1 George down, 1 to go
CIA director George Tenet resigned his post late Thursday, in time for the weekend "take out the trash" Friday bad news dumping of the Bush administration. Tenet claims it was for "personal reasons" which one blogger really goes to town with this Washingtonian cop-out. So while Bush is in Italy visiting the pope to get more Catholic voters, the other George fell on his sword.
The question is, why did it take so long? [Slate's Chris Suellentrop has also wondered this for a long time] Why wasn't this man fired on say September 12, 2001? Or right after the 6th month of no WMDs? Why now, when it is painfully obvious he did a horrible job, presiding over two of the Agencies biggest intelligence blunders in history. And if you count Chalabi (which I don't blame him for) there's three.
Douglas Jehl of the New York Times thinks that the 700-page Senate Intelligence Committee report on all the failings of Tenet's CIA is what prompted Georgie to high tail out of there. The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler hints that Tenet is going to be the Administration's scape goat for Iraq and 9/11.
If Bush and his pals decide to do that, I just can't wait for the 60 minutes interview and series of articles on what he told Bush and Bush told him back. There has to be a reason, other than how cool it is to know secret stuff, that George Tenet stayed on all this time. He must have a couple Aces up his sleeve. Some public comments on this event are semi-revealing.
Former CIA Director Stansfield Turner said, "I'm very surprised. I certainly thought that the president was not going to acknowledge that there were problems in his own inner circle. I certainly thought that Tenet, being a very loyal-type of civil servant, would not walk out on the president in the middle of an election campaign. I think the president feels he's in enough trouble that he's got to begin to cast some of the blame for the morass that we are in in Iraq on to somebody else and this was one subtle way to do it."
Fred Kaplan of Slate makes a point few have noticed: "So, what would happen if the 9/11 commission or any of the other boards of inquiry dealing with the various intelligence scandals were to re-call Private Citizen Tenet to testify? Would he suddenly remember meetings and conversations that had earlier slipped his mind? Years ago, Tenet worked as a staff member for Sen. John Heinz, whose widow is now married to John Kerry. Do they keep in touch? (Just asking.)" Will Saletan coins the phrase "Informer Without Results" for Tenet.
AP has this: "A year and a half before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a British Muslim [named Niaz Khantold] the FBI that he was trained to be a hijacker for Osama bin Laden and was in the United States to carry out attacks, NBC News and The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday"
So all it all, I am looking forward to the fall of Bushism and the end of this charade of his "sucessful" War on Terror and "leadership" after 9/11.
Friday, June 04, 2004
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Fun facts
- Bush "has consulted" an outside attorney "in case he needs to retain him in the grand jury investigation of who leaked the name" of Valerie Plame last year. Sounds like this crime goes all the way to the top.
- Minutes before leaving for Europe this a.m., Pres. Bush, announced CIA dir. George Tenet is resigning for personal reasons: "Today George Tenet, the director of the CIA, submitted a letter of resignation. I met with George last night in the White House. I had a good visit with him. He told me he was resigning for personal reasons. I told him I'm sorry he's leaving. He's done a superb job on behalf of the American people. I accepted his letter. He will serve at the CIA as director until mid-July at which time the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John McLaughlin, will serve as the acting director. George Tenet is a the kind of public servant you like to work with. He's strong, he's resolute. He served his nation as director for seven years. He has been a strong and able leader at the agency. He's been a strong leader in the war on terror and I will miss him. I send my blessings to George and his family. I look forward to working with him until the time he leaves the agency and I wish him all the very best" Two words: Yeah right
- Monica Lewinsky "is denying a report that she wants to make a movie" about her WH affair with ex-Pres. Clinton, "in which she hopes she'd be played by Mandy Moore." I am sorry but not only is Mandy Moore too thin and pretty to play Monica, she is also a blond. What has America come to when they can't find an actress with moderate talent who looks like Lewinsky to play her in the trashy made-for-TV movie? Why do all roles have to go through Britney Spears and her clones?
- ex-Washington DC Mayor and former crack addict Marion "The B*tch set me up!" Barry "would not confirm" on a radio show whether he is running for City Council, but he "urged listeners" to call 678-6979. Callers to that number are told to press 3 if they are calling for "Marion Barry for Ward 8 City Council." Ward 8? Isn't that the "I wish we were in Montgomery County, Maryland" section of DC where my Uncle lives? I don't think they will go for you Barry. Afte all, last time there was a "big" snow storm in DC and you were mayor, you were on vacation and didn't help out all those morons who can't handle the snow.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Playing the role of "Dumb Blond"
James Fallows writes an interesting article for the 7-8/04 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, noting that Pres. Bush "has been far more skillful in his debating career than is generally appreciated, and his successes in that realm put his widely noted lack of eloquence in a different light. During his career George Bush's speaking style has changed significantly. ... But his underlying approach to political communication has been constant -- and extremely effective."
Fallows watched "dozens of hours' worth" of Bush and John Kerry "in action." But he writes, "it was the hour in which Bush faced Ann Richards" in '94 "that I had to watch several times. The Bush on this tape was almost unrecognizable -- and not just because he looked different from the figure we are accustomed to in the White House. ... This Bush was eloquent. He spoke quickly and easily. He rattled off complicated sentences and brought them to the right grammatical conclusions. He mishandled a word or two ... but fewer than most people would in an hour's debate. More striking, he did not pause before forcing out big words, as he often does now, or invent mangled new ones."
"The man on the debate platform looked and sounded smart and in control" in '94. If you had to guess which of the two candidates had won the debate scholarship to college and was about to win the governorship, you would choose Bush." So the question is, what happened? Did Bush suddenly, like Algernon become stupid [again]?
I think Dubya is again much smarter than liberal Bush-haters give him credit for. He knows what people like, and that is a simple man with a clear vision. He appeals to what many Americans think he is "like them" and average by talking simply and having trouble with big words, especially foreign ones. By seeming dumb, Bush has made winning debates easy. Because no matter how good Gore (or Kerry) is/will be, Bush is still the mouse that can talk, and his performance is pretty good for a mouse.
James Fallows writes an interesting article for the 7-8/04 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, noting that Pres. Bush "has been far more skillful in his debating career than is generally appreciated, and his successes in that realm put his widely noted lack of eloquence in a different light. During his career George Bush's speaking style has changed significantly. ... But his underlying approach to political communication has been constant -- and extremely effective."
Fallows watched "dozens of hours' worth" of Bush and John Kerry "in action." But he writes, "it was the hour in which Bush faced Ann Richards" in '94 "that I had to watch several times. The Bush on this tape was almost unrecognizable -- and not just because he looked different from the figure we are accustomed to in the White House. ... This Bush was eloquent. He spoke quickly and easily. He rattled off complicated sentences and brought them to the right grammatical conclusions. He mishandled a word or two ... but fewer than most people would in an hour's debate. More striking, he did not pause before forcing out big words, as he often does now, or invent mangled new ones."
"The man on the debate platform looked and sounded smart and in control" in '94. If you had to guess which of the two candidates had won the debate scholarship to college and was about to win the governorship, you would choose Bush." So the question is, what happened? Did Bush suddenly, like Algernon become stupid [again]?
I think Dubya is again much smarter than liberal Bush-haters give him credit for. He knows what people like, and that is a simple man with a clear vision. He appeals to what many Americans think he is "like them" and average by talking simply and having trouble with big words, especially foreign ones. By seeming dumb, Bush has made winning debates easy. Because no matter how good Gore (or Kerry) is/will be, Bush is still the mouse that can talk, and his performance is pretty good for a mouse.
Plan C
The FDA overruled its own scientists last month, preventing the "morning after" pill known as Plan B to be available over the counter. So far so typical for the Bush administration, who favors ideologs over actual science [please read the article; he is an old friend of mine from the DLC]
Today's Slate points out a large fallacy in the FDA administrator's logic for blocking Plan B: that sex is very rare for 11-14 year olds after all, despite his claims.
"A North Carolina research group called Family Health International placed ads in public places, announcing a hot line that anyone could call to have an EC [the shortened, chemical name for Plan B] prescription phoned in to a pharmacy. Over two years, 121 calls came from women 40 or older; 845 from women 30 to 39; and 4,000 from women 20 to 29. There were 783 calls from 19-year-olds, 840 from 18-year-olds, 612 from 17-year-olds, 409 from 16-year-olds, and 167 from 15-year-olds. From there the call volume plummeted: Just 31 calls came from 14-year-olds and four from 13-year-olds. No 12-year-olds called in. One 11-year-old did. Combined, girls ages 11 to 14 made just 36 out of 8,000 EC requests, less than .5 percent of the total." Of course, that number may get higher if you can get it like aspirin instead of calling in for it, but other studies show it to be pretty small.
Well how about the CDC's own study, then? A 2003 report, called Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance, "just 7 percent of today's adolescents have sexual intercourse before the age of 13. Among these, the vast majority are boys. For girls-- the population Galson [the FDA Administrator] is talking about [when he decided not to let Plan B go over the counter]-- the figure is much lower: The 2003 data show that only 4 percent of girls have sex before they are 13." Slate's Lisa Mundy points out that most of these girls are in the most need of the morning after pill. They are less likely to use condoms (partially because many of their encounters at this age consists of forced sex by older men) or other birth control and are unlikely to get abortions because of parental notification laws, which means they will become teen mothers and high school dropouts.
During the Clinton years, teen pregnancy dropped dramatically; during the Bush presidency, you guessed it, it is going up. This not only reflects the worsening economic conditions but further hinders our future competitive ability. High School dropouts don't usually found successful, dynamic 21st century companies, let alone industries. In fact, they will probably be more of a drain on public funding than support to it. Isn't it worth a little effort now to save big bucks in the end?
And just so you know, Plan B is actually a combo of several birth control pills and not is RU-486. "B" is something people used to make at home until a company started making it is cheap large batches. So if you think Abortion is murder, but take the pill, you can't have any qualms with Plan B. But if you are stricter pro-lifer, then perhaps it is still murder to you to prevent a fertilized zygote from attaching to the lining of the uterus.
The reason it is called the morning after pill is of course because it is most effective immediately afterwards or the next morning. And precisely because sex is the type of activity that doesn't comply with doctor's hours, getting a prescription is overly burdensome.
Due to Galson's ruling, the company that manufactures Plan B is now going for plan C: asking for it to be sold "semi-over the counter" to 16 year olds and up. This will make the morning after pill like cigarettes and condoms in some places, you have ask for them and show ID. This just another way of discouraging their use, really counteracts the whole point of making them over the counter anyway. Then again, our more liberal neighbor to the north, Canada, does the same thing.
The FDA overruled its own scientists last month, preventing the "morning after" pill known as Plan B to be available over the counter. So far so typical for the Bush administration, who favors ideologs over actual science [please read the article; he is an old friend of mine from the DLC]
Today's Slate points out a large fallacy in the FDA administrator's logic for blocking Plan B: that sex is very rare for 11-14 year olds after all, despite his claims.
"A North Carolina research group called Family Health International placed ads in public places, announcing a hot line that anyone could call to have an EC [the shortened, chemical name for Plan B] prescription phoned in to a pharmacy. Over two years, 121 calls came from women 40 or older; 845 from women 30 to 39; and 4,000 from women 20 to 29. There were 783 calls from 19-year-olds, 840 from 18-year-olds, 612 from 17-year-olds, 409 from 16-year-olds, and 167 from 15-year-olds. From there the call volume plummeted: Just 31 calls came from 14-year-olds and four from 13-year-olds. No 12-year-olds called in. One 11-year-old did. Combined, girls ages 11 to 14 made just 36 out of 8,000 EC requests, less than .5 percent of the total." Of course, that number may get higher if you can get it like aspirin instead of calling in for it, but other studies show it to be pretty small.
Well how about the CDC's own study, then? A 2003 report, called Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance, "just 7 percent of today's adolescents have sexual intercourse before the age of 13. Among these, the vast majority are boys. For girls-- the population Galson [the FDA Administrator] is talking about [when he decided not to let Plan B go over the counter]-- the figure is much lower: The 2003 data show that only 4 percent of girls have sex before they are 13." Slate's Lisa Mundy points out that most of these girls are in the most need of the morning after pill. They are less likely to use condoms (partially because many of their encounters at this age consists of forced sex by older men) or other birth control and are unlikely to get abortions because of parental notification laws, which means they will become teen mothers and high school dropouts.
During the Clinton years, teen pregnancy dropped dramatically; during the Bush presidency, you guessed it, it is going up. This not only reflects the worsening economic conditions but further hinders our future competitive ability. High School dropouts don't usually found successful, dynamic 21st century companies, let alone industries. In fact, they will probably be more of a drain on public funding than support to it. Isn't it worth a little effort now to save big bucks in the end?
And just so you know, Plan B is actually a combo of several birth control pills and not is RU-486. "B" is something people used to make at home until a company started making it is cheap large batches. So if you think Abortion is murder, but take the pill, you can't have any qualms with Plan B. But if you are stricter pro-lifer, then perhaps it is still murder to you to prevent a fertilized zygote from attaching to the lining of the uterus.
The reason it is called the morning after pill is of course because it is most effective immediately afterwards or the next morning. And precisely because sex is the type of activity that doesn't comply with doctor's hours, getting a prescription is overly burdensome.
Due to Galson's ruling, the company that manufactures Plan B is now going for plan C: asking for it to be sold "semi-over the counter" to 16 year olds and up. This will make the morning after pill like cigarettes and condoms in some places, you have ask for them and show ID. This just another way of discouraging their use, really counteracts the whole point of making them over the counter anyway. Then again, our more liberal neighbor to the north, Canada, does the same thing.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
The Affair that wasn't
Alexandra Polier, (see above) the woman who was accused of having an affair with Democratic Presidential Nominee-to-be John Kerry writes her story in the latest New York magazine: "I met John Kerry for the first time in January 2001, in Davos, Switzerland." She says she introduced herself, "and he looked pleased to hear a familiar accent." Kerry asked "What are you doing here?" and ordered her "a drink. We moved swiftly through American foreign policy to his political ambitions." Polier, "with a confidence that probably seemed very forward": "I think you're going to be the next president of the United States." He asked if she "had any desire to work on a political campaign, so I ran through my resume." He "seemed impressed, and after sharing Davos gossip for fifteen minutes, he shook my hand and said": "Get in touch with my office. Maybe there's something you can do for the campaign."
More Polier: "I called the senator's office the week I got back and was invited to a fund-raiser in New York later that month. His assistant assured me that the $2,000 ticket would be comped. When Kerry eventually arrived, everything seemed glamorous. At first I was afraid that he wouldn't recognize me. 'Alexandra, so glad you could make it,' he said when he reached me. Beckoning to a handsome aide who'd walked in with him, he introduced me to his finance director, Peter Maroney. We were the youngest people in the room by fifteen years, and after discovering the coincidence of growing up in the same hometown, we hit it off. I found him charming, smart, and charismatic -- a cuter version of his boss."
More Polier: "As the last guests were heading out, Kerry came back and suggested we all go to dinner at Churrascaria Plataforma, a Brazilian restaurant nearby. I was surprised to be invited, and flattered when I was seated between Peter and the senator. I hoped it was my wit and enthusiasm, not my blonde hair and long legs, that got me a seat at the table. --Her picture tells me it was at least a little bit of both (looks couldn't have hurt)
Yet more Polier: "I felt like a serious player. Four mojitos later, the conversation was animated. Plans for a Kerry presidency were punctuated by platters of skirt steak and roasted salmon. The senator was flirtatious and funny. I felt I held my own with the other dinner guests, and Kerry announced to them that he hoped I would be coming onboard the campaign soon. And after dinner, as Peter put me into a cab, I knew I would be hearing from the senator's finance director again. A phone friendship with Peter followed, and we started dating that spring. I contemplated moving to Washington and spoke a few times on the phone with Kerry, who indulged me by offering advice about my career. The presidential race was still three years away, and by then I'd been accepted at Columbia. Peter was a little nervous about dating a fledgling reporter, but our relationship was fun." She adds: "Eventually the relationship fizzled out, but we remained friends, talking often. When I left the States last fall, we stayed in touch via e-mail, and Peter would send me links to articles mentioning his successes." According to Polier, one email she received read: "Al, there's a rumor going around the office that you slept with my boss."
