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Saturday, August 06, 2005
A Piece on Iraq War Heroes in the New York Times?This is terrific: ONE soldier fought off scores of elite Iraqi troops in a fierce defense of his outnumbered Army unit, saving dozens of American lives before he himself was killed. Another soldier helped lead a team that killed 27 insurgents who had ambushed her convoy. And then there was the marine who, after being shot, managed to tuck an enemy grenade under his stomach to save the men in his unit, dying in the process.
Their names are Sgt. First Class Paul R. Smith, Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester and Sgt. Rafael Peralta. If you have never heard of them, even in a week when more than 20 marines were killed in Iraq by insurgents, that might be because the military, the White House and the culture at large have not publicized their actions with the zeal that was lavished on the heroes of World War I and World War II.Hmmm, might it also be because the media, which traditionally has played a major role in promoting heroes, doesn't want to in this war? I certainly didn't experience any difficulties in finding and posting stories on Smith, Hester, and Peralta.
The Reality-Based Community? Part LVMatt Taibbi claims he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to yet another rehash of the Ohio story. But now he's convinced the Republicans stole the election. You know what the trouble is, Matt? It's the boy who cried wolf. Liberals have brought this up time and again, and time and again they've been proven wrong. So even if you have a good case this time around, we're sick of it, just as you were sick of hearing the latest twist and turn in the Whitewater saga. But (of course), Matt does not have a good case, as we shall see. That in itself didn't make the Ohio story illegitimate. It did, however, make it something I wanted to avoid precisely because I disliked George Bush. On some level I suspected that the more publicity the Ohio mess got, the more discredited Bush's political opponents would be in the end. The media, I knew, would dismiss the Ohio story in exactly the casually vicious manner described above—as hysteria, as the delusional work of professional conspiracy theorists, as the behavior of sore losers unable to accept George Bush's clear popular victory.
That last part, incidentally, was the formulation most journalists used when picking their official excuse for ignoring the '04 Ohio story. Because Bush really did win the popular vote, they argued, there was no point in investigating a possible electoral fraud in Ohio, because no one had really been cheated out of office.No, Matt. They didn't ignore the Ohio story. They looked into it, saw it was being raised by the usual gang of idiots, and decided it was nothing. Quite sensible on their part, actually. They didn't say, Ohio doesn't matter because Bush won the popular vote; that would be idiotic since the popular vote doesn't mean squat. Even when they had a completely plausible excuse to at least investigate the Ohio charges on their own—after Michigan congressman John Conyers issued a lengthy report detailing the Ohio indiscretions—the big dailies still blew off the case. The New York Times mentioned the Conyers report only in the context of a 381-word page A16 item in January about John Kerry endorsing the election results ("Election Results to Be Certified, With Little Fuss From Kerry," 1/16/05). That piece ended with a quote by Dennis Hastert, who dismissed the Conyers report as the work of the "loony left."Exactamundo. Conyers is a goofball partisan for the Democrats. Conyers started with the conclusion and then attempted to find the facts that would fit that conclusion. • In conservative, Bush-friendly Miami County, voter turnout was an Uzbekistan-esque 98.55 percent.
• In Warren county, election officials locked down the administration building and prevented reporters from observing the ballot counting, citing a "terrorist threat" (described as being a "10" on a scale of 1 to 10) that had been reported to them by the FBI. The FBI made no such report. Recounts conducted during this lockdown resulted in increased votes for Bush.
• In Franklin County, 4,258 votes were cast for Bush in a precinct where there were only 800 registered voters.Sigh. This last one was a computer error that was definitely fixed. Back in November. A computer error involving one voting-machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct.
Franklin County’s unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry’s 260 votes in Precinct 1B, which votes at New Life Church on Stygler Road. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.
Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said Bush received 365 votes there.
The remaining 13 voters who cast ballots either voted for other candidates or did not vote for president.
Damschroder said he received some calls yesterday from people who saw the error when reading the list of poll results on the election board’s Web site.
"It’s why the results on election night are unofficial," Damschroder said.
The error would have been discovered when the official canvass for the election is performed, he said.
