most to lose if we’re successful in our enterprise, and continuing attacks from terror. But to suggest somehow that that’s representative of the country at large or the Iraqi people are opposed to what we’ve done in Iraq or are actively and aggressively trying to undermine it, I just think that’s not true.”
In fact, Zogby International (ZI) in Iraq had conducted the poll, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) did publish their interpretation of the findings. But the AEI’s “spin” and the vice president’s use of their “spin” created a faulty impression of the poll’s results and, therefore, of the attitudes of the Iraqi people.
For example, while Cheney noted that when asked what kind of government they would like, Iraqis chose “the US... hands down,” in fact, the results of the poll are actually quite different. Twenty-three percent of Iraqis say that they would like to model their new government after the US; 17.5 percent would like their model to be Saudi Arabia; 12 percent say Syria, 7 percent say Egypt and 37 percent say “none of the above.” That’s hardly “winning hands down.”
It is so unlike De-Fib Dick to mess these things up.....
(Thanks to tbogg stringer Chris)
posted by tbogg at 11:07 PM
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Cuba, si. Bush, no
The Daily Kos has a great post on Bush and his Cuban Crime of Fascism...
Maybe one day we can all visit Cuba and try and make up for decades of American bullheadness and stupidity.
posted by tbogg at 10:44 PM
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Burn down the mission
The Jeebo-fascists are getting uppity:
Religious conservatives say that with an arsenal of prayer vigils, Christian radio broadcasts and thousands of e-mail messages to Florida lawmakers, they played a pivotal role in the legislative battle this week over whether to feed a brain-damaged woman who has been kept alive artificially for 13 years.
Now some conservatives are hoping to use similar tactics to help them challenge court rulings they opposed in other states.
Randall Terry, founder of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said he and other conservatives intended to use what they consider a stunning victory here to pressure lawmakers elsewhere to chip away at court rulings allowing abortion and banning organized prayer in schools and the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools, among other issues.
"Finally, a governor and legislature had the courage to stand up to judicial despots because of an overwhelming call by the public," Mr. Terry said.
And after the State of Florida inserted itself into the lives of the Schiavo's, Terry had this to say:
"This was a huge victory for one innocent woman," Mr. Terry said, "and it was a small victory for the return to self-government."
Thousands of irony meters throughout the State of Florida immediately burst into flames...
posted by tbogg at 10:38 PM
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I took the I 95 down to Pensacola
All I found was a bunch of holyrollers
They don't know nothing 'bout saving me
It seems that we're losing control of our lives. You've got unqualified men telling women and their doctors what medical procedures they will allow, and you got busybody "do-gooders" and opportunistic politicians inserting themselves into the private lives of married couples. The same groups that decry the "nanny state" want to set up base-camp in our pants and in our doctors offices. The same man that doesn't want the government to know how many guns he has in his closet wants to know what is going on behind your bedroom door.
Given the choice, I'll take an adulterous Democrat over a theocrat any day, thank you very much. At least you know who they're trying to screw.
posted by tbogg at 12:35 PM
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Timeline management
From the shampoo aisle of Target, James Lileks writes:
The Rummymemo flap is depressing on a number of levels. Oh, in one respect, it’s heartening; you could take it to mean “okay, we’ve conquered Afghanistan and Iraq; is there anything else we should be doing?” - a sentiment which would have seemed quite reassuring to some after 9/11. (And horrifying to others, who hoped that having been knocked flat by a sucker punch, we would crawl back to our corner, spit into the bucket, and request permission from the French and German judges to declare the bout a draw.) It’s not an “admission of failure, ” as Daschle put it - hell, the administration could put Osama’s head on a stick in the Rose Garden, and Daschle would call it an admission of failure that they hadn’t located the torso. I will never trust these people with national security again. Never, never, never. We’re in the fight of our lives, and all they can do is carp and bitch and piss and moan, because - as was the case with many conservatives in the Bosnian conflict - it’s not their war.
(My emphasis)
Ahem. September 11, 2001. Officers on duty: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet.
Proof, once again, that having a big forehead doesn't neccesarily mean having a big brain.
...and what's with this "We’re in the fight of our lives..." crap? The only thing it looks like Lileks is fighting is dustbunnies about the homestead and recalcitrant electronics. I hope he's not expecting a medal...
posted by tbogg at 9:18 AM
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No physician expert on late abortion has ever testified in person before a congressional committee.
How decisions are made:
As the misleadingly titled "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban" makes its way to the president's desk, anti-abortion groups are celebrating their public relations victory. But beneath the hoopla, the bill's medical consequences remain murky. Exactly which procedures will be banned, and which doctors prosecuted? Will the anti-abortion lobby be happier with the alternative methods to which doctors will resort? If not, which methods and doctors will be targeted next? Will this ban have a chilling effect on related procedures? If so, will it prevent abortions—or births?
I ask these questions because I am a potential target of this legislation. Almost exactly 30 years ago, shortly after Roe v. Wade, I started performing abortions on a full-time basis in Boulder, Colo., at the state's first free-standing nonprofit abortion clinic, where I was the founding medical director. In my private practice, I perform many abortions as late as the 26th week of pregnancy, and some as late as the 34th week.
I don't know the answers to the questions I've posed above, and neither does Congress. No physician expert on late abortion has ever testified in person before a congressional committee. No peer-reviewed articles or case reports have ever been published describing anything such as "partial-birth" abortion, "Intact D&E" (for "dilation and extraction"), or any of its synonyms. There have been no descriptions of its complication rates and no published studies comparing its complication rates with those of any other method of late abortion.
posted by tbogg at 9:05 AM
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The Daily Comics
The Boondocks
Doonesbury
Tom Toles
posted by tbogg at 8:31 AM
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Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Don't confuse me with facts...I got a book to sell here.
Rich Lowry, who is slightly less butch than Ann Coulter, takes a page from her book: make a stupid unsupportable assertion, get called on it, and then try and change the subject. Matthew Yglesias calls him on it, exposes him, and, oh hell, makes Lowry his bitch.
The question I sought to raise, however, was not whether America's pre-9-11 counterterrorism policy looks flawed in retrospect -- it obviously was -- but whether the editors of the National Review were urging that the Clinton administration do anything substantially different at the time. A search through the magazine's archives rather clearly reveals that they did not. Indeed, the fact that their self-described "main statement of editorial policy on the [Cole] matter" consists of a single paragraph -- the 11th -- of an 18-paragraph summary of the week's events shows that writing about terrorism was not exactly the magazine's priority back in 2000.
Mention of the Cole bombing was buried beneath such items as a defense of racial profiling, a condemnation of Dick Cheney's relatively moderate views on homosexuality, a lament on the weakness of Rick Lazio's New York Senate campaign and a plug for a pro-voucher ballot proposition in California. All of which, one can assume, the National Review thought to be of greater importance than the terrorist attack.
(Thanks to Dave)
posted by tbogg at 10:00 PM
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Shorter Rebecca Hagelin
I'm not above cheapening the life and death of my mother to justify Rush buying drugs illegally.
posted by tbogg at 9:46 PM
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Happy Happy Joy War
Reader Chris calls it the Ministry of Truth. I call it your tax dollars at work.
Somewhere, Charlotte Beers is getting a little verklempt.
I can't believe they forgot to include "Ask Ali Ismail Abbas ". (Warning: it's graphic)
posted by tbogg at 9:04 PM
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If those two crazy kids can't make it....
I get home tonight and go upstairs to put on the ballgame (go Marlins) but the TV is tuned to whatever network carries Entertainment Tonight, where I see a picture of Ripley's Believe It or Not couple, Liza and David.
The caption?
What went wrong?
I
swear
to
God.
posted by tbogg at 7:40 PM
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"But my tits are off limits, Sparky"
Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger used his first official visit to the state Capitol today to name a health care executive and former aide to Republican former Gov. Pete Wilson as his new chief of staff.
Patricia Clarey, 50, served as deputy to Wilson chief of staff Bob White in the mid-1990s after stints in Washington under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. She recently took a leave from her job as vice president of government affairs at Health Net, the state's third largest health maintenance organization, to serve in the Schwarzenegger campaign.
[snip]
``It is an honor to return to public service and work for Governor Schwarzenegger during such an important period in California's history,'' Clarey said in a prepared statement. ``I am committed to the governor's goal of strengthening California's economy and bringing jobs back to the state.''
Clareys first order of business is attracting more Hooters to the Golden State so that they become as ubiquitous as Starbucks. Can't have Arnie going more than a few blocks without a grope.....
posted by tbogg at 4:24 PM
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It's your own damn fault for having a vagina....
Here's Smirky Santorum daydreaming about female genitalia while Senator Kitty Kevorkian talks to the press about the Getcher Ass In the Bedroom and Pop Me Out Some Heirs Bill.
President Barb Woulda Aborted Me If She Had Only Known says he'll sign the bill as soon as Condi finds his favorite color crayon: Menses Red.
President Bush said he would sign newly passed legislation to end the "abhorrent practice" known by critics as partial birth abortion, giving abortion foes a victory that had eluded them for close to a decade.
Abortion rights advocates said they would immediately go to court to stop what they said was a dangerous incursion against the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
The Senate voted 64-34 Tuesday to ban a type of abortion, generally carried out in the second or third trimester, in which a fetus is partially delivered before being killed. The House approved the legislation this month, and Bush has urged Congress to get it to his desk.
"This is very important legislation that will end an abhorrent practice and continue to build a culture of life in America," he said in a statement. "I look forward to signing it into law."
This would probably be a good time to ask Whistle Ass about the child he had aborted back in Texas during his crack days.
Meanwhile Santorum, Chabot, and Smith celebrate their dominion over women, particularly all the women that ever smirked, rolled their eyes, and asked them if that was a roll of Certs in their pocket or were they happy to see them.
Corvettes anyone?
posted by tbogg at 4:09 PM
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All worked up and no one to blame
The publication of the Rumsfeld memorandum caused all the warbloggers who are sooooo busy fighting Islamofacism from their rumpus rooms to get their camouflage jammies in a twist. Pitchforks in hand, American flags fluttering form their big brawny shoulders, they were all set to track the America/Bush-hating bastard down and give him whatfor....
Except that the leaker was Rummy:
UPDATE: I'm scanning everything that's being written about this "leak," and I'm still not seeing evidence that it was "leaked." (That evidence may be out there and I'm just missing it.) But what I see in the USA Today story is this: "Three members of Congress who met with Rumsfeld Wednesday morning said the defense secretary gave them copies of the memo and discussed it with them." This is not how you handle a confidential internal memorandum, is it, if you don't want it to see the light of day.
And when the Pentagon spokesman's reaction isn't outrage, but praise for his boss, you have to wonder. (I'm referring to this from USA Today: "Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita declined to comment specifically on the memo, but he said Rumsfeld's style is to "ask penetrating questions" to provoke candid discussion. 'He's trying to keep a sense of urgency alive.'")
I could certainly be wrong, but isn't it possible that we're all falling for a "leak" story here, when actually this dissemination was something that Rumsfeld may have desired?
D'oh!
In the meantime enjoy the fulminatin', chest thumpin', self righteous blather over at the He-Man Let Someone Else Do The Fightin' Circle Jerk.
I loves me this part:
LT Smash, recently returned from the Gulf and Iraq, writes:
These are precisely the kinds of topics that our military leaders need to be discussing. But given the strategic implications of these questions, this should be an internal discussion, not one that is splashed across the front page of the USA TODAY.
I join Glenn Reynolds in calling on the government to subpoena the reporters who wrote this story and compel them to give up their source.
This leaker isn’t a whistleblower who deserves protection. This was an act of treason.
And where are all the people who were screaming about the Plame leak?
Is Glenn going to hold Rummy down while Lt. Smash gives him treason noogies?
Heh. Indeed.....
Next step from the Fightin' Keyboarders: "It's the media spin."
posted by tbogg at 2:15 PM
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I guess it depends upon your definition of "alleged".....
Der Sullivanator:
"HERR GROPENFUHRER": Doonesbury becomes outraged about alleged sexual misbehavior.
Der Arnold:
Saying he has changed his ways, California recall candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger (search) apologized Thursday for offending any women who claim he had sexually harassed them.
"I have offended people, and to those people who I have offended I am deeply sorry about that and I apologize because that is not what I tried to do," Schwarzenegger said in a rally in San Diego.
Don't they get Fox in P-town?
posted by tbogg at 11:19 AM
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The secret is out....
Boondocks
and Ann Telnaes on Republicans
posted by tbogg at 9:33 AM
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More America-hating, Saddam-loving bad news from Iraq.....
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld questioned whether the United States was doing enough to win the war on terrorism, citing “mixed results” in the fight against al-Qaida in a pointed memo to top Pentagon officials last week.
RUMSFELD SAID the U.S.-led coalitions would win in Afghanistan and Iraq, but not without “a long, hard slog.” He wrote that the United States “has made reasonable progress in capturing or killing the top 55 Iraqis” but has made “somewhat slower progress” tracking down top Taliban leaders who sheltered al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
The memo, dated Oct. 16 and first reported by USA Today on Wednesday, offered a much more stark assessment of the global war on terrorism than contained in Rumsfeld’s public statements.
"Slog"....quagmire.... no light at the end of the tunnel... Whatever....
Meanwhile:
The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, confirmed on Wednesday an increase in the number of attacks on American troops. His comments came hours after American troops came under new attacks in the center of Baghdad and in the tense Sunni Muslim area west of the capital.
SANCHEZ TOLD REPORTERS that the average of 20-25 attacks daily had increased over the last three weeks “to a peak of 35 attacks a day.” He did not elaborate.
No comment yet from President Bring 'em on....
(Added): Oh Jeebus...first spin of the day:
Perhaps it's time the Pentagon hang a few of those old World War II posters in the hallways--"Loose Lips Sink Ships." Someone within that august building needs to understand that the Secretary of Defense needs to ask hard questions of his subordinates, and that he should be able to do so beyond the glare of a hostile and not at all supportive media and political opposition. That lack of basic opsec has placed a confidential memo from SecDef Rumsfeld to his immediate subordinates, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, into the hands of people who wish them ill, and into the hands of our enemy. Now, because some anonymous leaker wanted to score a hit on his or her boss, there will probably be another mini-scandal about nothing, another anti-war feeding frenzy, and we'll take another dent in the effort to win the war.
Here's the Rumsfeld memo. The press seems to be spinning it, and the Dems are of course spinning it too, as a direct refutation of all the Bush administration's positive public statements on the progress of the war. It is no such thing. It's a strategic document, written to force its small circle of recipients to think about a finite set of circumstances within the larger context of the war, and to justify their positions on the US progress or lack thereof with respect to those circumstances. It is the kind of memo a leader writes to his subordinates when he wants them to maintain focus and think about broad ways to win the war in the long term.
You see, on the first hand the memo is bad because it is damaging to Rumsfeld and the war he is conducting, loose lips sinking the Bushco PR effort and all that. On the other hand it is a sign of his brilliance and amazing adaptability and his leadership, although apparently he's not a good enough leader to manage to keep his people in line and loyal.
Next step: an Aha! we've got them right where we want them moment where someone points out that this is a good sign that Rumsfeld is engaged and on the job and those wily Islamo-facists are on the run now, oh boy, and that the increase in attacks is a sign of their desperation and aren't we lucky to have a leader like Rummy leading....
Extra credit given for the first one to use either the expression "Rumsfeld is thinking outside the box" or "the Rumsfeld Doctrine".
By the way, swap out a few words in this comment:
It's a strategic document, written to force its small circle of recipients to think about a finite set of circumstances within the larger context of the war, and to justify their positions on the US progress or lack thereof with respect to those circumstances. It is the kind of memo a leader writes to his subordinates when he wants them to maintain focus and think about broad ways to win the war in the long term
...and it sounds like every bad memo from an outside business consultant ever written. Too bad, he couldn't find a place to use "paradigm"....
posted by tbogg at 8:23 AM
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Rick Santorum said it would come to this.....
Men...dogs....unnatural
posted by tbogg at 12:33 AM
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Onward Christian lunatic...
Josh Marshall has a few things on our country's Most Sacred Holy Warrior, Jesus-Bob Boykin.
posted by tbogg at 12:13 AM
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When you can't control your own family....control one that's not yours.
Let's see...one of Jeb!'s brothers raided a savings and loan, another one was an inside-trading AWOL crackhead. His daughter forges prescriptions and is a hillbilly heroin addict. One of his sons is a stalker whose girlfriend had to get a restraining order, and his youngest son indulges in statutory rape in mall parking lots. Did I mention that his wife is a smuggler?
So it only makes sense that Jeb! puts on his Father Knows Best sweater and borrows a pipe from brother W and intrudes into the lives of a Florida couple to share the secrets of his success.
Steve at No More Mr Nice Blog has the best wrap-up.
posted by tbogg at 12:09 AM
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Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Hey ladies....
Welcome back to second-class citizenhood.
After years of emotional debate, the Senate voted 64-34 Tuesday to send President Bush legislation to ban what critics call partial birth abortion, the most significant restriction since the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion three decades ago. Abortion rights groups promised to challenge the law in court as soon as Bush signed it.
[snip]
Bush had urged Congress to pass the ban, which Republicans had pursued since the GOP captured the House in 1995, and the president had said he would sign it into law.
But opponents said the first federal ban on abortion since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was unconstitutional and, like similar state laws, would be struck down.
The president, said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. “will become the first United States president to criminalize a safe medical procedure.” Doctors who violate the ban would be subject to prison terms of up to two years.
Oh. And if you need the procedure because your life is in danger...too bad. Say hello to Santorum's god when you see him. Then kick him in the nuts....
How they voted:
Akaka (D-HI), Nay
Alexander (R-TN), Yea
Allard (R-CO), Yea
Allen (R-VA), Yea
Baucus (D-MT), Nay
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
Biden (D-DE), Yea
Bingaman (D-NM), Nay
Bond (R-MO), Yea
Boxer (D-CA), Nay
Breaux (D-LA), Yea
Brownback (R-KS), Yea
Bunning (R-KY), Yea
Burns (R-MT), Yea
Byrd (D-WV), Yea
Campbell (R-CO), Yea
Cantwell (D-WA), Nay
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Chafee (R-RI), Nay
Chambliss (R-GA), Yea
Clinton (D-NY), Nay
Cochran (R-MS), Yea
Coleman (R-MN), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Nay
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Cornyn (R-TX), Yea
Corzine (D-NJ), Nay
Craig (R-ID), Yea
Crapo (R-ID), Yea
Daschle (D-SD), Yea
Dayton (D-MN), Nay
DeWine (R-OH), Yea
Dodd (D-CT), Nay
Dole (R-NC), Yea
Domenici (R-NM), Yea
Dorgan (D-ND), Yea
Durbin (D-IL), Nay
Edwards (D-NC), Not Voting
Ensign (R-NV), Yea
Enzi (R-WY), Yea
Feingold (D-WI), Nay
Feinstein (D-CA), Nay
Fitzgerald (R-IL), Yea
Frist (R-TN), Yea
Graham (D-FL), Nay
Graham (R-SC), Yea
Grassley (R-IA), Yea
Gregg (R-NH), Yea
Hagel (R-NE), Yea
Harkin (D-IA), Nay
Hatch (R-UT), Yea
Hollings (D-SC), Yea
Hutchison (R-TX), Not Voting
Inhofe (R-OK), Yea
Inouye (D-HI), Nay
Jeffords (I-VT), Nay
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Kennedy (D-MA), Nay
Kerry (D-MA), Nay
Kohl (D-WI), Nay
Kyl (R-AZ), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Nay
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Levin (D-MI), Nay
Lieberman (D-CT), Nay
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Lott (R-MS), Yea
Lugar (R-IN), Yea
McCain (R-AZ), Yea
McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Nay
Miller (D-GA), Yea
Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
Murray (D-WA), Nay
Nelson (D-FL), Nay
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Nickles (R-OK), Yea
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Nay
Reid (D-NV), Yea
Roberts (R-KS), Yea
Rockefeller (D-WV), Nay
Santorum (R-PA), Yea
Sarbanes (D-MD), Nay
Schumer (D-NY), Nay
Sessions (R-AL), Yea
Shelby (R-AL), Yea
Smith (R-OR), Yea
Snowe (R-ME), Nay
Specter (R-PA), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Nay
Stevens (R-AK), Yea
Sununu (R-NH), Yea
Talent (R-MO), Yea
Thomas (R-WY), Yea
Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
Warner (R-VA), Yea
Wyden (D-OR), Nay
Congratulations to Republicans Collins & Snowe for standing up for women. Shame on Mary Landrieu & Blanche Lincoln. And even more shame on putative Democratic leaders like Daschle, Leahy, Reid, Byrd, and Biden.
