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  • Wednesday, August 31, 2005

     

    'Crisp' like a half-baked Pop-Tart

    Remember why Bush needed to spend that vacation down in Crawford?:

    "I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy," Bush said during an Aug. 13 bike ride with journalists at his ranch. "And part of my being is to be outside exercising. So I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live, and will do so."

    Well, this is what happens when you cut the vacation two days short:

    OVERALL IMPRESSION OF BUSH [Rich Lowry ]
    Kind of a fizzle. I'm not sure exactly what else he could do with the speech, but somehow didn't seem that engaged....
    Posted at 05:27 PM

    W [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
    I found the Bush speech disappointing too, Rich. No doubt the bureacracy is at work but...I think we all already assumed as much. He could have highlighted some great stories of human endurance. Bucked folks up. People down there are not that interested that he flew over and saw some devastation from the comfort of Air Force One.
    Posted at 05:30 PM

    BOY... [JPod]
    ...what a lousy speech. He'd better return to the subject later in the week and take the full measure of this event.
    Posted at 05:31 PM

    SUBJECT: NO, YOU'RE NOT..... [Rich Lowry ]
    E-mail:

    ...simplistic. Right now, the entire country is watching a great American city collapsing into hopeless devastation, and if there IS a Federal response going on it is barely visible. Government has got to move here....
    Posted at 05:32 PM

    BUSH [Rich Lowry ]
    E-mail from a plugged-in observer:

    Rich,
    This is an EXTREMELY disappointing speech. Doesn't he realize that more people may have died from this storm than died on September 11? I don't expect him to say he's gonna get Katrina "dead or alive" for what she's done to America. But for crying out loud, can he put off the laundry list of all the things his wonderful bureaucracy has done so far until the end of the speech and begin by addressing the pain we all feel as this tragedy is unfolding in slow-motion on live TV? We're talking death on a massive scale, and within 2 minutes he's thanking Texas for housing refugees (way to perpetuate that "I'm all about Texas" stereotype).

    And don't get me started about how the first image of Bush coming back to Washington as thousands have died in a tragedy was him walking down the stairs of Air Force One with Barney tucked under his arm…

    I love President Bush, but that was a pathetic performance and I agree with what Byron wrote about his vacation. And I'm with you: Bring in the troops. Lead! Don't tell me that the federal government will be working "with" state and local governments. Has he watched how incompetent Blanco is?
    Posted at 05:34 PM

    BUSH CONT'D [Jonah Goldberg]

    I gotta agree. This is not the usual post-hurricane scrambling for FEMA patronage and post-hoc insurance coverage. Fair or not, accurate or not, the normal rules really don't seem to apply here. That is a political reality and in all probability every other kind of reality. You'd think the tsunami experience would have taught him that playing catch-up is just as expensive financially, but vastly more expensive politically. Moreover, it's the right thing to do: Send in the cavalry.
    Posted at 05:48 PM

    NOBODY'S A BIGGER BUSH CHEERLEADER THAN I... [JPod]
    ...but everybody on the Right better wise up and fast. Bush blew this first one big time, and needs to be prodded to improve, not apologized for. Don't defend him just because you know liberals are going to attack, and don't come up with bizarro theories about how he's a man of action not reflection etc. etc. He emoted plenty around 9/11. Look, it's not too much to say that the continued viability of his presidency resides in how he and the administration respond in the next week.
    Posted at 05:49 PM

    SUBJECT: EMOTING [Rich Lowry ]
    E-mail:

    Your previous emailer is dead wrong about Bush. Recall all the stories of him comforting the victims of 9-11, and families of soldiers, etc. The trouble with Bush is, I think, he can't fake his emotion, and he doesn't truly get emotion until he's dealt with things personally. Recall his poor performance soon after 9-11. Once he was there, on the ground, he had both the "real sense of being in charge" you want, and the great emotion your emailer wants. I expect Bush to come around this time, too.
    Posted at 05:57 PM

    WELL, IT'S SAFE TO SAY, JPOD [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
    This is not the Right-apologizing-for-Bush Corner.
    Posted at 06:03 PM

    THE POINT IS NOT... [JPod]
    ...that Bush should have emoted. The point is that he sounded defeatist. And that's what he cannot be now -- what we, as a nation, cannot be now.
    Posted at 06:44 PM

    MEA CULPA [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
    Another good friend reminds me of how smart NRO readers are. And I think the bulk of you--if my inbox is any indication--are right. I'm with Mr. "eminently sensible" after more conversations, a few deep breaths, a little time away from the coverage. Most people in the Katrina-ravaged parts of the country didn't even see President Bush earlier and all they care about right now is if that they are alive and where they can go from here. Even articulate in-command assurances from a president might not beat a little laundry listing--this is what we're doing. This is what others can do to help. I probably still wish he made some grand statement about looting with all the excuse-making going around, but you know what? A lot of people are hard at work doing their jobs getting people found and fed and all the important things--including not just the government but many private organizations. And, you know what else? They'll be another speech. I bet we get what the pundits were hoping for in that. Meanwhile, how much does what the pundits were looking for in his little speech really matter to people who are living with relatives in another state, having no idea if they have anything to eventually return to? Or someone whose lost a loved one? Someone whose life is suddenly in turmoil? Someone who probably should have left town but thought they could ride out the storm, and well, obviously couldn't?

    So, anyway, I know some others here will disagree, but I'm pretty sure I was wrong. I jumped too quickly and did so needlessly.
    Posted at 09:24 PM

    NO MEA CULPA FROM ME [JPod]
    A bad speech is a bad speech.
    Posted at 09:34 PM


    posted by tbogg at 9:26 PM

    |

     

    As a journalist and an interviewer he is powerfully persuasive...

    JPod who knows quality when he sees it:

    Some people are going to go nuts when I say this because a) I'm a Fox News contributor and b) I work for the same company, but I really mean this: I think Shepherd Smith may go down in the annals of television history because of his astounding work this week as an anchor and descriptive reporter.

    Personally I rank this with "Oh, the humanity!"


    posted by tbogg at 9:15 PM

    |

     

    First responder? Eh...not so much.


    September 11, 2001 Posted by Picasa


    Hurricane Katrina 2005 Posted by Picasa


    Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act 2003  Posted by Picasa

    Priorities...priorities...


    posted by tbogg at 8:35 PM

    |

     

    St. Judy's Comment


    "Hello God? It's me, Judy..." Posted by Picasa

    St. Judy Miller suffers for our freedom:

    When Tom Meyers received a letter last week from jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller, the borough cultural and heritage affairs administrator wasn't completely shocked.

    "I was happily surprised," Meyers said. "In the back of my mind I thought she would send something back - just for her father's sake."

    Meyers initiated contact with Miller, who has been sitting in a federal detention center in Alexandria, Va., for almost two months, because he is honoring her father.

    Miller was jailed for not revealing her source in the CIA/Valerie Plame affair. She has been incarcerated longer than any other American journalist for refusing to testify.

    [...]

    Last week Meyers got his wish, receiving a computer-printed letter that was likely written from the detention center's library, said a spokesman for the facility.

    "The Riv remains very special to all of us Millers," Judith Miller wrote Meyers.

    She continued that she would like to attend the official opening of the exhibit in October.

    "When I'm not spending time in jail on behalf of the First Amendment, I live in lower Manhattan," Miller wrote. "I would very much like to have been at the opening of your show, but unfortunately, under the circumstances, that might not be possible."
    (my emphasis)

    You know the hardest thing about making yourself a martyr is getting that last nail in.

    That one's a bitch...