Election workers will start certifying the official election results later this month. The final, official tally will be available by the end of the month. Miami County, where the turnout was supposedly 98.55%? I don't know where Matt got that number but it's clearly wrong. I don't have a way of finding out how many registered voters there are, but I was able to check the population. Miami County had 100,230 people as of 2003, according to the Census Bureau. There were a total of 51,757 votes for President counted in Miami. Ergo the percentage of the population that voted in 2004 was 52%. How does that compare with surrounding counties? County Population Votes Percentage Miami 100,230 51,757 51.6% Shelby 48,566 22,855 47.1% Chmpgn 39,544 18,776 47.5% Clark 143,351 68,807 48.0% Greene 151,257 79,278 52.4% Mntgmry 552,187 282,574 51.2% Darke 52,960 26,313 49.7% As you can see, Miami's not out of line with its neighbors. This is typical sore loserman stuff, and if the Democrats think they're going to fool anybody with it, they're going to be sadly disappointed.
Hanoi Jane's Old Hubby's BackWhat was his name again--Tom Fonda? Oh, that's right, Tom Hayden. He's posting over at the HuffPo. Think he's learned anything in the last 40 years? In response to calls from peace groups, an ad hoc coalition of Congress members will begin hearings on an Iraq exit strategy next month. Here is a working paper to that end:Don't you just love the way he uses words like "ad-hoc coaltion" and "working paper" and "exit strategy"? You can tell this is a serious man. Next think you know he'll be throwing words around like "grassroots". It's the typical tired old nonsense reheated from Hayden's "working papers" in the 1960s.
Lampley at Air America?Buried in this article of sports-related musings: Showing great range, Jim Lampley, an occasional stand-in for Jim Rome, went to his left to guest-host on Air America radio.Lampley's posts over at Airiheadda's blog have been risible; it would have been entertaining to hear his moonbattery on the radio.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Update on Air America!(Welcome, fellow Michelle Malkin readers! I also have a long post below on Air America's ratings in the top 20 markets in the country.) Although Rob Glaser supposedly was only involved with the Airheads at Air America since the election (see this Seattle Weekly Article), the Leather Penguin documented Glaser's early involvement with America's most buffoonish radio network in one of his first posts. Good catch!
Blogtroversy on the Right Side of the Aisle?--Updated!(Welcome Politburo Diktat and Captain's Quarters' Readers!) Couple of interesting battles going on right now. Rachel has a good summary of the La Shawn Barber dust-up, which Aaron also covered over at Lifelike yesterday. Meanwhile, the Commissar has taken a good whacking to Power Line: ACVR and Powerline - too stupid for words. Ironically, they have both exacerbated the problems they pretend to address. ACVR is allegedly concerned with voter fraud, so they issue a slanted report under false pretenses. Powerblind, a leading powerful blog, “the voice of the new media!” is allegedly going to expose the old media’s sloppy, partisan, poorly researched, agenda-driven nonsense. So they blindly repeat ACVR’s sloppy, partisan, poorly researched, agenda-driven nonsense. The whole point of the blogosphere, it’s only value to our ongoing national debate, is its ability to fact-check and “keep honest” the Dan Rathers and the Howard Deans. This is not the first time Powerblind has acted like old media.ACVR is the American Center for Voting Rights. They issued a report which got pretty much wall-to-wall coverage on the conservative blogs, stating that the Democrats were far more guilty of voter intimidation than Republicans in 2004. Now, according to several posts, it appears that ACVR is a Republican front group. I don't know the truth of it; Captain Ed reports that at least one of the two signers of the report is an unreconstructed liberal. But I do find it highly suspicious that their "About Us" page doesn't identify the people involved in the group. I checked the database at Open Secrets for some of the names that I found on the ACVR site. Jim Dyke is show as the media contact; there are four shown, but I'd guess that the most likely candidate is the one shown as having donated $500 to President Bush, and whose occupation is the Republican National Committee. Brian A. Lunde, whom Captain Ed identifies as a former Carter staffer (See Update), is shown as donating $2000 to President Bush's campaign. The Commissar points out that a Barbara A Lunde, also of Arlington and the same zip code, also donated $2,000 to President Bush. Not sure if they're husband and wife, but I did locate a reference here (PDF file) to Brian and Barbara Lunde donating to North Dakota State University. Here's a reference to Brian A. Lunde on GOP.com today. Brian A. Lunde, Former DNC Executive Director: "This Is An Issue That Affects Each And Every American, Regardless Of Party." (CoMPASS, "Influential Senior Group Leader And Former Democratic Party Official Join CoMPASS Advisory Board," Press Release, 5/6/05)Update: Captain Ed has acknowledged that apparently Lunde has joined us here on the dark side. ;) The Republican side of the blogosphere is generally willing to criticize and correct our own, and especially to correct ourselves when we're proven wrong on the facts. When we have differences of opinion among ourselves, on, say stem-cell abortion or intelligent design, or whether women have the sensibilities to be President, things become more scrappy. And I actually assume that the report is pretty accurate in