I've bolded the names of the Democrats that voted for this assault on women's rights. Keep this in mind when contributing to the Democratic Party. Your best bet is to not contribute to the party or the DNC, but instead to put your money on the candidate that best represents your beliefs.
posted by tbogg at 3:05 PM
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Light blogging today
Duty calls. Work must be done.
Here is Shorter Tbogg:
Bush sucks
Coulter is insane
Rush is a stoner
Bush is a national embarrassment
Luskin is a stalker
Sullivan gets more ridiculous by the day
Bush lied
Condoleeza is incompetent
Ann Telnaes and Dahlia Lithwick are modern day goddesses
Ben is still a virgin
Every day that Laura Bush gets dressed and goes out in public, Vera Wang cries
The war was wrong
Bush went AWOL
I don't know if Greg Easterbrook is an anti-Semite, but I do know he doesn't know anything about film
Is Rummy destroying the US military? Yes, he is.
WalMart is the greatest source of evil on the planet. Even more so than Creed
Bush and Arnold both have strong backgrounds in illicit pharmaceutical usage
There is something creepy about Elizabeth Smart
If Jonah wasn't the fruit of Lucianne's loins, he'd be selling Amway for a living
The Washington Media are sheep
Dick Cheney is from Wyoming...and you know what they do to sheep there
I miss the peace and prosperity and blow-jobs of the Clinton years
...and everytime a Republican gets elected, God puts a baby bunny in a blender and hits frappe.
posted by tbogg at 9:39 AM
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Sean Hannity-sodomizing strap-on, not included...
Whacking material for freepers.
posted by tbogg at 8:52 AM
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You know it's not every day we get to celebrate the political equivalent of an armored car heist in broad daylight. Usually it's just on inauguration day.
But before I introduce our guest of honor, I just want to say that I'm happier than a buzzard with a mouthful of guts to be standing here with y'all passel of real, salt-of-the-Earth Texans, Yankee bluebloods masquerading as rawhide Texans, and their respective, demure, and utterly subservient womenfolk. It's been a darned good victory party so far, and I haven't even shotgunned my tenth Buckler yet.
posted by tbogg at 7:44 AM
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Monday, October 20, 2003
Fredo admits it: Bush lies.
From his column to your eyes:
And speaking of temerity, the haters' criticism seems to center on Bush's supposed lies. What's this newfound judgmentalism about lying? Nothing represents a greater turnaround in a party's attitude toward a certain behavior in modern history.
So.....
posted by tbogg at 11:56 PM
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Life as a poodle...
Andy writes:
SUPERHUMAN POLS: I guess it doesn't surprise me that Tony Blair had to be hospitalized over the weekend with an irregular heartbeat. It would be difficult to think of anyone who has had a tougher political year. But even in the best of times, our major politicians lead punishing lives. The endless travel, the constant stress, the collapse of privacy: all these are terrible for the health. Is there some way we can tell these guys to take it easier? Far from believing, as some seem to, that president Bush's predilection for long vacations at his ranch, attendance to sleep, and regular exercise, are forms of worrying idleness, I'd say his regimen shows an extremely shrewd understanding of what it now takes to be a public figure. Blair should take note
You know, keeping a lie alive can be pretty stressful too....
posted by tbogg at 11:33 PM
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I'm not offended by blunt speech, I'm offended by stupidity...
Harry at Slyblog somehow wandered into the ramblings of the kind of person that you normally only encounter when listening to AM talk radio. I spent some time in Ms. du Toit's blog as well as her husband's and all I could think of was: people like this are allowed to homeschool?
Tomorrows social misfits in training...
posted by tbogg at 11:23 PM
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Compassionate liberalism
This morning I mentioned in passing the problems that Jim at Rittenhouse is having (damn! this Bush economy!) but I don't think that I gave it as much attention as I should have. As you may have noticed I don't have a tip jar or a link to Amazon from which I derive remuneration (guess who got a word of the day calendar?). The reason for this is because I do this for fun and, oh yeah, I'm independently wealthy living off the royalties I receive having written Baby Got Back (okay, I didn't, but wouldn't it be cool if I had?). Anyway, back to Jim. Along with Atrios, Jim was one of the first bloggers to take me under his keyboard and give me tips on how to blog and how to properly link and attribute and other writerly tips. This past year we've developed an email relationship discussing our families and growing up, that makes me regret the fact that he lives on the wrong coast.
Having said all that, I would ask that, if you've enjoyed what you have read on tbogg: the witty repartee, the droll asides, the references to closeted-lesbian Lynne Cheney, that you visit Rittenhouse and help him out as much as you can. He's a good guy and good guys need help in bad times.
posted by tbogg at 9:48 PM
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Meanwhile, Biff Buckley continues his lawsuit against Milford High School....
If you're enjoying the Slacktivists deconstruction of Tim LaHaye's first Left Behind book, make sure you check out the continuing adventures of Gil Thorpe written by LaHaye's partner, Jerry Jenkins. Gil Thorpe, of course, coaches the Milford High School Mudlarks football/basketball/baseball teams (apparently he's the only head coach the school can afford) on that alternate fifties-meets-the-new millenium earth that exists only in the minds of both Jenkins and Jack Chick.
Thorpe has quite a following among amused art students due to it's improbable angles and complete lack of visual depth and perspective....
...and then there is the satanic high school radio broadcaster, Marty Moon
Good stunted family fun.
posted by tbogg at 11:01 AM
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You know, that Darwin guy may have been on to something....
I think any school board that wants to print a disclaimer about evolution in their science textbooks should be required by law to include this picture.
posted by tbogg at 10:22 AM
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It's their default setting...
Non Sequitur
posted by tbogg at 10:10 AM
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The crazy aunt in the attic and the stoner brother on the couch with the bag of Cheetoes....
Well, it's been three weeks now and not a word from David "Fredo" Limbaugh about his brother who has (further) disgraced the family name. Let's see...... Judicial activism..... John Kerry.... culture war....Nope. Nothing about rich people who get special treatment and go into "rehab" to avoid criminal prosecution.
Talk about the elephant in the living room.....
posted by tbogg at 9:55 AM
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Look! Up in the Sky! It's the Double-Chin signal! This looks like a job for Jeb!
Disability rights activists and family members of a woman in a coma-like state whose feeding tube was removed at her husband's request made another appeal Saturday for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene to save her life.
The feeding tube that has nourished Terry Schiavo, 39, for a dozen years was removed Wednesday after a lengthy and contentious court battle pitting her husband and legal guardian, Michael, against her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
Hopefully Schiavo can hold on long enough for Jeb! to see how this plays with Florida's Cuban-American community.
posted by tbogg at 9:18 AM
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Food deprivation can cause you to sound like a Hallmark card
David Blaine, the illusionist best known for creating the illusion that he is an illusionist, has left the building box, thank you verramuch, and golly, did he come away with some profound insights:
"This has been one of the most important experiences of my life," he said.
"I have learned more in that little box than I have learned in years. I have learned how important it is to have a sense of humor and laugh at everything because nothing makes any sense anyway.
"I have learned how strong we all are as human beings.
"But most importantly I have learned to appreciate the simple things in life -- a smile from a stranger or a loved one, the sunrise and the sunset, everything that God has given us, I love you all so much."
Remarkably, this was the same statement given by the winner of the Miss America pageant in 1984, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996-99, and 2002.
posted by tbogg at 9:12 AM
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Converting obsession into celebrity
Donald Luskin, the man who stalks Paul Krugman, wants an apology and a side-order of airtime to celebrate himself and publicy air his penis-envy over Krugman:
On nationwide television last Friday night, Paul Krugman falsely accused me of committing the felony of stalking. On the popular Hannity & Colmes show, Krugman said of me,
That's a guy, that's a guy who actually stalks me on the web, and once stalked me personally.
For some time now Krugman has used a multi-tiered rhetorical strategy: To disagree with his opinion is to lie, to advocate policies that conflict with his own is to be "political," and to hold a vision of America's future that is different from his vision is to be part of a "radical regime." But this is a new twist. Now, to criticize Paul Krugman is a crime.
I am not now nor have I ever been a stalker. What I am is Krugman's most persistent critic. I criticize him in my regular "Krugman Truth Squad" column for National Review Online, and on the blog of my forthcoming book, The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid. Is that stalking on the web?
As to stalking him personally, the one and only time I've ever even seen him in person was on October 6, 2003. I attended a lecture he gave at the University of California at San Diego as part of his tour to promote his book. I listened to the lecture. I videotaped parts of the event with a personal camcorder. Like many members of the audience, I submitted a written question to Krugman. And like many members of the audience, I stood in line to have him sign a copy of his book. I asked him to inscribe it to me, in the process of which he (naturally) realized my identity. He made the inscription, and I said to him, "Now you keep up the good work, Paul," and walked away. Krugman continued to sign autographs
[snip]
I demand from Paul Krugman a full, immediate, and public retraction, as well as an apology. And I would welcome the opportunity from Fox News to appear on the Hannity & Colmes show in order to set the record straight.
posted by tbogg at 8:31 AM
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Monday morning bummer.
Hurry back, Jim.
posted by tbogg at 8:17 AM
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Friday, October 17, 2003
Although the pie-chart is illuminating, smacking her in her horsey face with an exploding pie-chart would be much more gratifying...
Uggabugga breaks down the Whore of Babbling by the numbers.
Like Ann, it's not pretty......
posted by tbogg at 1:20 PM
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Boobs
Mike is writing about boobs and you know that you can't help yourself and whether you're male or female you just have to go look.
Go ahead, go look. We won't tell. Go on. We'll wait.
Pervert...
posted by tbogg at 1:09 PM
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Did we mention that he's a Republican?
The prostitute who provided underaged girls to Republican Phil Giordano is going to prison:
I can't conceive of anything more horrible that a mother could do to her child," U.S. District Judge Alan (search) Nevas said when he imposed the sentence.
The woman could have received up to 20 years under federal guidelines on charges that she conspired with Giordano to entice the girls, who were 8 and 10, into performing oral sex on Giordano at various times between November 2000 and July 2001, when he was mayor.
Republican Giordano came up with what he considered a brilliant defense:
Giordano still faces state charges that he sexually assaulted the girls and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. Giordano has said he never touched the girls, but that they sometimes watched him have oral sex with the woman because he found it arousing.
Yeah. That makes him sound so much less sleazy.....
posted by tbogg at 1:03 PM
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The toll of peace
I guess it depends on what your definition of " peace" is:
When the 100th U.S. soldier died in combat since President Bush declared victory in Iraq nearly six months ago, the grim statistic laid bare how deadly Iraq has become even after the war.
It also marked the biggest U.S. combat loss in a peacekeeping operation since an ill-fated intervention in the Lebanon conflict 20 years ago. That involvement ended in 1983 after an explosive-laden truck rammed into a U.S. Marines Corps barracks in Beirut, killing 241 servicemen.
Somalia, Kosovo, Panama, Grenada, Afghanistan and the first Gulf war, in which 147 Americans died, have not taken the overall toll on American lives that the present Iraq conflict has exacted.
As well as the 101 soldiers who have died in combat since the war was formally declared over by Bush on May 1, another 97 have died in so-called non-hostile action -- accidents, friendly fire, illness and suicides.
In the war itself, 115 U.S. troops died in combat and 23 in non-hostile actions, making a total of 336 dead for U.S. forces since they invaded March 20.
"It's just frustrating. It's not traditional warfare, You've got no known enemy. No military target," said Specialist Joshuah Thompson, 23, with the 720th Military Police Battalion in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit.
"I think the people are ungrateful. They still attack us. We bring them freedom and they're still trying to kill us."
posted by tbogg at 12:49 PM
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Operation Hearts & Minds...coming soon to a village near you...
I'm gonna make you love me...even if I have to destroy your livelihood:
US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.
The stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protrude from the brown earth scoured by the bulldozers beside the road at Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of Baghdad. Local women were yesterday busily bundling together the branches of the uprooted orange and lemon trees and carrying then back to their homes for firewood.
Nusayef Jassim, one of 32 farmers who saw their fruit trees destroyed, said: "They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but this is not true. They didn't capture anything. They didn't find any weapons."
Other farmers said that US troops had told them, over a loudspeaker in Arabic, that the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not informing on the resistance which is very active in this Sunni Muslim district.
"They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees," said one man. Ambushes of US troops have taken place around Dhuluaya. But Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri, a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees, said American officers described what had happened as "a punishment of local people because 'you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us'." What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added.
With a stressed-out, over-extended, pissed-off military running the country, I'm afraid an Iraqi My Lai is just around the corner.
posted by tbogg at 9:29 AM
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The untouchable Condoleeza Rice
No More Mr. Nice Blog points out that the Washington Post has, like, this crush on Condoleeza and thinks that Aaron McGruder is being, like, really mean to her and stuff.
posted by tbogg at 9:15 AM
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Libertarian posterboy
The Libertarian Party (that would be the off-shoot of the Republican Party that is honest enough to admit that they like drugs and porn) wants to thank Rush Limbaugh for exposing the seamy underside of moralistic Republican hypocrisy.
The entire nation owes radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh a debt of gratitude, Libertarians say, because his ordeal has exposed every drug warrior in America as a rank hypocrite.
"One thing we don't hear from American politicians very often is silence," said Joe Seehusen, Libertarian Party executive director. "By refusing to criticize Rush Limbaugh, every drug warrior has just been exposed as a shameless, despicable hypocrite.
"And that's good news, because the next time they do speak up, there'll be no reason for anyone to listen."
The revelation that Limbaugh had become addicted to painkillers -- drugs he is accused of procuring illegally from his Palm Beach housekeeper -- has caused a media sensation ever since the megastar's shocking, on-air confession last week.
As the Limbaugh saga continues, here's an important question for Americans to ask, Libertarians say: Why are all the drug warriors suddenly so silent?
"Republican and Democratic politicians have written laws that have condemned more than 400,000 Americans to prison for committing the same 'crime' as Rush Limbaugh," Seehusen pointed out. "If this pill-popping pontificator deserves a get-out-of-jail-free card, these drug warriors had better explain why."
Cue: sound of the wind...crickets chirping.....a dog barking in the distance......
posted by tbogg at 8:37 AM
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Thursday, October 16, 2003
Does this bulletproof vest make my ass look big?
Remember Rep. George Nethercutt? The guy who said that things in Iraq were going pretty darn well, and that the media should spend more tiime spreading the good word instead of harshing everyone's mellow with those daily reports about American casualties?
Here is Congressman George visiting an Iraqi hospital.
Nice vest....
posted by tbogg at 10:19 PM
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Apparently it's easier to get into college than we were led to believe
Go here to read the what the future spokepeople for the NRA and NORML have to say.
posted by tbogg at 11:24 AM
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Maybe if Clinton had spoken a little bit slower.....
Clinton warned Bush:
Former President Bill Clinton says he warned President George W. Bush before he left office in 2001 that Osama bin Laden was the biggest security threat the United States faced.
Speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the History Channel on Wednesday, Clinton said he discussed security issues with Bush in his "exit interview," a formal and often candid meeting between a sitting president and the president-elect.
"In his campaign, Bush had said he thought the biggest security issue was Iraq and a national missile defence," Clinton said. "I told him that in my opinion, the biggest security problem was Osama bin Laden."
The U.S. government has blamed bin Laden's Al Qaeda network for the September 11 attacks.
Time magazine reported last year that a plan for the United States to launch attacks against the al-Qaeda network languished for eight months because of the change in presidents and was approved only a week before the September 11 attacks.
But the White House disputed parts of that story, which was published by the magazine in August 2002.
"The Clinton administration did not present an aggressive new plan to topple al-Qaeda during the transition," a White House spokesman, Sean McCormack, said at the time.
The White House was clearly irritated by the report, which appeared to suggest that the Bush administration might not have done all it could to prevent the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Maybe that's because they didn't because they were tied up with Dick Cheney's secret meetings with the energy companies and then there was that month-long vacation they needed to get in, just eight months after taking office.
Just one of the Asleep At The Wheel Administration's greatest hits....
posted by tbogg at 11:14 AM
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The Third Ring of Hell
World O'Crap continues their descent into that which is truly icky: Conservative Sites. My favorite comes from the Ann Coulter Dating Club where a gal that tells you exactly what she wants and you best cough it up, bub:
While Ann's group seems to be at least 80% male (ladies, take advantage of this great opportunity!), let's meet HottieChick. a 24-year-old slender, blonde, extremely attractive, extremely stylish,woman:
What are some of the qualities you look for in someone you are dating?:
I'm looking for a Conservative guy that can treat me in the fashion to which I'm accustomed. I like older men, especially if they are well-situated, but I also like younger guys that can treat me like the exciting, attractive girl I am. I dress sexily to please my man and love talking about politics and God.
What things turn you off about someone?:
Don't write me if you are obviously unattractive. I can't stand liberal politics or America-haters. Also, don't write if you can't take me out to the high-class places I like to go. I am NOT a McDonald's type of girl, and offering to take me to the park will not fool me.
Tell others more about yourself:
I am a very sexy and intelligent person. I like to talk about politics with people that agree with me, and I like high class places.
I'm thinking that Lynne Cheney may have lied about her age just a teensy-weensy bit. That, and the attractive part....
posted by tbogg at 10:36 AM
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Well, if there is anyone who knows about half a brain....
When she's not being a rude idiot on TV (see below) and impersonating a woman, Ann Coulter likes to show us what a keen intellect she has, like in this column about one her of her former hand-job johns, Rush Limbaugh. Here's some Coulterian " logic":
Rush has hardly been the anti-drug crusader liberals suggest. Indeed, Rush hasn't had much to say about drugs at all since that spinal operation. The Rush Limbaugh quote that has been endlessly recited in the last week to prove Rush's rank "hypocrisy" is this, made eight years ago: "Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."
What precisely are liberals proposing that Rush should have said to avoid their indignant squeals of "hypocrisy"? Announce his support for the wide and legal availability of a prescription painkiller that may have caused him to go deaf and nearly ruined his career and wrecked his life? I believe that would have been both evil and hypocritical.
Bear with me now, Ann, you barren skank. Maybe, just maybe, Rush could have admitted he was wrong and that good people, or even people like himself, could get caught up in an addiction that they can't control. And that these same people might need help and maybe, just maybe, not be "sent up". Even if they make the $30 million a year that Coulter endlessly harps upon.
Ann later stamps her size 12 feet over the fact that Newsweek's Evan Thomas never talked to her about Rush:
As is standard procedure for profiles of conservatives, Newsweek gathered quotes on Rush from liberals, ex-wives and dumped dates. Covering himself, Thomas ruefully remarked that "it's hard to find many people who really know him." Well, there was me, Evan! But I guess Newsweek didn't have room for the quotes I promptly sent back to the Newsweek researchers. I could have even corrected Newsweek's absurd account of how Rush met his current wife. (It's kind of cute, too: She was a fan who began arguing with him about something he said on air.)
I think that Newsweek has a policy about not quoting insane people who threaten news organizations and think that everyone who has darker skin than Dick Cheney is a "savage". Hard as it is for Ann to believe, but in a world of Fox, Newsmax, and WorldNet Daily, there are still some organizations with standards.
posted by tbogg at 10:25 AM
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The OxyConservative™ Redux
Danziger
posted by tbogg at 9:33 AM
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The continuing adventures of Marriage Protection Week
Ain't love grand?
posted by tbogg at 9:14 AM
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The insufferable prickness that is Sean Hannity
When it comes to outright rudeness, Bill O'Reilly has nothing on the crapulent homunculus that is Hannity. Prepare to be amazed:
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: While inspectors in Iraq continue searching for weapons of mass destruction (search), some Americans are outraged at the president that so far no weapons of mass destruction have been found. Our next guest thinks that's grounds for impeachment.