Still more Polier: "Peter recommended I talk with Kerry's spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter. Several hours later, the two of them called me back, telling me they also had a lawyer in the room. Cutter sounded young and hard, and I imagined her like Lara Flynn Boyle on The Practice. She peppered me with questions. When had I first met the senator? 'Davos.' Were there any pictures of us together? 'No,' I said. 'Think back, Alex, think hard,' she said, both stern and unsympathetic. I thought, Wait a minute, I'm the victim here. 'Have you ever been alone with the senator?' she continued. 'No.' 'Are you sure?' she drilled. 'Yes. I'm sure,' I said, trying to joke a bit. 'I think I would remember!' No response. Had I spoken with anyone in the press? 'No.' 'Okay,' she said, pausing, sounding slightly relieved."
"I began by calling political reporters and strategists, who told me that as early as the New Hampshire primary, on January 27, two weeks before the story appeared on Drudge, there had been rumors swirling that Kerry had an intern problem. ... I had assumed that the story, like much of the initial reporting, was part of a Republican dirty-tricks campaign to break Kerry's momentum. ... As I began to trace the rumor, I learned that the vaguer it was, the easier it was to spread. Without a specific intern's name attached, the story was initially impossible to disprove. ... As I continued to dig, it occurred to me that Bush wasn't the only one with a motive. Clark, Dean, and Edwards all stood to gain if Kerry imploded." Says a reporter who covered the Clark camp: "This story played into so many agendas, everyone wanted it to be true."
More Polier, on then-Clark strategist Chris Lehane: "I wondered if Lehane had been the source, especially since he had switched horses mid-race. ... Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's former campaign manager, told me he'd also heard Lehane had been shopping the rumor -- presumably on Clark's behalf. Drudge claimed Clark himself had told reporters on his campaign bus that Kerry was going to 'implode' over a scandal, but when I called Wesley Clark Jr., a screenwriter in L.A., who had helped out on his father's campaign, he told me Drudge had ignored the context of his father's quote. 'He was reacting to the latest issue of The National Enquirer, which had just run a front-page story about Kerry and possible scandals, when he said that.'"
More Polier, on calling Lehane herself: "I asked him where he'd first heard the rumors about Kerry and me. He blamed political reporters. I asked him if he had used the rumors to try to help Clark. He denied it. 'There are just so many media outlets out there now, Alex, that these kind of baseless rumors can easily get turned into stories,' he said smoothly, and then the phone went dead. I called him right back, but he didn't answer. I called again less than an hour later, and this time his outgoing message had been changed to, 'Hi, you've reached Chris. I'm traveling and won't be able to retrieve my voice mail.' I wondered how he was able to run a PR company without retrieving voice mail. Our conversation was unsettling, but it was hardly conclusive." According to Polier, Matt Drudge told her: "In retrospect, I should have had a sentence saying, 'There is no evidence to tie Alex to John Kerry.' I should have put that." He added: "If Clark had not gone out there and said, 'Kerry is going to bomb,' I never, ever, would have gone anywhere near this'"
I'm sorry, but as much as I don't believe Lehane, he is still more believable than Drudge. Clark had nothing to do with this, other than hiring the scumbag Lehane and maybe listening to his bad advice.
Alexandra Polier, (see above) the woman who was accused of having an affair with Democratic Presidential Nominee-to-be John Kerry writes her story in the latest New York magazine: "I met John Kerry for the first time in January 2001, in Davos, Switzerland." She says she introduced herself, "and he looked pleased to hear a familiar accent." Kerry asked "What are you doing here?" and ordered her "a drink. We moved swiftly through American foreign policy to his political ambitions." Polier, "with a confidence that probably seemed very forward": "I think you're going to be the next president of the United States." He asked if she "had any desire to work on a political campaign, so I ran through my resume." He "seemed impressed, and after sharing Davos gossip for fifteen minutes, he shook my hand and said": "Get in touch with my office. Maybe there's something you can do for the campaign."
More Polier: "I called the senator's office the week I got back and was invited to a fund-raiser in New York later that month. His assistant assured me that the $2,000 ticket would be comped. When Kerry eventually arrived, everything seemed glamorous. At first I was afraid that he wouldn't recognize me. 'Alexandra, so glad you could make it,' he said when he reached me. Beckoning to a handsome aide who'd walked in with him, he introduced me to his finance director, Peter Maroney. We were the youngest people in the room by fifteen years, and after discovering the coincidence of growing up in the same hometown, we hit it off. I found him charming, smart, and charismatic -- a cuter version of his boss."
More Polier: "As the last guests were heading out, Kerry came back and suggested we all go to dinner at Churrascaria Plataforma, a Brazilian restaurant nearby. I was surprised to be invited, and flattered when I was seated between Peter and the senator. I hoped it was my wit and enthusiasm, not my blonde hair and long legs, that got me a seat at the table. --Her picture tells me it was at least a little bit of both (looks couldn't have hurt)
Yet more Polier: "I felt like a serious player. Four mojitos later, the conversation was animated. Plans for a Kerry presidency were punctuated by platters of skirt steak and roasted salmon. The senator was flirtatious and funny. I felt I held my own with the other dinner guests, and Kerry announced to them that he hoped I would be coming onboard the campaign soon. And after dinner, as Peter put me into a cab, I knew I would be hearing from the senator's finance director again. A phone friendship with Peter followed, and we started dating that spring. I contemplated moving to Washington and spoke a few times on the phone with Kerry, who indulged me by offering advice about my career. The presidential race was still three years away, and by then I'd been accepted at Columbia. Peter was a little nervous about dating a fledgling reporter, but our relationship was fun." She adds: "Eventually the relationship fizzled out, but we remained friends, talking often. When I left the States last fall, we stayed in touch via e-mail, and Peter would send me links to articles mentioning his successes." According to Polier, one email she received read: "Al, there's a rumor going around the office that you slept with my boss."
Still more Polier: "Peter recommended I talk with Kerry's spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter. Several hours later, the two of them called me back, telling me they also had a lawyer in the room. Cutter sounded young and hard, and I imagined her like Lara Flynn Boyle on The Practice. She peppered me with questions. When had I first met the senator? 'Davos.' Were there any pictures of us together? 'No,' I said. 'Think back, Alex, think hard,' she said, both stern and unsympathetic. I thought, Wait a minute, I'm the victim here. 'Have you ever been alone with the senator?' she continued. 'No.' 'Are you sure?' she drilled. 'Yes. I'm sure,' I said, trying to joke a bit. 'I think I would remember!' No response. Had I spoken with anyone in the press? 'No.' 'Okay,' she said, pausing, sounding slightly relieved."
"I began by calling political reporters and strategists, who told me that as early as the New Hampshire primary, on January 27, two weeks before the story appeared on Drudge, there had been rumors swirling that Kerry had an intern problem. ... I had assumed that the story, like much of the initial reporting, was part of a Republican dirty-tricks campaign to break Kerry's momentum. ... As I began to trace the rumor, I learned that the vaguer it was, the easier it was to spread. Without a specific intern's name attached, the story was initially impossible to disprove. ... As I continued to dig, it occurred to me that Bush wasn't the only one with a motive. Clark, Dean, and Edwards all stood to gain if Kerry imploded." Says a reporter who covered the Clark camp: "This story played into so many agendas, everyone wanted it to be true."
More Polier, on then-Clark strategist Chris Lehane: "I wondered if Lehane had been the source, especially since he had switched horses mid-race. ... Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's former campaign manager, told me he'd also heard Lehane had been shopping the rumor -- presumably on Clark's behalf. Drudge claimed Clark himself had told reporters on his campaign bus that Kerry was going to 'implode' over a scandal, but when I called Wesley Clark Jr., a screenwriter in L.A., who had helped out on his father's campaign, he told me Drudge had ignored the context of his father's quote. 'He was reacting to the latest issue of The National Enquirer, which had just run a front-page story about Kerry and possible scandals, when he said that.'"
More Polier, on calling Lehane herself: "I asked him where he'd first heard the rumors about Kerry and me. He blamed political reporters. I asked him if he had used the rumors to try to help Clark. He denied it. 'There are just so many media outlets out there now, Alex, that these kind of baseless rumors can easily get turned into stories,' he said smoothly, and then the phone went dead. I called him right back, but he didn't answer. I called again less than an hour later, and this time his outgoing message had been changed to, 'Hi, you've reached Chris. I'm traveling and won't be able to retrieve my voice mail.' I wondered how he was able to run a PR company without retrieving voice mail. Our conversation was unsettling, but it was hardly conclusive." According to Polier, Matt Drudge told her: "In retrospect, I should have had a sentence saying, 'There is no evidence to tie Alex to John Kerry.' I should have put that." He added: "If Clark had not gone out there and said, 'Kerry is going to bomb,' I never, ever, would have gone anywhere near this'"
I'm sorry, but as much as I don't believe Lehane, he is still more believable than Drudge. Clark had nothing to do with this, other than hiring the scumbag Lehane and maybe listening to his bad advice.
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Weekend update
Remember that Utah State Legislature that decided not to run after soliciting sex from an undercover cop for $40? Well now he is resigning his seat as well.
Rebecca Walsh of the Salt Lake Tribune reports that "On April 12, Bird pleaded guilty and was placed on probation for a year and ordered to go through the city's 'Johns Program.'
"Friday, Bird said he would leave his legislative seat as soon as he clears up some health insurance issues.
"'I'm trying to write something up now,' he said. 'It's not coming easy. I brought a lot of grief to my wife, my family and the party. I just made a big mistake. I sure feel bad about it.'"
The John's Program lets those who solicit prostitutes to clear their records by attending a 10-week course of therapy classes aimed at diverting "Johns" from soliciting again. If Bird completes the program, his class B misdemeanor citation -- which means he would have gotten a max of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine -- will be cleared in a year.
Remember that Utah State Legislature that decided not to run after soliciting sex from an undercover cop for $40? Well now he is resigning his seat as well.
Rebecca Walsh of the Salt Lake Tribune reports that "On April 12, Bird pleaded guilty and was placed on probation for a year and ordered to go through the city's 'Johns Program.'
"Friday, Bird said he would leave his legislative seat as soon as he clears up some health insurance issues.
"'I'm trying to write something up now,' he said. 'It's not coming easy. I brought a lot of grief to my wife, my family and the party. I just made a big mistake. I sure feel bad about it.'"
The John's Program lets those who solicit prostitutes to clear their records by attending a 10-week course of therapy classes aimed at diverting "Johns" from soliciting again. If Bird completes the program, his class B misdemeanor citation -- which means he would have gotten a max of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine -- will be cleared in a year.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Check, Check, 1, 2, 3, check
No, this post is not about roadies, it is about my friend Dave K, who is working for a government contractor down in New Mexico. I just got a call from people doing a background check on Dave and if you knew him, the questions would be hillarious.
This guy is the most law-abiding nice guy I have ever met, who is still fun to be around and not self-righteous (unlike our previous postee). They ask me if he lives within his means (is a dealer), if he does drugs, is noisy (desides video games or watching Top Gun?), if he has friends with foreign nationals, if he has traveled outside of the country, etc.
Anyway, the lady had a nice southern twang and it went pretty fast (I mostly answered "not to my knowledge" or "no" when I wasn't gushing about Dave). You can't joke around with those people, they really don't get it. How cool would it be to have a friend with access to classified stuff, even if he will never talk about any of it?
No, this post is not about roadies, it is about my friend Dave K, who is working for a government contractor down in New Mexico. I just got a call from people doing a background check on Dave and if you knew him, the questions would be hillarious.
This guy is the most law-abiding nice guy I have ever met, who is still fun to be around and not self-righteous (unlike our previous postee). They ask me if he lives within his means (is a dealer), if he does drugs, is noisy (desides video games or watching Top Gun?), if he has friends with foreign nationals, if he has traveled outside of the country, etc.
Anyway, the lady had a nice southern twang and it went pretty fast (I mostly answered "not to my knowledge" or "no" when I wasn't gushing about Dave). You can't joke around with those people, they really don't get it. How cool would it be to have a friend with access to classified stuff, even if he will never talk about any of it?
Righteousness 0, Hypocrisy 1
Utah state Representative Calvin Bird (R-Springfield) (above) is dropping his re-election bid after his arrest for soliciting a decoy prostitute. The mea culpa? "I should have known better than to pull over and talk to the lady." Talk, right, that's it. Wait there's more "No improprieties happened, but the offers were there. It was really dumb." Paging Capt. Obvious.
According to the Deseret Morning News, "Bird, 56, was driving in the area of 1899 S. State at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 when he pulled over and attempted to solicit sex from an undercover Salt Lake City police officer posing as a prostitute, according to police and court documents."
His primary (and only) challenger Aaron Tilton had an even better oh-so-Utahn response. "You are kidding me," Tilton said Thursday night when he stopped knocking on doors to take a cell phone call with the news. "Oh, my heck. Wow."
I wonder what Bird's wife Linda and the 6 children or the 3 grandchildren think of all this.
Utah state Representative Calvin Bird (R-Springfield) (above) is dropping his re-election bid after his arrest for soliciting a decoy prostitute. The mea culpa? "I should have known better than to pull over and talk to the lady." Talk, right, that's it. Wait there's more "No improprieties happened, but the offers were there. It was really dumb." Paging Capt. Obvious.
According to the Deseret Morning News, "Bird, 56, was driving in the area of 1899 S. State at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 when he pulled over and attempted to solicit sex from an undercover Salt Lake City police officer posing as a prostitute, according to police and court documents."
His primary (and only) challenger Aaron Tilton had an even better oh-so-Utahn response. "You are kidding me," Tilton said Thursday night when he stopped knocking on doors to take a cell phone call with the news. "Oh, my heck. Wow."
I wonder what Bird's wife Linda and the 6 children or the 3 grandchildren think of all this.
Thursday, May 27, 2004
This just in from Captain Obvious
CBS News reports that a Kerry/McCain ticket would crush a Bush/Cheney ticket 53% to 39% (just Kerry by himself against Bush is 49-41) according to their poll. The chattering class of Washington reporters say two things to this: 1) McCain's ego is too big to be second fiddle; and 2) Even if he would, party regulars would balk at a pro-life running mate.
While there may be some truth to Number 1 (which is why The Third Avenue recommends tapping the Arizona Senator for Secretary of Defense) Number 2 is far off base. Democrats are so desperate to win that they will have just about anyone on the ticket to defeat Bush, and McCain these days is acting more like a moderate Democrat than even the moderate Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, not exactly known for her moderation on Abortion is quoted as saying "There are pro-Life Democrats in the House" i.e. what's the big deal, as long as a Kerry administration wouldn't reverse Roe v Wade.
More and more high up Democrats (Joe Biden types) are infatuated with the idea of a "unity government" by inviting moderate Republicans into the cabinet like John McCain and Chuck Hagel to some how end the era of extreme partisanship that started when Slick Willie came to town. Maybe they watch too much British parliament on C-SPAN late a night (I know I do..."Will the right honorable gentleman from Hampshire concede that he is a bloody moron?" "Hear, Hear!" [great stuff]), or maybe they are onto something.
Aren't we all tired of this Witch Hunt? Washington really does have the feel of Salem, Massachusetts these days. But instead of being discovered as a Witch it is as a moderate or conciliator with the other party or just the other party (when it comes to the GOP schemes like "the K street project"). This is part of the reason why I left. It gets to be too exhausting and if it weren't real, would be laughable.