terms of what it describes. But it's fair to strongly criticize the report as the left is doing as coming from a bunch of apparent Republican operatives, because that also tells me that their estimates of the scale might be wrong. That is, they would tend to doubt reports from the Democrats more than they would those from the Republicans. It's a bias we are all prone to--at Kerry Haters I definitely reported and investigated Kerry a lot more than I did the President. And I'm certainly not associating myself in general with the Commissar's argument on Power Line itself. The Power Line guys made the mistake of linking to a story that a lot of people linked to, that a media source had already cited, that many other bloggers had trumpeted. If anything, they were late to the story (as they were this evening with the link to McEachern's column). I agree with the Commissar probably a bit more than I do with Power Line, but they generally play fair and I suspect they will acknowledge their error in relying on this report as well. La Shawn's a terrific blogger, but as I commented over at Tinkerty Tonk, closing off discussion of what she must have known was a contentious statement is not the way to debate. La Shawn may think she's here to deliver the truth to her adoring public, (which for the most part, I'm part of, I should add) but blog readers are all looking for well-expressed arguments on both sides that we can weigh in our minds and decide which to carry forward. If she's got a good argument as to why women generally don't have the sensibilities to run the country (and I'd be willing to bet she does), then put it forward into the community of ideas that is the blogosphere at its best. On the general question raised in her post, I think she's right. There are very, very few women I'd trust to run the country. On the specific question of Dr Rice, I tend to agree with those who express doubt that she's really up for a run at the White House, but if she wanted to I'd be willing to listen to her pitch, because she's got the spine for the job. Liddy Dole, maybe--she's smart enough. Beyond that, though, you've really gotta think hard. The Republican female Senators? The Republican female governors (are there any?)? Among Democratic women Janet Napolitano's probably the most realistic candidate aside from Hillary and if you don't think that's a joke you don't know Janet.
How's Air America Really Doing?A lot of the liberal posters over at Radio Equalizer are yapping that Air America's doing great in Denver, or Greenville South Carolina, or someplace similar. The irony is of course, that they may be doing well in those markets in listenership, but are they going to have an impact? Bush won South Carolina by 17 percentage points in 2004 and Colorado by four and a half. And Greeneville is hardly a large market; Arbitron ranks it 59th in the country. So here's a look at how Air America is doing in the largest 20 markets. 1. New York: Air America ranks 24th, with a 1.0 share, down from 1.2 in the prior quarter. 2. Los Angeles: AA ranks 31st, with a 0.8 share, but that is a pretty hefty jump from the prior quarter's 0.3 share. LA's a fairly new market for AA and so the growth rate and the ranking aren't really indicative of future performance. 3. Chicago: WCPT does not register, but there is a note that the call letters were changed from WAIT which is not listed either. I believe this is another new market for Air America; there was a big problem with the LA and Chicago affiliates almost immediately after the launch, so it looks like they are just getting established in these two cities. 4. San Francisco: KQKE ranks 24th with a 1.2 rating as compared to the prior quarter's 1.0. 5. Dallas: KXEB is tied for 38th with a 0.5 rating, but again, the station hasn't been around long enough to establish itself. 6. Philadelphia: As I have noted before, WHAT dropped off the Arbitron ratings because they were too low to be measured. This means that at a maximum they were rated 0.4, and would rank at least 29th in the market. And Air America can't claim that this one's due to a new station not yet finding its audience. 7. Houston: Air America appears to have no affiliate in Houston. 8. Washington, DC: WWRC is not registering a pulse on Arbitron, which means they are at best 31st in the market with a 0.4 share. 9. Boston: Boston is so liberal that they have two Air America affiliates, but neither WKOS or WXKS are showing up in the rankings. If we assume that they both just missed and that their ratings should be combined, they'd be at a 0.8 share and ranked in a tie for 24th. 10. Detroit: WDTW-AM doesn't show up in the rankings, so at best they're 30th in the market. 11. Atlanta: WWAA doesn't show up in the rankings, so they're at best 23rd. 12. Miami: WINZ seems to be doing quite well, with a 2.0 rating (up from 1.2 in the prior quarter), which ranks it 23rd. 13. Puerto Rico: No Air America Affiliate. 14. Seattle: KPTK ranks 24th with a 1.4 rating, down from 1.5 in the prior quarter. 15. Phoenix: KXXT ranks 23rd with a 1.1 rating, up from 0.8 in the prior quarter. 16. Minneapolis: KTNF ranks 18th (last shown) with a 1.0 rating, up from 0.9 in the prior quarter. 17. San Diego: KLSD (appropriate, eh?) has a 1.7 rating, up from 1.6, which ranks them in a tie for 22nd. 18. Long Island, NY: No Air America affiliate. 19. St. Louis: No Air America affiliate. 20. Baltimore: No Air America affiliate. So in sum, Air America ranks above 20th only in one major market (Minneapolis). Only in Miami have they got even a 2.0 rating. They are showing growth in some markets, but the good news has to be leavened with the markets where they don't even register a blip.