We're joined by the publisher of Harper's magazine, John MacArthur, who's with us. And the author of the best selling book, Treason, Ann Coulter is with us.
It's not even really intellectually worth discussing. After reading your article, my first reaction is to bubble and fizz and get mad. My second reaction is this is beyond silly, you know, but you really believe this?
JOHN MACARTHUR, HARPER'S MAGAZINE: Why do you invite me to go on the show if you think it's beyond discussion?
HANNITY: Because Alan wanted you on. That's why.
MACARTHUR: OK. But clearly...
HANNITY: It wasn't my first choice.
MACARTHUR: Clearly, if the president of the United States has lied on a grand scale to Congress...
HANNITY: Name me one lie. Name me one lie.
MACARTHUR: Let me finish.
HANNITY: If you're going to call him a liar, back it up.
MACARTHUR: I will, yes. I'll talk about what he said to Bush…Blair at the press conference on September 7 at Camp David. He said…he cited a non-existent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (search), saying that Saddam was six months away from developing a nuclear weapon and infamously said, "What more evidence do we need?" And from there...
HANNITY: We don't have time for a speech.
MACARTHUR: ... we moved on to aluminum tubes. We moved on to connections with Al Qaeda.
HANNITY: Did you call...
MACARTHUR: We talked about an atomic bomb threat that did not exist. Sean, this didn't exist. This didn't exist.
HANNITY: This isn't a speech time.
MACARTHUR: You need me to give you the facts.
HANNITY: I've got to ask you, did you call for the impeachment of Bill Clinton?
MACARTHUR: I wasn't interested in the impeachment of Bill Clinton.
HANNITY: You weren't interested? So you're only interested in the impeachment of Republicans?
MACARTHUR: No, no, no, no. I mean, it's…Listen, I can't stand Bill Clinton.
HANNITY: Did Bill Clinton lie to the American people?
MACARTHUR: Yes.
HANNITY: Why do you have one standard for him and another standard for a Republican?
MACARTHUR: I have the same standard for both of them.
HANNITY: No, you don't. Because you didn't write an article asking for his impeachment.
MACARTHUR: Actually, what I'm trying to tell you is that if you, as Senator Graham (search) put it a few months ago very intelligently, if you apply the same standard to Bush that was applied to Clinton, then it's impeachable. He should be impeached. Absolutely.
HANNITY: Ann...
MACARTHUR: Because as Alexander Hamilton (search) said in The Federalist Papers, this has to do with the immediate consequences and harm done to society. What could be greater harm than the deaths of American soldiers...
HANNITY: Excuse me. The immediate consequences…Sir, you have yet to...
MACARTHUR: ... in Iraq, who have been sent to Iraq on a fraudulent pretext, utterly...
HANNITY: My patience is really running thin.
MACARTHUR: ... and they're dying.
HANNITY: Could you please be quiet, because there are other people on the panel?
MACARTHUR: OK. Sure.
HANNITY: The idea here, he cannot give a specific example.
MACARTHUR: I did give a specific example.
HANNITY: He's full of crap.
MACARTHUR: I did give an example.
HANNITY: And this is just, hatred of George W. Bush now has become a sport for these guys.
Ann Coulter?
ANN COULTER, TREASON AUTHOR: First of all, I agree with you. I hate to treat this seriously by responding, but the particular lie that he cited as his leading, case in chief of the president lying, yes, Bush cited something like the Atomic Energy Commission (search). He misspoke.
HANNITY: Right.
COULTER: It was the International Institute for Strategic Studies or something. He misspoke about the name of the institute.
MACARTHUR: No, he didn't. He didn't.
COULTER: It's my turn now. You stop that.
MACARTHUR: OK.
Later Alan Colmes acted like the simpering idiot that we have come to know and loath:
COULTER: Point two, as you know, I'm something of an authority on the grounds for impeachment. And this is precisely the sort of thing that impeachment is not for. I mean, it's not for policy disagreements. It's certainly not for something that is in the president's prerogative, such as waging war, for example.
To take a decision that I think is appalling, but is not grounds for impeachment. Bill Clinton sending a small Cuban boy back to a Bolshevik monster in Cuba. That is not grounds for impeachment, because that is part of the president's authority.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Ann...
COULTER: You don't impeach for disagreements over policy. It is for misbehavior; that is what misdemeanor means. It's for bad decorum.
COLMES: Ann, we didn't let Rick make a speech. You can't make a speech, either.
COULTER: Well, actually, you did.
COLMES: I know it's hard, but if you look to your left, I know that's difficult.
Look, I don't think he should be impeached. I disagree with Rick about that.
COULTER: That's very big of you.
COLMES: Thank you. I think I'd rather put our time and effort toward 2004, and just like I don't think Bill Clinton should have been impeached, I don't.
But I understand Rick's point. There are many Americans who increasingly seem to feel that we were not leveled with, for whatever reason, whether it was Bush who did it or people in his administration who gave him false information.
He did say the IAEA reported that Iraq was six months away from a nuclear capability, which turned out not to be true. It's a scare tactic.
COULTER: He got the name of the institute wrong.
COLMES: Saying "I misspoke," and they said they misspoke about a number of things. Misspoke about uranium. They misspoke about tubes, misspoke about how many things.
MACARTHUR: Right.
COLMES: Misspoke lets him off the hook?
COULTER: No. Liberals don't want to fight terrorism. You want there to be lots of 9/11's.
At which point someone should have smacked Coulter upside her horsey face with a ten pound bag of horseshit.
I can understand why Colmes takes this kind of abuse since he basically unemployable outside of Fox, but why the hell didn't MacArthur call them on their bullshit and walk out?
(Thanks to jim for the link)
posted by tbogg at 9:10 AM
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The difference between fleishig and milchig
Jim at Rittenhouse doesn't think much of our little Ben either...
posted by tbogg at 8:47 AM
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I ain't a-marching anymore...soon.
Looks like the bumbling crew at the White House may be short a few bodies for their next invasion:
A broad survey of U.S. troops in Iraq by a Pentagon-funded newspaper found that half of those questioned described their unit's morale as low and their training as insufficient, and said they do not plan to reenlist.
The survey, conducted by the Stars and Stripes newspaper, also recorded about a third of the respondents complaining that their mission lacks clear definition and characterizing the war in Iraq as of little or no value. Fully 40 percent said the jobs they were doing had little or nothing to do with their training.
The findings, drawn from 1,935 questionnaires presented to U.S. service members throughout Iraq, conflict with statements by military commanders and Bush administration officials that portray the deployed troops as high-spirited and generally well-prepared. Though not obtained through scientific methods, the survey results suggest that a combination of difficult conditions, complex missions and prolonged tours in Iraq is wearing down a significant portion of the U.S. force and threatening to provoke a sizable exodus from military service.
Why does the Stars and Stripes hate America?
This is good:
In recent days, the Bush administration has launched a campaign to blame the news media for portraying the situation in Iraq in a negative light. Last week, Bush described the military spirit as high and said that life in Iraq is "a lot better than you probably think. Just ask people who have been there."
But Stars and Stripes raised questions about what those visiting dignitaries saw in Iraq. "Many soldiers -- including several officers -- allege that VIP visits from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill are only given hand-picked troops to meet with during their tours of Iraq," the newspaper said in its interview with Sanchez. "The phrase 'Dog and Pony Show' is usually used. Some troops even go so far as to say they've been ordered not to talk to VIPs because leaders are afraid of what they might say."
posted by tbogg at 8:39 AM
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A rising star in a very small universe
The Washington Times, writing about David Drier:
Before Mr. Schwarzenegger burst on the political scene, Mr. Dreier, chairman of the House Rules Committee, was already was a rising star in Congress. But the 11-term congressman from the San Gabriel Valley was little-known outside his own district.
Isn't this sort of like being popular, but unknown?
posted by tbogg at 8:23 AM
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Reading comprehension
I see Andy Sullivan has taken a moment out of his obsession over the word "imminent" to comment:
BAD DAY FOR KRUGMAN: More people are getting jobs.
From the linked article:
First-time filings for state unemployment aid fell 4,000 last week to 384,000 from the previous week. The number was broadly in line with analysts' expectations that claims would be 388,000.
"The jobless numbers were certainly encouraging. We got a decline and it suggests that the labor market is recovering," said Parul Jain, Nomura Securities International.
It was the second week in a row that claims came in under 400,000. Economists say claims above 400,000 suggest a deteriorating jobs market.
The drop also brought a decline in the closely watched four-week moving average of initial filings, seen as more reliable because it irons out weekly fluctuations.
The department said the average fell 4,250 to 390,750, also the lowest since early February.
While the report suggested layoffs are slowing, it also showed unemployed workers are still having a tough time finding new jobs. For the week ended Oct. 4, the number of Americans claiming benefits after filing an initial claim climbed 58,000 to 3.67 million.
The labor market has lagged other areas of the economy. But recent reports have been encouraging for job seekers. In September, the economy created 57,000 new jobs, the first increase in eight months.
Just for fun, using the 3.67 million figure and dividing it by the 57,000 new jobs created per month, they should all find jobs in about, oh, 64 months. Or just a little over a year into Dean's second term or Hillary's first.
Oh, sure, the math isn't perfect, and it leaves out about a thousand variables, but it's good enough for the Fox News crowd.
posted by tbogg at 8:18 AM
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Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Unsuprisingly, the kids ran out of red paint...again.
Well, it's getting late in the year and that means awards need to be given out, particularly if the award camouflages what your organization does for a living. Take the NRA, for example. You may find it hard to believe that these grizzled supporters of the Second Amendment and cop-killing bullets are really just big softies when it comes to nature art. No. Really. Every year they sponsor a Youth Wildlife Art Contest that allows the lil gunners to show off the the arty side of their lives that will soon be swallowed up by paranoia, obsession, and sexual dysfunction.
Here are this years winners.
After the awards ceremony the artists went out back and killed their models. Dinner soon followed....
posted by tbogg at 1:10 PM
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That very wrong first impression....
When I saw this on Drudge:
Idaho Bar Allowed To Keep 'Monkeys' As Entertainment...
I thought they were talking about lawyers.
Well. It is Idaho.....
posted by tbogg at 12:56 PM
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Compassionate liberalism at work....watch your step.....hearts are bleeding.
We care. Sometimes we care deeply, sometimes not so deeply, but we always care. I've been doing a lot of soul seaching lately (oh, it doesn't really take that much time. Maybe about the time it takes to make toast. Light golden brown, thank you, no margarine...) and what I found is that I have neglected (nay! failed!) to have much in the way of that compassion that we liberals are absolutely waterlogged with for Rush "Mother's Little Helper" Limbaugh. I guess it was the words of David Frum or possibly the smackdown (boy, does my ass hurt from that one) I got from closeted non-combatant lil mensch, Ben Shapiro, that made me see the light.
But I think it's time that we all Help People Help Themselves by assisting with our hard-earned tax dollars to see that Rush gets the help he needs to get this feces-flinging hillbilly monkey off of his back. For a hard case like Rush, where you're popping OxyContins like Skittles, I believe it is only the government that can provide the serious rehabilitation that can get Rush back on the straight and, well, not narrow, maybe husky or possibly tends-towards-obesity path. You get the idea.
Because it takes a village to detox a dittohead, here is how you too can help Rush to once again see a brighter day when the walls aren't crawling with Hillary-headed nematodes and he doesn't wake up each morning in a pool of Marta's vomit.
Contact :
Barry E. Krischer
The State Attorney's Office
401 North Dixie Highway
West Palm Beach Florida 33401
Main Telephone Number: (561) 355-7100
FAX Number: (561) 366-1800
Email Address: StateAttorney@sa15.state.fl.us
...and let him know that you would appreciate his efforts in getting Rush into a state facility (for a period of no less than five years, with time off for not putting up a fuss when someone tells him "toss my salad, fool") where he can get the kind of rehabilitation that the state of Florida provides to all unfortunate victims of inadvertent drug addiction, possession, possession with intent to sell, and rhyming "ladies "with "Mercedes".
As Sally Struther's might say "Won't you please help? And are you going to eat those fires...?".
(thanks to Chris C. for the contact)
posted by tbogg at 12:18 PM
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Easier than wearing an orange jumpsuit and picking up trash along A1A with Rush...
As part of an agreement that I just made up with Blogger, I now present a Public Service Announcement from Demogogue:
Given the Bush administration's penchant for ironic program titles (e.g. the Healthy Forests Initiative, the Clear Skies Initiative, and the grandaddy of them all--Compassionate Conservatism) we were hoping for something equally Orwellian for its new endangered species proposal. The Washington Post describes the new policy like this:
The Bush administration is proposing far-reaching changes to conservation policies that would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries.
Giving Americans access to endangered animals, officials said, would feed the gigantic U.S. demand for live animals, skins, parts and trophies, and generate profits that would allow poor nations to pay for conservation of the remaining animals and their habitat.
This and other proposals that pursue conservation through trade would, for example, open the door for American trophy hunters to kill the endangered straight-horned markhor in Pakistan; license the pet industry to import the blue fronted Amazon parrot from Argentina; permit the capture of endangered Asian elephants for U.S. circuses and zoos; and partially resume the trade in African ivory.
As you can see, this is in keeping with Bush's belief that (in the paraphrased words of the Daily Show's Ed Helms) "to save something, you have to kill part of it."
We're disappointed to say that, so far at least, administration spinners haven't come up with a name to turn this particular environmental frown upside down. That, dear readers, is where you come in. We invite you to enter Demagogue's first (but certainly not last) Mock W. Contest. The rules are simple:
1. Come up with a suitably humorous name for the endangered species proposal. We encourage the use of irony, puns, Bushisms, and even the odd non sequitur.
I'm leaning towards The "Bambi's Mother Had It Coming" Herd Thinning Initiative and Teeny Penis Act.
posted by tbogg at 11:39 AM
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Shoved in our face and shoved down our throats....
Lil Ben doesn't care about gays...and he doesn't care so much that he's going to spend all 689 words of his little bitchfest telling us how much he doesn't care. Because he doesn't care.
He is also the only person in America under the age of 55 who uses the word "smooching".
So don't push us too far. When you tell us that we are secretly homosexual if we oppose your agenda, we get angry. When you tell us we are bigots for upholding God's definition of marriage, we get angry. When you tell us that "gay relationships are just as good and the same" as straight relationships, as UCLA Queer Alliance Co-Chair Kian Boloori did last week, we get angry.
He's so cute when he gets all flustered and blushing and turgid with repression.
(Added): More stuff about gay men and straight women and other people that Ben is not having sex with over at World O'Crap.
posted by tbogg at 9:56 AM
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How can it be Marriage Protection Week? Hallmark doesn't even have a card for it.
Jeez. I didn't know this Marriage Protection Week was real. I mean, there wasn't a Macys Marriage Protection Week parade with an enormous inflatable Maggie Gallagher balloon on TV this morning, was there?
Lady Sisyphus has the rundown and all the links you need so you can know what the hell is going on.
(Here's a tip for Ms. Gallagher: really short bangs combined with a really round face makes a person look like a Weeble.)
posted by tbogg at 8:58 AM
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By "pragmatic and common-sense conservative" I assume you mean stupid, insensitive and not ready for prime time...
Meet George Nethercutt, Congressman from Washington. According to his bio he's :
Seen as a pragmatic and common-sense conservative, Nethercutt is sought by major news organizations such as The Washington Post, National Public Radio and CBS News for comments on major news events. Nethercutt uses these opportunities to speak out on the issues which brought him to Washington, D.C.: balancing the federal budget, reducing the size of the federal government in a compassionate manner, improving America's public education system, open markets to trade, and eliminating illegal drug use.
Here's another reason why major news organizations seek him out: he's a good story. But only in the sense of what Nethercutt sees as a good story:
Rep. George Nethercutt said yesterday that Iraq's reconstruction is going better than is portrayed by the news media, citing his recent four-day trip to the country.
"The story of what we've done in the postwar period is remarkable," Nethercutt, R-Wash., told an audience of 65 at a noon meeting at the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs.
"It is a better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day."
He added that he did not want any more soldiers to be killed.
Good thing that he added that he didn't want any more American soldiers killed. He wouldn't want us to get the idea that he was callous or stupid or anything like that.....
(thanks to susan for the link)
(Added): According to a regular reader, Nethercutt beat Tom Foley for the seat in 1994 by promising to serve only six years. You do the math..
(Added) Link to Nethercutt's stupid quote added.
posted by tbogg at 8:45 AM
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A Master Race of Rayboulds
Okay. Maybe I'm the only one who finds this funny. Kevin Raybould of LeanLeft just helped move the Daily Kos over to a new server. Buy way of thanking him, Kos suggests that everyone go to Kevin's Amazon wish list and buy him pretty things. Among the usual DVD sets and books there is an assortment of baby items (obviously for an upcoming birth) as well as this.
Is there something you want to tell us, Kevin?
posted by tbogg at 8:31 AM
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Living in a house of mirrors
I see Jill Stewart is still trying to relaunch a stalled career with her special "hush-hush-super-secret-insiders-that-talk-to-me-in-my-head" reporting.
Now that the California gubernatorial recall election is over, one debate is still raging--the question of how much bias the Los Angeles Times allowed into its coverage and polls. I am offering three items below, not my normal "Capitol Punishment" column, exploring this issue.
The first item is my response to John Carroll, executive editor of the Los Angeles Times. On Sunday, Oct. 12, Carroll published a bylined justification for his decisions to run eleventh-hour bombshells that alleged Arnold Schwarzenegger had groped women. Carroll used his Opinion section to attack me, Los Angeles Weekly political commentator Bill Bradley, and other commentators who criticized the way the Times has handled itself--but Carroll did so without actually naming any of us.
The second item is an illuminating interview I conducted last week with a longtime, well-respected Timesian who was involved in the Schwarzenegger probe. This source contacted me after hearing me discuss the Times bias against Schwarzenegger, and its longtime protection of Davis, on a cable network. My description of Times bias, this inside source says, "is exactly how it's been, except it's been three times as bad."
Congratulations to Stewart. She's graduated from a Gray Davis " former staffer" to a "a longtime, well-respected Timesian". And just in the nick of time. After all the hate radio broadcast interviews she did last week before the election, her fifteen minutes has...just...about...run...out.........
...and she just knows that Carroll was talking about her. I mean, isn't it obvious?
Nobody bought the "violent Gray Davis" story in the first place because of her loopy sourcing, so why not pile it on even thicker with a Drudge-like source? Alll she needed to do was add the word: "developing".....
posted by tbogg at 8:10 AM
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Marriage Protection Week part III
Go here.
posted by tbogg at 7:49 AM
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Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Let's ask Flightsuit Boy.
Andrew Sullivan says:
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? It seems to me that the anti-Bush crowd has been missing the real story, as usual. Instead of attempting to parse the administration's arguments before the war, they'd do better to focus on the Pentagon's massive incompetence after the war. Two things spring to mind: why weren't forces directed to secure all possible WMD sites immediately? And why were troops not sent to secure Saddam's conventional weapon sites immediately? The Baathist resistance is now fueled primarily by those weapons. The fate of WMDs is unsure - a critical reason for the war in the first place. Did Rumsfeld even think for a second about these post-war exigencies? Why were these objectives not included in the original war-plan as a whole? I have no idea. The pre-war and the war were executed as well as we could hope for. The immediate post-war was a disaster. Shouldn't someone take responsibility? It seems to me that since the left is so hopeless at constructing rational criticism, some of us pro-war types need to get mad and ask some tough questions.
Okay. Let's start by demanding answers from the Commander in Chief. Right after he finishes his golf game.....
posted by tbogg at 11:45 AM
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Tom Toles
No child left behind
Todays Ann Telnaes is pretty good too.
posted by tbogg at 9:40 AM
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I love long walks on the beach, candle-lit dinners, nipple clamps, and low taxation....
If reading the personal ads makes you feel superior and creeped out at the same time, you're gonna love World O'Crap today.
Elephant Dates™ will be a site for all Flag Waving Conservative Singles, looking for like minded conservative guys and gals to spend quality time with. Our hope is that conservative love and marriage will abound!