The rest of the country doesn't think like this. They are ready for real change and don't want to be spun any more. If Kerry can trick McCain into joining the ticket, Bush should start getting out the boxes and order the U-haul in advance.
CBS News reports that a Kerry/McCain ticket would crush a Bush/Cheney ticket 53% to 39% (just Kerry by himself against Bush is 49-41) according to their poll. The chattering class of Washington reporters say two things to this: 1) McCain's ego is too big to be second fiddle; and 2) Even if he would, party regulars would balk at a pro-life running mate.
While there may be some truth to Number 1 (which is why The Third Avenue recommends tapping the Arizona Senator for Secretary of Defense) Number 2 is far off base. Democrats are so desperate to win that they will have just about anyone on the ticket to defeat Bush, and McCain these days is acting more like a moderate Democrat than even the moderate Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, not exactly known for her moderation on Abortion is quoted as saying "There are pro-Life Democrats in the House" i.e. what's the big deal, as long as a Kerry administration wouldn't reverse Roe v Wade.
More and more high up Democrats (Joe Biden types) are infatuated with the idea of a "unity government" by inviting moderate Republicans into the cabinet like John McCain and Chuck Hagel to some how end the era of extreme partisanship that started when Slick Willie came to town. Maybe they watch too much British parliament on C-SPAN late a night (I know I do..."Will the right honorable gentleman from Hampshire concede that he is a bloody moron?" "Hear, Hear!" [great stuff]), or maybe they are onto something.
Aren't we all tired of this Witch Hunt? Washington really does have the feel of Salem, Massachusetts these days. But instead of being discovered as a Witch it is as a moderate or conciliator with the other party or just the other party (when it comes to the GOP schemes like "the K street project"). This is part of the reason why I left. It gets to be too exhausting and if it weren't real, would be laughable.
The rest of the country doesn't think like this. They are ready for real change and don't want to be spun any more. If Kerry can trick McCain into joining the ticket, Bush should start getting out the boxes and order the U-haul in advance.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Who's kidding who[m]?
The London Guardian (the equivalent to the New York Times if the [London] Times were compared to the Wall Street Journal) has just started a series of articles analyzing whether Iraqi National Congress head Ahmad Chalabi was Persian spy, essentially conning the US government into getting rid of its biggest enemy: Saddam Hussein.
Ex-US intelligence folks are on CNN and in the articles saying this has all the tell-tell signs of a intelligence operation: befriending heads of state and gaining influence (Cheney, Perle, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, hard-right members of Congress) and giving them bad intell that would lead them towards deposing Saddam.
The thing is though, Chalabi was pretty open about his friendliness to the Iranian government and intell services, and maybe he was our back channel to their information. Then again, everyone in the intell business knew he was telling us crap, that's why the CIA stopped listening to him since the late-nineties. Ex-Ambassador Joe Wilson proved Chalabi's uranium story was bogus too, but instead of coming to grips with this, the administration simply exposed Wilson's wife to threaten the rest of the intelligence community from coming forward with more stories.
All of this leads one to the conclusion that the Bush administration wanted to be misled into war, they wanted to find evidence, no matter how flimsy, that connected Saddam to an active weapons program, and better still, September 11th. The whole thing is a willing deception, maybe all the way to the top, or to con the top (AKA the President).
In short, the US wasn't conned, the American people were conned, the US soldiers dying in Iraq who think they are avenging 9/11 are being conned, but you, dear reader, wasn't conned. Now we just need to convince the press and the American people, who are about to be duped again. T
his time, we can't let the Bush administration pass the buck by pretending that they didn't know anything about Chalabi and were conned.
The London Guardian (the equivalent to the New York Times if the [London] Times were compared to the Wall Street Journal) has just started a series of articles analyzing whether Iraqi National Congress head Ahmad Chalabi was Persian spy, essentially conning the US government into getting rid of its biggest enemy: Saddam Hussein.
Ex-US intelligence folks are on CNN and in the articles saying this has all the tell-tell signs of a intelligence operation: befriending heads of state and gaining influence (Cheney, Perle, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, hard-right members of Congress) and giving them bad intell that would lead them towards deposing Saddam.
The thing is though, Chalabi was pretty open about his friendliness to the Iranian government and intell services, and maybe he was our back channel to their information. Then again, everyone in the intell business knew he was telling us crap, that's why the CIA stopped listening to him since the late-nineties. Ex-Ambassador Joe Wilson proved Chalabi's uranium story was bogus too, but instead of coming to grips with this, the administration simply exposed Wilson's wife to threaten the rest of the intelligence community from coming forward with more stories.
All of this leads one to the conclusion that the Bush administration wanted to be misled into war, they wanted to find evidence, no matter how flimsy, that connected Saddam to an active weapons program, and better still, September 11th. The whole thing is a willing deception, maybe all the way to the top, or to con the top (AKA the President).
In short, the US wasn't conned, the American people were conned, the US soldiers dying in Iraq who think they are avenging 9/11 are being conned, but you, dear reader, wasn't conned. Now we just need to convince the press and the American people, who are about to be duped again. T
his time, we can't let the Bush administration pass the buck by pretending that they didn't know anything about Chalabi and were conned.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Lies, damn lies, and statistics
I don't know about you, but during the Constitutional Convention I heard the argument ad nausium about how Scandinavian countries marriage rates were iron-clad proof that gay marriage delegitimizes heterosexual marriage so much that "the institution itself is practically extinct" Religious conservatives sent us flyers, booklets, even DVDs on the matter.
Now, UMASS-Amherst Professor M.V. Lee Badgett finally wrote an article for Slate that sets the record straight (no pun intended). After looking at the study Stanley Kurtz and his ilk site, Professor Badgett sums it up in this 'graph:
"No matter how you slice the demographic data, rates of nonmarital births and cohabitation do not increase as a result of the passage of laws that give same-sex partners the right to registered partnership. To put it simply: Giving gay couples rights does not inexplicably cause heterosexuals to flee marriage, as Kurtz would have us believe. Looking at the long-term statistical trends, it seems clear that the changes in heterosexuals' marriage and parenting decisions would have occurred anyway, even in the absence of gay marriage."
America, Badgett points out, "already wrestles with the social tensions that Kurtz claims have occurred as a result of gay marriage in Scandinavia: deepening divisions over gay issues in churches [see the American Episcopal Church], the increasing acceptance of lesbian and gay relationships in the media [see Queer Eye for the Straight Guy], and the occasional radical voice arguing for the abolition of marriage. Yet heterosexual couples keep getting married—more than 2 million of them every year."
Despite emails my boss has gotten that claim this week's dreary weather is a direct result of gay marriages (if so, why did God wait a week to curse the Bay State), I don't think social and religious conservatives "Chicken Little approach" to fighting gay marriage is going to work.
I don't know about you, but during the Constitutional Convention I heard the argument ad nausium about how Scandinavian countries marriage rates were iron-clad proof that gay marriage delegitimizes heterosexual marriage so much that "the institution itself is practically extinct" Religious conservatives sent us flyers, booklets, even DVDs on the matter.
Now, UMASS-Amherst Professor M.V. Lee Badgett finally wrote an article for Slate that sets the record straight (no pun intended). After looking at the study Stanley Kurtz and his ilk site, Professor Badgett sums it up in this 'graph:
"No matter how you slice the demographic data, rates of nonmarital births and cohabitation do not increase as a result of the passage of laws that give same-sex partners the right to registered partnership. To put it simply: Giving gay couples rights does not inexplicably cause heterosexuals to flee marriage, as Kurtz would have us believe. Looking at the long-term statistical trends, it seems clear that the changes in heterosexuals' marriage and parenting decisions would have occurred anyway, even in the absence of gay marriage."
America, Badgett points out, "already wrestles with the social tensions that Kurtz claims have occurred as a result of gay marriage in Scandinavia: deepening divisions over gay issues in churches [see the American Episcopal Church], the increasing acceptance of lesbian and gay relationships in the media [see Queer Eye for the Straight Guy], and the occasional radical voice arguing for the abolition of marriage. Yet heterosexual couples keep getting married—more than 2 million of them every year."
Despite emails my boss has gotten that claim this week's dreary weather is a direct result of gay marriages (if so, why did God wait a week to curse the Bay State), I don't think social and religious conservatives "Chicken Little approach" to fighting gay marriage is going to work.
Monday, May 24, 2004
Training wheels
Last week, Bush told Hill GOPers that the US is going to have to "take the training wheels off" of Iraq and let them govern themselves. This comment (about the only thing of substance he said to his fellow Republicans, according to reports) is pretty condescending thing to say for the cradle of civilization, as Josh Marshall points out. Kerry quipped that maybe the training wheels had already fallen off.
All learning-how-to-ride-a-bicycle-equipment-metaphors aside, tonight's speech by President Bush is critical to stopping the slide of bad news as power transfer dateline looms before us. Maybe Bush will do more than tell us, "the entity to which we are handing power over to" but I doubt it. My first clue: The networks don't think so either, which is why none of them are covering the speech live, only CNN/Fox News/MSNBC.
Now maybe it is because this is the first of 6 speeches, or maybe because it is more of the same rhetoric minus reality. There is a nice piece on Richard Pearle's sweetheart deals in this morning's Post. TIME has a great piece on the master con artist Ahmad Chalabi, who convinced Cheney et al to invade Iraq based on his bogus intel and then give Chalabi over $300M of US tax dollars to have his own private army and possible future government. Turns out, Chalabi sold secrets to the Taliban-lite Mullah's of Iran and is now in jail in Iraq.
So much for the flowers and chocolates welcoming Chalabi predicted to US troops, or the large stockpiles of WMDs, or the gushing oil revenues that would make the reconstruction pay for itself.
Did you know that until the handover, the US is a member of OPEC? Why the hell are gas prices so high, if we are a voting member of the oil cartel? Is it because Bush and fellow oilmen prefer "stability" (ie ever higher prices) over uncertainty? Or do I not understand how the US can participate in OPEC meetings as the representative of Iraq. Someone please explain it to me.
Last week, Bush told Hill GOPers that the US is going to have to "take the training wheels off" of Iraq and let them govern themselves. This comment (about the only thing of substance he said to his fellow Republicans, according to reports) is pretty condescending thing to say for the cradle of civilization, as Josh Marshall points out. Kerry quipped that maybe the training wheels had already fallen off.
All learning-how-to-ride-a-bicycle-equipment-metaphors aside, tonight's speech by President Bush is critical to stopping the slide of bad news as power transfer dateline looms before us. Maybe Bush will do more than tell us, "the entity to which we are handing power over to" but I doubt it. My first clue: The networks don't think so either, which is why none of them are covering the speech live, only CNN/Fox News/MSNBC.
Now maybe it is because this is the first of 6 speeches, or maybe because it is more of the same rhetoric minus reality. There is a nice piece on Richard Pearle's sweetheart deals in this morning's Post. TIME has a great piece on the master con artist Ahmad Chalabi, who convinced Cheney et al to invade Iraq based on his bogus intel and then give Chalabi over $300M of US tax dollars to have his own private army and possible future government. Turns out, Chalabi sold secrets to the Taliban-lite Mullah's of Iran and is now in jail in Iraq.
So much for the flowers and chocolates welcoming Chalabi predicted to US troops, or the large stockpiles of WMDs, or the gushing oil revenues that would make the reconstruction pay for itself.
Did you know that until the handover, the US is a member of OPEC? Why the hell are gas prices so high, if we are a voting member of the oil cartel? Is it because Bush and fellow oilmen prefer "stability" (ie ever higher prices) over uncertainty? Or do I not understand how the US can participate in OPEC meetings as the representative of Iraq. Someone please explain it to me.
Saturday, May 22, 2004
Clarification
Dear loyal readers,
The photos that were up on the site yesterday were of my right ring finger, which I injured playing basketball in Cambridge with a college friend and his friend from High School along with three other random people.
Yes I know, woe is my precious, beautiful digits that faithfully write you my thoughts every weekday (well almost). The point of the previous pictures was to illustrate the damage I did to my finger (just a nasty bruise).
One never appreciates how much an item is needed or used until one cannot use it. That is, it hurts to type, hold on to the bar on the T, and lots of other things. Same thing with the Congress and the Presidency, you forget how important and powerful those positions are until they fall into the wrong hands.
Now we are blessed with a bottomless pit occupation and an angry region posed to attempt acts of terrorism against us, a exploding national debt (posed to burden my generation and my children's generation with higher car and house payments), more polluted land, air and water, higher gasoline prices, higher long-term unemployment, more crumbling schools, exploding health insurance costs, etc.
That's why we need to be like these people and vote in droves.
Dear loyal readers,
The photos that were up on the site yesterday were of my right ring finger, which I injured playing basketball in Cambridge with a college friend and his friend from High School along with three other random people.
Yes I know, woe is my precious, beautiful digits that faithfully write you my thoughts every weekday (well almost). The point of the previous pictures was to illustrate the damage I did to my finger (just a nasty bruise).
One never appreciates how much an item is needed or used until one cannot use it. That is, it hurts to type, hold on to the bar on the T, and lots of other things. Same thing with the Congress and the Presidency, you forget how important and powerful those positions are until they fall into the wrong hands.
Now we are blessed with a bottomless pit occupation and an angry region posed to attempt acts of terrorism against us, a exploding national debt (posed to burden my generation and my children's generation with higher car and house payments), more polluted land, air and water, higher gasoline prices, higher long-term unemployment, more crumbling schools, exploding health insurance costs, etc.
That's why we need to be like these people and vote in droves.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Deija-Vu, all over again
The other day I was downtown drinking an iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts. When I looked out the window, I saw their rival, Starbucks, across the street. That isn't that surprising, but I remembered back about 14 months ago when I went in there to Meetup with the folks running the Draft campaign of Wesley Clark in Massachusetts.
Back then, we all laughed at how we were all unemployed and poked fun at one who just finished law school (and poor sap) had to take the bar exam.
Over a year later, the actual Clark campaign has come and gone, with many of us having gotten jobs working for Clark (not me) in New Hampshire or MA and are now back to being unemployed. Now I am leaving my job at the State House, only to have the JD Clark-ie apply for my job. Where I am going? Law School. All this made me feel like Neo seeing the cat in the Matrix.
Meanwhile, my boss has finally gotten serious about reviewing resumes and sending out job descriptions. I am not worried about her finding someone, I am literally buried in resumes coming in from the internet and off the State House network. The trick is to find the right one for my boss, who might go for a local yokel now that I left for law school (although I warned her that I would be here 1-2 years at the start).
It all goes to make me feel lucky to have been chosen, especially in the current/past job climate. My heart goes out to all of those who are trying to get work and into graduate school to avoid trying to get work (because there is little to be found). Trust me, I have been there.
The other day I was downtown drinking an iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts. When I looked out the window, I saw their rival, Starbucks, across the street. That isn't that surprising, but I remembered back about 14 months ago when I went in there to Meetup with the folks running the Draft campaign of Wesley Clark in Massachusetts.
Back then, we all laughed at how we were all unemployed and poked fun at one who just finished law school (and poor sap) had to take the bar exam.
Over a year later, the actual Clark campaign has come and gone, with many of us having gotten jobs working for Clark (not me) in New Hampshire or MA and are now back to being unemployed. Now I am leaving my job at the State House, only to have the JD Clark-ie apply for my job. Where I am going? Law School. All this made me feel like Neo seeing the cat in the Matrix.
Meanwhile, my boss has finally gotten serious about reviewing resumes and sending out job descriptions. I am not worried about her finding someone, I am literally buried in resumes coming in from the internet and off the State House network. The trick is to find the right one for my boss, who might go for a local yokel now that I left for law school (although I warned her that I would be here 1-2 years at the start).