Must Be Nothing Important for the NY City Council to AccomplishIf they can spend their time passing resolutions like this.
Lies, Damn Lies, and the New York TimesTom Maguire catches the Times making an obvious statistical boner. However, will Maguire point out the statistical flaw in this statement in the same Times piece with the same vigor? And while the Yankees trail the Red Sox on the road, they still lead the majors in home attendance, trailed by the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals.How about some adjustments to that one, Mr M? By the same type of calculation, surely the Red Sox are leading the majors in home attendance?
But How Did He Do On the Windmill Hole?Reuters reporting on the extraordinary abilities of Kim Jong-Il: Kim pilots jet fighters, pens operas, produces movies and accomplished a feat unmatched in the annals of professional golf by shooting 11 holes-in-one on the first round he ever played.It is believed that this picture is the first ever taken of a man holding his breath for 24 hours: 
Air America UpdatesCaptain Ed has two new posts on the subject. One concerns the apparent fact that Air America will be paying back the loans without interest (such a deal!). The second notes that the Arizona Republic has actually run the story before the New York Times, which presumably should be aware of such goings-on in their own backyard. Of course, we have seen this before. Captain Ed highlights the treatment of Yellowcake Joe Wilson before and after his claims were proven false. But we saw the same thing with Kerry's excellent Christmas in Cambodia, and his attendance at a meeting of the VVAW. In both cases the Times tried desperately to ignore the story, and when their avoidance became the story, they slipped it into the 67th paragraph of a story that ostensibly concerned something else. Prediction: The Times will cover the story sometime in the next week. But it will not be the focus of the article. Instead, they will print a long story on how successful AA is in Denver and Portland, how the conservatives' nasty predictions about how long the network would last were proven wrong, and how Al Franken's increased presence has led to speculation that he's going to smash Norm Coleman. And, in the 39th paragraph they'll mention this controversy over a loan that's being repaid. Michael Barone covers the story as well. One thing that the New York Times should catch onto: The blogs aren't like newspapers. We don't need new information necessarily to cover a story. Instead we can make the non-coverage by the MSM the story, and it's a story that we can post over and over again. Day 6 of New York Held Hostage. Day 7: Leaks in the Dam? Day 8: Times still refuses to cover.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Dumb ChoicesHard to know where to start with this one. Seattle Weekly, which I'd guess is an "alternative" newspaper, has an annual "Best Of" issue. Not uncommon, but I'd guess that few of those alternative papers have a "Best Political Donor" award. Their choice is Rob Glaser, the founder of Real Networks, which makes the ubiquitous Real Player for internet streaming of audio and video. But get why they give him the award: Glaser gave most of his political donations, $1.9 million, to America Coming Together (ACT), a get-out-the-vote group run by Harold Ickes, President Bill Clinton's former deputy chief of staff, and Steve Rosenthal, former political director for the AFL-CIO. Last December, after President Bush's re-election, Glaser did not despair. Instead, he became chair of the board and a key investor in Air America, a provider of progressive talk radio programming to stations nationwide. Both investments demonstrate Glaser's political smarts.Well, let's see. ACT closed its doors yesterday, and Airhead America is on the ropes ( except in Denver!).