Please tell us what conservative love qualities you are looking for in a man or woman to help us build our data base.
If there us a God (and I sincerely doubt there is) let's hope he (or she or it or them) won't let them breed.
posted by tbogg at 9:07 AM
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Well sometimes I get the menstrual cramps real hard.
I don't get James Lileks, or I should say: I don't understand his popularity. At his best he's liked warmed-over Erma Bombeck with Kathleen Parker-like political tendencies. I guess semi-ironic middle class observational humor (Target! Macaroni and cheese! Furnaces!) just isn't my thing. And then there are the times when he turns into the angry white male, or, in this case, the angry white female. Oh hell, let's face it, he turned into Ann Coulter, which is a little bit of both:
You know what’s going to follow, don’t you? Yards and yards of specific examples?! Photos of the holding pens! Letters written in blood on toilet paper from the jails where they took those nice old ladies who protested at the courthouse! The smuggled text of a polemical novel - One Day in the Life of Alec Baldwin - that rips the mask off this police-state of ours! Right?
Alas, no: it’s the usual goulash. But it has an unusual pedigree. This American writing this piece is Colleen Rowley, the famous FBI whistleblower. What she writes is rather revealing - but not for reasons she perhaps intends.
Let’s continue. “This American disagrees!” she says. “And I would venture to say that many other feel on the same way - those who have been put on the ‘Them’ side of the ‘use vs. them’ equation in the context of the administration’s ‘you’re either with us or against us’ mentality.”
Your eyebrow might now be assuming Basic Spock Position #23 - mild curiosity. Has Ms. Rowley just admitted that she harbors and / or supports terrorism, and thus is within the camp of nations who chose to oppose the Administration’s fight against Al Qaeda and other forms of militant Islamic fascism? I mean, she’s referring to a specific line in a specific SOTU speach, which referred explicitly to other nations. But specifics don’t count when you’re parsing the edicts that flow from a “mentality.” If the President puts Syria and Libya on notice, surely he also hopes to send a message to Iowa school teachers.
“It didn’t matter whether you were a career FBI agent, a decorated war veteran, a duly elected congressman or senator, a military general or even a former president, you were labeled a traitor for voicing any criticism of administration policies.”
She forgot Bill Maher, who as far as I know is still nailed to the cross at Golgotha; will someone please pry him down? He has an HBO show to tape.
Google “Colleen Rowley traitor” and you’ll find zero hits of any relevance, although I did find a blog that called Zell Miller “either an idiot or a traitor” for opposing increases in fuel efficiency. Traitors! The country’s lousy with ‘em.
“You were accused of giving aid and comfort to the enemy, called a friend of Osama bin Laden, and thrown to the wolves (or more accurately, the FOXes.)”
(Polite laughter. Hey, it’s her first time at open-mike night.)
“The intimidation in this country that’s been whipped up by this official fear and warmongering has been far more effective that any Patriot Act in whittling away our civil liberties.”
And yet she dares to write the lead guest edit on the front page of the most widely-read newspaper in town, on the day with the biggest circulation. How she got past the guvment sharpshooters in the book depository across the street from the Strib I’ll never know. Hell, those boys have been eager to ping someone since Ruby Ridge.
There's a bunch more of this bitchy-ass Coulter-channeling containing a generous assortment of extreme reaches and bon mots suitable for generating a few guffaws and a few "hear hear"s at your average Rotary Club Saturday Pancake Breakfast. The hard part is trying to read it without letting the authors voice in your head get all shrieky and nasal and annoying. Go ahead, try it. Don't say I didn't warn you....
(Added) : Lilek's wrote: Google “Colleen Rowley traitor” and you’ll find zero hits of any relevance. An alert reader points out that if you Google Rowley + FBI + traitor you get over 650 hits. Hmmmmmm....
I guess that's different, but I can't imagine how.
posted by tbogg at 8:57 AM
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The hitlist
So what are we? Chopped liver? The NRA has a hit list and I'm not on it. Who do I have to call a knuckle-dragging small penised cretin, to be included?
Go sign up here (warning: sound) and demand to have your cold, Second Amendment-hating name put on the list.
It's the American thing to do.
posted by tbogg at 8:19 AM
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If Maggie Gallagher can find a mate, why can't you?
It's Marriage Protection Week. Get caught up here and here.
Now get out there and start breeding....
posted by tbogg at 8:00 AM
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Monday, October 13, 2003
About them fancy-schmancy goodest novels of all time...
I didn't notice it but several readers did. The Guardian list of Great Novels noted here is apparently in chronological order.
D'oh.
I still think that there are some very debatable books on the list.
So there.
posted by tbogg at 9:50 PM
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Life Lessons
...from Mark Driver at blindwino:
Life Lessons I've learned from Republicans:
1. Cocaine addiction, alcoholism, laziness, draft-dodging, and stupidity qualify one for president.
2. Steroid abuse, sexual assault, extensive plastic surgery, and orgy participation qualify one for governor.
3. Being a pillhead junky qualifies you to be the leading voice of conservative moralism in America.
4. There is nothing wrong with blowing the proceeds from your book about morality on video poker.
5. Condemning the souls of others to hell is tough work. Blow off some steam by spending your nights (and church proceeds) whacking off in front of hookers. Cry on the pulpit. You shall be forgiven.
6. Destroy everything. Nothing matters. Win.
Life Lessons I've learned from Democrats:
1. Selling out your friends doesn't guarantee victory. And then you don't have any friends.
2. Trying to be a more palatable version of your enemy leaves a poor taste in many mouths.
There's more good stuff at his site....
(Thanks Chris...again)
posted by tbogg at 9:47 PM
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I got those economist-penis-envy blues
I used to know this girl who was just flat out gorgeous. Stunning. Other-worldly. Hot. When I mentioned it to another young lady I knew, she commented, ""Yeah. But she has ugly toes".
I am reminded of her every time Paul Krugman, professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University, writes a column for the New York Times, only to have back-alley 'economist' Donald Luskin pop up like a flaming herpes reoccurrence.
Krugman has a new column today regarding a topic that he may know more about than anyone else in the country: “New Trade”. Sample from the article:
There is now a huge structural gap — that is, a gap that won't go away even if the economy recovers — between U.S. spending and revenue. For the time being, borrowing can fill that gap. But eventually there must be either a large tax increase or major cuts in popular programs. If our political system can't bring itself to choose one alternative or the other — and so far the commander in chief refuses even to admit that we have a problem — we will eventually face a nasty financial crisis.
The crisis won't come immediately. For a few years, America will still be able to borrow freely, simply because lenders assume that things will somehow work out.
But at a certain point we'll have a Wile E. Coyote moment. For those not familiar with the Road Runner cartoons, Mr. Coyote had a habit of running off cliffs and taking several steps on thin air before noticing that there was nothing underneath his feet. Only then would he plunge.
At this writing, Luskin hasn’t weighed in with his “expert” opinion on Krugman’s latest, possibly because he’s still busily scanning through his Looney Tunes collection for the one time that Wile E. Coyote didn’t plunge. Luskin will then announce his discovery in a big Luskin-esque “A-HAH!” moment that will make his nipples all hard and give him a brief erection that will only last until the realization that he is still Donald Luskin hits him like an Acme anvil. In the meantime Luskin seems to be gloating over the fact that Krugman’s The Great Unraveling has fallen all the way to the fifth spot on the NY Times bestseller list. Yeah. How embarrassing:
Down to number five on the New York Times bestseller list -- and still trailing Al Franken (and Bill O'Reilly). But he's number one on the Business best-seller list (Self-help was even more obviously the wrong category, so what was left... Fiction? Naaah...). If you still feel you have to buy the damn thing, buy it from me by clicking here.
Good to see that he's not too big to make a buck off of Krugman. Maybe he can use the money to enroll in night school...
posted by tbogg at 9:19 PM
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The War Lovers
As assaults on our military increase in Iraq during the dog days of Operation Inigo Montoya and despairing soldiers turn to suicide, we need to remember who it was that got us into this quagmire, and remember those who refused the last quagmire. Robert Poe writes in the Washington Monthly:
In the months since May 1, when the president donned an aviator's jumpsuit, landed on an aircraft carrier, and declared the end of major combat, and more than 155 American soldiers have died in Iraq. The number of wounded has skyrocketed to over 1,000, up 35 percent in August alone, according to The Washington Post. Exhausted, middle-aged reservists have had their tours of duty lengthened. And the administration has had to go back to the United Nations for a mandate to spur the international community to bail out the United States with additional troops and resources.
Soldiers are rightly proud of what they have accomplished so far in Iraq, and understandably irritated at the press for only focusing on the negative. Yet disgust with the Bush administration's slipshod planning and careless use of troops is steadily mounting. At a recent gathering of current and retired military officers, retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni--who endorsed Bush in 2000, became his Middle East coordinator, but then broke with the administration over Iraq--spoke for many when he said, "My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. I ask you, is it happening again?" according to The Washington Post's Thomas E. Ricks. Last month, after Bush gave a speech to returning members of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division thanking them for their bravery, one young soldier told the Los Angeles Times, "He likes war. He should go fight in a war for two days and see how he likes it."
posted by tbogg at 2:26 PM
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Seriously debatable
The Guardian put up their list of the 100 Greatest Novels of All Time. Top Ten (starting at #1):
Don Quixote, Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels. Tom Jones, Clarissa, Tristram Shandy, Dangerous Liaisons, Emma, Frankenstein.
One Hundred Years of Solitude comes in at #76 after The Lord Of The Rings, Men Without Women, and The Woman in White.
What the fu----? I realize that they're trying to be a little Eurocentric, but this is ridiculous.
It was nice to see Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveller on the list.
posted by tbogg at 1:39 PM
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Why let the deaths of a few servicemen ruin a good day for golf
Our war-time president. From the UT:
On a day when two U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq, President Bush uses a Columbus Day speech to pay tribute to soldiers who have died in that war and others. Later, he played a round of golf at Andrews Air Force Base.
Now watch this drive....
posted by tbogg at 12:12 PM
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Groped and smeared
It's not easy being a woman in Schwarzenegger's California.
Arnold's camp picked up the lesson of politics of personal destruction quickly, didn't they?
I see Atrios has more on this.
I saw Miller on the news last night and was suprised that there was nothing to be found on the major news sites this morning. I guess that whole Californai election is now so last week....
posted by tbogg at 11:35 AM
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A massive swelling of debt
According to Crunchland, adding three inches to your manhood is nothing compared to this.
(Thanks to Chris)
posted by tbogg at 11:11 AM
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If Rush lived in a Third World country, well, he still be a hypocritical junkie idiot.
NewsMax's Chris Ruddy has a unique defense of the OxyConservative™:
Another thing: As for seeking out illegal drug prescriptions, we should remember that for almost the entire rest of the world there is no such thing as an illegal prescription. Many Third World countries, and some First World ones, allow drugs to be easily obtained by just asking a pharmacist for the drug with no prescription.
Rush...in a Third World country. Imagine that if you can....
posted by tbogg at 10:46 AM
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The We Who Are Not Responsible for the Mess Party
Garrison Keillor on creeping Arnoldism:
Arnold stretches the bounds of Republicanism so that it simply means the unDemocrats, the We Who Are Not Responsible for the Mess Party. This was good enough to get a man elected, but now comes the deluge. Now Arnold is saying that the state's budget crisis may be worse than he had thought. Welcome to government. Success in this line of work is short-lived. Politics consists of mostly all gas, and gas evaporates or it cools, and the beautiful balloon gets wrinkly and descends. Arnold will need to act fast lest the crisis worsen and he be held responsible for it.
[snip]
When Arnold takes office, he should do exactly what he promised not to do, and then smile and say that he didn't really do it, and if he did do it, which he didn't, he didn't mean to do it, the thing that was not done, and will never do it again. We eat the cake and after we eat it, there is even more cake. Yes, we have no bananas, but we do have apples, which also are oranges. And if Arnold can be a Republican, then we're all Republicans, and we Democrats are even more so.
posted by tbogg at 9:51 AM
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The incredible shrinking Krauthammer
Josh Marshall thinks Charles Krauthammer has a bit of a crediblity problem
Then: Hans Blix had five months to find weapons. He found nothing. We've had five weeks. Come back to me in five months. If we haven't found any, we will have a credibility problem. I don't have any doubt that we will locate them. I think it takes time.
Now: Hussein was simply making his WMD program more efficient and concealable. His intent and capacity were unchanged.
As Ron Ziegler used to say: that first statement is "no longer operative".
posted by tbogg at 9:30 AM
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Undercover Conservative
World O'Crap goes many places that you probably don't want to visit and learns many things that you probably need to know.
posted by tbogg at 9:23 AM
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What I learned from the White House
Listen to enough Press Secretaries and you too can learn to spin. For example:
After more than five months of bitter party squabbles and two quorum-busting flights into exile by Democratic lawmakers, the Republican-controlled Texas Senate gave final approval Sunday night, without debate, to new Congressional districts that put the Republicans in a far stronger position to dominate the Texas delegation in the 2004 elections and beyond.
The measure now goes to Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, who has said he will sign it. The Republicans, who now trail the Democrats 17 to 15 in Washington, are likely to gain seven seats by some accounts.
[snip]
"I move adoption of House Bill 3," said the sponsor, Senator Todd Staples, Republican of Palestine, at 6:45 p.m., after a 45-minute delay in the unusual Sunday vote that raised the prospect of yet another unexpected development. But the count proceeded quickly, and when it was over at 6:48 the tally stood at 17 for and 14 against. All 12 Democrats voted nay; two of the body's 19 Republicans joined them in opposition.
17 Republicans voted for redistricting, while 12 Democrats and 2 Republicans voted against it.
Were this White House they would be pointing out that the redistricting passed despite bipartisan disapproval.
posted by tbogg at 9:06 AM
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The OxyConservative™
It would be simple to laugh off Rush Limbaugh as just a simple buffoon playing to simpler buffoons, but this Newsweek article reveals him to be a truly sad case; the kind of person whose self esteem is so low that their only recourse in life is to try and knock everyone else down to their level.
Self-absorbed, awkward, selfish, socially inept, it's no wonder he's a Republican.
posted by tbogg at 8:57 AM
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Faking fakers
Kos has the fake letters about the fake war fought for the fake President.
posted by tbogg at 8:48 AM
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Friday, October 10, 2003
I am so the boss of you.
Changing topics and pandering for votes, El Presidente Borracho is rattling his toy saber at Cuba now.
“CLEARLY, THE CASTRO regime will not change by its own choice,” Bush told a gathering at the White House Rose Garden. “But Cuba must change.”
The president said that too many Americans were bypassing the restriction against travel to Cuba. They are using humanitarian relief work as a cover to go on holiday or “carry cash into Cuba,” he said.
“The Department of Homeland Security will enforce the law,” he said, adding that Americans also will be prevented from traveling through third countries or by private vessel.
The administration had been signaling for weeks that new steps concerning Cuba were being planned. A small group of advisers, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, were asked to provide advice on hastening what the administration calls the “inevitable democratic transition in Cuba.”
Some of Cuban President Fidel Castro’s most ardent opponents have criticized the Bush administration for not doing more to bring about democratic change in Cuba.
Let's see...Cuba won't let people come to America which makes them an oppresive regime. The US won't let it's citizens travel to Cuba...because we are a democracy.
Freedom...Bush style.
posted by tbogg at 2:06 PM
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Dudes a total stoner
I think the tie is what tipped the police off.
I first started taking prescription painkillers some years ago when my doctor prescribed them to treat post surgical pain following spinal surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery was unsuccessful and I continued to have severe pain in my lower back and also in my neck due to herniated discs. I am still experiencing that pain. Rather than opt for additional surgery for these conditions, I chose to treat the pain with prescribed medication. This medication turned out to be highly addictive.
"Over the past several years I have tried to break my dependence on pain pills and, in fact, twice checked myself into medical facilities in an attempt to do so. I have recently agreed with my physician about the next steps.
Since his pharmacist ended up being his maid, you have to wonder if his "physician" is his gardener.
Later Rush said he was no role model.
No duh.
posted by tbogg at 1:59 PM
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Government shouldn't supply drugs. That's what private industry maids are for....
Rush just makes my life so easy:
“I'm disgusted by the large number of congressional Republicans who support this massive new government-run entitlement, the prescription drug bill, and I've said so in the past. The whole thing makes me mad.”
Dude, mellow. Try another quaalude. Watch some SpongeBob.......
posted by tbogg at 10:20 AM
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Your one stop shopping for all purpose retorts
Since it appears that Limbaugh is going to own up to being the Hillbilly Heroin Hophead it's going to make it so much easier to dismiss anything he says. Next time your friendly neighborhood dittohead starts to say "I just heard Rush say...", just cut them off say "Well, to me, that sounds like the drugs talking "
You may never have to hear about Rush again.
Wouldn't that make the world a more bearable place?
posted by tbogg at 10:13 AM
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Boy....I shoulda said...then I shoulda told him.....
Ever have one of those arguments where your best lines come long afterwards when you're in your car reliving it and fuming?
Apparently it happens to Ann Coulter in interviews....as she points out in this column that illuminates the fact that not only is she not quick on her size 12 feet, but she's even more thin-skinned than a PMS-ing Donald Luskin (see below):
FRANKEN HYSTERICALLY ACCUSES ME OF "LYING" FOR CALLING MY "ENDNOTES," "FOOTNOTES" IN INTERVIEWS ON MY BOOK.
Yes, notes at the end of a book are technically "endnotes," not "footnotes." Franken will have to take his case up with the New York Times, the LA Times, and the Washington Post and the rest of the universe -- all of which referred to my 780 endnotes as "FOOTNOTES." Also God, for inventing the concept of "colloquial speech."
[snip]
I CLAIM EVAN THOMAS'S FATHER WAS THE SOCIALIST PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, NORMAN THOMAS.
Franken drones on and on for a page and a half about how Norman Thomas was not Evan Thomas's father -- without saying that he was Evan's grandfather. This was one of about five inconsequential errors quickly corrected in Slander -- and cited one million times by liberals as a "LIE." Confusing "father" with "grandfather" is a mistake. Franken's deliberate implication that there was no relationship whatsoever between Norman and Evan Thomas is intentional dishonesty.
I haven't heard so much about this "lie" anymore.
I INCORRECTLY CLAIMED DALE EARNHARDT'S DEATH WAS NOT MENTIONED ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE NYT THE DAY AFTER HIS DEATH.
In my three bestselling books -- making the case for a president's impeachment, accusing liberals of systematic lying and propagandizing, arguing that Joe McCarthy was a great American patriot, and detailing 50 years of treachery by the Democratic Party -- this is the only vaguely substantive error the Ann Coulter hysterics have been able to produce, corrected soon after publication.
She seems to have a real bug up her skinny skanky ass about Al Franken. Must be because his book just jumped back into the #1 spot on the best seller list while hers is dropping faster than her estrogen level.
C'mon Ann. Take it like a man.
posted by tbogg at 9:25 AM
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That's going to leave a mark
Paul Krugman:
Still, some would say that criticism should focus only on Mr. Bush's policies, not on his person. But no administration in memory has made paeans to the president's character — his "honor and integrity" — so central to its political strategy. Nor has any previous administration been so determined to portray the president as a hero, going so far as to pose him in line with the heads on Mount Rushmore, or arrange that landing on the aircraft carrier. Surely, then, Mr. Bush's critics have the right to point out that the life story of the man inside the flight suit isn't particularly heroic — that he has never taken a risk or made a sacrifice for the sake of his country, and that his business career is a story of murky deals and insider privilege.
Donald Luskin must be having an aneurysm this morning.....
Yup. He is:
Paul Krugman hawks his book in his New York Times column today, and belatedly responds to colleague David Brooks' September 30 column, in which Brooks accused Krugman and his fellow leftist best-sellers of indulging not in mere partisanship, but in flagrantly ignorant hatred. Krugman defends himself against the charge that he lacks "civility" -- a term that Brooks never used, and one that hardly captures Brooks' point.
The defense? First, that there is no civil way to talk about the Bush administration's lies and policy failures. Huh? He acts as if those topics themselves were uncivil, thus completely ducking any accountability or even an examination of how those topics have been discussed.