It all goes to make me feel lucky to have been chosen, especially in the current/past job climate. My heart goes out to all of those who are trying to get work and into graduate school to avoid trying to get work (because there is little to be found). Trust me, I have been there.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Emily Miller needs some anger management therapy
Emily Miller, a "top aide" to Sec/State Colin Powell and ex-press sec. to House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay has received more attention than "she bargained for" after trying to forcibly end a 5/16 "Meet the Press" interview with Powell.
As Tim Russert and media critics "piled" on the criticism, Miller defended herself, saying Russert had already run over the allotted time with five interviews waiting to be conducted on a similar time schedule.
Little did we know though, that Miller caused another "press spat" while working for DeLay. Peter Perl was writing a DeLay profile for the Washington Post Magazine. After interviewing DeLay's sister about a "rift" within the extended DeLay family, Perl received a call from Miller.
Perl: "The next evening, I got a phone call from DeLay's press secretary, Emily Miller, who burst into a scathing tirade. 'You lied! ... You betrayed him! You twisted his words! ... We don't know you. You don't exist. ... You are dead to us.' I grabbed for a pencil to take notes, but she was speaking faster than I could transcribe ... It was also the only time Miller neglected to specify that her comments were for my background information, not for publication"
She needs to take a chill pill. OK, maybe two.
In other news, Jon Stewart gave the commencement address at his alma mater, William & Mary, this year. Some highlights:
Stewart, on his college days: "What I lacked in looks I made up for with a repugnant personality. ... You could say that my one saving grace was academics where I excelled, but I did not. And yet now I live in the rarified air of celebrity, of mega stardom. My life a series of Hollywood orgies and Kabala center brunches with the cast of 'Friends.' At least that's what my handlers tell me. I'm actually too valuable to live my own life and spend most of my days in a vegetable crisper to remain fake-news-anchor fresh."
Stewart, on his graduating from college: "I know that the decisions that I made after college worked out. But at the time I didn't know they would. See college is not necessarily predictive of your future success. And it's the kind of thing where the path that I chose obviously wouldn't work for you. For one thing, you're not very funny."
Stewart: "Let's talk about the real world for a moment. ... I don't really know how to put this, so I'll be blunt. We broke it. ... I don't know if you've been following the news lately, but it just kinda got away from us. Somewhere between the gold rush of easy internet profits and an arrogant sense of endless empire, we heard kind of a pinging noise, and uh, then the damn thing just died on us. So I apologize."
Stewart continues: "You fix this thing, you're the next greatest generation, people. You do this -- and I believe you can -- you win this war on terror, and Tom Brokaw's kissing your ass from here to Tikrit, let me tell ya. And even if you don't, you're not gonna have much trouble surpassing my generation. If you end up getting your picture taken next to a naked guy pile of enemy prisoners and don't give the thumbs up, you've outdid us."
Stewart's "real advice": "College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don't worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your won internal sense of decency" (release, 5/18).
Emily Miller, a "top aide" to Sec/State Colin Powell and ex-press sec. to House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay has received more attention than "she bargained for" after trying to forcibly end a 5/16 "Meet the Press" interview with Powell.
As Tim Russert and media critics "piled" on the criticism, Miller defended herself, saying Russert had already run over the allotted time with five interviews waiting to be conducted on a similar time schedule.
Little did we know though, that Miller caused another "press spat" while working for DeLay. Peter Perl was writing a DeLay profile for the Washington Post Magazine. After interviewing DeLay's sister about a "rift" within the extended DeLay family, Perl received a call from Miller.
Perl: "The next evening, I got a phone call from DeLay's press secretary, Emily Miller, who burst into a scathing tirade. 'You lied! ... You betrayed him! You twisted his words! ... We don't know you. You don't exist. ... You are dead to us.' I grabbed for a pencil to take notes, but she was speaking faster than I could transcribe ... It was also the only time Miller neglected to specify that her comments were for my background information, not for publication"
She needs to take a chill pill. OK, maybe two.
In other news, Jon Stewart gave the commencement address at his alma mater, William & Mary, this year. Some highlights:
Stewart, on his college days: "What I lacked in looks I made up for with a repugnant personality. ... You could say that my one saving grace was academics where I excelled, but I did not. And yet now I live in the rarified air of celebrity, of mega stardom. My life a series of Hollywood orgies and Kabala center brunches with the cast of 'Friends.' At least that's what my handlers tell me. I'm actually too valuable to live my own life and spend most of my days in a vegetable crisper to remain fake-news-anchor fresh."
Stewart, on his graduating from college: "I know that the decisions that I made after college worked out. But at the time I didn't know they would. See college is not necessarily predictive of your future success. And it's the kind of thing where the path that I chose obviously wouldn't work for you. For one thing, you're not very funny."
Stewart: "Let's talk about the real world for a moment. ... I don't really know how to put this, so I'll be blunt. We broke it. ... I don't know if you've been following the news lately, but it just kinda got away from us. Somewhere between the gold rush of easy internet profits and an arrogant sense of endless empire, we heard kind of a pinging noise, and uh, then the damn thing just died on us. So I apologize."
Stewart continues: "You fix this thing, you're the next greatest generation, people. You do this -- and I believe you can -- you win this war on terror, and Tom Brokaw's kissing your ass from here to Tikrit, let me tell ya. And even if you don't, you're not gonna have much trouble surpassing my generation. If you end up getting your picture taken next to a naked guy pile of enemy prisoners and don't give the thumbs up, you've outdid us."
Stewart's "real advice": "College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don't worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your won internal sense of decency" (release, 5/18).
Monday, May 17, 2004
A Tough Poll to Swallow, or to Bridgewater
Bridgewater claims the '02 UT 02 race "won't be repeated this year," but says Bob Bernick, "so far, things are looking about the same." Bridgewater beat Swallow in both the '02 and '04 UT GOP convos. In '02, Bridgewater lost to Swallow in the primary, who himself went on to lose to Rep. Jim Matheson (D) by 1600 votes.
Due to paranoia, only registered GOPers can vote in the 6/22 primary. But, Bernick points out, "unaffiliated voters, those belonging to no party, can register as Republicans at the polls and pick up a GOP ballot," There are more registered GOPers than Democrats in Utah, but like other states, more non-affilated voters than either cominded. Of course, Utahns are pretty conservative, especially relative to places like Cambridge or San Francisco. Still, Blue Dogs like Jim proved they can win. In in Jim's case, has and will win. Read the full article here.
Bridgewater claims the '02 UT 02 race "won't be repeated this year," but says Bob Bernick, "so far, things are looking about the same." Bridgewater beat Swallow in both the '02 and '04 UT GOP convos. In '02, Bridgewater lost to Swallow in the primary, who himself went on to lose to Rep. Jim Matheson (D) by 1600 votes.
Due to paranoia, only registered GOPers can vote in the 6/22 primary. But, Bernick points out, "unaffiliated voters, those belonging to no party, can register as Republicans at the polls and pick up a GOP ballot," There are more registered GOPers than Democrats in Utah, but like other states, more non-affilated voters than either cominded. Of course, Utahns are pretty conservative, especially relative to places like Cambridge or San Francisco. Still, Blue Dogs like Jim proved they can win. In in Jim's case, has and will win. Read the full article here.
Another week, another round of scandal
Sunday was a big news day after all. Colin Powell's press staff tried to cut the interview one question short by making a "technical difficulty."
"Emily, get out of the way," said Powell. Russert then loudly complained that this was unprofessional. Powell then instructed the crew to "bring the camera back." Finally, Powell answered Russert's final question about if Colin lied to the UN in his 2/03 speech "that made America's case for war with Iraq" Powell: "It turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading."
Also that morning, Sy Herst's New Yorker piece came out. Herst reports that the situation at Abu Ghraib was the result of a highly-secret 'black operation' intended for use against select, high-value al Qaida operatives, which tumbled out of control when expended for use against the Iraqi insurgency -- which Pentagon and administration officials were understandably desperate to get under control.
Wait, but that's not all! Another important article came out, this time by Newsweek which quotes a memo White House Counsel (and potential supreme court nominee) Alberto Gonzales wrote to the president in January 2002, saying the following: "As you have said, the war against terrorism is a new kind of war. The nature of the new war places a high premium on other factors, such as the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors in order to avoid further atrocities against American civilians ... In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." [emphasis mine] Yes, isn't human rights quaint? Gosh, I mean, they behead our people right, so we can make them do anal sex and wear women's underwear on their heads right?
Sorry wrong again Rumsfeld et al. Maybe as Josh Marshall says "Okay, I think the wheels are now officially off this car" Also on CNN this morning, one of the to be court marshaled soldiers from the photos of Abu Ghraib (he's the guy with his arms proudly crossed behind the human pyramid) also confirms my theory. His lawyer says he was "just following orders" from intelligence officers "which he thought to be lawful." On the question of abuse, the lawyer said "many forms of abuse were already permitted." Sounds like you can't convince the stewards to go down with the ship, captain.
Just like the Titanic while Bush may seem like he is "the unsinkable Molly Brown," he is slowly but surely going to end up at the bottom of ocean of his administration's own lies.
Sunday was a big news day after all. Colin Powell's press staff tried to cut the interview one question short by making a "technical difficulty."
"Emily, get out of the way," said Powell. Russert then loudly complained that this was unprofessional. Powell then instructed the crew to "bring the camera back." Finally, Powell answered Russert's final question about if Colin lied to the UN in his 2/03 speech "that made America's case for war with Iraq" Powell: "It turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading."
Also that morning, Sy Herst's New Yorker piece came out. Herst reports that the situation at Abu Ghraib was the result of a highly-secret 'black operation' intended for use against select, high-value al Qaida operatives, which tumbled out of control when expended for use against the Iraqi insurgency -- which Pentagon and administration officials were understandably desperate to get under control.
Wait, but that's not all! Another important article came out, this time by Newsweek which quotes a memo White House Counsel (and potential supreme court nominee) Alberto Gonzales wrote to the president in January 2002, saying the following: "As you have said, the war against terrorism is a new kind of war. The nature of the new war places a high premium on other factors, such as the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors in order to avoid further atrocities against American civilians ... In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." [emphasis mine] Yes, isn't human rights quaint? Gosh, I mean, they behead our people right, so we can make them do anal sex and wear women's underwear on their heads right?
Sorry wrong again Rumsfeld et al. Maybe as Josh Marshall says "Okay, I think the wheels are now officially off this car" Also on CNN this morning, one of the to be court marshaled soldiers from the photos of Abu Ghraib (he's the guy with his arms proudly crossed behind the human pyramid) also confirms my theory. His lawyer says he was "just following orders" from intelligence officers "which he thought to be lawful." On the question of abuse, the lawyer said "many forms of abuse were already permitted." Sounds like you can't convince the stewards to go down with the ship, captain.
Just like the Titanic while Bush may seem like he is "the unsinkable Molly Brown," he is slowly but surely going to end up at the bottom of ocean of his administration's own lies.
Friday, May 14, 2004
Dual outrages to end the week
Nick Berg, the 26 year old who was beheaded by what the CIA says was an Al-Qaida man, wasn't a Halliburton type. He was a small businessman who was trying to help Arabs with his telecom company that was supposed to connect small towns. He spoke Arabic and this is what in fact got him in trouble.
His family tells us (via Nick's emails) that he was detained by Iraqi police (if there really is such a thing) and then turned over US authorities. These guys questioned him because he had a book on Iran in his backpack and seemed to know Arabic. They wanted to know if he worked for Iran or was an Islamic Radical or Israeli Intelligence. And you don't say Israeli intelligence too loud in a prison filled with Angry (most likely radical) Muslims. That's like throwing a white guy into a mostly all black block and saying, "So you work for the KKK?" And maybe that's why he was ultimately abducted and beheaded.
Now the US denies that they held him, except for another email his family has contradicts this too. Beth A. Payne, the U.S. consular officer in Iraq, wrote on April 1st to Nick's Dad Michael that "I have confirmed that your son, Nick, is being detained by the U.S. military in Mosul. He is safe. He was picked up approximately one week ago. We will try to obtain additional information regarding his detention and a contact person you can communicate with directly." They never said when the US turned him loose.
Weirder still, the family said Berg had been questioned by the FBI more than a year ago about a contact he had with a terrorism suspect in 1999, while he was a student at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
A senior law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the terror suspect appears to have been acquainted with Zacarias Moussaoui, an al-Qaida adherent now in federal custody and awaiting trial on conspiracy charges stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks.
The official said an e-mail address traced to Berg had been used by the unidentified individual with purported terror connections, but a 2002 investigation showed Berg had never met the individual and had not given the e-mail address to that person. Maybe this is why they questioned him in Iraq. They thought he was Al-Qaida.
In any event, Nick was trying to get home as soon as possible (according, again to his e-mails to family) and the government claims he turned down offers to deport him home.
Michael Berg is so upset by this that he said "My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this." I will leave it at that.
On a seemingly more minor note, the Bush Administration is going ahead with its missile "defense" system despite repeated failed tests and warnings from scientists that it won't necessarily work (but hey they never listen to scientists on global warming or stem cells, why should we be surprised). There is "no basis for believing the system will have any capability to defend against a real attack," wrote the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Missile Defense really is, as one reporter wrote, a "Maginot Line in the Sky." That is, something that makes the people feel safe but would never really keep us safe/protect us. Even if this multibillion sinkhole project did work, it wouldn't keep us that safe.
Why? Who is going to hit us with a missile? North Korea? Russia? China? I don't think any of those countries are so stupid as to attack the US so obviously; we can track exactly where each missile came from. More likely, Al-Qaida will bring in a bomb via cargo container or something, not a missile. The real threat is not a missile coming over the pacific. This is yet another example of the Bush Administration being stuck in the Cold War era, when we live in an era of failing states and terrorism. And what is bad about this is not just the money that it costs, but the message it sends to the rest of the world, with India Pakistan China and North Korea accelerating their missile program and the EU creating their own military.
A George W Bush world is a dog-eat-dog world that Thomas Hobbs described oh so many years ago. You are on your own, even if you are an American citizen, like 26 year-old Nick Berg.
Nick Berg, the 26 year old who was beheaded by what the CIA says was an Al-Qaida man, wasn't a Halliburton type. He was a small businessman who was trying to help Arabs with his telecom company that was supposed to connect small towns. He spoke Arabic and this is what in fact got him in trouble.
His family tells us (via Nick's emails) that he was detained by Iraqi police (if there really is such a thing) and then turned over US authorities. These guys questioned him because he had a book on Iran in his backpack and seemed to know Arabic. They wanted to know if he worked for Iran or was an Islamic Radical or Israeli Intelligence. And you don't say Israeli intelligence too loud in a prison filled with Angry (most likely radical) Muslims. That's like throwing a white guy into a mostly all black block and saying, "So you work for the KKK?" And maybe that's why he was ultimately abducted and beheaded.
Now the US denies that they held him, except for another email his family has contradicts this too. Beth A. Payne, the U.S. consular officer in Iraq, wrote on April 1st to Nick's Dad Michael that "I have confirmed that your son, Nick, is being detained by the U.S. military in Mosul. He is safe. He was picked up approximately one week ago. We will try to obtain additional information regarding his detention and a contact person you can communicate with directly." They never said when the US turned him loose.
Weirder still, the family said Berg had been questioned by the FBI more than a year ago about a contact he had with a terrorism suspect in 1999, while he was a student at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
A senior law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the terror suspect appears to have been acquainted with Zacarias Moussaoui, an al-Qaida adherent now in federal custody and awaiting trial on conspiracy charges stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks.
The official said an e-mail address traced to Berg had been used by the unidentified individual with purported terror connections, but a 2002 investigation showed Berg had never met the individual and had not given the e-mail address to that person. Maybe this is why they questioned him in Iraq. They thought he was Al-Qaida.
