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Saturday, January 31, 2004
MoDo Prediction
Lerxst suggests MoDo will do the obvious - Kerry and Botox.
I suggest MoDo will spend another lonely night wondering why Michael Douglas abandoned her.
Judy, Judy, Judy
Katha Pollitt has a great column.
Lies
Bush is still saying that the deficit will be cut in half in five years if congress follows his plan. I'm not going to revisit the figures, but needless to say this is a total lie. Perhaps the press should start asking where these numbers are coming from, aside from out of Karl Rove's ass.
...perhaps I spoke a little to soon. Bush has been saying this all week, and now the new plan is being presented. We'll have to wait on the actual numbers.
...here they're claiming it's the case, but they haven't released the details of unspecified cuts in over 60 programs.
Add to the Big Mo
Imagine the gnashing of teeth when a DEMOCRAT beats a REPUBLICAN in a RED STATE in a special election. Drop a few nickles into my sponsor Ben Chandler's contribution box. Add $.18 so they know it comes from my readers. You can contribute here.
3 Deadliest Months in a Row
November, December, and January were the 3 deadliest months in Iraq since the "end of major combat operations." Things are not getting better for our military.
Friday, January 30, 2004
The Google Search to End All Google Searches
Here.
From Tom Tomorrow.
(Maybe someone can explain to me how weapons of mass destruction aren't an "imminent threat.")
Holocaust Denial
Tbogg catches the Road Warrior in a bit of Holocaust Denial. He's slick. He first says he knows holocaust survivors. You know, people who LIVED. Then, he says that "some" of the people who died were "Jews in concentration camps." Then he just chalks it all up to war being hell. Okay.
The follow up question, should a reporter get near him again, should be "Mr. Gibson, how many Jews do you think were exterminated by the Nazis during World War II?"
"Kerry and Botox"
So, the volume's off, but the caption on screen at CNN was "Kerry and Botox - he denies using it." So, let's get this straight - the eggman can accuse anybody of anything, and soon the accusation and denial will appear on CNN.
Tomorrow, I look forward to:
"Kerry and Child Molestation - He Denies It."
Then we should be seeing:
"Kerry and Cannibalism - He Denies It."
etc....
Diebold
You know, it's pretty goddamn scary that it's even easier to hack these machines than I thought.
And I better not hear anyone say "conspiracy theory." Election fraud has always been with us - now it's just simple and undetectable.
The paper whitewashes it a bit. Here's a full report.
Pruden
Nick over at TAPPED notices just how dishonest Wes Pruden and his newspaper are. Oh, and he also works for a man who looks forward to genocide against gays and Jews. Oh, and one of his assistant editors is a man who is an open advocate of Southern Secession and who believes that the murder of Emmett Till wasn't really a racist act.
WMDRPA
Heard about this one?
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Did you know that a Middle Easterner residing in South Africa has been picked up on federal charges of conspiring to send 200 American-made nuclear weapons detonators to Pakistan?
Me neither. It apparently warranted 3 paragraphs on A12.
Red vs. Blue
I wrote about this a long long long time ago, but Daniel Pink reminds us in the NYT that the "red states" are by and large the ones who are sucking on the federal government's tit.
The wacky folks at the right wing Tax Foundation are kind enough to provide us with this information every year.
...California is one of the worst off. And, as someone pointed out fairly recently, they and other states could find ways to close the gap simply by revamping their tax codes. Specifically, shifting government revenues towards state income taxes which are deductible from federal taxes and away from sales taxes, user fees, property taxes, etc...
Another Theory Shot
After we captured Saddam there were numerous trolls claiming that since the capture there were fewer soldiers being killed. Howard Dean was exorciated for saying that Americans were not safer after Saddam's capture, even though he meant Americans In America, because American soldiers (not all of whom are American) were "of course" now safer. Oops.
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US combat deaths in Iraq have risen sharply during January despite a drop in the number of attacks and the capture of former dictator Saddam Hussein over a month ago.
As of Thursday, 33 American soldiers and one civilian had been killed by hostile fire during the month. That compares with 24 US combat deaths in December, and a total of 32 coalition combat deaths.