I Hate to Say I Told You So....Actually I don't hate to say that at all, especially when my predicted outcome is good. Last night, commenting on how close Paul Hackett came to winning the special election, I noted that it might be the worst thing that ever happened to the Democrats. Well, it looks like I was right. Check out this post (some profanity) over at Swing State Project, the liberal blog that really flogged the left wing for donations to Paul Hackett's campaign: Spot on. I never thought I'd say this, but I agree 100% with The New Republic on this one. Because the spirit of the Dean campaign is not alive and well in the DCCC. Last year the DCCC did the Ohio second congressional district their way, the Democratic nominee had $16,000 for the entire race, so the incumbent was able to spend all year traveling the country and raising money for embattled Republicans. This year, we did OH-02 the Howard Dean 50 State Strategy way of fighting in every precinct, in every district, in every state -- every single day. It forced a lot of Republican money from Washington to be wasted and we did 40 percentage points better.
Democrats need to stop judging success on Election Day. We need to start evaluating ourselves every day. Did we win today? Thats what needs to be asked in every race, every day. If we can make this simple mindset change, we'll win more races in the long run and stop compromising.
Yesterday, DCCC Chair Rahm Emanuel said:
Every Republican in Congress should consider himself put on notice."
That is total bullsh*t and the vast majority of Republicans in Congress know that the DCCC is going to give them the same treatment in 2006 that they gave OH-02 in 2004.Translation: The left wing bloggers are not going to target their support for candidates based on electability. This seems to be a theme of Howard Dean's that I have commented on in the past. Resources (both money and labor) are limited during a general election, so it is the responsibility of the party chairman to allocate those resources to elections where the party stands a chance. It would have made zero sense, for example, for the Republicans to run ads for President Bush in Massachusetts last year. They could not have won that state no matter how much time and money they spent there. Swing State apparently thinks that if the national party had poured more resources into Ohio's second district in 2004, they could have prevented the incumbent Republican (Bob Portman) from going around the country raising money for other Republicans. That's silly for two reasons: 1. He won by over 40 percentage points. 2. Just how much money can Bob Portman raise around the country for other candidates? Remember the Dean Dozen? Howard Dean designated 14 candidates (three were running as a ticket) as the Dean Dozen and urged his supporters to send them money. Care to guess how many of them won? Three, one of which was running unopposed, and another (Barack Obama) of which might as well have been unopposed. So in essence he picked 12 candidates and ONE of them won. That's a pretty lousy percentage, and in large part it reflects the poor choices Dean made. He chose whom to support on the basis of ideology and not on the basis of electability.
In The Right Place CelebrationsOur buddy Mr Right has done pretty well for himself lately. He hit the 10,000 visitor mark a few weeks ago, then zoomed straight to over 25,000 visitors thanks to several links from Lorie Byrd at Polipundit and one from Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs. He's now a large mammal in the TTLB ecosystem, a status I have never achieved either here or at Kerry Haters (Brainster's is currently a marauding marsupial, one step below mammal). With the growth in traffic and recognition, Mr Right has smartly decided to expand his blog to include Stephen Johnson, a frequent commenter over at Polipundit. Stephen's first post is on John Bolton, and shows that the quality level at In the Right Place will remain excellent. Congrats to Mr R and Stephen. I am sure that there will be many more milestones to come over at In the Right Place.
Ostalgia?That's apparently the term used in Germany for those who are nostalgic for the good old days of East (Ost) Germany. They want to bring back Lenin: Visitors to Berlin are often disappointed to find very few remnants of the communist era, unlike other cities formerly under the Soviet yoke such as Budapest which has a park to house statues from the period.
Even traces of the Berlin Wall are hard to find. So the decision to resurrect the statue of the founder of the Soviet Union has been welcomed by tourist chiefs.
"It is bound to become an instant tourist attraction," said Gerhard Bucholz, from Berlin Tourism Marketing Ltd.Sounds like a must-see to me!
Marathon Woman?John Ruberry, who runs marathons for fun (he's a sick puppy!) is very skeptical about Fatina Abdrabboh's claim to be training for the Boston Marathon.
How to Read the HuffPoGreg Gutfeld has the decoder ring: Read any post, take the opposing point of view, and you arrive at common sense. An example:
On the blog, gossip journalist Richard Bradley displays his usual humility by criticizing London cops. He wrote that the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes was due to "a collection of small [but significant] police mistakes, lack of training, and heightened anxiety. In other words, unjustifiable."