In any event, Nick was trying to get home as soon as possible (according, again to his e-mails to family) and the government claims he turned down offers to deport him home.
Michael Berg is so upset by this that he said "My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this." I will leave it at that.
On a seemingly more minor note, the Bush Administration is going ahead with its missile "defense" system despite repeated failed tests and warnings from scientists that it won't necessarily work (but hey they never listen to scientists on global warming or stem cells, why should we be surprised). There is "no basis for believing the system will have any capability to defend against a real attack," wrote the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Missile Defense really is, as one reporter wrote, a "Maginot Line in the Sky." That is, something that makes the people feel safe but would never really keep us safe/protect us. Even if this multibillion sinkhole project did work, it wouldn't keep us that safe.
Why? Who is going to hit us with a missile? North Korea? Russia? China? I don't think any of those countries are so stupid as to attack the US so obviously; we can track exactly where each missile came from. More likely, Al-Qaida will bring in a bomb via cargo container or something, not a missile. The real threat is not a missile coming over the pacific. This is yet another example of the Bush Administration being stuck in the Cold War era, when we live in an era of failing states and terrorism. And what is bad about this is not just the money that it costs, but the message it sends to the rest of the world, with India Pakistan China and North Korea accelerating their missile program and the EU creating their own military.
A George W Bush world is a dog-eat-dog world that Thomas Hobbs described oh so many years ago. You are on your own, even if you are an American citizen, like 26 year-old Nick Berg.
Thursday, May 13, 2004
The blame game
While Rumsfeld plays a surprise visit on Iraq in a further effort to save the Administration from further embarrassment, and US Senators look at forcibly bare-breasted Iraqi women, the media is saying "the situation did it" and not a few wacko individuals (or what I believe, a systematic design to extract information from Iraqis by PyOps via humiliation).
The media is reviving an old (1971) Stanford Prison Study by ex-professor Philip Zimbardo, and having him on as an "expert." Slate's William Saletan and I don't buy it but for different reasons.
Saletan talks about the major differences of the Study's participants and the soldiers involved in Abu Ghraib. He claims that the Stanford students were nonviolent for the most part while some of these MPs had a history of violence (against their wives even). It is also true that many of these folks weren't originally MPs. Many families of the accused abusers say their son/daughter was a mechanic in the wrong place/just taking orders.
Race is also a factor to Saletan, and I agree. I think if the country we had invade wasn't Arab, and the soldiers in question weren't mostly white, things might have turned out differently. Still, the acts that were done, the way soldiers posed, and the fact that the release of these photos was threatened on the prisoners-- all of this points to an intelligent design (to attack the Arab ideals of Manhood and Honor) and not just "Hey, let's do this!" Ad Hoc sadism.
As Will points out, "Prisoners have been photographed wearing hoods; but according to guards, it was intelligence officers who initially brought "hooded" prisoners to them. Last week, the commander of military prisons in Iraq announced that intelligence officers would no longer "hood" detainees, in effect confirming that they had been doing so."
One could compare the media/Zimbardo argument on Abu Ghraib to those about the Germans during Nazism. Why didn't ordinary Germans try to stop Hitler? Some did, and they were caught and killed. Nazi Germany was a prison state, and certainly the situation/environment had a chilling effect on people. As Zimbardo argues "if we can attribute deviance, failure, and breakdowns to the individual flaws of others, then we [as a society] are absolved." But as Saletan points out "if we blame the situation, the perpetrators are absolved, too."
My point is, there may be some real bad apples in the MP system, especially since the military is running incredibly short on MPs (they can't be too picky and they force untrained "mechanics" to do MP work), but there is also some bad policies in place that brings out the monster in some people. PsyOps and those that approved these methods are also to blame for their dehumanizing treatment of Iraqis, as well as the foot soldiers under suspension.
While Rumsfeld plays a surprise visit on Iraq in a further effort to save the Administration from further embarrassment, and US Senators look at forcibly bare-breasted Iraqi women, the media is saying "the situation did it" and not a few wacko individuals (or what I believe, a systematic design to extract information from Iraqis by PyOps via humiliation).
The media is reviving an old (1971) Stanford Prison Study by ex-professor Philip Zimbardo, and having him on as an "expert." Slate's William Saletan and I don't buy it but for different reasons.
Saletan talks about the major differences of the Study's participants and the soldiers involved in Abu Ghraib. He claims that the Stanford students were nonviolent for the most part while some of these MPs had a history of violence (against their wives even). It is also true that many of these folks weren't originally MPs. Many families of the accused abusers say their son/daughter was a mechanic in the wrong place/just taking orders.
Race is also a factor to Saletan, and I agree. I think if the country we had invade wasn't Arab, and the soldiers in question weren't mostly white, things might have turned out differently. Still, the acts that were done, the way soldiers posed, and the fact that the release of these photos was threatened on the prisoners-- all of this points to an intelligent design (to attack the Arab ideals of Manhood and Honor) and not just "Hey, let's do this!" Ad Hoc sadism.
As Will points out, "Prisoners have been photographed wearing hoods; but according to guards, it was intelligence officers who initially brought "hooded" prisoners to them. Last week, the commander of military prisons in Iraq announced that intelligence officers would no longer "hood" detainees, in effect confirming that they had been doing so."
One could compare the media/Zimbardo argument on Abu Ghraib to those about the Germans during Nazism. Why didn't ordinary Germans try to stop Hitler? Some did, and they were caught and killed. Nazi Germany was a prison state, and certainly the situation/environment had a chilling effect on people. As Zimbardo argues "if we can attribute deviance, failure, and breakdowns to the individual flaws of others, then we [as a society] are absolved." But as Saletan points out "if we blame the situation, the perpetrators are absolved, too."
My point is, there may be some real bad apples in the MP system, especially since the military is running incredibly short on MPs (they can't be too picky and they force untrained "mechanics" to do MP work), but there is also some bad policies in place that brings out the monster in some people. PsyOps and those that approved these methods are also to blame for their dehumanizing treatment of Iraqis, as well as the foot soldiers under suspension.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
What lying to our troops gets us
Today I was reading today's Boston Metro on my way to work on the "T" and came across a tiny blurb that said more than its few words.
"A female Army soldier in the notorious 320th Military Police Battalion meted out ''vigilante justice'' on Iraqi prisoners she believed had raped former POW Jessica Lynch, according to a letter from her battalion commander obtained by The Associated Press."
It has been well documented that Jessica Lynch's story was embellished to arouse patriotism (read this versus this). Her rescue footage was released while other items were classified, and many dispute her "all guns blazing capture" and there is no evidence of rape. That initial story from the Post, has been widely discredited.
Of course, the current female foot soldier in question is denying she abused prisoners and further that her commanding officer is making it up. "It's funny how the leadership continues to point downward," said then-Master Sgt. Lisa Girman Girman, a 35 year old Pennsylvania State Trooper in civilian life. (Watch for more low level troops to rat out their commanding officers as court martial trials start).
What struck me about this story, even if the Lynch-"revenge" angle isn't true, is that the story is credible. Most of the troops over in Iraq still think they are avenging 9/11, when Iraq had nothing to do with it. Why would they think such a silly thing? Well all the right-wing media, all there commanding officers, and all their civilian leaders (all the way up to the president himself) lead them to believe it, because they wanted to believe it too.
It's already unbearable when American troops are dying because of a lie, and Iraqi civilians are as well, but not that there is proof people are tortured because of it, how do the Vulcans (Bush's war cabinet of Cheney Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, etc) not feel shame? Appearantly not.
Now Rumsfeld and his ilk are disgustingly pleased that an American contractor was beheaded on an Al-Qaida affiliated website, because they now have a good excuse for holding back the rest of the photos and videos. One of these yet-to-released tapes or pictures is of a rape in progress of a female Iraqi. So much for the rape rooms being closed.
And so now the pressure is on CNN (I saw this morning) to do a Fox News style "here's all the good things the US has done in Iraq" segment since people flooded the site with right wing emails. The American people, no the world, demands transparency and concrete steps to fix this problem, not distracting it away with Tit-for-tat vigilantism.
Today I was reading today's Boston Metro on my way to work on the "T" and came across a tiny blurb that said more than its few words.
"A female Army soldier in the notorious 320th Military Police Battalion meted out ''vigilante justice'' on Iraqi prisoners she believed had raped former POW Jessica Lynch, according to a letter from her battalion commander obtained by The Associated Press."
It has been well documented that Jessica Lynch's story was embellished to arouse patriotism (read this versus this). Her rescue footage was released while other items were classified, and many dispute her "all guns blazing capture" and there is no evidence of rape. That initial story from the Post, has been widely discredited.
Of course, the current female foot soldier in question is denying she abused prisoners and further that her commanding officer is making it up. "It's funny how the leadership continues to point downward," said then-Master Sgt. Lisa Girman Girman, a 35 year old Pennsylvania State Trooper in civilian life. (Watch for more low level troops to rat out their commanding officers as court martial trials start).
What struck me about this story, even if the Lynch-"revenge" angle isn't true, is that the story is credible. Most of the troops over in Iraq still think they are avenging 9/11, when Iraq had nothing to do with it. Why would they think such a silly thing? Well all the right-wing media, all there commanding officers, and all their civilian leaders (all the way up to the president himself) lead them to believe it, because they wanted to believe it too.
It's already unbearable when American troops are dying because of a lie, and Iraqi civilians are as well, but not that there is proof people are tortured because of it, how do the Vulcans (Bush's war cabinet of Cheney Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, etc) not feel shame? Appearantly not.
Now Rumsfeld and his ilk are disgustingly pleased that an American contractor was beheaded on an Al-Qaida affiliated website, because they now have a good excuse for holding back the rest of the photos and videos. One of these yet-to-released tapes or pictures is of a rape in progress of a female Iraqi. So much for the rape rooms being closed.
And so now the pressure is on CNN (I saw this morning) to do a Fox News style "here's all the good things the US has done in Iraq" segment since people flooded the site with right wing emails. The American people, no the world, demands transparency and concrete steps to fix this problem, not distracting it away with Tit-for-tat vigilantism.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
I'm not with stupid
Last night, as I was brushing my teeth, I listened to BBC world news. The one great thing about radio is that since their audience (particularly public radio’s) is so small, there is less pressure to be snappy and ratings grabby like CNN's constant drone of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jackson (whatever happened to Scott Peterson or Martha Stewart...oh that’s right I don’t give a rat's a**) so they can do longer clips from press conferences and give more in depth analysis.
Anyway, back to what I heard. When George W. Bush went to the Pentagon yesterday to meet with Rumsfeld and company in the E-Ring for an hour, he was only shown a few selected photos and videos of the torture of Iraqi prisoners. That means there must be a lot more nasty stuff coming down the pike. But when Bush got out to speak before reporters, that's when he gave us yet another clue that he is not in charge. His speech was not that of a man trying to find the most palatable words, but one who was trying to remember his lines.
At this, my fiancée shouted, "What an idiot!" with disgust. And that got me thinking (ironically) A) this is why I am going to law school in a few months and B) boy that article was spot on.
Slate's Jacob Weisberg, the author of Bushisms (a book which is a collections of "the accidental wit and witticisms of George W. Bush") has an article pointing out that Bush isn’t dumb, he’s something far scarier: someone who works hard at seeming and being dumb for his personal benefit.
Bush is in fact a very smart man; he is a shrewd evaluator of politics knows how to seem like a simple man when he is actually just as aristocratic as John Forbes Kerry and Albert Gore, Jr.
Until he was 40, Bush acted out the classic rebellious teenager of a rich daddy routine: getting out of anything he wanted, coasting by in school, becoming borderline alcoholic, and so on. After recovering from a nasty hangover on his 40th birthday, Dubya decided his “youthful intercessions” must end, and gave up liquor cold turkey. He “found Jesus” thanks to Reverend Billy Graham and was reborn a God-fearing Christian.
Soon there after, Bush got to be the pretty face for the MLB's Texas Rangers and then got to revenge his father's embarrassment (via her speach at the 1992 Democratic Convention) by defeating Texas Governor Ann Richards in 1994. In all the sadness among Democrats after the loss of the US Congress, few noticed that man that would make things even worse for them in the 21st century. (My Dad did: "And the worst of it is, George Bush's son won in Texas; watch out for him." -1994)
But all this seems like a history lesson you say, why do I care? Well because the man who used stupidity to get back at his dad for never being there continues use stupidity to defeat the opposition who "misunderestimated" him. Bush’s willful ignorance comes at a price, along with not having to worry one’s pretty head with policy matters and details, comes the need to ignore things that don’t fit into ones paradigm.
The result? A war whose premise was sought for and falsified, whose execution was excellent but whose ensuing occupation was an instruction manual for "How not to occupy an Arab country." The prisoner abuse scandal is yet another example of this. Bush didn't know about this because he didn't want to know, lower level people didn't want to bother the president and his cabinet with unpleasant facts because those that do get yelled at.
From an administration (read Cheney) that says Fox News is the gospel truth, its not surprising that they have trouble hearing the other side. Sure, I will be among the first to admit that I have trouble watching/listening to right wing newscasts, but I at least am highly skeptical of the Times, the Post, and the Journal, and other media outlets, as well as campaign sources.
Bush has proven repeatedly that he doesn’t have the desire to learn from his mistakes and evolve his policy to fit the facts on the ground. He hasn't made sound judgments from day one. Woodward tells us the military and intelligence segment had to convince Bush et al to go into Afghanistan, seemingly on the promise that Iraq would be next.
Dubya needs to be driven out of office. If we want any home of fixing Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, and reduce our risk to terror, removing the 43rd president is our best bet. Let me translate this into Limbaugh: Bush wins re-election, the terrorists win.
Last night, as I was brushing my teeth, I listened to BBC world news. The one great thing about radio is that since their audience (particularly public radio’s) is so small, there is less pressure to be snappy and ratings grabby like CNN's constant drone of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jackson (whatever happened to Scott Peterson or Martha Stewart...oh that’s right I don’t give a rat's a**) so they can do longer clips from press conferences and give more in depth analysis.
Anyway, back to what I heard. When George W. Bush went to the Pentagon yesterday to meet with Rumsfeld and company in the E-Ring for an hour, he was only shown a few selected photos and videos of the torture of Iraqi prisoners. That means there must be a lot more nasty stuff coming down the pike. But when Bush got out to speak before reporters, that's when he gave us yet another clue that he is not in charge. His speech was not that of a man trying to find the most palatable words, but one who was trying to remember his lines.
At this, my fiancée shouted, "What an idiot!" with disgust. And that got me thinking (ironically) A) this is why I am going to law school in a few months and B) boy that article was spot on.
Slate's Jacob Weisberg, the author of Bushisms (a book which is a collections of "the accidental wit and witticisms of George W. Bush") has an article pointing out that Bush isn’t dumb, he’s something far scarier: someone who works hard at seeming and being dumb for his personal benefit.
Bush is in fact a very smart man; he is a shrewd evaluator of politics knows how to seem like a simple man when he is actually just as aristocratic as John Forbes Kerry and Albert Gore, Jr.
Until he was 40, Bush acted out the classic rebellious teenager of a rich daddy routine: getting out of anything he wanted, coasting by in school, becoming borderline alcoholic, and so on. After recovering from a nasty hangover on his 40th birthday, Dubya decided his “youthful intercessions” must end, and gave up liquor cold turkey. He “found Jesus” thanks to Reverend Billy Graham and was reborn a God-fearing Christian.