    (Thanks to Jane for throwing this one my way)


    posted by tbogg at 8:07 PM

    |

     

    Katrina is all about the Hillary

    Kate O'Beirne on the silliness of women in high places:

    RE: GOVERNORS AND LOST IN LOUISIANA [Kate O'Beirne]
    I haven't been watching as much Katrina coverage as many of my colleagues and our readers because I am working on an article about Hillary Clinton, but the criticisms of Governor Blanco and unfavorable comparisons with Governor Barbour may be relevant to my subject. I have seen a clearly overwhelmed Gov. Blanco's ineffectual handwringing and saw her dismissive quotes about looting while Rich spotted Haley vowing to deal with looters "ruthlessly." If others share the Corner's take on the comparative leadership qualities of these governors, shouldn't Hillary Clinton's boosters be dismayed at the latest example of why voters might be leery of women chief executives?


    Normally I would take Kate seriously about this...but it's pretty obvious that she's PMSing and can't think clearly.

    We'll check back in a few days when she's thinking straight.


    posted by tbogg at 12:05 PM

    |

     

    White like us

    Amanda called it

    he victims of the flood will be portrayed via racist stereotypes as criminals and idiots. This will predispose the audience to disliking them. Then, after everything settles down, a few right wingers will start implying that the dead brought their own fate on themselves by being too stupid and/or criminal to evacuate. This focus will distract the pundits from discussing the real issue at hand, which is why the fuck we didn't have the resources on hand to evacuate a city that has Hurricane Target written all over it. Before you know it, it'll be a wingnut bonaza of people both gleefully indulging in the most racist tendencies while simultaneously claiming that the only reason one might end up dead in a hurricane is because one doesn't have "personal responsibility".

    And, right on cue, racist Michelle Malkin says this and then does the the expected thing.

    : Wonkette highlights disparate Associated Press captions on "finding" vs. "looting" photos and suggests that racism is involved. Lots of other readers are sending me the photos, too, making the same point. There's one slight problem with the implication that the AP was overtly racist in labeling one of the photos "looting" and the other "finding." The race of the woman in the "finding" photo is indeterminate. She looks Hispanic or mixed. I agree it's still a curious editorial choice of words and I'd love to hear AP's explanation. But seems to me that it's not as black and white as some people are making it out to be.

    ...and then she points us to LaShawn Barber whose first commenter writes:

    La Shawn:

    As always, the most antisocial people require the most resources for Hurricaine recovery.

    Many who did not take the effort to leave New Orleans on Sunday are still waiting for the Government to tell them what to do next.

    There is no doubt that many did not have the resources to leave - the old, the sick - but like the dangers of smoking, the press and media has done a great job of warning people of the hazards of hurricaines.

    Where were the “sensitive” Democrats who buy votes in New Orleans with their SUV’s to give rides to other Dems? Al Sharpton was in Texas speeding away from the Texas State Police; he could hav had a better photo op by giving some of New Orleans “poor” a ride.

    Where were the buses that gave “the poor” a ride to the polls to vote for Dem Mary Landrieu for the Senate elections?

    Shameful

    Comment by Frank Zavisca


    The 2000 election was like the Stonewall Riots for the rightwing. They can now go out in public without their hoods, chanting: We're here, we're racist, and we hate you.


    posted by tbogg at 8:21 AM

    |

     

    O'Reilly O'rotica

    Just...go.


    posted by tbogg at 7:57 AM

    |

    Tuesday, August 30, 2005

     

    Land of a thousand dunces

    "I should have been more of a dick..." Posted by Picasa

    Oh fer cryin' out loud:

    In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released yesterday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.

    The poll found that 42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."

    In contrast, 48 percent said they believed that humans had evolved over time. But of those, 18 percent said that evolution was "guided by a supreme being," and 26 percent said that evolution occurred through natural selection. In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism.

    The poll was conducted July 7-17 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The questions about evolution were asked of 2,000 people. The margin of error was 2.5 percentage points.

    John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum, said he was surprised to see that teaching both evolution and creationism was favored not only by conservative Christians, but also by majorities of secular respondents, liberal Democrats and those who accept the theory of natural selection. Mr. Green called it a reflection of "American pragmatism."

    "It's like they're saying, 'Some people see it this way, some see it that way, so just teach it all and let the kids figure it out.' It seems like a nice compromise, but it infuriates both the creationists and the scientists," said Mr. Green, who is also a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio.

    Eugenie C. Scott, the director of the National Center for Science Education and a prominent defender of evolution, said the findings were not surprising because "Americans react very positively to the fairness or equal time kind of argument."

    "In fact, it's the strongest thing that creationists have got going for them because their science is dismal," Ms. Scott said. "But they do have American culture on their side."


    Just a reminder to those who think you need to be "fair".

    That way lies extinction. They will eat you up and crap you out like a greased peanut.

    Trust me on this one.


    posted by tbogg at 10:34 PM

    |

     

    Contrast and compare

    Think back to your high school. The classrooms. The cafeteria. The crappy lockers.

    Here is a description from the local paper of the new Catholic high school that the lovely and talented Casey is attending this year (her junior year), replacing her school which was closed after fifty plus years. Remember...this is a high school:

    Cathedral Catholic High replaces University of San Diego High School as the first of three schools planned by the Diocese of San Diego.

    And though Uni loyalists initially were reluctant to embrace change, lingering doubts vanished for many students once they arrived on campus.

    "At Uni we had our traditions, but how can you not like this campus," asked senior Michael Cassolato. "Before we had a snack counter and vending machines. Here we have our very own chef, and this morning we were served coffee and cappuccinos."

    "We were so used to trailer classrooms at our old school," senior Chris Cunningham said. "But this campus looks like it belongs in Rancho Santa Fe. It's beautiful."

    The school was built to resemble a Tuscan village with 250 types of flowers, plants and trees, including Italian cypress. Meandering pathways with dark, stately lampposts lead to large plazas.

    One end of the school overlooks the football stadium and the rolling hills of Carmel Valley beyond.


    It's like a resort with homework.


    posted by tbogg at 4:38 PM

    |

     

    Processing...processing...processing...processing...processing

    Okay. He's the Steely-Eyed Rocket Man, not Captain Leap Into Action:

    President Bush will cut short his vacation to return to Washington on Wednesday, two days earlier than planned, to help monitor federal efforts to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, the White House said Tuesday.

    "We have got a lot of work to do," Bush said, referring to the damage wrought by the hurricane along Gulf Coast areas.

    The president had been scheduled to return to the nation's capital on Friday, after spending more than four weeks operating from his ranch in Central Texas. But after receiving a briefing early Tuesday on the devastation Katrina unleashed, the president decided that he needed to be in Washington to personally oversee the federal effort, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

    Bush had traveled here to deliver a speech commemorating the Allies' World War II victory over Japan and promoting his war-on-terror agenda. Later Tuesday, he was flying back to Texas, but spending only one night at his ranch. Bush was expected to visit the region affected by Katrina, but details on that trip were in flux as the White House worked to make sure the president would not disrupt response efforts.
    (my emphasis)

    Sure it's a natural disaster of massive proportions, but, you know, there is brush that still needs to be cut. And as for:

    "But after receiving a briefing early Tuesday on the devastation Katrina unleashed, the president decided that he needed to be in Washington to personally oversee the federal effort"

    I thought it was a working vacation and he could do anything from there that he could do in Washington so it wasn't really a vacation and we really didn't understand the mysterious ways of modern technology like phones and faxes and video-conferencing and that internet thingy that's all the rage with the kids....


    posted by tbogg at 11:11 AM

    |

     

    Malkin Jr.

    So here is how it works: if American Muslims don't participate in The Great American Crusade, well, there's always the camps:

    If Muslim-Americans wish to receive the benefit of the doubt than they must begin to do much more than they are doing today. They may argue, rightfully, that requiring them to do more than what is expected of other Americans adds a higher duty of citizenship to them and is a form or unequal treatment.