He says a lot more but, as is the case with most Luskin columns, the more he says...the less he says.
This is pretty funny though:
And you want to see some real incivility on the left? Go the blog of someone who calls himself Atrios (whom Krugman has said he reads regularly), and look at the things he and his readers are saying about yours truly. With Krugman, to disagree is to lie; to prefer different policies is to be a radical. To these guys, to attend a lecture and get an autograph is to stalk. Check it out. Not civil. Not for the faint of heart.
Thin-skinned, isn't he?
posted by tbogg at 8:14 AM
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After all the clicking, I really needed a cigarette...
Friday fun...but not for the whole family....
posted by tbogg at 7:49 AM
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Thursday, October 09, 2003
Hep me, hep me. I been hypmotized...
We knew he was the steely-eyed rocket man, but we never believed that he had the power to cloud men's minds:
President Bush stared down a House Republican bid to convert some of his proposed Iraqi reconstruction aid into loans yesterday, as the House Appropriations Committee easily approved an $86.7 billion bill to finance military and rebuilding efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 47 to 14 vote belied the rancorous feelings evident among members of both parties, who raised pointed questions about the administration's funding priorities and ultimate goals in Iraq. Bush personally intervened Wednesday -- along with Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell -- to persuade a handful of conservatives to drop a proposal that would have converted half the president's proposed $20.3 billion in Iraqi reconstruction aid into loans.
"My God, if [Bush's] eyes had been lasers, mine would have been burned out," said Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), describing his White House meeting to reporters.
Fortunately Zach (can I call you Zach?) was able to leave the meeting with his eyes intact. Unfortunately his balls failed to pull through. Services will be announced shortly...
posted by tbogg at 10:26 PM
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Dude. I was so gonna kick Bruce's ass.....
Oh jeez. Rich Lowry's NRO bud Kevin Cherry.
Here's Kev at a Bruuuuuce concert:
From Kevin Cherry: "Hey Rich, I was at the final show of the Shea tour. It was very non-political, especially compared to what I heard happened the other nights (e.g., bringing up Al Franken as a truth-teller . . .). The last show had Dylan guesting, which was a nice surprise, although it really disrupted teh flow of the concert. But it barely comes in among the five best Bruce shows I've ever seen (Philly 8-11-03 was easily the best). If I had been there when he brought up Franken, I would have gone ballistic. My favorite part of the Shea show was the drunk guy behind me screaming "Play Rosie!" during every song. Including Rosalita."
If you write for NRO, like the Kevster, you really don't belong at a Springsteen concert. But then, Huey Lewis & the News tour so infrequently...
posted by tbogg at 9:20 PM
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's been linked elsewhere.
But this Margaret Cho blog has to be read.
posted by tbogg at 8:33 PM
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Backbones discovered. Democrats figure out what they are for.
Lambert at Corrente points out that someone woke up the Democrats.
Hi guys. Nice to have you back. We've missed you....
posted by tbogg at 8:20 PM
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Justice Department declares war on Democrats
In Philadelphia the FBI is investigating Democratic Mayor John Street In San Diego the FBI has been investigating three City Councilmen for allegedly taking bribes involving a local strip club. All three are recently elected. All are Democrats.
Nothing yet on the anthrax killer.
If strip clubs proliferate...the terrorists have won.
posted by tbogg at 8:10 PM
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Sports update
(See below) Casey's team wins 7-6. Their extra point is blocked. Casey makes hers. They got beat... by a girl. Okay. That was unfair. Actually several of the boys from the other team came over before they got on the bus to tell her "nice kicking".
Also, she handled kickoffs and came this close to having to make a tackle as the last "man". Fortunately she didn't have to, but she was in position to.
That would have been cool.
This Saturday: at Mater Dei in Santa Ana at 11am. Soccer in Del Mar at 3pm.
Now back to your regularly scheduled Bush bashing. Here's George at a football game.
Heh.
posted by tbogg at 7:40 PM
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Sports news you can't get anywhere else....
NFL football, the possibility of a Red Sox-Cubs World Series, hockey (which I am led to believe is some kind of "sport" in some parts on the country) NBA season just around the corner...it's easy for some sport stories to get lost...
Like how my daughter is doing playing high school football. Since I get more than a few emails asking how she's doing, I thought I would just do a post to save me those personal touch emails that will just get lost in the flood of "Add three inches to your manhood" and "Crazy Republican bitch wants you to watch her blog naked" spam that clogs up the virtual mailboxes.
So how is Casey doing?
Just fine. Thanks for asking.
So far she has been limited to only kicking extra points because the coaches aren't ready to let her attempt a field goal for fear it will get blocked and she might have to tackle someone (which she hasn't been taught to do properly). That may be changing soon, as early as today since the kick-off kicker got hurt yesterday. For the season she has two shanks for misses, has had three blocked, has been hit five times, and has drawn three 'roughing the kicker' calls. Oh yeah, and she has hit 9 PAT's. The upside is that her teammates have fully accepted her, the parents have accepted the idea (moms and dads alike), and as she pointed out, she's lost ten pounds from practicing (she's now down to 112 pounds) and is in the best shape of her life. Daily running in pads and up-downs will do that to you. This coming from someone who plays Premier level soccer ten months out of the year. On top of that, the varsity coaches have encouraged her to stick with it and now have her working with the varsity kicker.
The downside? There isn't one. This has been an incredible experience for her and one that she will be able to look back on for years to come.
It's all so very cool.....
posted by tbogg at 12:53 PM
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This is your brain on drugs
From the Tony Montana of the EIB network: "Congressman Conyers wants Karl Rove to resign over the CIA leak. Congressman, what if he's innocent? What if Rove had nothing to do with this? After all, they've already cleared Rove of this at the White House."
Well, okay, But only because they've cleared him....
posted by tbogg at 9:34 AM
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Cassandra Wilson has a new CD out
Why don't you have it yet?
Well, I'm waiting....
posted by tbogg at 9:14 AM
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Mr. Yee? Meet Mr. Lee. Lee...Yee. You guys probably have a lot to talk about....
Steve at No More Mr Nice Blog points out that our national obsession with those "wily chinee" might be a bit misplaced...
So, where's the big honking Drudge headline?
posted by tbogg at 9:00 AM
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He's not being obtuse, he's just being Jonah. They look a lot alike.
Jonah at The Corner (Motto: No event is so banal that we can't make it, um, banal-er) is in a steel-cage blogger smackdown with Richard Just over at Tapped. We pick up the action here with Just who has just given Jonah a really nasty Indian burn and then we move to here where Jonah accuses Just of "back-peddaling"(sic) before degenerating into the "I know you are, but what am I" retort that worked marvelously for Jonah through gradeschool, but later on failed to stop the daily beatings in high school.
Either way, it's good fun and it's free...
posted by tbogg at 8:34 AM
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Full metal straitjacket
World O'Crap deals with Bellevue outpatient Ann Coulter and leg-kicking taking-my-ball-and-going-home sissy-boy Bill O'Reilly so you don't have to.
Ann, maybe your semi-illiterate fans will accept, because you say it, that you were right and Franken and everybody else in the world is wrong, and that the earth really is flat, and we've been duped by the liberal media for all these years. But they wouldn't be reading Publishers Weekly anyway, so why bother to set them straight on claims they'd never hear about if it wasn't for you using your soap box to denounce them? I can only conclude that Franken got under your skin, like he did Bill O'Reilly's, and since your publisher won't sue Franken because they know that truth is always a defense against libel, and you (like O'Reilly) don't really dare challenge Franken to fist fight, that you just wanted to vent some spleen at Edward Nawotka, because he had the nerve to indicate that he liked Al's book better than yours. (BTW, it's #1 on the Non-Fiction Best Seller list again, Ann. Yours is what, 20th or so? Must hurt, huh?)
posted by tbogg at 8:13 AM
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Woke up with a monster
Kevin over at CalPundit has an excellent post about the insanity that has overtaken the Republican Party. Take the time to really read the whole thing.
posted by tbogg at 7:59 AM
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Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Make sure that you hang onto that size XXXL for Candy Crowley...
In an effort to boost the economy the White House has made a bulk purchase of gifts for the White House Press Corp in anticipation of the Christmas gift-giving season. Each reporter will be given one of these strikingly handsome t-shirts along with a greeting card celebrating the birth of the President's personal savior.
posted by tbogg at 11:18 PM
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Wait till he finds out that everyone has been sneaking out to TGIFridays every Thursday night after work without inviting him
The Bush administration's shake-up of its policymaking structure for Iraq was overshadowed on Wednesday by an admission from the White House that Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary in charge of reconstruction, had not been consulted.
BACKTRACKING on the assurances he made at the beginning of the week that Mr. Rumsfeld had been "very involved in this process" Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, said on Wednesday: "Maybe I should not have characterized it that way."
Mr. Rumsfeld told the Financial Times on Tuesday he had not learned of the Iraq Stabilization Group, a new coordinating body headed by Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser, until he received a classified memo from her. Mr. Rumsfeld said he had not been briefed beforehand.
It's not so much the Rummy is "out of the loop", it's just that the rest of the Double Secret War Council and Beers Of the World Posse don't really enjoy hanging with him and he never buys a round and every time they go to a rave he either wants to go home early or he starts doing that Natalie Merchant-swirly dance that is, like, soooo embarrassing.
Did I mention the old man smell?
posted by tbogg at 11:06 PM
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Well, he kept his brother's Presidential hopes alive against the wishes of the nation
For the second time this year, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida is seeking to sway a contentious case involving an incapacitated person, this time trying to keep a brain-damaged woman alive against her husband's wishes.
Mr. Bush's decision to file a friend-of-the-court brief on Tuesday came days after his attorney general, Charles Crist, declined to get involved in the case.
A state judge sided with the husband, Michael Schiavo of Tampa, last month, ordering that Mr. Schiavo's wife, Terri, stop receiving food through a tube on Oct. 15. Mr. Schiavo has sought to end his wife's life for several years, contending that she told him she would never want to be kept alive artificially. Mrs. Schiavo's parents have repeatedly gone to court to stop her death.
Mrs. Schiavo, 39, suffered a heart attack in 1989 that deprived her brain of oxygen long enough to paralyze her and cause brain damage. Some doctors have diagnosed her condition as a persistent vegetative state in which she is awake and breathing on her own but unable to think or speak.
This is a sad and tragic story, and the last thing the family needs is some bloated politico sticking his nose into it for cheap political gain. Oh wait, he has a history of this sort of thing:
In April, Mr. Bush asked a court to appoint a guardian for the fetus of a severely retarded woman in Orlando, to ensure that the woman's own guardian did not allow an abortion.
I guess when you can't control your own family's problems you have to sublimate those paternal impulses somewhere....
posted by tbogg at 9:44 PM
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Yeah. I hated the book too.
Reward Offered for Madison County Arson Arrests
posted by tbogg at 9:33 PM
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That's the way the kids are in Texas
More on the Texas Pledge from reader Margaret:
Sorry to be so long in commenting on your post about the Texas state law mandating the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance. For some reason I can't send you an e-mail on my home computer, so I've had to use the one at work (school) -- which is not really all that cool to do, especially in light of what I intend to say about this silly law.
First of all, we are not just mandated to say the pledge to the United States flag, but the pledge to the state flag, too. (Did you know there is a Texas state pledge?) The Texas state pledge goes as follows:
"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one and indivisible."
The proper stance during the saying of the Texas Pledge is to stand with the right arm outstretched in front of you, palm up -- think of a cross between the Nazi salute and begging for alms.
The pledge itself is gratingly ungrammatical and factually inaccurate. It begins with a command (to whom, I'm not sure) to honor the flag, then switches to a first-person pledge of loyalty. It includes an assertion that Texas is indivisible, when in fact the state of Texas has the unusual right, if her voters so wish, to break up into as many as five distinct states. (Look for this ploy to be attempted if the Republicans decide they really need eight more U.S. senators.)
Several years ago I applied for a teaching job in Colorado, and the interview was at the same time some secessionist nut-cases in west Texas had kidnapped some neighbors, as I recall partly to gain publicity for the "Texian" cause. In the course of my interview I mentioned that many schools in Texas began the day with the U.S Pledge of Allegiance and the Texas Pledge. I thought the interviewers were going to come unglued. I think they thought there really must be a substantial number of Texans itching for secession if we regularly said a state pledge. And who knows, perhaps there are. At any rate, I didn't get the job, so here I still am in Texas, U.S. Pledge, Texas Pledge, and Moment of Silence mandated daily.
P.S. My sophomore high school son and his friends hum The Marseillaise during their mandated pledge time. So far, they haven't been disciplined for disrespect, but I sometimes wonder if their names mightn't go on a list somewhere...nah...
I think the thing that gets me (other than the fact that Margaret is stuck in Texas... why doesn't Sally Struthers start up a charity to help people like her?) is the idea of holding your hand out, palm up. How...weird.
posted by tbogg at 3:30 PM
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New to the links
Jack O'Toole, who, besides being very sharp and sensible, has the best pornstar name ever.
posted by tbogg at 11:49 AM
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If you'll stop stoning me, maybe we can be friends....
Andrew Sullivan often makes comments about "old media", but that doesn't mean that he won't accept a paycheck from them. This morning he wanders into a Deep South truck stop and wonders why there's no Pet Shop Boys on the jukebox:
But if conservatives have now endorsed the notion of homosexuals as citizens, they haven't yet fully grasped the implications of that shift. Previously, social policy toward homosexuals was a function of either criminalization or avoidance. People who are either in jail or potentially subject to criminal sanction are already subject to a social policy of a sort. You may disagree with it, but it's social policy on the same lines as that toward drug users or speeders. It's a form of prohibitionism. But when all illegality is removed from gay people, as it has been, that social policy surely has to change.
So what is it? What exactly is the post-Lawrence conservative social policy toward homosexuals? Amazingly, the current answer is entirely a negative one. The majority of social conservatives oppose gay marriage; they oppose gay citizens serving their country in the military; they oppose gay citizens raising children; they oppose protecting gay citizens from workplace discrimination; they oppose including gays in hate-crime legislation, while including every other victimized group; they oppose civil unions; they oppose domestic partnerships; they oppose . . . well, they oppose, for the most part, every single practical measure that brings gay citizens into the mainstream of American life.
This is simply bizarre. Can you think of any other legal, noncriminal minority in society toward which social conservatives have nothing but a negative social policy? What other group in society do conservatives believe should be kept outside integrating social institutions? On what other issue do conservatives favor separatism over integration? We know, in short, what conservatives are against in this matter. But what exactly are they for?
We now turn to the comments section of Sullivan's plea to see how it was received. Some samples:
It's Wrong
Daniel Carlton - Platte Ctiy, Mo.
Why do conservatives oppose gay marriage? Because it is wrong! God ordained marriage between a man and a woman. He created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Also, just because some misguided judges said it was OK for gays to commit sodomy doesn't make it OK. Read the first chapter of Romans (especially the last few verses). Popular opinion is not necessarily the best marker of right and wrong. You are trying to justify something that is wrong by citing opinion polls. Sounds like Bill Clinton to me.
Founding Values
Charles LeBlanc - Metairie, La.
I kept reading this article expecting to see the obvious answer to the question that was repeated again and again. Why do conservatives oppose gay marriages even now that they are legal? No matter how you try to obscure or rewrite its history, this country was founded on Judeo/Christian principals and morals. Homosexuality is a sin. It's that simple. Taking into consideration that you are either a practicing Christian or Jew, and you had to choose between the law of God or man, which would you choose? When the time comes and you meet your Creator, are you clever enough to convince Him that you had to be politically correct.
Your Slip
Will Decker - Chicago
What Mr. Sullivan refuses to see is that extending marriage to homosexuals is not an extension of basic civil rights, it is the creation of special privileges to a minority, based on that group's actions towards changing definitions and trying to convince society to join them in their delusional state.
This is evident, as well as Mr. Sullivan's lack of honesty in his argument, by his slipping in of the word "spouse" in the sixth paragraph after giving a slowly persuasive, straw man argument against those who are merely stating reality, but whom he would have you believe are inconsistent, bigoted and simpleminded.
Mr. Sullivan should be open to honest, reasoned and clear debate. He must also realize that if he loses such debate, maybe it is his ideas that are flawed.
Thank you for your time.
Two Reasons
Douglas O. Walker - Virginia Beach, Va.
There are two main reasons for opposing gay marriages and the endorsement of gay relationships as a matter of public policy:
First, the supreme problem before any society is the perpetuation of its traditions and values, and that can be done only by a man and woman bearing children to create the next generation. Gay relationships are by definition barren, and cannot solve this problem. Indeed, the truly supreme problem before the human race as a species is its continuation of the line, and gay relationships detract from this by removing two members from the principal task they have during their short stay on this earth: To reproduce.
Second, the gay life style is associated with a one to two decade drop in life expectancy. Public policy should not encourage life styles that lower what is already a short span of years and burden the present generation with unhealthy individuals that require extraordinary support and by doing so impede society's advance.
Public policy does not have as its goal what is good for the individual. Rather, it shapes the environment within which we all interact for the larger purposes of society as a whole. In this regard, there is nothing more important than the continuation of our culture and civilization and the perpetuation of mankind.
There are of course other reasons for opposing any endorsement of gay relationships. But these two reasons are so overriding that they must prevail in any discussion of public policy.
What About My Rights?
Mary Thompson - Waukesha, Wis.
As a conservative and a Christian I can tell you what the main issue is for me in giving all these rights to homosexuals. It has to do with my rights. I anticipate that in the near future it will be also discriminating or hate speech to speak out against the sin of sodomy. As a Christian I must speak against sin and for repentance. I also can anticipate a time when religious institutions will be forced to hire homosexuals--even to perhaps have some quota that so many of your pastors must be homosexual or some such thing. This is where it all seems headed.
What will result is that homosexuals will be given their freedoms but Christians will lose theirs. The right to free speech and free practice of religion are what is at stake and I don't understand why this is never addressed in the media as truly that is the issue in this whole thing.
I don't want to criminalize this behavior but I do want to have the right to disagree and say so and the right to not have to rent a room in my home to a gay couple, and the right to tell my children that some things are wrong. What happens when gays are given all the rights they want? As I said, I will lose mine as will all Christians who are faithful to the Scriptural teachings. There simply cannot exist both equality for gays and freedom of speech/religion.
In fairness to Andy, there are a few who support his position. But the overall tone is best expressed by Harold Henry of Roswell, Ga. who explains it, as only a conservative can:
I am not sure why Mr. Sullivan is so puzzled by the social conservative response to homosexual unions. Conservative principles are not difficult to understand. We are generally pretty simple-minded....
Conservatives say the darndest things....
posted by tbogg at 11:28 AM
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He's got the works, gives you sweet taste
Ah then you gotta split because you got no time to waste
I'm waiting for my man
In defense of Rush "Talent on Loan from Purdue Pharma" Limbaugh, the Virgin Ben outs his grandmother as a junkie:
Unlike recreational drug addiction, prescription painkiller addiction belongs squarely in the medical arena. Recreational drug addiction is just that -- recreational. A junkie first picks up marijuana, cocaine or heroin in order to have a good time. No one prescribes heroin for back pain. But for many who become addicted to prescription painkillers, the dealer who gets them hooked is their family doctor.
In 1969, my paternal grandmother, known to our family as "Gaga," became addicted to prescription painkillers. "I was in tremendous pain because of my back, and the doctors didn't know why," Gaga told me last Friday. "So they were giving me all kinds of pain pills, over and over and over again to try and kill the pain. They didn't realize how much I was taking, and neither did I. Suddenly, I was addicted to them. It killed the pain. And the pain had been incredible."
Gaga was taking 10 different types of pills per day. "They started you off with a little bit, then more and more," she remembers. "When you're taking painkillers, you feel great. ... It's easy to feel great. It's easy to say, 'Doctor, I need more pills.'
Now you'll notice that Gaga (cute!) went to her doctor for pain pills, not her housekeeper, Rosario.
[snip]
When I related Gaga's story to Dr. Bernstein, he recognized that she "has a lot more perseverance than most people." For many addicts, it is easier to pick up the pills and stop the pain. So that's what they do.