Soon there after, Bush got to be the pretty face for the MLB's Texas Rangers and then got to revenge his father's embarrassment (via her speach at the 1992 Democratic Convention) by defeating Texas Governor Ann Richards in 1994. In all the sadness among Democrats after the loss of the US Congress, few noticed that man that would make things even worse for them in the 21st century. (My Dad did: "And the worst of it is, George Bush's son won in Texas; watch out for him." -1994)
But all this seems like a history lesson you say, why do I care? Well because the man who used stupidity to get back at his dad for never being there continues use stupidity to defeat the opposition who "misunderestimated" him. Bush’s willful ignorance comes at a price, along with not having to worry one’s pretty head with policy matters and details, comes the need to ignore things that don’t fit into ones paradigm.
The result? A war whose premise was sought for and falsified, whose execution was excellent but whose ensuing occupation was an instruction manual for "How not to occupy an Arab country." The prisoner abuse scandal is yet another example of this. Bush didn't know about this because he didn't want to know, lower level people didn't want to bother the president and his cabinet with unpleasant facts because those that do get yelled at.
From an administration (read Cheney) that says Fox News is the gospel truth, its not surprising that they have trouble hearing the other side. Sure, I will be among the first to admit that I have trouble watching/listening to right wing newscasts, but I at least am highly skeptical of the Times, the Post, and the Journal, and other media outlets, as well as campaign sources.
Bush has proven repeatedly that he doesn’t have the desire to learn from his mistakes and evolve his policy to fit the facts on the ground. He hasn't made sound judgments from day one. Woodward tells us the military and intelligence segment had to convince Bush et al to go into Afghanistan, seemingly on the promise that Iraq would be next.
Dubya needs to be driven out of office. If we want any home of fixing Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, and reduce our risk to terror, removing the 43rd president is our best bet. Let me translate this into Limbaugh: Bush wins re-election, the terrorists win.
Monday, May 10, 2004
Throw Grandmama from the train
Well good and bad news for Democrats out of the Utah GOP convention on Saturday. The good news: Acting Governor Olene Walker (female for those of you who don't know Utah names) lost before the primary to run for Governor this fall.
"It's kind of like throwing your grandma from the train," State Democratic party Chairman Donald Dunn told the Salt Lake Tribune. Olene is in her seventies. "It just shows that the Republican delegates are nominated by kind of the right-wing agenda and I think they're out of touch with Utahns."
The bad news is, a moderate and wacko/criminal right-winger are paired together could win the GOP nomination (they still have a primary on June 22) and in November. Jon Huntsman Jr., whose Dad has given tons of money to the state and is a good old Mormon and ex-Bush ambassador to Singapore to boot got the nod, along with the a "moderate" Board of Regents Nolan Karras and his LG candidate, Enid Greene Waldholz.
Does Enid's name sound familiar? Remember back, way back, 10 years ago when Republicans first took over the House of Representatives? Well Enid had just beaten my family friend and previous Representative Karen Shephard, and Enid was sitting pretty with a seat on the Rules Committee, which was unheard of for a Freshman (let alone Freshwoman). Turns out her Husband Joe Waldholz, who was also her campaign treasurer, illegally funneled over $2 Million into her campaign in the closing weeks via the sale of his Dad's house. Joe, is out of prison now. Meanwhile, Enid pretended to be deceived by Joe and cried in the hospital with a pity parade about her new baby and a husband in the slammer.
Instead of resigning (or being investigated), Enid said she wouldn't run for re-election in 1996 and she disappeared ever since. Now, non-hacks must agree that either Enid was in on the scam (in which case she should have gone to jail too) or she was incompetent (how could you not notice $2M coming in overnight) and was unfit for office.
In the closest (Ok well second closest) congressional race last time around, Utah's 2nd district, the GOP couldn't get 70% necessary to have a single candidate and will also be having a primary. John Swallow, who lost to Congressman Jim Matheson by a mere 1600 votes last time, would seem to have the leg up. However, Tim Bridgewater bested Swallow in the" convention 54%/46%.Tim Bridgewater, who failed at this in 2002 as well. Tim is a millionaire, but has a horrible voice. I think both will not be as strong against Jim this time, although they will have more money than last time.
Jim has busted his hump in places he did poorly in, taking advantage of incumbency to get pork for Southern Utah and going out of his way to meet and get to know folks down there. It is much easier to hate a stereotype of a Democrat than an actual person, who is a pretty conservative Democrat anyway.
Let's just hope his brother Scott Jr. does as well against Nolan or Jon as his little bother.
Well good and bad news for Democrats out of the Utah GOP convention on Saturday. The good news: Acting Governor Olene Walker (female for those of you who don't know Utah names) lost before the primary to run for Governor this fall.
"It's kind of like throwing your grandma from the train," State Democratic party Chairman Donald Dunn told the Salt Lake Tribune. Olene is in her seventies. "It just shows that the Republican delegates are nominated by kind of the right-wing agenda and I think they're out of touch with Utahns."
The bad news is, a moderate and wacko/criminal right-winger are paired together could win the GOP nomination (they still have a primary on June 22) and in November. Jon Huntsman Jr., whose Dad has given tons of money to the state and is a good old Mormon and ex-Bush ambassador to Singapore to boot got the nod, along with the a "moderate" Board of Regents Nolan Karras and his LG candidate, Enid Greene Waldholz.
Does Enid's name sound familiar? Remember back, way back, 10 years ago when Republicans first took over the House of Representatives? Well Enid had just beaten my family friend and previous Representative Karen Shephard, and Enid was sitting pretty with a seat on the Rules Committee, which was unheard of for a Freshman (let alone Freshwoman). Turns out her Husband Joe Waldholz, who was also her campaign treasurer, illegally funneled over $2 Million into her campaign in the closing weeks via the sale of his Dad's house. Joe, is out of prison now. Meanwhile, Enid pretended to be deceived by Joe and cried in the hospital with a pity parade about her new baby and a husband in the slammer.
Instead of resigning (or being investigated), Enid said she wouldn't run for re-election in 1996 and she disappeared ever since. Now, non-hacks must agree that either Enid was in on the scam (in which case she should have gone to jail too) or she was incompetent (how could you not notice $2M coming in overnight) and was unfit for office.
In the closest (Ok well second closest) congressional race last time around, Utah's 2nd district, the GOP couldn't get 70% necessary to have a single candidate and will also be having a primary. John Swallow, who lost to Congressman Jim Matheson by a mere 1600 votes last time, would seem to have the leg up. However, Tim Bridgewater bested Swallow in the" convention 54%/46%.Tim Bridgewater, who failed at this in 2002 as well. Tim is a millionaire, but has a horrible voice. I think both will not be as strong against Jim this time, although they will have more money than last time.
Jim has busted his hump in places he did poorly in, taking advantage of incumbency to get pork for Southern Utah and going out of his way to meet and get to know folks down there. It is much easier to hate a stereotype of a Democrat than an actual person, who is a pretty conservative Democrat anyway.
Let's just hope his brother Scott Jr. does as well against Nolan or Jon as his little bother.
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Today's unplanned community service
This afternoon I went to a nearby park to shoot around (hoops) and ended up playing with two young (like less than 10) african-american boys and "teaching" them how to play ball.
Oh and I got help from a total stranger: a GOP-leaning political science PhD candidate at Harvard from Upstate New York. I think all in all, I played "basketball" for about 3-3.5 hours. Mostly trying to keep the two boys from tackling each other when one had the ball or watching them chase after a fumbled catch.
Still I think I had fun playing with the kids, although I would have liked more competition although Mr. Harvard and I played 3 1-on-1 games to 11 (I think I won).
I am wipped out. Maybe now I can catch up with what happened yesterday and today with Rumsfeld and all that nastiness in Iraq. As expected, they knew more than they initially led on, there were some bad people put in charge..."the man who directed the reopening of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last year and trained the guards there resigned under pressure as director of the Utah Department of Corrections in 1997 after an inmate died while shackled to a restraining chair for 16 hours." (NYT)
My favorite are the opplogists for these sadists. The top reasons are: They're at war; these are bad people; just letting off some steam; etc. I am sorry but NO. America prides itself in standards of human rights (well since 1865/1968 anyway), we have stict laws on the treatment of prisioners even in war. We pushed for the Geneva Convention rules. The US is supposed to be above all this. Even if these people raped your sister, you are supposed to treat them better than they did to your family and than "they deserve" not just because it the right (and by the way Christian) thing to do, but the law!
The entire National Security team of the Bush White House (including the Commander-in-Chief himself) has proven over and over that they are not up to the job and they are forfitted their credibility and right to continue to represent America. The only way to fix this Pottery Barn warehouse of Iraq is to clean out and get rid of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Perle, Cheney, and of course el Presidente.
With new management, the world will finally take us seriously and we might still have a chance to fix Iraq if a President Kerry were to make fixing it (and Israel-Palestine) his number 1 foreign policy goal. I know the "War on Terror" is an on going mission, but really without peace in these two hot zones, we will never be able to stop the impending onslaught of angry Arabs who want to harm America and her insterests (and our Allies'). Just my $0.02 for the day,
This afternoon I went to a nearby park to shoot around (hoops) and ended up playing with two young (like less than 10) african-american boys and "teaching" them how to play ball.
Oh and I got help from a total stranger: a GOP-leaning political science PhD candidate at Harvard from Upstate New York. I think all in all, I played "basketball" for about 3-3.5 hours. Mostly trying to keep the two boys from tackling each other when one had the ball or watching them chase after a fumbled catch.
Still I think I had fun playing with the kids, although I would have liked more competition although Mr. Harvard and I played 3 1-on-1 games to 11 (I think I won).
I am wipped out. Maybe now I can catch up with what happened yesterday and today with Rumsfeld and all that nastiness in Iraq. As expected, they knew more than they initially led on, there were some bad people put in charge..."the man who directed the reopening of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last year and trained the guards there resigned under pressure as director of the Utah Department of Corrections in 1997 after an inmate died while shackled to a restraining chair for 16 hours." (NYT)
My favorite are the opplogists for these sadists. The top reasons are: They're at war; these are bad people; just letting off some steam; etc. I am sorry but NO. America prides itself in standards of human rights (well since 1865/1968 anyway), we have stict laws on the treatment of prisioners even in war. We pushed for the Geneva Convention rules. The US is supposed to be above all this. Even if these people raped your sister, you are supposed to treat them better than they did to your family and than "they deserve" not just because it the right (and by the way Christian) thing to do, but the law!
The entire National Security team of the Bush White House (including the Commander-in-Chief himself) has proven over and over that they are not up to the job and they are forfitted their credibility and right to continue to represent America. The only way to fix this Pottery Barn warehouse of Iraq is to clean out and get rid of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Perle, Cheney, and of course el Presidente.
With new management, the world will finally take us seriously and we might still have a chance to fix Iraq if a President Kerry were to make fixing it (and Israel-Palestine) his number 1 foreign policy goal. I know the "War on Terror" is an on going mission, but really without peace in these two hot zones, we will never be able to stop the impending onslaught of angry Arabs who want to harm America and her insterests (and our Allies'). Just my $0.02 for the day,
Friday, May 07, 2004
Friday Roundup
- A LA House panel voted 4-1 to approve a bill that would ban low-slung pants. Bill sponsor/LA state Rep. Derrick Shepherd (D): "In our society we have a line of decency that should not be crossed, and that line starts around the waist area" I guess there aren't a lot of skaters in his district, at least ones that vote.
- "I know the left like I know every inch of my square body" -- Rush Limbaugh on his show today. Talk dirty to me Rush! Limbaugh on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: "This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation [which Kerry and Bush are a part of] and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?" Josh Marshall has the best response yet: "You know when you're worked to the bone and you really need to unwind there's just nothing like grabbing a half dozen Arab dudes, stripping them naked, tying their bodies together against their will and pressing one guy's penis up against another guy's butt to make it like they're having anal sex. Right?"
- Arizona Senator John McCain blames Karl Rove for the loss of New Hampshire's "Man of the Mountain," on tape!
- The class of 2004 at William and Mary College are so lucky: Jon Stewart (class of who knows) will return to W&M to receive an honorary doctorate (and give a speech), Stewart once offered this sage advice to W&M students: "If you're gonna go to Nags Head, and you're gonna get high. ... Just wait til you get there. There are a lot of cops on Yorktown Pike."
- Quote of the Day: "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy" -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Two little words
The "three little words" that are hard to say are "I love you," for George W. Bush, they are only two little words: "I'm sorry"
Those words, or their equivalant will never, apparently be uttered by this President. Clinton too likes to blame others for his actions (see his upcoming memoir, My Life), but he did say "I'm sorry" after he got caught with Moncia Lewinsky. Bush who has gotten caught with lying/being fundamentally deceptive on many issues, especially Iraq, has never come close.
Even as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal widens and finally threatens Rumsfeld's job, Bush couldn't say 'I'm sorry" to the Arab people who are now convinced he is just as bad as Saddam.
I have avoided talking about Abu Ghraib because all the facts are still streaming in, and we still don't know who knew what when. Appearantly, a lot of top people don't read reports like Major General Taguba's March 3rd report to the US Army (and Rumsfeld and Bush), which outline lots of bad stuff. And CBS News sat on these photos for two weeks thanks to Joint Cheifs Chair Meyers, who supposidely never told the president about it. How many more photos or eyewitnesses are there out there in Iraq with similar stories? What about Afghanistan, are there similar experiences?
Even if these folks were 100% Al-Qaeda/Bathist-torturers, do two wrongs make a right? Shouldn't the US live up to higher standards of human rights and shouldn't they follow their own executive orders?
Will there ever be any objectively good news out of Iraq? Or for this president? Can anyone name one thing he did that Gore wouldn't have done? I bet Gore would have done tax cuts, (just better, more targeted ones) Education Reform, and Faith-Based stuff as well, since he campaigned on that.
How is Kerry not cruising versus this "I'm never wrong" President (besides $180 million)? This is why people don't trust politicans. Bush won't admit mistakes, and Kerry won't admit to falling when snowboarding. Who cares? If you cooled your ego for a second, I think people would see that you two are just two men, and the one that looks like a real man that can own up to his own mistakes and be a human, well they just might win.
The "three little words" that are hard to say are "I love you," for George W. Bush, they are only two little words: "I'm sorry"
Those words, or their equivalant will never, apparently be uttered by this President. Clinton too likes to blame others for his actions (see his upcoming memoir, My Life), but he did say "I'm sorry" after he got caught with Moncia Lewinsky. Bush who has gotten caught with lying/being fundamentally deceptive on many issues, especially Iraq, has never come close.
Even as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal widens and finally threatens Rumsfeld's job, Bush couldn't say 'I'm sorry" to the Arab people who are now convinced he is just as bad as Saddam.
I have avoided talking about Abu Ghraib because all the facts are still streaming in, and we still don't know who knew what when. Appearantly, a lot of top people don't read reports like Major General Taguba's March 3rd report to the US Army (and Rumsfeld and Bush), which outline lots of bad stuff. And CBS News sat on these photos for two weeks thanks to Joint Cheifs Chair Meyers, who supposidely never told the president about it. How many more photos or eyewitnesses are there out there in Iraq with similar stories? What about Afghanistan, are there similar experiences?
Even if these folks were 100% Al-Qaeda/Bathist-torturers, do two wrongs make a right? Shouldn't the US live up to higher standards of human rights and shouldn't they follow their own executive orders?
Will there ever be any objectively good news out of Iraq? Or for this president? Can anyone name one thing he did that Gore wouldn't have done? I bet Gore would have done tax cuts, (just better, more targeted ones) Education Reform, and Faith-Based stuff as well, since he campaigned on that.
How is Kerry not cruising versus this "I'm never wrong" President (besides $180 million)? This is why people don't trust politicans. Bush won't admit mistakes, and Kerry won't admit to falling when snowboarding. Who cares? If you cooled your ego for a second, I think people would see that you two are just two men, and the one that looks like a real man that can own up to his own mistakes and be a human, well they just might win.