    They are right. It is a form of unequal treatment. But so what? Muslims are in a unique position to be our first line of defense against terrorism. They are the vanguard of our defense. Terrorists do not congregate in the Polish communities of Chicago, do not use Orthodox churches as places to meet up with other extremists, and do not call upon the help of a relative or mutual friend from Mongolia. Muslim-Americans have been given the gift of being able to aid our country in ways that others cannot. They can translate for us. They can infiltrate our enemies more easily than the rest of us. They can watch in ways nearly impossible for the rest of us.

    With greater gifts come greater responsibilities.

    The time is now to step up to the plate of citizenship and root out terrorist supporters among the various Muslim communities in the U.S. Those that turn in potential terrorists should be celebrated as patriots and heroes. Muslim youth with language skills ought to be encouraged by community leaders to join the FBI, CIA, and U.S. military. If they aren't, then Muslim-Americans reveal where their loyalties are. And the next time an act of terrorism takes place on our soil, the collective eye of the nation will be turned on our own citizens for failing to act when given the opportunity to do so. Then, what was once an irrational act of prejudice becomes a rational act of prejudice.


    Nice religion you got there. It would be a shame if we had to round you up....


    posted by tbogg at 9:57 AM

    |

     

    The Flood This Time


    Louisiana 1927 2005 Posted by Picasa

    Louisiana 1927

    What has happened down here is the wind have changed
    Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
    Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
    Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

    The river rose all day
    The river rose all night
    Some people got lost in the flood
    Some people got away alright
    The river have busted through cleard down to Plaquemines
    Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

    CHORUS
    Louisiana, Louisiana
    They're tyrin' to wash us away
    They're tryin' to wash us away
    Louisiana, Louisiana
    They're tryin' to wash us away
    They're tryin' to wash us away

    President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
    With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
    The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has done
    To this poor crackers land."

    Louisiana, Louisiana
    They're tyrin' to wash us away
    They're tryin' to wash us away
    Louisiana, Louisiana
    They're tryin' to wash us away
    They're tryin' to wash us away


    -Randy Newman


    posted by tbogg at 7:33 AM

    |

    Monday, August 29, 2005

     

    Well, it was no Great Waldo Pepper, that's for sure...


    You could compare it to crap, but the crap might sue.... Posted by Picasa

    Total Hollywood insider and tastemeister Warren Bell says:

    REDFORD AND NEWMAN THREATEN TO REUNITE [Warren Bell]
    But it won't be for sequels to their excellent movies from 30 years ago. In fact, Redford doesn't want to say what it would be. He does say that he is planning a sequel to one of his lousy movies, "The Candidate," and that he is "frightened for my country." Meanwhile, he ruled out a Schwarzeneggery foray into politics himself. "I would have to be just consumed with ego and self-absorption," he said, presumably with a straight face.


    Warren, of course, produces According to Jim whose premise is:

    Jim is a couch potato dad and husband trying to achieve picket fence ideals while trying to keep a firm hold on his manhood. His beautiful wife Cheryl tolerates his childish antics because of his tireless loyalty to her and the kids.

    I remember when it was called Home Improvement.

    This is from Vincent Canby's review of The Candidate:

    There is something perverse and puritanical in the way many liberal Americans regard the political system. If a candidate wants to win, he must be suspect. Ambition in itself is bad. Like athlete's foot, it's not a sin, but it is unseemly. We put great store by the kind of modesty that insures defeat and that, only then, is revealed to be a form of arrogance. The best man should lose, or he isn't the best man. This is the Catch-22 of American politics.

    We all know that men who run for public office hoping only to improve the tone of the campaign, to raise the real issues, usually fail — and look terrible on television, which may be even worse. We suspect that only winning counts, yet we also fondly believe—since we've seen it demonstrated often enough—that the system is so corrupt that no good man can win without either being hopelessly corrupted or turned into a bewildered cipher.

    That pretty well describes what happens to Bill McKay (Robert Redford), the liberal young California Democrat who campaigns for the United States Senate in "The Candidate," one of the few good, truly funny American political comedies ever made. The film, which opened yesterday at the Sutton, was directed by Michael Ritchie ("Downhill Racer") and written by Jeremy Larner, the young novelist ("Drive, He Said") who was a speech-writer for Senator Eugene J. McCarthy during McCarthy's campaign for the 1968 Democratic Presidential nomination.

    "The Candidate" is a loaded movie. It simplifies political processes. It turns McKay's Republican opponent, the long-time incumbent who looks as trustworthy as Warren G. Harding and is named, meaningfully, Crocker Jarman (Don Porter), into an idiot. It is also, at heart, extremely glib and gloomy but no more glib and gloomy, I think, than it has an inalienable right to be under the current circumstances.

    As McKay, in a self-mocking mood, says toward the end of his campaign, when the slogans, catchwords and clichés are becoming thoroughly muddled in his exhausted head: "It's the basic indifference that made this country great."


    From 1969 to 1979 Michael Ritchie made a series of films about the high cost of winning in America: Downhill Racer, Smile, The Bad News Bears, Semi-Tough, and The Candidate. It was the greatest winning streak of his life. And The Candidate is one of the five or so best movies (Dr. Strangelove, The Manchurian Candidate, Wag the Dog, and Tanner '88 to name a few) ever made about American politics.

    Granted, Robert Redford is no Jim Belushi...but who is?


    posted by tbogg at 11:15 PM

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    Not dead yet

    One would have thought that he would have been sucked into hell in Strom Thurmond's wake by now:

    Jesse Helms, writing with the same passion that made him the archconservative of the U.S. Senate for 30 years, renews his criticism of abortion in a memoir being published this week, comparing it to both the Holocaust and the Sept. 11 attacks.

    "I will never be silent about the death of those who cannot speak for themselves," the former senator wrote in "Here's Where I Stand," which is scheduled for release Tuesday.


    Unfortunately nobody will ever know what Jesse wrote since he wouldn't let the publisher use black ink on the precious and godly whiteness of the pages...

    Go here for some of Jesse's Greatest Hits.


    posted by tbogg at 10:38 PM

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    Endless bummer.


    Why should I waste by beautiful mind on the
    dead and the devastated...
     Posted by Picasa

    I see the yokels are still visiting my hometown:

    Air Force One touched down at Naval Air Station North Island Monday, where President George W. Bush is scheduled to give a speech commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Japanese surrender during World War II.

    But don't expect him to actually interrupt Summer Camp for Slow Presidents™ by addressing anything that is happening, oh, this millenium:

    The president and First Lady Laura Bush arrived at the Coronado base about 4:30 p.m. following brief stops earlier in the day in Ontario and Arizona. The President did not speak to reporters who were hoping he might say something about Hurricane Katrina.

    Meanwhile, the Bush Vacation Deathcount: 80

    Maybe when he gives his speech on the Japanese surrender they can break out the Mission Accomplished banner. Just for old times sake....


    posted by tbogg at 9:40 PM

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    The Ned Beattyization of Bunnatine H. Greenhouse


    I am KBR, destroyer of careers... Posted by Picasa

    Having been out of sight, out of mind for the past twenty-four hours or so, I just got around to this via firedoglake:

    A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday for what the Army called poor job performance.

    The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, has worked in military procurement for 20 years and for the past several years had been the chief overseer of contracts at the Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that has managed much of the reconstruction work in Iraq.

    The demotion removes her from the elite Senior Executive Service and reassigns her to a lesser job in the corps' civil works division.


    One can't but help remember a similar calling-on-the carpet:

    Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance!

    You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.

    It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

    Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

    You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

    What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

    We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.


    So watch your ass.


    posted by tbogg at 9:18 PM

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    Sunday, August 28, 2005

     

    So this isn't the seminar on how to use a 'french press'? Damn.

    No more All American-overthrowin' blogging until Monday night as I'm heading up LA-way Sunday afternoon to attend this, meet the wonderful folks from Contemporary Press, and do Jello Shots with Jay Brida.