The figures appear to show that the security situation in Iraq is not improving, contrary to earlier claims from the US military and politicians.
Look, I wish I'd occasionally be wrong about these things. But, you know what? The situation isn't good. And, no amount of "CLAP LOUDER!" is going to make it any better. It may get better. I doubt it. Either way, the fact that I'm insufficiently enthusiastic about things which aren't true is going to have little impact..
One rather sad thing is that I have to admit that it's going to be a hell of a lot easier for a second Bush administration to get us the hell out of there than for a Democratic administration to do so. I think a Democratic administration would be preferable, all things considered, but the Republicans will turn the whole thing into a political nightmare.
Absentee Ballots
Buzz over at the Dean blog is that a large number of absentee ballots have been cast in NM and AZ. Obviously this is a bit of optimism on their part, but more generally I really really don't like the proliferation of easy vote-by-mail. I know many disagree with me on this subject, but a campaign has a certain rhythm to it and voting weeks in advance tends to undercut that. I mean, what if, say, Rick Santorum were in a primary race for a senate seat and the Santorum-on-Dog pictures didn't come out until after thousands of people had already cast their votes?
...note, I'm not coming out against all absentee balloting. But, it used to be that the norm was that you had to go through the trouble of signing an affadavit swearing that you were going to be unable to go to the polls for one of the acceptable reasons. I'm all for making going to vote at the polls easier, but I'm really not for the "everyone vote by internet or mail if they want to" schemes.
Steve G.
A troll, in true form, keeps posting that Steve Gilliard has died. There is no reason to think this information is correct. Carry on, knowing its true depravity.
Irony Lives
Students stopped from performing anti-totalitarianist play because in it they cut up a flag. You just can't make this stuff up.
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It was enough to disqualify Archbishop McCarthy High students from a competition early this week for their performance of The Children's Story. In the play, first published in 1963 by Shogun author James Clavell, third-graders in a classroom in a United States that has been defeated by a powerful enemy, presumably Communist, cut the flag into pieces. Their new teacher tells them if the flag is so good, everyone should get a piece and tells them to hand out the shreds. It's a message about the dangers of mindless political indoctrination
"The play is actually pro-American," said Erin Fragetta, 15, a sophomore at the southwest Broward County school who worked on the production. "It was intended to be an anti-communist message, and the judges just turned it around on us."
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After receiving complaints about the flag cutting, co-chairman Melody Wicht, who teaches drama at Pembroke Pines Charter High, disqualified the McArthur team.
"Some people came to me after the play and complained about the performance," Wicht said. "So I looked into it."
Wicht said she based her decision on Florida Statute 876.52, which says "Whoever publicly mutilates, defaces or tramples with intent to insult any flag ... of the United States shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree."
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"For 10 years it's been clear that these flag desecration statutes are unconstitutional," said Bruce Rogow, a Nova Southeastern University law professor specializing in constitutional law and First Amendment rights. "What's especially ironic is that this is a pro-democracy, anti-totalitarianism play, and yet they're punished for using the flag as an example of what shouldn't be done in a totalitarian society."
Rogow cited the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down such a statute in the case of Texas vs. Johnson.
Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the court's opinion that flag desecration is the ultimate expression of disagreement in a democracy."
Say Hello to My New Sponsor
The campaign of Ben Chandler for Congress. He's running in the 6th District special election in Kentucky which is... soon! February 17!. The latest poll has him ahead of his challenger, so go donate a few bucks for the cause! Add $.18 to your donation so they know it comes from my readers.
...on a related note, Jerome Armstrong has a post up about campaigns and internet advertising. I don't claim to know anything about this subject, really, except for the fact that advertising on blogs is dirt cheap compared to TV, print, radio, and on "major media" websites. And, at least for fundraising purposes it's hard to imagine that it isn't more cost effective than those other mediums. Well, I hope so anyway. Donate and prove me right! Picking up this seat would help swing a bit of the "Big Mo" our way.
Thursday, January 29, 2004
The Hutton Report
I'm not going to bother parsing this, but I do have this observation. I always assumed Hutton would condemn the BBC and exonerate the Blair government. The BBC's reporter did screw up somewhat - there's no question of that (though, frankly, it wasn't exactly a Gerth-level screwup). And, Blair made a genius pre-emptive strike when he promised to resign if Hutton came out against him - essentially giving Hutton the power to bring a government down.