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Darn, lost laugh
Yesterday, I went onto Nader's site out of morbid curriousity. I found a fundraising ticker with a whopping $651 dollars for the week. OK it was Tuesday but that is freaking pathetic. But I waited too long, becuase a few other morons gave him money and how it is at $27,067-- more than I take home in a year, but not enough to print out enough posters to cover Panguitch, UT.
Still, who are these people that give Nader money? Those people that give loose change to fountains in the mall? Probabbly more like the ones that give cash to homeless people.
Their heart's in the right place, no doubt (except the Bush supporters), but there are better ways to do what they are trying to do, even with less money (both in the case of helping the homeless and getting rid of "corporatism" in America). Maybe they are helping Kucinich run ads in Oregon now too. I call them the St. Jude-ists, after the patron saint of lost causes.
PS The Utah GOP primary is on Sunday and I am excited to find out who will face the Matheson boys (Jim-- 2nd Congressional District, Scott Jr.-- Governor) in November. PPS watch Ken Salazar's 2 minute (I know that is super long in TV terms) ad here (Windows Media Player Required, sorry).
Yesterday, I went onto Nader's site out of morbid curriousity. I found a fundraising ticker with a whopping $651 dollars for the week. OK it was Tuesday but that is freaking pathetic. But I waited too long, becuase a few other morons gave him money and how it is at $27,067-- more than I take home in a year, but not enough to print out enough posters to cover Panguitch, UT.
Still, who are these people that give Nader money? Those people that give loose change to fountains in the mall? Probabbly more like the ones that give cash to homeless people.
Their heart's in the right place, no doubt (except the Bush supporters), but there are better ways to do what they are trying to do, even with less money (both in the case of helping the homeless and getting rid of "corporatism" in America). Maybe they are helping Kucinich run ads in Oregon now too. I call them the St. Jude-ists, after the patron saint of lost causes.
PS The Utah GOP primary is on Sunday and I am excited to find out who will face the Matheson boys (Jim-- 2nd Congressional District, Scott Jr.-- Governor) in November. PPS watch Ken Salazar's 2 minute (I know that is super long in TV terms) ad here (Windows Media Player Required, sorry).
Cinco de Mayo
Despite what corporate raiders want you to think, it is not yet another excuse to drink tequila or Mexican Beers (sorry Corona). Its too bad that all our holidays are becoming so Hallmark-ed that people don't even know what they really stand for anymore. Like Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus, not marshmallow bunnies and Cadberry Eggs. St. Valentine's Day is another wired one, but you know the story. But I bet you didn't know the one for Cinco de Mayo.
I always thought it was Mexico's independence day from Spain, but really it is about defeating the French (Napoleon III particularly) with some help from US troops along the Texas border in 1862. But Mexicans know how to party and have been pretty thankful since to the US, helping make up a large chunck of our Armed Forces, and jumping at the chance to join after Pearl Harbor (and I bet after 9/11).
Mexicans, well actually all immigrants, really impress me. The move to a foreign country, where many people openly discriminate against them, get stuck in crappy, dead-end low-wage jobs. Yet they still manage to send lots of money back home to their families and loved ones. Theirs is an amazing sacrifice and testament to what America is supposed to all about.
Despite what corporate raiders want you to think, it is not yet another excuse to drink tequila or Mexican Beers (sorry Corona). Its too bad that all our holidays are becoming so Hallmark-ed that people don't even know what they really stand for anymore. Like Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus, not marshmallow bunnies and Cadberry Eggs. St. Valentine's Day is another wired one, but you know the story. But I bet you didn't know the one for Cinco de Mayo.
I always thought it was Mexico's independence day from Spain, but really it is about defeating the French (Napoleon III particularly) with some help from US troops along the Texas border in 1862. But Mexicans know how to party and have been pretty thankful since to the US, helping make up a large chunck of our Armed Forces, and jumping at the chance to join after Pearl Harbor (and I bet after 9/11).
Mexicans, well actually all immigrants, really impress me. The move to a foreign country, where many people openly discriminate against them, get stuck in crappy, dead-end low-wage jobs. Yet they still manage to send lots of money back home to their families and loved ones. Theirs is an amazing sacrifice and testament to what America is supposed to all about.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Picture of the Day
In this picture George W. Bush is attempting to read Americans' minds, and change them (if they are against him).
And you thought he wasn't that clever. Oh, according to the LA Times, nearly $1 billion could be spent on this 2004 White House race. $300 million or so has already been raised by Kerry and Bush alone (of course $180 million of that is Bush). Thanks Wonkette!
Also, so a plug for my old job trying to do a blog (without comments, of course; just like Bush, they don't like to not have control of content) on Education. The DLC/PPI is very-pro-charter schools (so don't expect unbiased reporting) but they read all those boring education studies for you, as Mickey Kaus said, so it is nice on that end.
Have a jolly good day folks!
In this picture George W. Bush is attempting to read Americans' minds, and change them (if they are against him).
And you thought he wasn't that clever. Oh, according to the LA Times, nearly $1 billion could be spent on this 2004 White House race. $300 million or so has already been raised by Kerry and Bush alone (of course $180 million of that is Bush). Thanks Wonkette!
Also, so a plug for my old job trying to do a blog (without comments, of course; just like Bush, they don't like to not have control of content) on Education. The DLC/PPI is very-pro-charter schools (so don't expect unbiased reporting) but they read all those boring education studies for you, as Mickey Kaus said, so it is nice on that end.
Have a jolly good day folks!
Friday, April 30, 2004
Quote of the Day
"It's easy to complain about the press -- I've been doing it for a good part of my career. It's part of what goes with a free society. What I do is try to focus upon those elements of the press that I think do an effective job and try to be accurate in their portrayal of events. For example, I end up spending a lot of my time watching Fox News, because they're more accurate in my experience, in those events that I'm personally involved in, than many of the other outlets" [emphasis mine] --Vice President Dick Cheney
Five words for you: Out of Touch with Reality
"It's easy to complain about the press -- I've been doing it for a good part of my career. It's part of what goes with a free society. What I do is try to focus upon those elements of the press that I think do an effective job and try to be accurate in their portrayal of events. For example, I end up spending a lot of my time watching Fox News, because they're more accurate in my experience, in those events that I'm personally involved in, than many of the other outlets" [emphasis mine] --Vice President Dick Cheney
Five words for you: Out of Touch with Reality
Abstinence makes the Heart grow fonder
I do apologize with my lack of postings this week, my boss and I are trying to close a $22.5 Billion deal so to speak.
Things are looking pretty good for our clients and what we wanted. I would like to say it is all my doing but I think it is another sign that the economy is picking up, at least here.
Which means that if he wants to win, Kerry can't rest on Bush's failures, he has to talk explicitly what he will do differently beyond a line by line program list, ala Gore. Talk about your vision for America. Clark had one, Dean had one, Clinton had one, Bush believe it or not, has one.
I hate to sound like a broken record but Kerry needs to stop talking about Vietnam and how bad Bush is, and starting talking about what will happen after January 20, 2005 if he were to win.
Oh and if you are wondering about the title, there was a big march on Sunday entitled "The March for Women's Lives" which was a linking of arms of liberal and/or feminist organizations (1M+ purportedly). Meanwhile, pro-lifer and "abstinence-only" education supporter/Bush-lackey Karen Hughes indirectly compared these pro-choice warriors to Al-Qaida. That's why.
I do apologize with my lack of postings this week, my boss and I are trying to close a $22.5 Billion deal so to speak.
Things are looking pretty good for our clients and what we wanted. I would like to say it is all my doing but I think it is another sign that the economy is picking up, at least here.
Which means that if he wants to win, Kerry can't rest on Bush's failures, he has to talk explicitly what he will do differently beyond a line by line program list, ala Gore. Talk about your vision for America. Clark had one, Dean had one, Clinton had one, Bush believe it or not, has one.
I hate to sound like a broken record but Kerry needs to stop talking about Vietnam and how bad Bush is, and starting talking about what will happen after January 20, 2005 if he were to win.
Oh and if you are wondering about the title, there was a big march on Sunday entitled "The March for Women's Lives" which was a linking of arms of liberal and/or feminist organizations (1M+ purportedly). Meanwhile, pro-lifer and "abstinence-only" education supporter/Bush-lackey Karen Hughes indirectly compared these pro-choice warriors to Al-Qaida. That's why.
Monday, April 26, 2004
Taking it
Kerry's team has decided to let Bush blow $50-60 Million these past two months against them in TV ads while camp Kerry mostly travels around quietly raising money ($50M or so).
The ads Johnny's put out are alright, but not nearly as inspiring as his primary ads that were done Pre-Shrum muscle flex (he pushed out the guy that did those ads). Why do campaigns keep hiring this idiot. If I hear one more rich-ass white man talking about the people and the special interests who he trains, I will vomit.
Still, although Kerry is now seen in a less positive light than February, it was inevitable that Bush et al would take him down some notches and make him look wishy-washy, because he is.
But this brings me to the site of the day
John Kerry Is A Douche Bag But I'm Voting For Him Anyway.com This is the ultimate ABB-BKOK (Anybody But Bush, But Kerry's OK) not a glowing endorsement but I think Kerry will be thousands of times better than Bush.
I also think, that Kerry showed some real guts on the Environment, specifically CAFE standards. (We will see if UAW/Michigan will get make him flop on that too).
I just wish he would stop sending me e-mail messages asking for money. I know he needs it but I am going to give my tiny sum when he really needs it-- the fall. That way, he will get matching funds for my contribution too.
Kerry's team has decided to let Bush blow $50-60 Million these past two months against them in TV ads while camp Kerry mostly travels around quietly raising money ($50M or so).
The ads Johnny's put out are alright, but not nearly as inspiring as his primary ads that were done Pre-Shrum muscle flex (he pushed out the guy that did those ads). Why do campaigns keep hiring this idiot. If I hear one more rich-ass white man talking about the people and the special interests who he trains, I will vomit.
Still, although Kerry is now seen in a less positive light than February, it was inevitable that Bush et al would take him down some notches and make him look wishy-washy, because he is.
But this brings me to the site of the day
John Kerry Is A Douche Bag But I'm Voting For Him Anyway.com This is the ultimate ABB-BKOK (Anybody But Bush, But Kerry's OK) not a glowing endorsement but I think Kerry will be thousands of times better than Bush.
I also think, that Kerry showed some real guts on the Environment, specifically CAFE standards. (We will see if UAW/Michigan will get make him flop on that too).
I just wish he would stop sending me e-mail messages asking for money. I know he needs it but I am going to give my tiny sum when he really needs it-- the fall. That way, he will get matching funds for my contribution too.
Friday, April 23, 2004
playing TAPS for the first time in public
It looks like someone finally got through the Pentagon/Bush Administration ban on photos of coffins coming home from Iraq. While this picture made it into the Seattle Times and the web several days ago, it wasn't until today that the big newspapers and media stations started airing the photos.
The New York Times has an article about the website (thememoryhole.org) that filed a Freedom of Information Act request what was granted "mistakenly." I would show you those pictures but the site has crashed from so much traffic, but here is the mirror site. Here are some 361 pictures on the site, three of which were part of "all the news that is fit to print":
Meanwhile the brave photographers who took the Seattle Times picture (see below) were canned per request of the DoD, lest any press start growing balls.
Godspeed to our fallen countrymen. I hope we can do more for these young (most are in their late teens to early thirties) men and women than hide their deaths and let them tap into their savings. We should let all servicemen and -women become citizens of the US automatically, and we pay them more. That way, they won't be so damned poor that they have to tap into their retirement savings.
It looks like someone finally got through the Pentagon/Bush Administration ban on photos of coffins coming home from Iraq. While this picture made it into the Seattle Times and the web several days ago, it wasn't until today that the big newspapers and media stations started airing the photos.
The New York Times has an article about the website (thememoryhole.org) that filed a Freedom of Information Act request what was granted "mistakenly." I would show you those pictures but the site has crashed from so much traffic, but here is the mirror site. Here are some 361 pictures on the site, three of which were part of "all the news that is fit to print":
Meanwhile the brave photographers who took the Seattle Times picture (see below) were canned per request of the DoD, lest any press start growing balls.
Godspeed to our fallen countrymen. I hope we can do more for these young (most are in their late teens to early thirties) men and women than hide their deaths and let them tap into their savings. We should let all servicemen and -women become citizens of the US automatically, and we pay them more. That way, they won't be so damned poor that they have to tap into their retirement savings.
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Good Neighbor Day?
Wanda Baucus, the wife of Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), "has been charged with assaulting another woman" after a 4/20 dispute over mulch at a DC garden center. On 4/21, a DC Superior Court Judge "released" Wanda Baucus "on her own recognizance and ordered her to stay away from the victim and the garden center." DC Metro's Joe Gentile: "It's not exactly clear what happened, but at some point it appears Ms. Baucus was loading bags of mulch in her vehicle." Gentile "added that in the process of loading the mulch at Johnson's Garden Center," Wanda "placed a bag of mulch in the path of another woman's car. The other woman's car was then blocked and she was unable to back out." Gentile "said words were exchanged, and then Wanda Baucus allegedly assaulted the other woman." The woman "suffered bruises to the face and scratches on her shoulder, Gentile said."
Wanda's atty "said she did not hit the other woman." Atty David Schertler: "I can't tell you about the incident in detail, but I do feel it is much ado about nothing. ... There is no basis for a criminal charge. I don't believe a crime was committed" (Monoson/Farrell, Billings Gazette, 4/22).
"Reliable Source" reports that prior to "obtaining an arrest warrant, a police officer" talked to alleged victim Tierney Barron "and three people who saw the incident in the parking lot" (Leiby, Washington Post, 4/22). Sources said Wanda "was upset because another customer was getting help with mulch ahead of her." It was reported that she "drove from the scene, and returned a while later with her husband. That is when she talked to police about the incident" (NBC4.com, 4/21).
Sen. Baucus, in a statement: "We are trying to sort it out, going through the proper channels. ... I stand by her 110 percent" (AP, 4/22).
Meanwhile, "Heard on the Hill" reports that Baucus' office issued a press release 4/19 noting he and Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) "had introduced a resolution that would designate" 9/26 as "National Good Neighbor Day" (Bresnahan, Roll Call, 4/22).
On a side note: I got GMail and so can you if you have a blogger account! No it is not a myth or joke.
Wanda Baucus, the wife of Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), "has been charged with assaulting another woman" after a 4/20 dispute over mulch at a DC garden center. On 4/21, a DC Superior Court Judge "released" Wanda Baucus "on her own recognizance and ordered her to stay away from the victim and the garden center." DC Metro's Joe Gentile: "It's not exactly clear what happened, but at some point it appears Ms. Baucus was loading bags of mulch in her vehicle." Gentile "added that in the process of loading the mulch at Johnson's Garden Center," Wanda "placed a bag of mulch in the path of another woman's car. The other woman's car was then blocked and she was unable to back out." Gentile "said words were exchanged, and then Wanda Baucus allegedly assaulted the other woman." The woman "suffered bruises to the face and scratches on her shoulder, Gentile said."
Wanda's atty "said she did not hit the other woman." Atty David Schertler: "I can't tell you about the incident in detail, but I do feel it is much ado about nothing. ... There is no basis for a criminal charge. I don't believe a crime was committed" (Monoson/Farrell, Billings Gazette, 4/22).
"Reliable Source" reports that prior to "obtaining an arrest warrant, a police officer" talked to alleged victim Tierney Barron "and three people who saw the incident in the parking lot" (Leiby, Washington Post, 4/22). Sources said Wanda "was upset because another customer was getting help with mulch ahead of her." It was reported that she "drove from the scene, and returned a while later with her husband. That is when she talked to police about the incident" (NBC4.com, 4/21).
Sen. Baucus, in a statement: "We are trying to sort it out, going through the proper channels. ... I stand by her 110 percent" (AP, 4/22).