    Although, since I don't drink, it'll just be, y'know, only Jello in the shot glass...which is kinda boring and sad and pathetic and stupid when you get right down to it.

    Kind of like Lilek's life, now that I think of it...

    And no, I'm not an aspiring writer. I'm a blogger.


    posted by tbogg at 12:45 AM

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    Saturday, August 27, 2005

     

    Splitters

    Before we bring up the "oops" moment in Crawford, we have a flashback moment from Life of Brian:

    Reg: The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front.
    Stan: Yeah, the Judean People's Front.
    Reg: Yeah.
    Stan: And the Popular Front of Judea.
    Reg: Yeah.
    Stan: And the People's Front of Judea.
    Reg: Yea... what?
    Stan: The People's Front of Judea.
    Reg: We're the People's Front of Judea!
    Stan: I thought we were the Popular Front.
    Reg: People's Front!
    Francis: What ever happened to the Popular Front?
    Reg: He's over there. [points to a lone man]
    Reg, Stan, Francis, Judith: SPLITTER!
    ...
    Brian: Are you the Judean People's Front?
    Reg: Fuck off! We're the People's Front of Judea.


    Okay. Now that we've got that out of the way, we take you to Crawford, Texas where the inevitable happens when two groups (the paste-eaters vs the droolers) meet up and can't seem to figure out they're on the same side.

    Across town in Crawford, other parents of soldiers who are serving or have died in Iraq countered Sheehan with their own raucous rally that started with a prayer.

    The pro-Bush caravan was coordinated by Move America Forward, a group led by former California Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian and Republican strategist Sal Russo.

    Organizer Howard Kaloogian accused Sheehan of "giving hope and encouragement to our enemies."

    The crowd, which organizers said topped 3,000 but appeared closer to 1,500, chanted "Cindy, Go Home" and compared her to Jane Fonda, whose visit to a North Vietnamese gun site in 1972 earned her the nickname "Hanoi Jane."

    "Cindy-Hanoi Jane," read one of the signs at the rally.

    In one heated moment, members of the pro-Bush crowd turned on what they mistakenly thought were a group of anti-war protesters, cursing them, threatening them and tearing down their signs. A police officer rushed the group to safety.


    Um. That would be Move America Forward kicking The Protest Warriors asses.


    Your feet are going to be on the ground
    Your head is there to move you around (click to enlarge)
     Posted by Picasa

    That would be this Protest Warrior:

    Welcome to ProtestWarrior.com, a website created to help arm the liberty-loving silent majority with ammo -- ammo that strikes at the intellectual solar plexus of the Left.

    Encouraged by our successful crashing of the February 16th San Francisco anti-war protest, we decided it was time for the Left to put down their megaphones, peel off their bumper stickers, and listen to the people who believe in the core values of this country. It's time to start making a little noise...


    No wonder these people are chickenhawks. They'd spend all of their time killing each other.

    And that is no way to run a war.


    posted by tbogg at 4:34 PM

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    Friday, August 26, 2005

     

    The William Hung of paranoia


    "Can I get you a book contract?" Posted by Picasa

    Has anyone ever received more mileage from airing out their delusions than Annie Jacobson? Via World O'Crap we see that Lil Panickin' Annie has managed to turn a plane ride into an actual book that people will read on planes who will then write books about their plane ride for people to read on planes and then...well, you get the idea.

    Anyway, Annie has written Terror In The Skies where she recounts her horrible experience on a plane when she saw a horrible troll on the wing of her plane at 20,000 feet tearing at---Wait. Wait.

    Sorry. That was William Shatner.

    No. Here's Annies Song:

    Annie Jacobsen’s harrowing first-hand account of her flight with a group of suspected terrorists forces us to ask: Could 9/11 happen again? On June 29, 2004, Jacobsen, traveling with her family on Northwest Airlines flight 327, witnessed what she believed was a terrorist “dry run.” The blogosphere quickly made world news of Jacobsen’s article on her terrifying experience, launching her on a year-long investigation. In Terror in the Skies, Jacobsen tells, for the first time, the full story of the events on Northwest 327 and the investigation that followed. What happened on her flight, she discovered, was not an isolated incident, and if our air security does not improve, 9/11 is likely to happen again.

    [...]

    From her search for flight 327’s “Syrian Wayne Newton” to her testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Jacobsen’s scrutiny of our air security makes the case for an overhaul of our security services. Many of the federal agents involved in the events of flight 327 have stood firm: nothing happened. But as Jacobsen shows, we can no longer afford to take nothing happened for an answer.


    Now I'll be the first to admit that the idea of being on an airplane with a


     Posted by Picasa

    Wayne Newton of any nationality makes my butt pucker like Ken Mehlman's mouth but I don't know if I could work a whole book out of that.

    Not that this will keep Annie from cranking out a series of sequels.

    Terror At Checkstand Four- Annie Jacobsen’s harrowing first-hand account of her time spent in line while suspected terrorists write a check, forces us to ask: Could her coupons expire before she checks out? On July 17, 2004, Jacobsen, shopping with her kids at the Piggly Wiggly, witnessed what she believed was a terrorist “dry run” attempting to write a check with only one ID The people standing behind her quickly made loud sighing noises as they flipped through US magazine and wondered if they should have taken advantage of the five Lean Cuisines for $10. In Terror At Checkstand Four, Jacobsen tells, for the first time, how her two pints of Chunky Monkey started to soften and how she discovered later that the bagboy put the apples on top of the Wonder Bread making it kind of squishier than usual and how this was was not an isolated incident since the grocery chain broke the union and brought in unskilled foreign bagboys who are probably illegal and therefore terrorists.

    Terror At Blockbuster Store #327- Annie Jacobsen’s harrowing first-hand account of her time spent in line at Blockbuster trying to check out SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2 while suspected terrorists argued about late fees because they returned Beaches two days late, forcing us to ask: will they have a copy of the Directors cut of Short Circuit? On May 22, 2005, Jacobsen, browsing with her husband at the Blockbuster at Euclid and Third, witnessed her husband glancing at a copy of the NC-17 version of In The Cut after mentioning over dinner that he "always wanted to see Meg Ryan naked". Meanwhile terrorists were bothering the clerks every two minutes asking if anyone had turned in Napoleon Dynamite yet. Jacobsen tells, for the first time, how she got home and discovered that the DVD box did not contain SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2, but instead contained a copy of Fitzcarraldo probably placed there by terrorists or one of the employees, all of whom had smirked and rolled their eyes when she asked for the if they had a copy of The Wedding Planner

    We're still waiting for the synopsis of Terror At The Stairmaster At Curves.

    I bet it's a real page-turner.


    posted by tbogg at 8:31 PM

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    I'll take "Shitty Economy" for 100, Alex...

    Oh, to live in KornerLand where Occams Razor is as dull as an evening with the Derb:

    WORKERS WANT EXPLOITATION? [Jonathan H. Adler]
    The WSJ reports that getting a job at the new Wal-Mart in Oakland, California "was statistically tougher than getting into Harvard, with 12,000 applicants for 400 jobs." I wonder how the anti-Wal-Mart crowd would explain this one.


    Hmmmm. Harvard or a job as a no-benefits minimum-wage monkey?

    Can I sleep on that one?


    posted by tbogg at 5:57 PM

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    Friday Random Ten

    I Got Drunk - Uncle Tupelo
    The Song of Sibyl - Dead Can Dance
    Surfin' USA - Pennywise
    Cop Shoot Cop - Spirtualized
    Deacon Blues - Steely Dan
    Bye Bye Blackbird - Miles Davis
    Nobody - The Replacements
    Momma's Got A Girlfriend Now - Ben Harper
    Sergio Leone - Jackson Browne
    Wires and Watchtowers - Thievery Corporation


    posted by tbogg at 8:04 AM

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    Thursday, August 25, 2005

     

    Ian Faith: The Boston gig has been cancelled...
    David St. Hubbins: What?
    Ian Faith: Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town


    Operation Yellow Elephant comes to a campus near you!