But, the report was such a ridiculous whitewash that it oddly ends up condemning Blair. A "naughty naughty BBC" combined with a "yes, mistakes we're made, but these things happen" with respect to Blair would have preserved the status quo and no one could have found too much fault with it. But, Hutton has tried to play us all for fools and destroyed his own reputation in the process.
International Brain Drain
We're pretty lucky that Europe's university system has, thus far, been pretty incestuous and underfunded. That's been changing - and as this Washington Monthly article points out, there's a real risk. For a long time a big chunk of the best and the brighest - in all fields - have come to the US. With the rising xenophobia, increasingly intolerant immigration policies, and a messed up health care, that could turn around.
Predictions
Brokaw's craptacular debate moderation tonight will be even worse than Hume's.
If the polls are close in the general election, there will be at least one major assassination attempt against the Dem. nominee.
The end of Friends ensures that all major networks will produce at least 2 Friends-clone sitcoms for next year.
Threats
I don't even know why we're still having this conversation, really. When the administration says a guy with a moustache who doesn't like us much has weapons of mass destruction, I consider that to be an imminent, immediate, clear and present, Oh Shit We're All Going to Die, threat. Unless, of course, the weapons don't really provide very massive destruction in which case they aren't really WMDs then are they...
But, for the record, the CAP has provided this list for us:
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"There's no question that Iraq was a threat to the people of the United States."
- White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan, 8/26/03
"We ended the threat from Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction."
- President Bush, 7/17/03
Iraq was "the most dangerous threat of our time."
- White House spokesman Scott McClellan, 7/17/03
"Saddam Hussein is no longer a threat to the United States because we removed him, but he was a threat...He was a threat. He's not a threat now."
- President Bush, 7/2/03
"Absolutely."
- White House spokesman Ari Fleischer answering whether Iraq was an "imminent threat," 5/7/03
"We gave our word that the threat from Iraq would be ended."
- President Bush 4/24/03
"The threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction will be removed."
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 3/25/03
"It is only a matter of time before the Iraqi regime is destroyed and its threat to the region and the world is ended."
- Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, 3/22/03
"The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder."
- President Bush, 3/19/03
"The dictator of Iraq and his weapons of mass destruction are a threat to the security of free nations."
- President Bush, 3/16/03
"This is about imminent threat."
- White House spokesman Scott McClellan, 2/10/03
Iraq is "a serious threat to our country, to our friends and to our allies."
- Vice President Dick Cheney, 1/31/03
Iraq poses "terrible threats to the civilized world."
- Vice President Dick Cheney, 1/30/03
Iraq "threatens the United States of America."
- Vice President Cheney, 1/30/03
"Iraq poses a serious and mounting threat to our country. His regime has the design for a nuclear weapon, was working on several different methods of enriching uranium, and recently was discovered seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 1/29/03
"Saddam Hussein possesses chemical and biological weapons. Iraq poses a threat to the security of our people and to the stability of the world that is distinct from any other. It's a danger to its neighbors, to the United States, to the Middle East and to the international peace and stability. It's a danger we cannot ignore. Iraq and North Korea are both repressive dictatorships to be sure and both pose threats. But Iraq is unique. In both word and deed, Iraq has demonstrated that it is seeking the means to strike the United States and our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction."
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 1/20/03
"The Iraqi regime is a threat to any American. They not only have weapons of mass destruction, they used weapons of mass destruction...That's why I say Iraq is a threat, a real threat."
- President Bush, 1/3/03
"The world is also uniting to answer the unique and urgent threat posed by Iraq whose dictator has already used weapons of mass destruction to kill thousands."
- President Bush, 11/23/02
"I would look you in the eye and I would say, go back before September 11 and ask yourself this question: Was the attack that took place on September 11 an imminent threat the month before or two months before or three months before or six months before? When did the attack on September 11 become an imminent threat? Now, transport yourself forward a year, two years or a week or a month...So the question is, when is it such an immediate threat that you must do something?"
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 11/14/02
"Saddam Hussein is a threat to America."