Meanwhile, "Heard on the Hill" reports that Baucus' office issued a press release 4/19 noting he and Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) "had introduced a resolution that would designate" 9/26 as "National Good Neighbor Day" (Bresnahan, Roll Call, 4/22).
On a side note: I got GMail and so can you if you have a blogger account! No it is not a myth or joke.
You got served
Swaziland's King Mswati reportedly fired ex-PM Sibusiso Dlamini last year "via a text message on his cellphone"
Just in case he fails to protect us again, Pres. Bush said "Americans who expect another terror attack in this country have reason for such fears." Bush: "This is a hard country to defend." He added: "Our intelligence is good. It's just never perfect, is the problem"
Who's gonna play Bush and Clarke in the "Against all Enemies" Movie? Here are my nominees:
Guess which one is supposed to be Pinky.
Ex-NYC Police Commis. Bernard Kerik, who is very Republican --the Bush White House put in charge of training the Iraqi army (you know, the one with a 10% of its members working against the coalition?) said of "another terrorist attack": "If you put Sen. Kerry in the White House, I think you are going to see that happen ... and I don't want to see another Sept. 11" according to the NY Post. Congratulations, you have officially stooped to a new low! Threatening a 9/11-level attack if Kerry wins. AKA If Bush loses, the terrorist win. Bush and his cronies are looking more Nixonian every day: using the power of the White House to lie, cheat, scare, and smear. Shame on them
Swaziland's King Mswati reportedly fired ex-PM Sibusiso Dlamini last year "via a text message on his cellphone"
Just in case he fails to protect us again, Pres. Bush said "Americans who expect another terror attack in this country have reason for such fears." Bush: "This is a hard country to defend." He added: "Our intelligence is good. It's just never perfect, is the problem"
Who's gonna play Bush and Clarke in the "Against all Enemies" Movie? Here are my nominees:
Guess which one is supposed to be Pinky.
Ex-NYC Police Commis. Bernard Kerik, who is very Republican --the Bush White House put in charge of training the Iraqi army (you know, the one with a 10% of its members working against the coalition?) said of "another terrorist attack": "If you put Sen. Kerry in the White House, I think you are going to see that happen ... and I don't want to see another Sept. 11" according to the NY Post. Congratulations, you have officially stooped to a new low! Threatening a 9/11-level attack if Kerry wins. AKA If Bush loses, the terrorist win. Bush and his cronies are looking more Nixonian every day: using the power of the White House to lie, cheat, scare, and smear. Shame on them
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Third Time's the Charm?
After Paul O'Neill's, Dick Clarke's and now Bob Woodward's book, will any of them have a lasting effect on this president?
Along with the traditional 60 Minutes sneak preview, Woodward has been leaking tidbits of the book in some small newspaper he works for (I think it's called the Washington Post) almost daily with fun filled facts like the date Bush decided to go to War with Iraq, or a Saudi Oil Price agreement, or this week's juicy nugget: Cheney and Powell hate each other. It seems all that butt-kissing in the first GWB book really paid off with some 75 interviews with top people. Combined with his charm offensive, Woodward gets folks to spill the beans.
What emerges is several facts gleaned from the Horse's mouth and 2 other previous insiders:
All this Woodward stuff goes towards damaging the Bush White House's credibility with the media. They won't get any more free passes. So why is Bush leading by 5 points (Margin of Error is 4) in most polls?
The American people don't care about the past; they care about the future. Bush may have lied to us to get us into a war, but we are there now, and we can't pull out like Spain did this weekend. Kerry needs to focus on the future and a positive vision of what he will do differently. Voters see Bush as a decisive leader, even if he makes bad decisions, that to them is better than Kerry who has been (semi-) accurately portrayed by all of Bush's $50 million in advertising as some one lacking such convictions.
Howard Dean was the Democratic Party's backbone transplant surgeon. Now he still needs to perform another operation on Senator Kerry. Seems John's body is rejecting the implant.
If Kerry can say how we can get out of Iraq with honor, how we can fix our alliances, our economy, our health care, and all that without simply saying "George Bush is wrong" repeatedly, then he would be on to something.
After Paul O'Neill's, Dick Clarke's and now Bob Woodward's book, will any of them have a lasting effect on this president?
Along with the traditional 60 Minutes sneak preview, Woodward has been leaking tidbits of the book in some small newspaper he works for (I think it's called the Washington Post) almost daily with fun filled facts like the date Bush decided to go to War with Iraq, or a Saudi Oil Price agreement, or this week's juicy nugget: Cheney and Powell hate each other. It seems all that butt-kissing in the first GWB book really paid off with some 75 interviews with top people. Combined with his charm offensive, Woodward gets folks to spill the beans.
What emerges is several facts gleaned from the Horse's mouth and 2 other previous insiders:
- Bush and his foreign policy team (save Powell) was focused on Iraq since before they got in office and it was priority number one
- Their obsession with Iraq (and China and Russia thanks to Condi) might have helped along a culture of marginalizing of Al-Qaida and all the pre-9/11 warnings.
- Powell has been fighting for control of diplomacy since day 1. He has lost many battles to Rumsfeld and Cheney and Wolfowitz, but won a temporary victory in September of 2002 only to lost the overall stance to the UN.
- Bush is not a details man. He doesn't like to work hard or look back and think deeply about himself or history
- Bush is overly dependent on Cheney, who has more power than any VP in the history of the office, as far as I can tell.
All this Woodward stuff goes towards damaging the Bush White House's credibility with the media. They won't get any more free passes. So why is Bush leading by 5 points (Margin of Error is 4) in most polls?
The American people don't care about the past; they care about the future. Bush may have lied to us to get us into a war, but we are there now, and we can't pull out like Spain did this weekend. Kerry needs to focus on the future and a positive vision of what he will do differently. Voters see Bush as a decisive leader, even if he makes bad decisions, that to them is better than Kerry who has been (semi-) accurately portrayed by all of Bush's $50 million in advertising as some one lacking such convictions.
Howard Dean was the Democratic Party's backbone transplant surgeon. Now he still needs to perform another operation on Senator Kerry. Seems John's body is rejecting the implant.
If Kerry can say how we can get out of Iraq with honor, how we can fix our alliances, our economy, our health care, and all that without simply saying "George Bush is wrong" repeatedly, then he would be on to something.
Friday, April 09, 2004
Fun Facts
According to USATODAY, Police accused Lithuanian prostitutes of discrimination for charging NATO troops $125 and hour and Lithuanian citizens only $35 an hour. Meanwhile, prostitution is "illegal."
According to USATODAY, Police accused Lithuanian prostitutes of discrimination for charging NATO troops $125 and hour and Lithuanian citizens only $35 an hour. Meanwhile, prostitution is "illegal."
Thursday, April 08, 2004
More reasons why Bush and his associates can't be trusted
- Reporters recording Antonin Scailia's comments on the constitution were ordered to erase 12.5 minutes of the tape. The nerve of reporters! To record a [Bush 41-appointed] Sumpreme Court Justice's views on something so private as the constitution. It's not like interpeting the constitution is his job for life or anything.
- In other scandals, a lab took DNA samples 4/7 to determine whether President Bush's brother Neil Bush "fathered a child by a woman married to another man." Two swabs each, "one from each cheek," were taken, according to the Houston Chronicle.
- Bush aides say Pres. Bush "didn't indicate he was planning to watch" the live TV broadcast of NSA Condoleezza Rice's 9/11 Commis. testimony from his TX ranch. First of all YEAH RIGHT...second of all, if true, its because Condi isn't reading the newspapers and/or watching TV for him. He's a busy man, after all he is spending the week at his multimillion dollar "ranch" in Crawford, TX.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Another Hard hitting Interview
Talk about your softball questions...OK enough puns for now.
And the Bush Picture of the Day is...(drum roll please)
- Wlw AM interviewed VP Dick Cheney during the Reds-Cubs game at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park 4/5. It was the Reds opener. Some excerpts from the transript. Action questions to Cheney are in italics:
Q: "I'd love to see a club go back to Washington. I really would." Cheney: "Me, too. It's a great baseball town." Q: "A ball and a strike to Grudzielanek, and the stretch and the pitch: breaking ball drops in for a called strike, and a 1-2 count to Mark Grudzielanek. He is one for two this afternoon, has scored a run. Busy year for you folks, huh?" Cheney: "Looks that way."
Q asked: "Are you pleased with the way things look as far as the economy is concerned?" Cheney: "I am. I think all the signs are headed in the right direction." Q: "One-two pitch, swung on and missed. And Lidle picks up his second strike-out."
More Q: "Well, I got to tell you, I enjoy you when you're on with Tim Russert." Cheney: "Yes." Q: "You might be -- you might be his favorite guest." Cheney: "We've done that a number of times over the years, and Tim does a great job." Q: "He really does." Cheney: "Good moderator." Q: "He sure does. Patterson to the plate. He takes, low and inside, a ball. Corey, a home run and was hit by a pitch. And he's scored two of the five Chicago runs. Lidle works, and Patterson a swing and a miss on a breaking ball -- way out in front. Now it evens, 1-1. So now you're in New Orleans tonight?"
Later, Q says: "I'll tell you, [MO Sen] Jim Bunning when -- I played against him." Cheney: "Sure." Q: "And you talk about a competitor." Cheney: "He was. I served with him in the House of Representatives before he ran for the Senate." Q: "Pitch inside, and the full count to Patterson." Cheney: "I see a lot of him now because my only real job is as President of the Senate, under the Constitution, so I have lunch up there every Tuesday. And I usually see Jim at those lunches."
Talk about your softball questions...OK enough puns for now.
- Celebs, including ex-Gov. Gray Davis (D-CA) and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, "join regular people to talk about how they use Yahoo services" in a $100M ad campaignlaunching 4/8. The ads "use a split screen to show two Yahoo users simultaneously." Davis is "paired with a junior high school student who's using Yahoo Mail to persuade classmates to vote for her as treasurer of the eighth grade." He "is using Yahoo's search engine to find an agent" because if an ex-actor can be gov., "he says, maybe a 'former governor can be an actor'"
- Coors CEO Pete Coors (R) "will enter" the CO Senate race today, according to CO Gov. Bill Owens (R). Owens: "I think Pete Coors would make an oustanding senator" More Owens: "I'll need to talk to ex-Rep. Bob Schaffer and make sure he's going to stay in the race, and I'll make a judgment between these two candidates shortly" Right, like you would chose that loser over a millioniare with instant name recognition...and a great slogan. "Free beer if you vote for me!" Wow, that just might work.
And the Bush Picture of the Day is...(drum roll please)
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Tid-Bits
Just 741 people came to a theater in the famously liberal city of Portland to sign a petition last night for Ralph Nader -- fewer than the 1K signatures Nader needed to make the OR ballot. So Nader's camp said he could collect 15K signatures over a three-month period instead. Good luck. But Ralph, ever the optimist, told the LA Times "Even the best basketball player doesn't get a slam dunk every time." Ralph, you couldn't even hit a layup from six inches away.
Quote of the Day: "I apologize for any embarrassment caused to my supporters by my opponent's disclosure of a small part of my personal past" -- state House candidate Sam Walls (R), who had "an apparent fondness for women's apparel"
Runner up: "Jennifer Lopez is no longer the only one in her family with a million-dollar booty" -- New York Post, on Lopez matriarch Guadalupe winning a $2.4M jackpot playing $1 slots in Atlantic City.
Just 741 people came to a theater in the famously liberal city of Portland to sign a petition last night for Ralph Nader -- fewer than the 1K signatures Nader needed to make the OR ballot. So Nader's camp said he could collect 15K signatures over a three-month period instead. Good luck. But Ralph, ever the optimist, told the LA Times "Even the best basketball player doesn't get a slam dunk every time." Ralph, you couldn't even hit a layup from six inches away.
Quote of the Day: "I apologize for any embarrassment caused to my supporters by my opponent's disclosure of a small part of my personal past" -- state House candidate Sam Walls (R), who had "an apparent fondness for women's apparel"
Runner up: "Jennifer Lopez is no longer the only one in her family with a million-dollar booty" -- New York Post, on Lopez matriarch Guadalupe winning a $2.4M jackpot playing $1 slots in Atlantic City.
Monday, April 05, 2004
Around the Horn
- According to the Globe, AZ Sen. John McCain "unleashed an attack on his own party" 4/1. McCain, "criticizing GOP stands" on environmental and minority issues: "I believe my party has gone astray." More McCain: "I think the Democratic Party is a fine party, and I have no problems with it, in their views and their philosophy. But I also feel the Republican Party can be brought back to the principles I articulated before."
McCain made the comments at a seminar hosted by MA Dem US Rep./Kerry backer Marty Meehan "as he again ruled out" a VP bid. He also "took on" Pres. Bush, saying: "You can't fly in on an aircraft carrier and declare victory and have the deaths continue. You can't do that." And he said: "Many people in this room question, legitimately, whether we should have gone in or not," adding that the debate "will be part of this presidential campaign" - The WH announced that Pres. Bush "has accepted an invitation to speak" at LSU's 5/21 commencement. Bush's visit to Baton Rouge, his third LA visit this year, is another sign" that Louisiana's Electoral Votes are in play. Bush is also doing the same thing at the Air Force Academy (in the possible swing state CO). Both are signs that Bush is worried that once "Red" states may turn "Blue" (and right now might be "Purple").
- Two-Thirds of Bush's campaign ads are negative. Yet another sign that even his own people know he is in trouble.
- Just who are those "independent contractors" that died in Fallujah anyway? DailyKos got a lot of flack when he called them "mercenaries" and didn't feel so bad about them dying. Blackwater Security Consulting, the company that employed the 4 fallen contractors, is one of several independent contractors working for the U.S. government that have come to the "forefront of the thriving business of going to places that most people--even the U.S. military--would rather not go." The 3/31 violence has depicted this "large, expensive and shadowy presence of private security companies" working in Iraq in an "unwelcome spotlight." Some of the "highly trained civilian commandos" who work in war zones are paid up to $2K/day and "as long as nothing goes wrong, their presence there goes largely unnoticed to the outside world." Most of the companies, many using ex-military personnel, take on responsibilities such as protecting coalition contractors and defending oil fields and important buildings. Blackwater handles security for Bremer.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the presence of security companies in Iraq is expected to "linger" as the U.S. approaches the 6/30 power transition deadline and intends to put a private security contractor in charge of protecting the Green Zone, the area of Baghdad where coalition officials live and work. TX-based security contractor company Meyer & Meyer pres. Tim Meyer says that "private security is going to be the stopgap. It's really cheaper for the U.S. government to have private security than to keep rotating forces in and out." He adds that they are also more "politically palatable" because they have a lower media profile; if something goes awry, private companies are "a little less scrutinized than if something happens with the military."
The Globe says, because there is no "official" estimate of how many security specialists are active in Iraq and reconstruction contracts are not made public, the costs of the "growing security burden" in Iraq to American taxpayers is "hard to gauge." However, security costs, as indicated in proposals submitted to the government by contractors, appear to constitute a "larger share" of the $18B that the U.S. government has set aside for rebuilding Iraq. Analysts estimate that companies have roughly 30K to 40K workers in Iraq and they set aside "about" 10% of their costs for security. Bigger question: Why do we have to hire people to go into these areas? - According to the US Treasury, 24,987 Americans (including a whopping 996 Ohioians and 111 New Mexicans) benefit from the top tax rate reductions that John Kerry would reverse if elected president. Here's a great gimmick: the Kerry camp should offer to write a letter of apology to those 25K people ask them to give back more (Clinton Levels) to help our country fight terrorism, improve schools, care for the elderly, disabled and destitute. Then they can say, "I would rather be one of the 25K having to pay a bit more to help my society than the millions of Americans without work or health insurance. I challenge any of my fellow top rate payers-- especially president Bush-- to explain why he can't give a bit more to help move our country in the right direction."
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