    Fun!
    Prizes!
    Posters!
    One of those inflatable jumpy things!


    posted by tbogg at 11:34 PM

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    We know what you are. Now we're just discussing price.

    In the first term he could just buy them off with pudding and a nickname:

    President Bush played host to the White House press corps Thursday night for a private off-the-record dinner at his ranch.

    The casual affair of fried catfish, potato salad, coleslaw, homemade cheese and chocolate-chip cookies followed a tradition in which Bush and his wife, Laura, have the press covering his annual August vacation out to the their ranch in central Texas as a sort of thank-you.

    The event was not held last year because of the busy campaign season. The invitations to the reporters were issued on the condition that they not discuss conversations at the event.


    Judy Miller is so gonna be pissed when she hears that the rest of the press has been doing her man while she's in lock-up...


    posted by tbogg at 11:18 PM

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    I think we've seen this movie before

    To start with, here is the Bush Vacation Death count : 75

    The single worst day during the Bush holiday at Rancho Boraccho was Aug. 3 when 18 American soldiers died in action. A great many of those who died on that day were from Ohio:

    Lance Cpl. Michael J. Cifuentes, 25, of Fairfield, Ohio

    Lance Cpl. Aaron H. Reed, 21, of Chillicothe, Ohio

    Lance Cpl. Edward A. Schroeder II, 23, of Columbus, Ohio

    Lance Cpl. William B. Wightman, 22, of Sabina, Ohio

    Lance Cpl. Timothy M. Bell Jr., 22, of West Chesterfield, Ohio

    Lance Cpl. Eric J. Bernholtz, 23, of Grove City, Ohio

    Sgt. Bradley J. Harper, 25, of Dresden, Ohio

    Sgt. Justin F. Hoffman, 27, of Delaware, Ohio

    Cpl. David Kenneth J. Kreuter, 26, of Cincinnati, Ohio


    At the time this reminded me of something I had read some time ago.

    Today I found it.

    Originally published in the July 1969 edition of Ramparts, it's an article written by Jeffrey Blankfort entitled: Our Town: The War Comes Home To Beallsville, Ohio.

    Here are some are some chillingly familiar excerpts:

    I went to Beallsville a little more than a month after the town had buried its fifth son, Naval Corpsman Robert Lucas, in a plot of ground overlooking the high school where he and four other boys had been schoolmates. Three of them now lie with him in the same graveyard and another is buried a few miles away.

    Beallsville, on the fringes of Appalachia, is a sleepy southeastern Ohio town, made up of a general store, churches, a post office, farms, frame houses and a cemetery. Intersected by three state highways, it is located 12 miles up a winding road from the Ohio River. The road is State Highway 556, but in Beallsville it is known as Rural Route3.

    Viet-Nam has taken a toll from Beallsville that is 75 times the national average. ("They won't be getting many more of our boys," said Mayor Gramlich. "They drafted the last one of draft age this month.") The war has come home to Beallsville with unique severity, and America's confusions and contradictions about it are sharpened there: the acute conciousness of the waste, against the ingrained heartland patriotism; deep resentment over the lost sons, against the need to be proud of their sacrifice.

    I talked to the parents about their sons and the war.

    The Pittmans live in a two-story, many-gabled frame house on a farm six miles up the road from the Beallsville Corporation limits. With no one but themselves now, they use only the first floor. Mr. Pittman works at the Ormet Aluminum plant in Hannibal. In the fall they can peaches from their orchard.

    Mrs. Maegene Pittman - whose son Jack was drafted at nineteen, was sent to the infantry, and became the town's first casualty - expressed it this way: "They just took him and that was it. We never knew there was a Viet-Nam or anything until he had to go. And to think in eight months we had him back and buried."

    Hurt and bitter at the loss of their only child, Mrs. Pittman and her husband Earl, refused a military funeral. "Jack would have wanted it that way," she said. "He didn't understand the Viet-Nam thing any more than we do. We were bitter. We didn't want no part of a military funeral. I just think we have no business over there. If they were attacking our country, that's different."

    Her husband saw things differently: "They're fighting over there with their hands tied behind them is the way I look at it. I always thought they ought to declare war and do it right if they're going to be over there."

    "Why do you think we are there?" I asked.

    He smiled. "Politics."

    And you Mrs. Pittman?

    She looked over at her husband and then back to me. "It's a political war."

    As I talked with the Pittmans, I sat beneath a case containing a photograph of their son, and the trophies he had won at Beallsville High where he had been captain of the football and baseball teams. Before he was drafted, his mother said, he had taken "a little team of eight graders under his wing to teach them basketball. He was a good Christian boy."

    "Being our only son, we just gave everything we had to our country. We've got each other," said Mrs. Pittman, exchanging glances with her husband. "But when you get our age you look for your grandchildren, your family to multiply. Now both of us is left with, we might as well say, no future. When you lose your only child, you don't have any future."

    [...]

    III

    Duane Greenlee joined the Marines in January, 1966, at the age of eighteen. He was sent to Viet-Nam that July and served 44 days before he was killed.

    Shortly after Duanes's death, his parents separated. His father, Duane Sr. moved to Bellaire, Ohio, a few miles from Wheeling, while his mother, three brothers, and four sisters relocated in Clarington, 12 miles from Beallsville.

    I talked with Mrs. Greenlee over her morning cup of coffee.

    "It don't seem like Duanes's gone yet. It's really hard. It hits me at times and it's pretty hard to take. I know what all the other mothers feel like. I wanted to go to each one of their funerals but I just couldn't. I just stayed away and thought about it as though they were my own boys. It's hard to talk about it."

    "I knew all of the boys but Jack. The others had all been to my house with Duane at different times.

    "I'm certainly proud of my boy. All his life he wanted to be a Marine. When he got home on furlough before he went over, we asked him if he was scared. He said he wasn't scared but he'd rather go there and fight for mom and dad and his brothers and sisters than have them come over here and fight.

    "I have a son thirteen coming up and he can't wait to get in the Marines. He's going to. They're all real proud of their brother."

    Do you know, or did Duane know, why he was over there?

    "Duane really wanted to go and help out but he said he said he didn't know what he was going over there for. He wrote home in letters he didn't know what he was fighting for. He didn't see any sense in it and I don't see where we've gained anything at all by any of them being over there. I just wish it was all over.

    "I believe if I had been President" she said, and dropped her voice, "I would have done like Hiroshima."

    IV

    "Our kid, he done most of the farming," Mr. Ernest Schnegg recalled. "I was doing construction work down at the Norton mine. Charles worked three days a week at Timken Roller Bearings in Cincinnati and when he was off he came home and took care of things."

    Ernest and Esther Schnegg now live and work in Barnesville, 19 miles south of Beallsville. Their farm in Beallsville, on which they raised eight children, can no longer support them. Mr. Schnegg works seven days a week at a greenhouse and Mrs. Schnegg is a nurse's aide at Barnesville Hospital.

    Charles, their oldest son, was drafted on December 5, 1966, and one day short of a year later was killed, serving with the infantry in Viet-Nam.

    Their oldest daughter, Shirley, seventeen, and Roger, now their oldest son at sixteen, live on the farm and attend Beallsville High School.

    Mr. Schnegg was tired. He had been working hard all day and his pants were rolled up and his feet were bare.

    "I was counting on Charles to work on the farm. He was a farmer. Charles was all I had. The government took him and didn't give anything in return."


    To read the whole thing you can find it in the excellent Library of America Reporting Vietnam - Part One: American Journalism 1959-1969.