Even those who check into detox aren't guaranteed success. "Most detoxes are not effective. It's not a medical treatment. Someone like Rush Limbaugh is not going to go into a 30-day inpatient program and hang out with a bunch of junkies talking about his issues, right? So what they end up doing is putting these people in the hospital, detoxing them for a few days and then letting them go. They're still withdrawing, they're still craving, and that's why they fail."
It is despicable how the media have equated prescription painkiller addiction with recreational drug addiction. There is a moral difference between the two types of addicts. All drug addicts deserve sympathy, but prescription painkiller addicts clearly deserve more sympathy than recreational users. Gaga says that she'd like to tell prescription painkiller addicts: "I'm with you." The rest of us should do the same.
Let's tackle a few fine points here, shall we?
First, we don't know that Limbaugh was in any kind of pain (unless the pilondial cyst flared up again) when he started his slow descent into addict hell. Maybe he was a recreational user. Maybe the shame of being a fat fraud was finally getting to him. Maybe he was pining for the days when he had Clinton to kick around. Ben doesn't know, I don't know, only Rush knows and, for once in his life, he's not talking. Rush "is not going to go into a 30-day inpatient program and hang out with a bunch of junkies talking about his issues"? Excuse me. Rush is/was a junkie. He was buying large quantities of drugs from his maid. He was threatening her. He was crying about it. Sounds junkie-esque to me. But Rush couldn't or wouldn't take the responsibility to check himself in for thirty days to clean himself up. Even though he can afford the beat treatment anywhere in the world, he took a pass. Rush once said:
"There's nothing good about drug use," he was saying. "We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."
But, you see, in Ben's world junkies are poor people who get what they deserve. Rush is a rich famous guy who is not responsible, and doesn't have time, and deserves pity.
Gaga may not agree...
posted by tbogg at 9:53 AM
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Besides, our negro wasn't available on photo day.....
Fish-belly white Aaron Bailey of The Corner seems a bit sensitive about criticism of the National Review Hillsdale College ad:
>As the only Hillsdale College grad at National Review, let me point out a few things. The ad for the Academy (the College's K-12 private school) reads: "Want to Bring Back 'The Good Old Days'?" To us, the good old days date back to the College's founding in 1844. Hillsdale was the first college in the country to prohibit discrimination based on race, religion, or sex in its charter. The College sent the highest proportion of its sons, outside of the military academies, to fight on behalf of the Union in the Civil War. In 1955, the football team refused an invitation to play in the Tangerine Bowl because the event organizers would not let Hillsdale's black students play.
College administrators don't pre-arrange publicity photos with "acceptable" numbers of minority representation, like many other institutions do. As its founders declared, Hillsdale's mission is "to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary and scientific education." Enough said.
You, of course, remember that 1955 Hillsdale College football team. If I'm not mistaken, the Hillsdale Adulterous Daughter-In-Law Humpers went 9-2 that season....
posted by tbogg at 8:59 AM
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That's why the Reverend is a prick....
Jess at Needles on The Beach takes on Fred Phelps.
posted by tbogg at 8:51 AM
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Condi Eye for a Destroyed Iraq
Opinions You Should Have
posted by tbogg at 8:46 AM
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Cleanup on aisle 4
Tom Toles
posted by tbogg at 8:07 AM
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Tuesday, October 07, 2003
No, really, we're going to be okay....
On behalf of a great many people in the state of California who don't know that I am speaking for them, I just want to let everyone in the other 49 states that are not-near-as-cool-as-us that we will somehow survive the election of der Misogynator.
Honest. Now everyone take a deep breath and maybe go out for some Ben & Jerrys.
It's gonna be okay.
California women should be especially happy. If Arnold even looks at a woman's issue sideways he's going to wish he was making Kindergarten Cop II with Steve Guttenberg.
Governor Groper won't raise taxes and if he cuts services he's going to destroy himself and the ragged remnants of the Republican party in California. The Republicans that still hold office in California generally come from the shitty parts of the state as well as the Taliban wing of the party, and , outside of his Nazi connections which makes their nipples hard, they don't care much for him. Think of Arnie as the dog that finally caught the car. Now he has to figure out what to do with it.
This was a protest vote where people decided to cut off their collective noses to spite their face. It's not a Republican trend.
We'll be fine. Thanks for caring.
posted by tbogg at 10:25 PM
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In the future, everyone will be gay for fifteen minutes...
In a Queer Eye world David Warren is the guy in the striped high-water pants and the plaid shirt. Now, maybe it's me, but this guy has more latency issues than the whole crowd over at The Corner:
And the first thing we see, upon looking into it, is this mysterious phenomenon of homosexuality. The word can mean at least two things. It can refer to a sexual attraction to members of the same sex, or it may mean acting on that impulse. The distinction is crucial, at least in the received Christian view. For one is not a sin, and the other is. Having sexual desires of any kind cannot possibly be sinful -- when it is something that happens to us, no matter how caused. It is only when a person begins to act upon the impulse -- by, for instance, indulging fantasy -- that he buys into the sin in his own right. And we are fantastical creatures, we humans; we are always capable of more than we assume.
"we are always capable of more than we assume". Hmmmmmm, I think David is dropping his first hint here.
Yet ideas have consequences; and acts also have consequences. Behind the notion that homosexuality is sin is not only Christian doctrine, nor also the doctrines of the other "great religions". Behind it is the wealth of accumulated and applied human experience, growing through the centuries. The Jews set themselves against the homosexuality that was endemic in the ancient world around them; the pagan Romans set themselves against the homosexual customs of the Greeks. In doing so they were raising the standards of their societies; and not incidentally, raising the status of their women.
Bear with me: this is important. No social order will long endure that is founded on lies about the human condition. And one of the large truths of that condition -- written not only in the Creator's announcement to the ancient Hebrews that he "made them male and female", but to be found in our experience of the creation itself, is the incompleteness of man as man, and woman as woman.
For as Jews and pagan Romans alike learned, or realized more deeply than before, the sexes are necessary to each other. There is a man's way, and a woman's way, of being in the world, and we need each other to be fully human. The society of men alone, or of women alone, easily degenerates into savagery.
Men alone is Promise Keepers. Women alone is a prison movie with Pam Grier and wet wifebeater T's....
We no longer have a Christian society, yet we could still wish to be, if possible, fully human. We tolerate far more deviation from our social norms than our ancestors did; or than their ancestors did, in every other human culture. We allow people to resist the mould. But when we shatter the mould itself, we play with dissolution of everything that makes us fully human.
In recognizing "homosexual marriage", and celebrating it as equal to the "traditional" kind, we go decisively beyond toleration to encouragement. We are wantonly creating a new social order, in which men and women increasingly become detached from each other, and from their mutual obligations.
Keep this in mind: "Homosexual marriage" = hot gay sex for everyone because, c'mon, you know you want it.
We are, as those who have thought wisely about such things must know, creating a society in which there will be far more homosexuals than there are today, and all the unanticipated consequences of that will emerge in succession, over time. This is not a possibility, but an inevitability. For the truth, which we ignore, or pretend to ignore, is that human beings do not become homosexual any more "naturally" (in the organic sense), than they become heterosexuals. They grow within societies, within families, within norms.
Or, as a friend of mine used to say "Starve a breeder, feed a fag".
We make the grave mistake of assuming only one or two per cent of a society is "naturally homosexual". That may well be a minimum for a society in which homosexuality is discouraged, as was the case in our own. The historical evidence makes it clear that this isn't the case where homosexual relations of one kind or another are actually encouraged.
The future to which we are now striving will obviously be extremely bad news for women -- whether or not they grasp it yet. In some ways it may be exhilarating for men; but finally, the progressive loss of our ability to look a woman in the eye will diminish us men, too. For we, also, will become less human.
To sum up:
we are always capable of more than we assume
The society of men alone
We tolerate far more deviation
We are wantonly creating a new social order
We are, as those who have thought wisely about such things must know, creating a society in which there will be far more homosexuals than there are today
In some ways it may be exhilarating for men
Yeah. He's about one social constraint and three mai tais away from a pair of these and a weekend at Sullys.
posted by tbogg at 4:08 PM
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The Chief Executive
Danziger
posted by tbogg at 2:55 PM
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Priorities...priorities....
This should tell you all you will ever need to know about Republicans:
House Republicans' $86.7 billion proposal for Iraq and Afghanistan includes money President Bush (search) wants for an Iraqi witness protection program but drops funds he sought for that country's traffic police and ZIP codes.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young (search), R-Fla., unwrapped his version of the package Monday. He said he will probably fine-tune it when he tries pushing it through his panel Thursday but offered no details on how.
Regardless of whether he changes it, the House bill represents an attempt to defuse some of the political bombshells borne by the $87 billion version that Bush proposed a month ago. Lawmakers from both parties plan to discuss the wartime funding request with senior administration officials Tuesday at the White House
[snip]
From Bush's request for rebuilding Iraq, the House version drops $50 million for traffic police; $300 million out of $509 million Bush wants for prisons; and $153 million that included money to buy garbage trucks for $50,000 apiece.
Also dropped from Bush's request is $100 million for restoring Iraq's marshlands, systematically emptied and destroyed by deposed President Saddam Hussein's government to punish Shiite Muslims who live there; $13 million for ZIP and area codes; $100 million to build seven public housing communities; and $150 million to begin building a new children's hospital in Basra.
Still included from Bush's plan is $100 million for a witness protection program for Iraqis who provide information on Saddam and other missing members of his government. Also surviving is $900 million for petroleum products for Iraq, which has the world's second largest oil reserves, while the oil industry is rebuilt.
Housing? Childrens Hospital? Psssh. Let them drink oil....
posted by tbogg at 1:43 PM
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Hardly worth a "bwa-haha"....
I guess I'm not working hard enough. Via Drastic Verge via someone else, yadda yadda yadda. Just go here.
Suprisingly, anncoulter.com is only 36% evil, and atrios is 37%.
That ain't right...
But wait. GeorgeWBush.com blog is 48% evil.
I still think it's undercounting....
posted by tbogg at 1:15 PM
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"Never mind the bathingsuits...will the contestants be wearing socks?"
The Metatarsal Masticator, Dick Morris has landed himself a gig at a beauty pageant:
Politics makes strange bedfellows, but it makes even stranger drinking buddies. Witness the Rheingold Brewing Co., which has hired Dick Morris—the political guru behind Bill Clinton's two presidential victories—to be a "campaign advisor" to the six finalists in its Miss Rheingold bartender beauty contest. "We thought it would be a good fit," says Rheingold CEO Tom Bendheim, who wouldn't disclose Morris's fee. "We don't take ourselves too seriously."
There's no risk of that, not with Morris rattling off quips like "This is the first time I've worked with a candidate who admits to being in a beauty contest." Morris, whose other clients are mostly foreign politicians, no longer does domestic consulting ("I'm on Fox News all the time and want to be free to dump on everyone"), but he made an exception for the beauties. "I'll show them how to shake hands with one arm while opening a Rheingold with the other." Ba-dum-bum!
Only Dick Morris could give sleaze a bad name....
posted by tbogg at 1:11 PM
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A helping hand for K-Lo
The Corner's Kathryn Jean Lopez needs more help than usual:
I'm looking for a readable, persuasive primer on conservatism for bright high-school seniors who are not all conservative (and those who say they are conservative may not necessarily know why they say so). I'm thinking a book, but if there's a chapter or two in a book here or there that comes to mind (perhaps it converted you?), send it along. I'll share results with the group
She might try here or here. Actually this one contains the best of both worlds.
posted by tbogg at 12:24 PM
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Nicely put
The irreplaceable Jeanne at Body & Soul takes the time to set the record straight about the California campaign.
posted by tbogg at 11:51 AM
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Luskin stalks Krugman. Hopes to gain Jodie Foster's attention....
Donald Luskin has really lost it. It's not enough that he wastes bandwidth every week going over Paul Krugman's column looking for dangling participles. Now he is physically stalking him and saying that he has seen the "face of evil". No. Really, he says stuff like that:
But there was nothing fun about this experience. I have looked evil in the face. I've been in the same room with it. I don't know how else to describe my feelings now except to say that I feel unclean, and I'm having to fight being afraid.
Later there is this:
When it was over and the audience exploded in cheering and applause again, I felt horrified and sick. All these months of holding Krugman accountable for all his lies, I've thought of my little crusade as being directed toward him -- but then I realized that the real liar is his audience: the people who are so afraid that they will believe his conspiracy theories and wish for his safety-netted low-ceilinged utopia -- or the people so cynically partisan that they will cheer anything and anyone, no matter how deceitful, if it is a means to their partisan ends. I realized that I can knock myself out fighting Krugman, and even if I succeed beyond my wildest dreams, all I will have done is eradicate a symptom. The disease is the people that adulate him. Tonight I spent two hours locked in a small room with those people. At the end, I just wanted to get the hell out and take a shower.
I had planned to get Krugman to sign a book to me -- and I overcame my sense of dread and revulsion, and did it. I waited in line for a few minutes while he banged out scrawled signatures by the dozen, and when he was done with mine, I asked, "Would you inscribe it to me personally?" He said, "Yeah, alright, what's your name?" I said "Don..." and he wrote Don. Then I said "Luskin: L-U-S-K-I-N..." and by the time he got halfway through... he realized. He started up with the ferret-like shifty-eyed thing like when he's on TV. I said "Now you keep up the good work, Paul." He muttered, "Yeah... yeah... fine..."
And I walked away, with my skin crawling, worried that I'd gotten too close to something infectious. I flashed on the scene from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead when Peter Keating hears a speech by Ellsworth Toohey -- the diminutive newspaper columnist and professor to whom I've likened Krugman before -- and is gripped by fear and horror at Toohey's ability to feed off the energy of a partisan crowd. And I flashed on the movie Alien, in which contact with an extraterrestrial monster infects people trapped with it on a spaceship, and monsters just like it start to grow inside them.
Keep this in mind: there are people who trust this man with their money.
(Thanks to JC)
posted by tbogg at 11:19 AM
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Apparently the name of the leaker is some guy named "redacted"....
This really is friggin' amazing:
White House lawyers will spend up to two weeks screening responses turned in by roughly 2,000 staff members asked what they know, if anything, about the unauthorized disclosure of an undercover CIA officer’s identity. But President Bush on Tuesday voiced some doubt about whether the source of the leak will ever be found.
“I DON’T know if we’re going to find out the senior administration official” said to have leaked the name, Bush told reporters. “I don’t have any idea. I’d like to. I want to know the truth.”
But, Bush said, “This is a large administration, and there’s a lot of senior officials.”
“I have no idea whether we’ll find out who the leaker is,” he told reporters, “partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers.”
But not near as good a job as the White House is doing....
posted by tbogg at 10:48 AM
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Later the naked and feces-smeared Limbaugh rolled up the Declaration of Independence so he could snort up some pig tranquilizers
World O'Crap on how the Constitution is interpreted by someone so high on crank they keep looking at the word "redress" and giggling.....
posted by tbogg at 10:31 AM
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Dance right on till the floors are breakin'
I'm a California man.
As a native Californian I guess I'm obligated to make some kind of comment on today's "historic" election (you have heard about it, haven't you? Apparently it's been in all the papers). Not that I really want to.
I think a starstruck and fairly uninformed electorate is going to recall Davis and elect Arnold Schwarzenegger today. If this election were to be held next week or the week after, Schwarzenegger would probably lose and would be finished in politics forever. But the hits and revelations came too late, there are too many absentee ballots that already in, and Bustamante ran a boring and uninspired campaign (possibly because he dealt with the issues, poor dumb bastard).
Talk radio has been non-stop 24/7 recall-Davis everyday, and their listeners are highly motivated by the usual suspects: greed (the car tax), stupidity (Davis was somehow responsible for the manufactured energy crisis), and racism ("Busta-mecha"). These are simple people and Schwarzenegger is the simple candidate with simple solutions, so it's the perfect storm of stupidity.
I keep hearing that I should be embarrassed that we could end up with Arnold as governor, but then I think about the states that have elected such luminaries as Rick Perry, Saxby Chambliss, Rick Santorum, Norm Coleman, Sam Brownback, and Jeb Bush, and I suddenly don't feel so bad. And keep in mind that, as a state, we said "no thanks" to the sleeping nightwatchman of September 11.
For what it's worth, Schwarzenegger hasn't even been elected yet and he's already damaged goods. The recent revelations along with the ones yet to come should keep him dancing for awhile. In the meantime, the Democrats control every major office in the state as well as the Assembly and the State Senate. Don't expect them to lend Arnold a helping hand unless it's in their best interest. Snappy catch phrases from action movies will only take you so far.
In the long run Schwarzenegger's tenure should closely resemble Jesse Ventura's: unremarkable and doomed from the start.
Oh, and Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger is going to love Sacramento. It's like Fresno, but without the glitz.
There. I got that out of the way.
posted by tbogg at 10:06 AM
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Channeling Ann Coulter
Looks like Ann is inside of Rich Lowry again in a slightly different way than their usual Wednesday night strap-on sessions:
The Democrats of '04 believe:
That wars should be authorized, but never fought.
That the United Nations is the world's last, best hope, and every jot of its writ should always be respected, unless it inconveniences Saddam Hussein.
That nation-building is always a humanitarian and just cause, unless it is undertaken in Iraq.
That anyone who said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction prior to the war was lying, unless his or her name is Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Madeleine Albright, Bill Cohen, John Kerry, or Joe Lieberman, or the person ever served in the Clinton cabinet or as a Democratic senator.
There's lots more of these little morsels of misinformation, served up warm and steaming for the Fox News/freeper crowd.
posted by tbogg at 9:01 AM
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Watch your language
Kevin's mom might be reading.
...and would it kill you to wipe your feet before coming into the blog?
posted by tbogg at 8:29 AM
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Headlines I wish I had never read
Fake doctor charged in castration case
I don't want to know.........
posted by tbogg at 8:05 AM
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Monday, October 06, 2003
Slap my hand, black soulman.....
Upon further review I want to take up the case of the lily-white Mr. Jennifer Graham who wanted to "high-five" the nice black man who stayed with his family, much to suprise and tearful pride of Mr. Graham:
But they were black. And my husband whispered that in a nation where 70 percent of black children are born into homes without fathers, it was great to see a picture-perfect black family dining together. "I almost want to go give the guy a high five," he said, somewhat sheepishly.
Possibly what inhibited Mr. Graham from making a complete ass of himself ("Yo. Dawg. Gimme five for not runnin' out on yo shorties, know what I'm sayin' ") was the the fear of what type of hand shake he should offer up. Should it be the "high five we just scored" palm slap recently co-opted by soccer moms? The upright Fred Williamson funk-soul-brother Black Power grip? The clammy "Dick Cheney access to the ANWR for a large contribution" traditional shake followed by scotch and cigars? Or the thumpin', pumpin', slapping, spinning, snapping choreographed funky handfest most often adopted by hardcore innercity gangsta's like Justin Timberlake and Marshall Mathers?
The fear of doing the wrong thing must have rendered Graham completely incapable of enjoying his crème brulee.
Oh, the humanity...
posted by tbogg at 12:42 PM
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More reasons why he doesn't have press conferences....
Our National Embarrassment speaks:
Q Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, do you think that Israel's air strike in Syria was justified? And do you think that you can work with the Palestinian Prime Minister, who says he would not use force under any circumstances against Palestinian militants?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Terry, I talked to Prime Minister Sharon yesterday. I expressed our nation's condolences at the needless murder of innocent people, by the latest suicider.
[snip]
Q Thank you, Mr. President. What is the purpose of the Iraq stabilization group? And is this an acknowledgment that the effort to stabilize Iraq is flagging? Does it diminish the authority of Secretary Rumsfeld?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes. You know, it's common for the National Security Council to coordinate efforts, interagency efforts. And Condi Rice, the National Security Advisor, is doing just that. And this group formed within the National Security Council is aimed at the coordination of interagency efforts, as well as providing a support group to the Department of Defense and Jerry Bremer. That's the purpose.
I'm sure Paul Bremer (also known as Imperial Viceroy Jerry) will be happy to know that help is on its way. Unless a suicider gets him first.