- President Bush, 11/3/02
"I see a significant threat to the security of the United States in Iraq."
- President Bush, 11/1/02
"There is real threat, in my judgment, a real and dangerous threat to American in Iraq in the form of Saddam Hussein."
- President Bush, 10/28/02
"The Iraqi regime is a serious and growing threat to peace."
- President Bush, 10/16/02
"There are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place. Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists."
- President Bush, 10/7/02
"The Iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency."
- President Bush, 10/2/02
"There's a grave threat in Iraq. There just is."
- President Bush, 10/2/02
"This man poses a much graver threat than anybody could have possibly imagined."
- President Bush, 9/26/02
"No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq."
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 9/19/02
"Some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent - that Saddam is at least 5-7 years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certain. And we should be just as concerned about the immediate threat from biological weapons. Iraq has these weapons."
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 9/18/02
"Iraq is busy enhancing its capabilities in the field of chemical and biological agents, and they continue to pursue an aggressive nuclear weapons program. These are offensive weapons for the purpose of inflicting death on a massive scale, developed so that Saddam Hussein can hold the threat over the head of any one he chooses. What we must not do in the face of this mortal threat is to give in to wishful thinking or to willful blindness."
- Vice President Dick Cheney, 8/29/02
Dangerous Job
More than 300 Iraqi cops have been killed since May.
Cue John Lott telling us why this is good news.
Jonah Goldberg - Hand Iraq to the UN
Well, he didn't say this recently of course, but way back when he said this:-
So here's the deal: George Bush ? who has rightly been much more reluctant than Tony Blair to toss the U.N. a bone when it comes to the potentially lucrative prospect of rebuilding Iraq ? should make it known that if Coalition forces find no Iraqi WMD while we're in there, we will defer to the U.N. on how to run postwar Iraq...I am still confident we will find plenty of such weapons ? Saddam didn't buy those chemical suits and atropine injectors because Glamour magazine says they're all the rage...
Donate to Your Favorite Candidate Day
John Kerry.
Howard Dean.
John Edwards.
Wesley Clark.
Undecided? Give to the DNC.
I know this is the time in the primary season where people start thinking that contributing is pointless, but this primary isn't over. Ever Dem. ad (good ones, anyway) that shows up on TV is more media coverage about the fact that Democrats aren't all Stalin-loving satanists. Every campaign rally means friendly local news coverage. This primary isn't going to be over right away, and the more chances that the candidates have to get their messages out the better.
Perle Supports Terrorists
I have no idea if the organizations whose funds we've frozen are really "terrorist supporters," but if they aren't we shouldn't be freezing their assets, and if we do freeze their assets a DPB board member shouldn't be attending their events.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
FFFFFFF
Pensions underfunded? Why, go ahead and underfund them even more! Fuckheads. And, yes, that includes you too Ted Kennedy.
Wingnuttery
Apparently rich people in America would prefer to be slaves in the 1850s. I'll buy one.
More Gifts For Steve
Here's a more recent wish list for Steve G.
Trippi's Out
As you all know. Discuss.
Senator Barney Frank
What happens if Kerry resigns from his Senate seat? I was assuming that the governor would appoint a replacement. Eric Alterman implies that the Mass. legislature plays a role. Anyone know?
No Box Cutters
I'm not surprised. It was one of those little details which sounded like it emerged from a PR department.
I suppose if the White House weren't doing everything they could to prevent the 9/11 commission from doing its job we could find out what really happened.
Polls
Kos has the most recent poll numbers. Anyway, it's way too early to count any of the 4 out (that Joementum only goes one way). I retract what I said about Clark being "wounded" last night. He's as in as much as Edwards is. I reject all claims that this is over. I reject that any candidate "has to win" any particular state at any particular time, and I also think wondering out loud about a possible brokered convention is silly.
We've had 2 of 50 primaries...
...I'd say the Poor Man's nomination odds are roughly right.
Email
My outgoing mailserver is clogged, presumably due to the worm, so I'll be responding to an even smaller percentage of email than I normally do...
The Crazies Have Taken Over
Brad DeLong takes a look at a WaPo editorial which really is unbelievable. My brain froze up when I read it yesterday.
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