    Highly recommended.


    posted by tbogg at 9:12 PM

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    Thursday Night Basset Blogging


    Crazed by the heat, Beckham attacks....
    Drool everywhere.
    It was horrible.
    (click to enlarge) Posted by Picasa


    posted by tbogg at 9:07 PM

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    Wednesday, August 24, 2005

     

    I like 'em big and AWOL

    I hate a man in a uniform Posted by Picasa

    Michelle Malkin (writer, mom, Miss Internment 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004...that Michelle Malkin) continues on her Love The War, Hate The Soldier World Tour 2005:

    Can't muster up anything more than one-syllable reactions to the prospect of "President Hagel:"

    Ick. Ugh. Gag.


    How long before she accuses Hagel of shooting himself in Vietnam?

    WILLIE BROWN [Former mayor of San Francisco]: He volunteered twice. He volunteered twice in Vietnam. He literally got shot. There's no question about any of those things. So what else is there to discuss? How much he got shot, how deep, how much shrapnel?

    MALKIN: Well, yes. Why don't people ask him more specific questions about the shrapnel in his leg. They are legitimate questions about whether or not it was a self-inflicted wound.

    [crosstalk]

    MATTHEWS: What do you mean by self-inflicted? Are you saying he shot himself on purpose? Is that what you're saying?

    MALKIN: Did you read the book...

    MATTHEWS: I'm asking a simple question. Are you saying that he shot himself on purpose.

    MALKIN: I'm saying some of these soldiers...

    MATTHEWS: And I'm asking question.

    MALKIN: And I'm answering it.

    MATTHEWS: Did he shoot himself on purpose.

    MALKIN: Some of the soldiers have made allegations that these were self-inflicted wounds.

    MATTHEWS: No one has ever accused him of shooting himself on purpose.

    MALKIN: That these were self-inflicted wounds.

    MATTHEWS: You're saying there are -- he shot himself on purpose, that's a criminal act?

    MALKIN: I'm saying that I've read the book and some of the...

    [crosstalk]

    MATTHEWS: I want an answer yes or no, Michelle.

    MALKIN: Some of the veterans say...

    MATTHEWS: No. No one has every accused him of shooting himself on purpose.

    MALKIN: Yes. Some of them say that.

    MATTHEWS: Tell me where that...

    MALKIN: Self-inflicted wounds -- in February, 1969.

    MATTHEWS: This is not a show for this kind of talk. Are you accusing him of shooting himself on purpose to avoid combat or to get credit?

    MALKIN: I'm saying that's what some of these...

    MATTHEWS: Give me a name.

    MALKIN: Patrick Runyon and William Zaladonis.

    MATTHEWS: They said -- Patrick Runyon...

    MALKIN: These people have...

    MATTHEWS: And they said he shot himself on purpose to avoid combat or take credit for a wound?

    MALKIN: These people have cast a lot of doubt on whether or not...

    MATTHEWS: That's cast a lot of doubt. That's complete nonsense.

    MALKIN: Did you read the section in the book...

    MATTHEWS: I want a statement from you on this program, say to me right now, that you believe he shot himself to get credit for a purple heart.

    MALKIN: I'm not sure. I'm saying...

    MATTHEWS: Why did you say?

    MALKIN: I'm talking about what's in the book.

    MATTHEWS: What is in the book. Is there -- is there a direct accusation in any book you've ever read in your life that says John Kerry ever shot himself on purpose to get credit for a purple heart? On purpose?

    MALKIN: On.

    MATTHEWS: On purpose? Yes or no, Michelle.

    MALKIN: In the February 1969 -- in the February 1969 event.

    MATTHEWS: Did he say on it purpose.

    MALKIN: There are doubts about whether or not it was intense rifle fire or not. And I wish you would ask these questions of John Kerry instead of me.

    MATTHEWS: I have never heard anyone say he shot himself on purpose.

    I haven't heard you say it.

    MALKIN: Have you tried to ask -- have you tried ask John Kerry these questions?

    MATTHEWS: If he shot himself on purpose. No. I have not asked him that.

    MALKIN: Don't you wonder?

    MATTHEWS: No, I don't. It's never occurred to me.


    This should be a warning to anyone who is currently fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan. Michelle Malkin hates your guts.

    Pass it on.


    posted by tbogg at 11:52 PM

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    Presidentin' is hard


    If we would just hurry up and win,
    the President could sleep better at night
    Posted by Picasa

    I don't usually check in over at Instapundit since I've been diagnosed as heh/indeed-intolerant, but walking down the blind alleys that make up the internets I stumbled upon this post (you don't have to click on it. That's what I'm here for) in all of it's "heh" glory.

    First off, we find out that Sister Mary Catherine Slapthemeek is having her moment of doubt ("Bushie. Why hast thou forsaken me?"):

    Does anyone remember April and May of 2005? And the months preceeding them? The Orange Revolution? The Arab Springtime? The Cedar Revolution of Lebanon - all of them seeming to have a fire lit under them, a wonderful fire of liberty. Remember Revolution Babes?

    All around the globe, there was a spirit of something that felt a lot like the Will to Power - something that was building in momentum…like we were on the brink of something truly remarkable and historic and new.

    Then, suddenly - poof! - it all stopped? It all just seemed to go away. It was like a big giant foot just came down and stomped out all of those wonderful fires…and the White House seems to have just…blink! Forgotten about it.

    I like W a lot, but what the hell?


    W will have jumped the shark when we get a WTF out of her.

    Meanwhile, Glenn gets email:

    Meanwhile, reader Mike Walker emails:

    I think whats wrong with the President is that he is tired, as we say in the south "slam wore out". Like a good blue tick after hunting, he needs to crawl up under the porch out of the heat and sleep for a good long spell. Look at pictures of him, you can see the graying, the wrinkling, and the fraying take place right before your eyes.

    The man has had to preside over some momentous events during his 2 terms, from 9/11 to Enron et al to recession to Afghanistan to Iraq to a bitter, long and momentously important election to supreme court appointments. Every step of the way he has been criticized, demonized, lied about, misrepresented, belittled and opposed. No matter what he has done, he has been trashed out by someone somewhere, often including his own party members and some "supporters". He has been betrayed by members of his own party in the senate. HIs victories are ignored and his losses maginified a thousand times over.

    The cumulative effect of all this, from what I can judge, has worn him out and drained him of his fire and energy. Lets face it, he is human, and the man has borne some unbelievable burdens over the last 5 years, where his choices were often between shades of the lesser of evils, and no choice was ever easy or apparent. HIs tank is low, and he needs some uplifting by those who believe in him. Nobody will please us 100% of the time.

    But what do we do? We start criticizing him again for not being super-human, and we start asking "whats wrong with the president?", as if we ourselves never get tired, worn-out, run down, and just plain disocuraged in our jobs or lives. As a people, have we become this divorced from the realities of high-stakes leadership, and the toll it takes on those who take it on? Worse yet, have we no understanding and empathy for it?

    Maybe the real question is, whats wrong with us?


    Lordy. As they also say in the south, "That boy ain't right in the head. Tie him up in the yard."

    "Like a good blue tick after hunting, he needs to crawl up under the porch out of the heat and sleep for a good long spell."

    Isn't that what he is doing?

    President Bush is getting the kind of break most Americans can only dream of -- nearly five weeks away from the office, loaded with vacation time.

    [...]

    The August getaway is Bush's 49th trip to his cherished ranch since taking office and the 319th day that Bush has spent, entirely or partially, in Crawford -- nearly 20 percent of his presidency to date, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio reporter known for keeping better records of the president's travel than the White House itself. Weekends and holidays at Camp David or at his parents' compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, bump up the proportion of Bush's time away from Washington even further.