(Thanks to Rob for the tip)
(Added): Does this makes the people of Iraq "Jerry's Kids"?
(Added redux): According to several alert readers, apparently Bremer's nickname is Jerry. And here I thought that Bush only gave nicknames like Bruno (Frank Bruni), Dulce (Candy Crowley), or Skankzilla (Ann Coulter).
This, of course, doesn't make him any less of an idiot.
posted by tbogg at 12:15 PM
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First there was that long line at the shredder, then SpongeBob came on, then we went out for frappachinos....Omigawd, I'll get it done, okay? Like, leave me alone...
Looks like the kids at the White House will be pulling an all-nighter tonight trying to get their term papers data to the Justice Department.
A day before the deadline to turn over documents related to the CIA leak investigation, 10 percent of White House staffers have turned in material, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Monday. President Bush later reiterated his promise of full cooperation, adding that he expected all data “to be delivered on a timely basis.”
MORE THAN 2,000 White House staffers had been asked on Friday to review if they had any information that may be relevant to the Justice Department investigation.
By Monday, some 200 had turned in a signed memo and documents, McClellan told reporters Monday morning. Many of those were staff members who simply certified they had no relevant documents, he added.
Extra credit will given to the staffer that claims they couldn't get their work done because they were "busy fighting terrorism and stuff...".
posted by tbogg at 11:42 AM
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Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titantic
Iraq Stabilization Group
The White House has ordered a major reorganization of American efforts to quell violence in Iraq and Afghanistan and to speed the reconstruction of both countries, according to senior administration officials.
The new effort includes the creation of an "Iraq Stabilization Group," which will be run by the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. The decision to create the new group, five months after Mr. Bush declared the end of active combat in Iraq, appears part of an effort to assert more direct White House control over how Washington coordinates its efforts to fight terrorism, develop political structures and encourage economic development in the two countries.
[snip]
The reorganization was described in a confidential memorandum that Ms. Rice sent Thursday to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet.
Asked about the memorandum on Sunday, Ms. Rice called it "a recognition by everyone that we are in a different phase now" that Congress is considering Mr. Bush's request for $20 billion for reconstruction and $67 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. She said it was devised by herself, Vice President Dick Cheney, Mr. Powell and Mr. Rumsfeld in response to discussions she held with Mr. Bush at his ranch in late August.
The creation of the group, according to several administration officials, grew out of Mr. Bush's frustration at the setbacks in Iraq and the absence of more visible progress in Afghanistan, at a moment when remnants of the Taliban appear to be newly active. It is the closest the White House has come to an admission that its plans for reconstruction in those countries have proved insufficient, and that it was unprepared for the guerrilla-style attacks that have become more frequent in Iraq. There have been more American deaths in Iraq since the end of active combat than during the six weeks it took to take control of the country.
I want to see if I have this right. The same people who got us into this mess are going to get us out of this mess by starting a new "group" with a new name. I mean, were they not taking this thing seriously previously?
posted by tbogg at 9:57 AM
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White like me
In an effort to show that Rush "Hillbilly Hophead" Limbaugh isn't a racist, Jennifer Graham describes the time that she and her husband saw a black family in restaurant and marveled at the sight:
A couple of years ago, the husband and I were eating out — something you don't do often with four kids under 10 — when he lowered his voice and gestured for me to look at the next table.
I did so, expecting to find something peculiar, such as Karl Rove conspiring with Elvis.
What I saw: A young family of five — father, mother, three young children, well-dressed, well-behaved, enjoying their night out, too. Except for the well-behaved children — mythical creatures with which we have no personal experience with — the family was unremarkable.
But they were black. And my husband whispered that in a nation where 70 percent of black children are born into homes without fathers, it was great to see a picture-perfect black family dining together. "I almost want to go give the guy a high five," he said, somewhat sheepishly.
He didn't, of course. When we left, we nodded, smiled at the children and promptly forgot the exchange...in which both of us unconsciously revealed that — horrors! — we are very desirous that black Americans do well.
I don't know. Isn't this a whole passage just a bit condescending? While it's not the overt racism of a Limbaughian "Take the bone out of your nose...", it carries a faint whiff of genteel, just beneath the surface suburban racism. The peek-sneaking, the whispered shock, the desire to show approval for defying expectations.
Before absolving Limbaugh of racism, Jennifer Graham might want to take a glimpse in the mirror...
posted by tbogg at 9:42 AM
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"Making mock"
David Frum is pulling for the big guy....
Jews worldwide begin 24-plus hours of introspection and atonement at sundown tonight. The Yom Kippur prayerbook mentions almost every possible variety of human sin, but one category of sinfulness is repeatedly singled out for special mention: malicious speech. I thought of those Yom Kippur prayers as I listened to Joe Lieberman gleefully making mock of the allegations against Rush Limbaugh at last week’s Democratic National Committee meeting.
I have no idea of whether these allegations are true, false, or somewhere in between. But even if they were true, all that they suggest that Limbaugh has become biochemically dependent on the painkillers and sedatives he took while fighting the deafness that threatened his radio career. Limbaugh’s triumph over adversity is both a tribute to him and to the stunning medical technology that restored his hearing – but if the allegations are true, this triumph may have come at a cost.
Rush Limbaugh is made of the same human stuff as all the rest of us. His outsized talents do not protect him from mortal vulnerabilities. And if he has succumbed to such a vulnerability, that seems to me to be reason for sympathy, not mockery.
You hear much handwringing among the great and good about Americans’ ignorance of politics and indifference to their civic responsibilities. No living American has done more to make Americans interested in and aware of the doings of their government than Rush Limbaugh. He is a patriot, and a man of public spirit, and above all, a great national educator. He had a rough week last week. But he’ll be back at the old stand this week – indomitable.
Hmmmm. No mention of the "biochemically dependent" Rush making drug buys through his maid. Possibly it is one of Rush's vulnerabilities that he didn't recognize that, as a rule, housekeepers are generally not licensed to prescribe and dispense drugs. At least not where I live.
posted by tbogg at 9:04 AM
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Keeping your story straight
Liberal Oasis has the run down on the ever-evolving explanations of David Kay.
posted by tbogg at 8:46 AM
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Sunday, October 05, 2003
Republican chess
Todays Non Sequitur
posted by tbogg at 3:03 PM
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Friday, October 03, 2003
You must be taller than your walker to go on this ride
Seniors are up in arms about losing their discount at an amusement park:
Roller coasters that go upside down don’t faze 66-year-old Olga Schmitt. What makes her scream is having to pay more for season passes to Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom now that the owners are eliminating senior discounts at their parks nationwide, bucking an industry trend of increased marketing toward seniors.
SCHMITT AND HER husband have had season passes to the park near Allentown for years. She loved the rides, especially the roller coasters, and they both enjoy cooling off at the water park in the summer. But the couple is on a fixed income and will likely not go when the price increases next season.
“That would be the same as taking away your bread at our age,” said John Schmitt, 72, adding that the couple’s two season passes would cost almost twice as much next year.
Sandusky, Ohio-based Cedar Faire LP said the change will affect all its parks — Cedar Point, in Sandusky; Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif.; Valleyfair, near Minneapolis, Minn.; Worlds of Fun, in Kansas City, Mo.; and Michigan’s Adventure near Muskegon, Mich.
Cedar Faire officials said they eliminated the discounts because seniors were becoming more active and no longer needed an incentive to visit their attractions.
“In the past the policy was because we felt there was less at the park for them to do,” said Brian Witherow, director of investor relations for Cedar Faire. “We see more of them doing more than they were doing before.”
Damn! Success is a bitch.
Popular senior rides at the park include:
~It's A Small-Portions-Because-I-Don't-Eat-So-Much-Anymore World
~Pirates of the Florida Gambling Cruise
~The Continually Blinking Left Turn Signal Autopia
~Indiana Jones and The Steamtable of Doom
~Big Thunder High Fiber Railroad
~The Haunted Mansion Where Uncle Saul, God Rest His Soul, Lives
~Incontinence Splash Mountain
~Mr. Toad's I Thought I Was Hitting The Brake Wild Ride
~The Mad Teacup Party Where We Talk About Our Granchildren
and
~The Audio-Animatronic Matlock.
Thanks. I'll be here all week.....
posted by tbogg at 2:05 PM
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Action figure included...action sold separately
Pop by the Rubber Nun to see Flightsuit McBulge, but make sure you click through all the images to see the end result (just hit more under each picture)
posted by tbogg at 12:21 PM
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The President feels Rush's pain: "Boy. If I had a nickle for everytime I woke up in a Father Steve's bedroom with my pants on backwards..."
Okay. He didn't really say that. Initially he said this:
"Rush is a great American," the president said of the beleaguered host, who has championed the conservative movement for decades. "I am confident he can overcome any obstacles he faces right now."
Later he clarified his remarks:
Yes, it seems that going forward, Americans will be unjustly deprived of Rush's brilliantly insightful ruminations on the important minutiae generated each time our great NFL heroes bravely shimmy into their manly spandex knickers to prove their worth by feverishly grappling over an enormous pigskin testicle. And why? Simply because Rush correctly observed that some lousy quarterback gets a free ride just for being a Philadelphia porch monkey? What's wrong with that? It's called "stating a fact," and contrary to what all those liberals may now be screaming, it doesn't mean that Rush Limbaugh is prejudiced. I mean, get a grip folks, the man was just f****d up on a fistful of hillbilly heroin his Spick-o-rickan maid was force-feeding him.
Okay. He didn't really say that either. But , as Fox News has shown us, in America you can believe whatever you want to believe.
Is this a great country or what?
posted by tbogg at 12:01 PM
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Dude. The drugs that I don't do make me forget whether I took them...or not.....you gonna eat those fries?
Rush "Total Stoner" Limbaugh really set the record straight today.
Addressing for the first time allegations that he's under investigation in Florida for abusing prescription painkillers, talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh promised his audience today that he'd tell them everything he knew "as soon as I know what I'm up against."
"The story in Florida, it really is an emerging situation," Limbaugh said at the top of his broadcast. "I watch what's being reported on television and it changes from morning to morning, hour to hour, day to day.
He continued:
"I don't know yet what I'm dealing with here, folks. I really don't know the full scope of what I'm dealing with. But when I get all the facts, when I get all the details of this, rest assured that I will discuss this with you and tell you how it is."
Limbaugh pledged, "I'll tell you everything there is - well, maybe more than you want to know."
Sounding confident and strong, Limbaugh said he'd received more than 25,000 supportive e-mails since he was hit with twin controversies over his comments to ESPN and allegations from a former housekeeper that she obtained for him thousands of painkilling pills over the last four years.
23,000 of those emails came from Noelle Bush looking to score any shit he had left over.
Meanwhile Rush can't quite get around to admitting that he is so busted. The fact that he states "maybe more than you want to know" indicates that the sob sob I-got-hooked-because-of-the-pain story is right around the corner.
You know, fat, stoned and stupid is no way to go through life Rush....
posted by tbogg at 11:45 AM
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Snatch the obfuscation from my palm, grasshopper
It looks like Scott McClellan learned much from Master Fleischer. Read and learn:
Q Can I ask a follow-on point I just wanted to -- why does the White House feel that it's appropriate to coordinate an attack on Joseph Wilson in coordination with the RNC and Republicans in Congress, to attack him on his partisanship and his record as a partisan? Why does the White House feel that that's appropriate and relevant here?
MR. McCLELLAN: What we are focused on is getting to the bottom of this investigation. That's what the President wants to happen. He wants the -- he wants the Justice Department to get to the bottom of this, the sooner the better. So our focus is on this investigation and getting to the bottom of it. That's what we are doing. Obviously, there are -- that's what the subject of this investigation is about, and that's why it's important to --
Q But my question is --
MR. McCLELLAN: -- keep the focus on the investigation.
I can't say exactly why, but listening to McClellan reminds me of the phrase:
The wonderful thing about Tigger, is Tigger's a wonderful thing
Here's more of watching Scotty grow:
Q Scott, between the time period of mid-July when this story first broke, and late September when it became much more public, what, if anything, did White House officials -- the President, National Security Advisor, Chief of Staff, others, general for the Counsel's Office -- do to address the leak problem that emerged in July?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'll tell you what we were doing in that period. We were focusing on the priorities of the American people. We were focusing on moving forward on the legislation to strengthen and improve Medicare for America's seniors. We were focused on strengthening the economy that's growing faster now, but we want more action done. We were focusing on the energy legislation and focusing on addressing some of the problems there. That's where our focus was.
Apparently, they were (all together now...) focused.
posted by tbogg at 9:23 AM
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Digging, digging, digging
I've always loved the expression about the kid looking for the pony in the pile of horseshit, but I never really saw in action until I read this.
Is that desperation sweat I smell...or flop sweat? Whatever, it does have a certain ursine tang to it.....
posted by tbogg at 9:07 AM
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That was then, this is---- oh never mind.
Steve at No More Mr. Nice Blog shows us that Debra Saunders isn't bothered by that consistency hobgoblin anymore.
Good for her!
posted by tbogg at 8:52 AM
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Well, everyone knows that black people "don' know nuffin bout birthin' no babies"
Atrios links us to an article that reminds us that there's a little bit o' the old south wherever you go in this great country of ours.
posted by tbogg at 8:45 AM
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Guns outlawed, forced gay mariages, cats and dogs sleeping together.....
A reader (whose name I won't publish) sent in this example of how the Free Republic primates think:
To: Dog
"Watch for the next shoe to drop ......and I would guess it will be directed
at discediting Fox News."
It's a long way until November 2004...There are many other shoes to
drop...You are right about Fox News...I think you will begin to see them
morph into CNN right before our eyes. Sean Hannity might be next...
Churches, religious groups will be attacked, discredited and painted as hypocrites,
key senate races, etc, etc. The question is what will Clark/Hillary do the
first 100 days in office? Repeal tax cuts, gay marriages, withdraw from Iraq
and turn it over to the UN, and apologize to the world for the "mistakes" of
our current president and will take steps to never let that happen again!!!
They will fabricate a crisis that will somehow allow them to overturn the
constitution and dissolve the Congress. Republican party dissolved,
outlawed...Free Republice outlawed and shut down, religious freedom
curtailed and monitored, persecuted...the kind of stuff that's written in
the last book of the Bible...Regardless if you are religious or not, you
will see that the world is heading into a turmoil never seen before, it will
come to a head within our lifetime..
760 posted on 10/02/2003 7:04 AM PDT by Maringa
----------------------
To: Maringa
I agree with you - this is the beginning of something that I can't even
imagine.
I need to remember to take a deep breath (a VERY deep breath) and - being a
Christian - I will then remember that God IS in Control!!
May God have mercy on us.
765 posted on 10/02/2003 7:14 AM PDT by MasonGal
Man. You can't make this shit up.
The question is: how do you discredit Fox News?
(Added): Snant has more from the feces throwers.
posted by tbogg at 8:30 AM
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Thursday, October 02, 2003
Bleeding heart Republicans
Always standing up for the rights of criminals:
We don't yet know if there is any truth behind this story, of course, and, until we do, all that we have is the hypothetical. Assuming, however, that there is some truth in today's reports, this is a tragedy for Rush Limbaugh - as it would be for any other addict - possibly (again we don't know) partly explained by the pain of his appalling ear problems. Should he be prosecuted if he turns out to have broken the law? Well, maybe that's easier for me to answer than for some around here. So far as I can see, prosecution of drug users serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever - other than the interests of the pushers and the prison-industrial complex. It's a bad idea - always. That's the morality, but when we come to the practical (and worries over the selective enforcement of what is, after all, the law), this seems to be a classic case where any prosecutor should, as he is entitled to do, use his discretion and save the taxpayer a few bucks. For what it's worth (and for those who are keeping tally) there seems to me to be a difference between the 'abuse' of drugs that would be legal but for the lack of a piece of paper from a doctor and those that are always illegal. That's not an entirely rational distinction, but somehow it seems to make his alleged offense appear rather less serious than some of the alternatives.
Friggin' enabler....
posted by tbogg at 10:47 PM
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...and if he weren't Lucianne's son he'd be an assistant manager at a Dairy Queen
Indeed, if this had happened in a discussion about politics instead of sports, nobody would have cared. Here's a demonstration: Let me declare here and now that one of the reasons the media like Colin Powell is that he is black. Let me also declare that if Jesse Jackson were white, he would either A) be fixing refrigerators right now or B) he'd be laughed at as a charlatan.
Just finishing Jonah's thought for him
posted by tbogg at 10:30 PM
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Moonbat Wilson
Paul Krugman:
The right-wing media slime machine, which tries to assassinate the character of anyone who opposes the right's goals — hey, I know all about it — has already swung into action. For example, The Wall Street Journal's editorial page calls Mr. Wilson an "open opponent of the U.S. war on terror." We've grown accustomed to this sort of slur — and they accuse liberals of lacking civility? — but let's take a minute to walk through it.
Mr. Wilson never opposed the "war on terror" — he opposed the war in Iraq precisely because it had no obvious relevance to the campaign against terror. He feared that invading a country with no role in 9/11, and no meaningful Al Qaeda links, would divert resources from the pursuit of those who actually attacked America. Many patriots in the military and the intelligence community agreed with him then; even more agree now.
Unlike the self-described patriots now running America, Mr. Wilson has taken personal risks for the sake of his country. In the months before the first gulf war, he stayed on in Baghdad, helping to rescue hundreds of Americans who might otherwise have been held as hostages. The first President Bush lauded him as a "truly inspiring diplomat" who exhibited "courageous leadership."
But he's a moonbat... a hysteric....
posted by tbogg at 10:19 PM
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Putting the boot to Max
Busybusybusy does that shorter thing he does so well.
posted by tbogg at 9:58 PM
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Man. Do I love World O'Crap
I swear, this is my favorite blog. Go for the dissection of Rich Lowry, stay for the reason that the networks promote pixies like Katie Couric.
posted by tbogg at 9:55 PM
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The illustration next to "useful idiot"
Sigh. The warbloggers Pet Rock Liberal is at it again.
I said I wasn't going to write about the Wilson/Plame scandal. Okay, so I'm breaking my promise already. The liberals need to be saved from themselves.
Kevin Drum says the Republicans have an odious attack plan to smear Joe Wilson as a radical leftist. Instead, Kevin says Wilson is just a regular ol' liberal.
No, Kevin. Hold back. You really don't want to go there.
Take a look at this piece Wilson wrote for The Nation.
Here is what he says about the liberation of Iraq:
The underlying objective of this war is the imposition of a Pax Americana on the region and installation of vassal regimes that will control restive populations...Nothing short of conquest, occupation and imposition of handpicked leaders on a vanquished population will suffice...Arabs who complain about American-supported antidemocratic regimes today will find us in even more direct control tomorrow.
What complete and utter hysterical nonsense. Surely, Kevin, you don't think this is the liberal point of view. Please say it ain't so.
Given what is known about PNAC and taken together with well-reported stories about Cheney and Rumsfeld looking to pin 9/11 on Iraq, what exactly makes the statement "complete and utter hysterical nonsense"? Here's a clue from PNAC:
we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.
What the hell does he think that means?
Tell you what. I'll take the word of a career Middle East diplomat who has served under both Republican and Democratic administrations and knows the region inside and out, and whose wife has worked on the WMD issue.
Totten then adds:
UPDATE: In the comments some people are defending Wilson from the moonbat charge. I'm not calling him a moonbat because he's against the war in Iraq. I'm calling him that because he thinks we are a bunch of imperialists hell-bent on lording it over the vanquished. Will the left please put that meme to bed. It is a hysterical and defamatory conspiracy theory, not to mention exceptionally counter-productive.
I am not commenting on the other aspects of this scandal right now because I've barely paid attention to it. I don't know enough to have an informed opinion. At least not yet.
I'm interested in why the geo-political genius of Portland thinks its a conspiracy theory (no, saying, "just because" doesn't count). Perhaps he can get together with Steven Den Beste, the von Clausewitz of San Diego, and enlighten us. Oh to read those war stories of life behind the keyboard.
And, Jesus Christ, I hate people who use the word meme to give their writing that gloss of inch-thick fake intellectualism. It's like people who use paradigm. You just want to whack them with a five-pound bag of horseshit.
posted by tbogg at 9:34 PM
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But the flow chart says we're winning!