    Bush's long vacations are more than a curiosity: They play into diametrically opposite arguments about this leadership style. To critics and late-night comics, they symbolize a lackadaisical approach to the world's most important day job, an impression bolstered by Bush's two-hour midday exercise sessions and his disinclination to work nights or weekends. The more vociferous among Bush's foes have noted that he spent a month at the ranch shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when critics assert he should have been more attentive to warning signs.

    To Bush and his advisers, that criticism fundamentally misunderstands his Texas sojourns. Those who think he does not remain in command, aides say, do not understand the modern presidency or Bush's own work habits. At the ranch, White House officials say, Bush continues to receive daily national security briefings, sign documents, hold teleconferences with aides and military commanders, and even meet with foreign leaders. And from the president's point of view, the long Texas stints are the best way to clear his mind and reconnect with everyday America.


    As long as his security briefings don't look like this, and "everyday America" doesn't look like this.

    And you want tired. I gotcher tired right here. Now he could have taken a well-deserved nap a couple of weeks ago but there was the people's work to be done and do it he did.

    Of course we never asked him to start a war of choice and how Enron wore him out, other than the ducking and the running, is a mystery. Add to that the fact that the Supreme Court nomination didn't need to be so tough, and one has to wonder how many of his of his "momentous events" were self-inflicted. But let's take pity on the poor guy. In fact, if he wants to resign and stay in Crawford we won't think any worse of him.

    Because, trust me, it wouldn't be humanly possible.


    posted by tbogg at 10:51 PM

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    The First Draft The First Time

    From an earlier post I discovered I wasn't the only one who had trouble getting into First Draft with FireFox. I always had to refresh to get in. Well, it's all better now so you should be stopping by daily.

    How did you ever live without the gaggle?


    posted by tbogg at 10:34 PM

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    Politits

    Someone please tell me that this is a parody site.

    Who is this bewitching "political commentator and swimsuit model"? I'm glad you asked (and I highlighted the relevant portions because I think it's in code):

    Gabrielle is a Australian/American swimsuit model, political commentator and international celebrity. She works as an international diplomat bringing understanding between countries, political parties, governments and the people. Gabrielle is interviewed via phone and email by leading newspapers and radiostations throughout the world to explain US policy and ideals to the international pop culture and mainstream. Please Click Here to read comments from the international press. As a swimsuit model she is greeted in market segments that most Statesmen would not be greeted, giving her the opportunity to address politically sensitive issues in typically hard to penetrate demographics throughout the world.

    Wink wink nudge nudge.

    You can read about How Can Socialist Prime Minister Blair
    And Republican President Bush Agree On So Much?
    in my Maidenform bra.

    or

    You can check her out fellating a didgeridoo (Kinda hot) before reading her interview with Frank Gaffney about the Law of the Sea Treaty (Total ice cold shower. Gaffney. Not LOST which is soooo wonk-hot).

    For the John Lott or Mary Rosh in your life, she talks guns!

    And for you peak oil fanboys she's even covering oil. When she's not covered in oil.

    In the spirit of cooperation I would like to help all of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders find their soulmate in Gabrielle Reilly. Because a daily visit to her site will be less time spent warmongering and should lead to more time spent handwashing... and wouldn't that make the world a better place?

    I like to think so.


    posted by tbogg at 8:48 PM

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    "Yeah. I fought in the big one....
    Well, it was big to me."


    The American Legion's High Poofty Grand Jabberwock Thomas Cadmus says:

    "The American Legion will stand against anyone and any group that would demoralize our troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom-loving peoples..."

    [...]

    "For many of us, the visions of Jane Fonda glibly spouting anti-American messages with the North Vietnamese and protestors denouncing our own forces four decades ago is forever etched in our memories. We must never let that happen again….

    "We had hoped that the lessons learned from the Vietnam War would be clear to our fellow citizens. Public protests against the war here at home while our young men and women are in harm's way on the other side of the globe only provide aid and comfort to our enemies."



    That would be this Thomas Cadmus:

    Thomas P. Cadmus of Ypsilanti, Mich. was elected National Commander of the 2.7 million-member American Legion on Sept. 2, 2004 in Nashville, Tenn. during the 86th National Convention of the nation's largest veterans organization.

    Cadmus is a United States Army veteran where he served as an Armored Reconnaissance Specialist from 1965 to 1967. He left the Army as a Specialist 5th (E-5). During his time in the Army he was stationed at Fort Knox, Ky. and Munich, Germany.


    Soooo...any lessons he learned about Vietnam during his two years of service he obviously learned from afar. Or, to put it another way:

    Jane Fonda spent more time in Vietnam than Thomas Cadmus did.

    Lesson learned.


    posted by tbogg at 3:38 PM

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    God hates convertibles

    "Ya need any wood?"


    posted by tbogg at 7:03 AM

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    Tuesday, August 23, 2005

     

    This post is NOT about John Roberts...
    although he is free to masturbate to it.



    "No thanks. I'd rather have a law professor..." Posted by Picasa

    Go read Athenae's very sensible post about Eugene Volokh and gay sex. And it's not what you think it's about.

    Okay. Maybe it is, but only after a few hits of ecstasy....

    (I have now fulfilled my obligation to post a picture of a hunky man...so get off my back, Lindsey Graham.)

    (Added): As noted in comments, you have to load First Draft twice in FireFox


    posted by tbogg at 11:48 PM

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    The Empty Hat

    I love this post on Roger L. Simon and for a moment I actually felt sorry for him.

    But then I got over it...

    Simon did get to work with Gina Gershon though. That has to count for something.

    Bound. Yum.


    posted by tbogg at 11:44 PM

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    Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's cheap gasoline


    Who's your daddy? Posted by Picasa

    Today I purchased my first $40 tank of gas. Based upon the meter on the pump that I used, the person that preceded me had just driven away with slightly over $76 worth. On Saturday I was talking to an acquaintance who has a Hummer H2. He estimated that he will spend approximately over $6500 this year on gas for the pleasure of driving a pimped-out military vehicle down to Target to buy Snapple.

    That's nuts.

    But speaking from the rarified air of Mt. Axiomatic comes the phlegmatic intonations of George Will who tells us to quit our whining. We've never had it so good:

    ...a recent headline in the Financial Times proclaimed: "New York investors take flight after price of oil hits record high." But the story's fifth paragraph read: "West Texas Intermediate for September delivery settled $1.83 higher at $64.90 a barrel—a new nominal record ..." The real meaning of the word "nominal" is: "The headline you just read is rubbish." As was the next day's page-one headline—"Oil price hits $66 for a fourth record of the week"—which was nullified by the story's first words: "Oil prices yesterday broke their fourth consecutive nominal record for the week ..."

    For the price of oil—not in nominal dollars but real, inflation-adjusted dollars—to surpass the record set in January 1981, it would have to be $86.72 per barrel. Last Friday it was $65.35. For headlines about "record" gasoline prices to be accurate, a gallon would have to cost $3.12. Last week the national average reached $2.55—less, in real terms, than in March 1981, when the price in today's dollars was $3.11. Or, for that matter, in 1935, when the price was $2.67. Which explains one of the least mysterious "mysteries" of the moment—why, in spite of "sky-high oil prices" (Fox News) and "skyrocketing" gas prices (CNN), people are, according to AAA, driving more.


    Now it may be that George Will is still hanging on to some of those 1981 dollars (which would explain why he keeps wearing those moldy bowties left over from the sixties because, dammit, they've just got to come back in fashion unless that little prick Tucker Carlson fucks it up for everyone), but for a country with stagnant wages coupled with increasing housing, medical, and energy costs, this is going to take a bite out of consumer spending which is what really drives the economy. Economists can debate whether there is or isn't a housing bubble (my anecdotal inflation adjusted two cents : I bought my house eight years ago for $200,000. A similar home two doors down which has about 200 more square feet just went on the market last week for $975,000. What do you think?) but the fact is that many people have put themselves near underwater by refinancing and using up their inflated equity to feed their consumerist urges. Throw in rapidly expanding higher energy costs and soon soccer moms driving their TerraCrusher XLT will discover that even if they do decide that they could live with a smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicle to haul Brody and Aspen to Tai Chi class, their SUV will be underwater as well at trade-in time. Congratulations on your brand new $30,000 economy car.