Bucking the statistical trend:
Guerrilla attacks in Iraq have become more lethal, the top U.S. general in the country said on Thursday after three soldiers died in one day, adding urgency to American efforts to garner help stabilizing the country.“The enemy has evolved. It is a little bit more lethal, little bit more complex, little bit more sophisticated and in some cases a little bit more tenacious,” said Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces in Iraq.
I guess we shouldn't use flow charts to quantify "We're Number 1!". Maybe an exploding pie chart will do the trick. Yeah. That's it!
posted by tbogg at 2:13 PM
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"You can paint a zebra, but it's still a zebra."
I can't decide which quote from King Kaufman's article on the OxyContin Kid I like the most:
The creation of the Rush Limbaugh era was a move of astonishing cynicism by ESPN, a race down the low road in search of a buck or two, middle finger extended out the driver's side window at its best customers, hardcore sports fans. Knowing that any publicity is good publicity and that hiring Limbaugh would have tongues wagging, the network hired him knowing he'd add nothing to viewers' enjoyment of the games but plenty to the bottom line as the curious tuned in to see how Rush would try to shape the events on the field to fit his know-nothing political agenda.
or
Limbaugh is a clown, a dog-and-pony show with no more insight into football than he has into politics, though he proved far less entertaining in his new field than he is in his regular gig. You can blame him for his dim-witted comments and lame attempts to shoehorn his political views into football analysis, but that seems like a waste of time. Do you blame a dog for sniffing butts? Limbaugh is what he is.
Tell us what your really think, King.
posted by tbogg at 1:49 PM
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Finally. Someone Oprah can't influence...
Resisting the gravitational pull of Planet Oprah, the Nobel Committee today awarded the Literature prize to J.M. Coetzee of South Africa. This was in direct conflict with Oprah's pick this month of Coetzee's countryman Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country.
An infuriated Oprah has vowed to purchase Sweden and enslave it's inhabitants.
posted by tbogg at 1:04 PM
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This explains soooooo much...
Remember George Bush telling Brit Hume that he gets his advice from people like Condi:
I glance at the headlines just to kind of a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves. But like Condoleezza, in her case, the national security adviser is getting her news directly from the participants on the world stage.
Eric Alterman points out that, well, maybe that's not such a good idea:
We note The American Historical Review on Stanford University Assistant Professor of Political Science, Condoleezza Rice, The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army, 1948-1983, in December, 1985. Rice “frequently does not sift facts from propaganda and valid information from disinformation or misinformation.” In addition, she “passes judgments and expresses opinions without adequate knowledge of the facts” and her “writing abounds with meaningless phrases.” (p. 1236)
I guess this would be a classic case of the "expresses opinions without adequate knowledge" leading the dumb.
posted by tbogg at 12:02 PM
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Governor Steroid
Governor Naked Guy
Governor Gangbang
Governor Shove Her Head In A Toilet
Governor Smoked Dope
Governor I Lied...I'm A Kidder...I Kid
Governor Fake Enviromentalist
Governor Groper
Dang. It's hard to keep up.
posted by tbogg at 9:16 AM
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I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)
No matter how bad your day is today, it has to be better than Rush Limbaughs. Perhaps he can blame his comments on McNabb on the drugs, "That was the OxyContin talking". Meanwhile the defense of Rush continues over at The Corner. Here's Jonah:
I find it hard to come to the conclusion that what Limbaugh said was racist. But I find it much easier to conclude that what he said was dumb. From what I understand -- and I haven't been a close football fan since the late 80s -- McNabb is much less of the affirmative action baby Limbaugh's analysis would suggest. That doesn't mean Limbaugh's comments are outrageous, but if you're going to bring race into one of the very few areas in public life today where merit and colorblindedness are pretty much the rule, you should really have a clear-cut case. Teams have stuck with underperforming white QBs before without white privilege being the issue, presumably -- the shortage of black QBs notwithstanding -- a black quarterback can be given an extra chance without white guilt being the motivation.
Again, I don't follow the sports beat enough to say whether Rush's comments about the media in particular are right, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. And how that comment could be construed as obviously racist is beyond me. After all commentators on the left, right and middle have partially attributed the success, popularity or favorable media treatment of all sorts of people -- Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas, Jesse Jackson -- to race plenty of times. The taboo here wasn't about race alone, it was about sports and race. Because in the athletic realm both the left and the right believe the standard is merit. To suggest otherwise, as Rush sort of did, is to sully one of the few areas normally free of such stuff.
As for the Democrats feeding on all of this: What else do you expect from the party of opportunism?
Whether what Rush said was racist is open to interpretation, but when he told a caller " Take that bone out of your nose and call me back." I'm gonna have to say: that was racist. What suprises me about this whole thing is not that Rush said something like this but the fact that anyone is suprised.
(Added): You know, Rush was doing OxyContin...and OxyContin was the drug of choice for Noelle Bush...and they both live in Florida......hmmmmmmmm
Nah.
posted by tbogg at 8:47 AM
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Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Great moments in political predictions
Move over Dick Morris, James Taranto has called dibs on your crystal ball. Here's JT on Monday:
Anti-Bush partisans are really piling on thick over the purported scandal involving the "outing," supposedly by White House officials, of Valerie Plame, who may or may not have been a covert CIA operative, and who is married to a critic of the administration named Joe Wilson. Josh Marshall blogged himself into such a frenzy yesterday that he almost matched Glenn Reynolds's output on a slow day. One random left-wing blogger sums up the tone of the attacks: "Conservatives have a long history in America of resorting to traitorous acts to further their own private agendas." We're half-expecting the bestseller lists to feature a book called "Leaks and the Leaking Leakers Who Leak Them."
[snip]
In order to violate the law, in other words, one must disclose a genuine secret. Was Plame's association with the CIA a secret? As we said yesterday, the CIA's blasé attitude toward Novak's inquiries suggests not. Bolstering that inference, Clifford May writes in National Review Online that Plame's CIA connection "wasn't news to me. I had been told that--but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of."
The Justice Department has now undertaken an investigation of the matter, the Associated Press reports, so eventually things will become much clearer. Don't be surprised, though, if this purported scandal ends up amounting to nothing.
Then again, sometimes nothing turns out to be something:
Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe a special prosecutor should be named to investigate allegations that Bush administration officials illegally leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released yesterday.
The poll, taken after the Justice Department announced that it had opened a criminal probe into the matter, pointed to several troubling signs for the White House as Bush aides decide how to contain the damage. The survey found that 81 percent of Americans considered the matter serious, while 72 percent thought it likely that someone in the White House leaked the agent's name.
Confronted with little public support for the White House view that the investigation should be handled by the Justice Department, Bush aides began yesterday to adjust their response to the expanding probe. They reined in earlier, broad portrayals of innocence in favor of more technical arguments that it is possible the disclosure was made without knowledge that a covert operative was being exposed and therefore might not have been a crime.
Good thing that the NY Times isn't paying attention. Oh, wait:
The Bush administration pursued a two-track political strategy on Wednesday to minimize the damage from the criminal investigation into the disclosure of a C.I.A. officer's identity.
The White House encouraged Republicans to portray the former diplomat at the center of the case, Joseph C. Wilson IV, as a partisan Democrat with an agenda and the Democratic Party as scandalmongering. At the same time, the administration and the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill worked to ensure that no Republicans in Congress break ranks and call for an independent inquiry outside the direct control of the Justice Department.
"It's slime and defend," said one Republican aide on Capitol Hill, describing the White House's effort to raise questions about Mr. Wilson's motivations and its simultaneous effort to shore up support in the Republican ranks.
Nice call there, Jimbo.
posted by tbogg at 11:44 PM
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I was all up for sex until I saw those naked Dr. Laura pictures. Now I just want to cuddle...
Let's face it, getting sexual advice from Dr. Laura is like getting tips on How To Pick Up Chicks from this guy. But, then again, lack of qualifications has never stopped the menopausal harpy from giving advice to those who lives are so empty and soulless that a kind word from the good doctor is like a really shiny worthless bauble on a really high shelf at Wal-Mart.... Well, you get the idea.
Husbands need sex, and it's a wife's job to provide it - as much as he wants, whenever he wants it. So contends Laura Schlessinger (search) - better known as Dr. Laura, the ever-provocative radio-show shrink - in "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands."
In a galley of her book, coming out in January, Schlessinger describes what she calls "loving obligation" - that is, a spouse's duty to do something whether or not he or she feels like it.
If husbands are expected to "go to work and earn money" and visit relatives they don't like, she argues, why can't their wives put out on demand?
Oh. This should go over good.
Probably better than her last book, Leaving Mommy To Rot in Her Condo: A Daughter's Prayer.
(thanks to Tony)
posted by tbogg at 11:14 PM
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Hell, I've handled snakes. I can certainly handle a little investigation of the people who are my friends....
According to Liberal Oasis, US AG John Ashcroft (R-Jesus Is My Frycook) used to be pretty big on those special prosecutors:
ROWLAND EVANS: …The attorney general has shaved down all the allegations that Vice President Gore apparently down to one single allegation -- which telephone he used to make these fundraising calls from.
Do you really think that alone is worthy of a special prosecutor?
ASHCROFT: …you know, a single allegation can be most worthy of a special prosecutor.
If you're abusing government property, if you're abusing your status in office, it can be a single fact that makes the difference on that.
Too bad he doesn't believe in karma. I think he would really enjoy the irony....
posted by tbogg at 10:50 PM
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Bruce Bartlett's Wayback Machine
I'll leave it to the economists to discuss Bruce Bartlett's contention about what should constitute being poor. But something that he said was so laughable, that I'm suprised an editor let it through (oh wait, it's Townhall...they'll let anything through):
When I grew up in the 1950s, only the wealthy owned color TVs, clothes dryers, stereos, dishwashers and disposals. These were all considered luxuries. We got by with black and white TVs, hanging our wet cloths on a line to dry, washing dishes by hand and throwing our potato peels in a pail instead of down the drain. So did most other middle-class families. Not even the wealthiest people owned microwave ovens, VCRs or computers.
Possibly because in the fifties the now common Time Machine, which we now take for granted, was not readily available. After all, the the fifties era rich folks would have had to travel to 1967 to purchase the first home microwave introduced by Amana. Later they could have stopped by 1975 to pick up their Altair 8800 computer kit, and then, I guess, hung around two more years to grab them one of those VBT2000 VCRs from RCA (VHS tapes might have been a bit limited.)
Yeah, times was tough back in the day.
Now you'll have to excuse me while I go pull my flying car into my anti-gravitational geodesic heliport...
posted by tbogg at 10:38 PM
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Boy...you step away from a computer for a few minutes....
Things happen fast in the world today. I leave work a little early to go see a football game (lost 6-0) and then it's on to soccer practice for two hours, and I come home to find out that Rush Limbaugh has resigned at ESPN and now is being accused of being in a drug ring.
I don't know about this drug thing, but I do know that the ESPN gig was a dream of Limbaughs for years. This has to be devastating for him.
Christmas came early this year and Rush got a lump of coal.
This makes me happy.
(Update): Here's the drug story. It's extraordinary in that it is the first time that Limbaugh's name has been linked to the phrase "Scoring in parking lot". At least with another person involved...
posted by tbogg at 9:49 PM
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What they don't teach you in Texas
I received this email today from Abby from Texas:
I am a native Texan and I am writing a newspaper article about how we (High School Students) should respect Texas by honoring (not pledging allegiance to) the flag. The actual pledge has been around for ages. But while I was doing research your blog came up and I, unfortunately, came across your opinions on Texas. I just want you to know that no one loves their state more than native Texans. We have more pride in where we live than Washington, Oregon, Ohio, and Michigan combined! Your opinion of Texas being "the armpit of Satan" mad me very upset, and I just wanted to let you know that Texas is a state full of pride despite what people like you may think, and I stand by my opinion that we should honor it by pledging to the flag.
--Abby
I think it is admirable that Abby is proud of her state. I think all kids should be proud of where they grew up, unless it's Indiana. I also think that Abby should know how her state ranks among all the other less prideful states (granted, this data is a few years old, but it shows what our "leader" can do when he puts mind to it):
The Education Governor of Texas
Teacher salaries at beginning of 1st term 36 (1)
Teacher salaries at beginning of 2nd term 38 (1)
% Change in Average Salaries 1989-99 constant $ -1.1% (1)
Teacher salaries plus benefits 50 (1)
High school completion rate 48 (2)
SAT scores - 1996 combined math & verbal: 995 44 (13)
SAT scores - 1997 combined math & verbal: 995 45 (13)
SAT scores - 1998 combined math & verbal: 995 44 (13)
Bush Family Values in Texas
Highest number of children living in poverty 2 (3)
Highest number of children without health insurance 2 (3)
Highest % of children without health insurance 1 (3)
Highest % of poor working parents without insurance 1 (3)
Highest % of population without health insurance 2 (3)
Highest number of people stripped of Medicare benefits 1 (10)
Highest teen birth rate 5 (4)
Per capita funding for public health 48 (4)
Delivery of social services 47 (4)
Mothers receiving prenatal care 45 (9)
Child support collections 45 (3)
Number of executions 1 (11)
Teen smoking - down nationally, flat in Texas (5)
Teen drug use - down nationally, up 30% in Texas w/ Bush (5)
Pollution in Texas
Pollution released by manufacturing plants 1 (6)
Pollution by industrial plants in violation of Clean Air Act 1 (6)
Greenhouse gas emissions 1 (6)
Quality of Life in Texas
Spending for parks and recreation 48 (7)
Spending for the arts 48 (7)
Public libraries and branches 46 (8)
Spending for the environment 49 (7)
Best place to raise children 48 (9)
Affordable Housing 48 (12)
Home ownership 44 (2)
Highest homes insurance rates in the nation 1 (11)
Spending for police protection 47 (12)
Sources: (1) National Education Agency, Rankings & Estimates: Rankings of the States 1999 (2) U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Development (3) U.S. Bureau of Census, Current Populations Trends (4) U.S. Dept Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics (5)1998 Texas School Survey of Substance Use Among Students: Grades 7-12, Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (6) U.S. EPA, Office of Pollution and Prevention (7) Texas Observer (8) Statistical Rankings by State (9) Children's Rights Council (10) Families USA
(11) National Association of Insurance Commissioners
(12) U.S. Bureau of Census, State Government Finances 1998 (13) College Examination Board
Class dismissed.....
(Added): On the other hand U of T is ranked 13th. Woo hoo! Hook'em horns!
posted by tbogg at 1:03 PM
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The brouhaha and whoopdedoo about the kerfuffle
Nitpicker has done us all a favor by tracking down the Wall Street Journal's obsession with "kerfuffle".
I guess it's one of those words that makes them sound all grown-up and mature and stuff.
On second thought: no, it doesn't....
posted by tbogg at 12:47 PM
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The BFD about your tax dollars
I don't know if this has already been covered, but you need to read Matt Bivens on where the $87 billion is going in Iraq:
Bush has also asked for $100 million for 2,000 trash trucks -- which works out as $50,000 per truck. He wants to spend $400 million on building new jails able to hold 8,000 additional prisoners -- which works out to $50,000 per bed. "I have a lot of constituents in my state of South Dakota who live in homes that don't cost $50,000 per bedroom," Senator Johnson says. Or how about the $30 million we've reportedly set aside to teach Iraqis English as a second language. "Undoubtedly there will be a contract to be 'bid' out, surely to that great educational institution, Halliburton, to provide ESL teachers from the US at wartime salaries," writes Tom Englehardt, editor of the indispensable TomDispatch.com.
[snip]
The Bush Administration request also includes $164 million "to improve the curriculum for training Iraq's new army," Associated Press reports. Not "to improve the new Army," simply to improve "the curriculum" for it. It includes $4 million to establish telephone area codes and a 911-emergency response number. It includes $100 million to hide the families of 100 Iraqis in the witness protection program, $19 million for post office Wi-Fi, $50 million for traffic cops. It includes $150 million "to begin work on a $500 million to $700 million children's hospital with all the latest technology." (Because there's no shortage of $700 million children's hospitals in America, right?)
Then there is this from Salon:
Democrats increasingly have denounced Bush's handling of the Iraqi war and its aftermath, yet many see little choice but to support his request. About $66 billion is for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and has generated little debate.
"We have no objection to this request and we would be willing to approve this funding this very day," said Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
But Democrats have criticized spending billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq at a time of rising deficits and unmet needs at home. They have targeted specific items in Bush's request, such as $20 million to train Iraqi entrepreneurs in "business fundamentals and concepts" with a four-week course costing $10,000 per pupil, and $82 million to start an Iraqi Coast Guard.
"We should bring the same vigilance to control unnecessary spending that we bring to spending here at home. That is at the root of the questions we will ask," Daschle said.
I think these should give you some pretty good talking points for a letter to your local newspaper.
(thanks to the indispensable Chris for the Bivens link)
posted by tbogg at 12:34 PM
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Doonesbury
I hope everyone saw this one today.
Just ain't his week, is it....
posted by tbogg at 12:09 PM
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Talk to the ego....
Radio bigot and He-Who-Doesn't-Always-Wipe Rush Limbaugh has a few words for you riff-raff out there:
“My philosophy has always been - since I'm way up here and everybody else way down there - to ignore it. There's no reason to elevate all these little peons to my level by talking about whatever little nitpicking things they've said.”
You know, I've always thought that the media has been very desirous that a stupid fat man with several failed marriages and a history of anal cysts do well. But I could be wrong....
posted by tbogg at 9:54 AM
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...and we thought he was President because of his clear vision of a better America
The Wall Street Journal finally got around to admitting that President Whistleass ain't nothing if he doesn't have his Rove on:
Of course! The reason this is suddenly a story is because Mr. Rove, the President's political strategist and confidant from Texas, has become the main target. Joseph Wilson, the CIA consultant at the center of this mini-tempest, had recently fingered Mr. Rove as the official who leaked to columnist Robert Novak that Mr. Wilson's wife works for the CIA. Mr. Wilson has offered no evidence for this, and he's since retreated to say only that he now believes Mr. Rove had "condoned it." The White House has replied that the charge is "simply not true." But no matter, the scandal game is afoot.
The media, and the Democrats now slip-streaming behind them, understand that the what of this mystery matters much less than the who. It's no accident that Tony Blair's recent and evanescent scandal over WMD evidence concerned his long-time political aide and intimate, Alastair Campbell. We're also old enough to recall what happened to Jimmy Carter's Presidency once his old Georgia friend Bert Lance was run out of town. If they can take down Mr. Rove, the lead planner for Mr. Bush's re-election campaign, they will have knocked the props out of his Presidency.
Of course they also endorse the idea that only true believers need apply when it comes to giving unbiased advice:
The real intelligence scandal is how an open opponent of the U.S. war on terror such as Mr. Wilson was allowed to become one of that policy's investigators. That egregious CIA decision echoes what has obviously been a long-running attempt by anonymous "intelligence sources" quoted in the media to undermine the Bush policy toward Iraq. Mr. Bush's policies of prevention and pursuing state sponsors of terror overturned more than 30 years of CIA anti-terror dogma, and some of the bureaucrats are hoping to defeat him in 2004.
They fail to point out that by picking lock-step investigators they could save oodles on air fare and per diem and exploding watches and other cool spy stuff. Just have the analysts sit at a desk and crank out policy papers and theories on Pax Americana to support the chickenhawks sitting in the executive suites. If they do a really good job, maybe some of their work will end up in the State of the Union. Hey, it could happen....
posted by tbogg at 9:12 AM
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It would have so cool if I had an "i" in my name so I could dot it with a heart...
Nitpicker has Sam Brownback (R-Anyone Seen My Sharpie?) not paying attention in class.
Later he passed a note to Kay Bailey Hutchinson saying that he "liked" her. Tee hee.
I love Al Kamen's snarky comment:
Brownback spokesman Aaron Groote said Brownback was only taking a moment to sign 10 pictures for constituents whose visit to the Hill a week earlier had been canceled by Hurricane Isabel. Brownback wanted them to have a memento, a lovely signed picture of himself, as a consolation.
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