    And should we mention the families that have had to move out past the suburbs to find affordable homes in outlying communities only to have to drive 100 miles each day to get to and from their jobs? Five and six dollar a gallon gasoline? You do the math.

    After continuing his argument using the suspect unemployment rate (since people who have given up looking for a job simply cease to exist) and productivity numbers, Will nimbly skips mentioning the Battle of Inigo Montoya Money Black Hole but not without leaving himself an escape vehicle:

    Still, various voices warn that parts of the economy's improvement are "temporary." Well, yes—isn't everything? During a broadcast 14 years ago, Vin Scully, voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, said, "Andre Dawson has a bruised knee and is listed as day-to-day." (Pause) "Aren't we all?"

    Normally I would call this whistling past the graveyard, but with a graveyard filled with waiting empty graves with headstones that read Low Savings - High Debt - Huge Deficit - The Cost of War, you have to wonder if Will isn't instead doing a drive-by in a black Cadillac Escalade, 13 MPG in the city...with a tailwind.


    posted by tbogg at 8:37 PM

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    Tuesday Night Random Ten DVD's (one time only)


    It's a beautiful day. Go outside and play Posted by Picasa

    Well, this is a new one. With the lovely and talented Casey and her mother (the alluring and tawny Mrs tbogg) in Palm Springs this week (it was only 110 today...but a dry 110) it fell to me to clean up before the housekeeper came. With school starting next week making this the gun lap of summer, Casey took it easy for a couple days reading Isabel Allende's Zorro: A Novel and watching movies...which were left stacked up by the TV for me to pick up. So what does a fifteen year-old watch when they're home alone?

    Starting at the bottom and working up (exactly ten DVD's which is why I wrote this):

    Thirteen
    The Fast and the Furious
    Clueless
    Memento
    Drumline
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
    The Rocky Horror Picture Show
    A Chorus Line
    Sin City
    and Go

    That seems pretty normal. Better those than That's So Raven.

    God, I hate that show.


    posted by tbogg at 7:53 PM

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    Peace, prosperity, and that other thing.

    Another reason why I miss the Clinton era.

    (Okay. Semi-not-safe-for-work)


    posted by tbogg at 2:17 PM

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    ...starring Jonah Goldberg as Howard Roark

    More proof, as if you needed it, that Randian's are a simple and amusing people who think reading a big book makes them look smart. Until they open their mouth...or write an email, as the case may be:

    SIGH [Jonah Goldberg]

    From a Randian:

    Dear Mr. Goldberg, As one of the most articulate spokesman for conservatives, it is most depressing to see you abandon the notions of capitalis----


    Hold up there.

    If you got any more than five words past "most articulate spokesman for conservatives" without either laughing or losing control of your bowels*, well, you weren't paying attention...

    *Loss of bowel control issue does not apply to National Review founder William F. Buckley for whom bowel control has been, for some time now, a misty water-colored memory of the way he was.


    posted by tbogg at 12:03 PM

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    Forget what I said eight hours ago. I was drunk.

    Jeff Jarvis, who is the Discover Card of media critics, writes:

    Editor & Pontificator
    Read More: media, Politics

    Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publisher — which spends time dissecting such issues as thorny journalistic issues as a missing hyphen — calls on newspapers to call on the U.S. to leave Iraq...


    But a little later he discovers his own inner-pontificator:

    Distribution is not king.

    Content is not king.

    Conversation is the kingdom.

    The war is over and the army that wasn’t even fighting — the army of all of us, the ones who weren’t in charge, the ones without the arms — won. The big guys who owned the big guns still don’t know it. But they lost.

    In our media 2.0, web 2.0, post-media, post-scarcity, small-is-the-new-big, open-source, gift-economy world of the empowered and connected individual, the value is no longer in maintaining an exclusive hold on things. The value is no longer in owning content or distribution.

    The value is in relationships. The value is in trust.

    [...]

    But in this new age, you don’t want to own the content or the pipe that delivers it. You want to participate in what people want to do on their own. You don’t want to extract value. You want to add value. You don’t want to build walls or fences or gardens to keep people from doing what they want to do without you. You want to enable them to do it. You want to join in.

    And once you get your head around that, you will see that you can grow so much bigger so much faster with so much less cost and risk.

    So don’t own the content. Help people make and find and remake and recommend and save the content they want. Don’t own the distribution. Gain the trust of the people to help them use whatever distribution and medium they like to find what they want.

    In these new economics, you want to stand back and interfere and restrict as little as possible. You want to reduce costs to the minimum. You want to join in wherever you are welcome.

    So in the content world, it is better help enable and be part of fluid networks of content than it is to create and own content (see: open-source ad networks, specialized search, remixing tools, sharing communities). It is better to find new efficiencies than new blockbusters (see: Lulu.com, the Redhat founder’s new on-demand book publishing enterprise). It is better to gather than create (see: hyperlocal citizens’ media vs. big, old, expensive, exclusionary newsrooms). It is better to share trust than to horde it.

    In this model, newspapers have a problem: They want to control information and the means of sharing rather than enabling that sharing.


    Yeah. I remember when we had our first beer and thought we could write for Wired....


    posted by tbogg at 7:57 AM

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    Tom Cruise Memorial Adoption Watch


    (via WonkettePosted by Picasa

    Afterwards they totally went out and hit on some chicks.


    posted by tbogg at 7:14 AM

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    Monday, August 22, 2005

     

    For those who never understood what
    "hoist with his own petard" meant


    Michael Graham is the living embodiment:

    Washington radio station WMAL-AM fired talk show host Michael Graham yesterday after he refused to soften his description of Islam as "a terrorist organization" on the air last month.

    Graham had been suspended without pay from his daily three-hour show since making his comments July 25. The station had conditioned his return to the midmorning shift on reading a station-approved statement in which Graham would have said that his anti-Muslim statements were "too broad" and that he sometimes uses "hyperbole" in the course of his program. WMAL also asked Graham to speak to the station's advertisers and its employees about the controversy.

    But Graham refused both conditions, prompting the station to drop him.


    ...and Graham submits his own punchline:

    In a statement yesterday, Graham blamed CAIR for his firing and defended his comments: "As a fan of talk radio, I find it absolutely outrageous that pressure from a special interest group like CAIR can result in the abandonment of free speech and open discourse on a talk radio show."

    Yes. He actually used "free speech", "open discourse" and "talk radio" in the same sentence.

    Well, now he knows this answer to this question:

    What the he — does it take to get fired anymore?

    [...]

    Apparently, nothing. In America, it is impossible to suck badly enough to get fired anymore. The CIA completely misses the 9/11 attacks, but does George Tenet get fired? Bill Clinton was caught red-handed committing perjury and obstructing justice, does anybody care? Janet Reno started her career by burning dozens of children to death and ends it as America's longest-serving Attorney General.


    ...and now Michael Graham self-immolates.

    Apparently, while Michael wasn't looking, someone fixed the system and now it works.


    posted by tbogg at 10:07 PM

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    They shoot ravers, don't they?

    Overkill in Utah.

    I know. Weird. A rave in Utah. What will they think of next?


    posted by tbogg at 9:31 PM

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    Bounty


    Mmmmmm...pie. Posted by Picasa

    I am more than willing to set up an account to pay legal fees for anyone who will pie this fat ridiculous motherfucker (on the left) in Crawford, after seeing this.

    Jesus. No wonder his first wife took his daughter and left him.


     

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