Here is the opposite: "if you're in THE UK illegally with an expired visa and forged documents, and you're in the subway a week or so after a terrorist attack that happened to also occur in the subway, don't ignore police orders and run. If you do, police will think you're involved in something far more serious than an immigration violation. We all feel terrible, but people who are living among terrorists are willing to risk one small tragedy (a shooting) over a mass tragedy (a bombing)."
Just by reversing the logic, you suddenly understand the huge dilemma all people are dealing with everyday, on the subway. And you also scare people like Richard Bradley into minding their own business.
(Note: this also works amazingly with Trey Ellis's posts. When he says divorce is great because he can bang his girlfriend whenever he wants, what he's really saying is "weak, self-centered people should not get married or reproduce")Hat Tip: Conservative Grapevine
With Enemies Like These...Fidel Castro decided to bash John Bolton. That's bad enough for the Left in this country, but he decided to bash him with the New York Times: "The longer John Bolton’s Senate hearing for the post of United Nations representative went on," Castro raved to the suffering crowd, "the more outrageous it seemed that President Bush could have nominated this man!"
Much applause erupted here (his honored guests knew they were being watched. They wanted their starvation rations that week.) "Mr. Bolton tried to have an intelligence analyst punished for stopping him from making false claims about a weapons program in another nation, notably Cuba! He's a kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" (unlike Castro, I suppose) and this intimidation had a lasting effect on his department!"
Castro was simply reading from a (translated) New York Times article dated April 13th titled "Questioning Mr Bolton." Castro spent three-fourths of his time at the lectern reading from the article verbatim, spicing it up with exclamation marks and a few quips of his own. "See what kind of man this Mr Bolton is?" He asked while poking his finger skyward and arching his eyebrows. "This is one of those people who can walk on his long tongue, (much laughter here, for the same reason I mentioned above) They’d better watch him! This Mr Bolton is a Liar! A Cynic!--a Gangster!"
The rest of Castro's speech came mostly from Newsweek and the Washington Post. And who could blame him? Why put Cuba's propaganda ministers to work fashioning anti-Yankee diatribes and puff pieces on himself when he can simply pick up America's Mainstream media? For almost half a century now they've served him handily. During the Elian circus, in particular, they merited honors. Much better to put my captive propagandists to cutting sugar cane, rather than duplicating the work of the Yankee media, he reasons.
Air America Signs Off In Lake TahoeThe Tahoe (CA) Daily Tribune reports that the local Air America affiliate is going back "Downtown": Hold the phone. KTHO-AM 590 returned Monday to its musical roots of Barbara Streisand and Petula Clark - but with a new twist.
Air America is out, and local news is in. The South Lake Tahoe radio station plans to beef up its news offering by hiring a reporter to hit the streets, gathering community news. News director Larry Kay hired Jeff Grice of KRKC in King City to come on board Aug. 15.Hey, when you can get the hot new talent out of King City to replace Al Franken, you don't hesitate! Larry Kay may not have needed "a gentle hand to guide" him along on this no-brainer. When Air America is on its way out in the playground for the wealthy in Northern California, things have gotta be grim.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Another Blog Worth ReadingFlopping Aces tracked back to one of my posts the other day and I liked what he wrote enough to pull it out to the main page. But when I read this I knew he was worth blogrolling: It's amazing to me sometimes to watch how wishy washy people get about war. We defeated and put in jail one of the worst dictators in the region and we freed millions of people who now have a freely elected goverment while only losing 1,821 soldiers over 2 and half years. Yes, every death is regrettable...but this a all-volunteer military we have here. When I joined the Marines I knew what I was in for. I knew I may die defending my country and I was proud to do it just as I know every single one of those who have died in Iraq were proud to serve.Curt writes a smart and interesting blog with lots of hero-related posts.
Further Thoughts on HackettLots of talk among the right wing blogs about whether Hackett means anything. The Right Angle Blog says the Democrats can claim victory: Unlike many of our blogging friends, we here are worried at the implications for the Ohio Republican Party and they should be worried too, they took this race for granted, and they almost blew it.That's reasonable; my main quibble is with the post's title. Rather than "Democrats Can Claim Victory", how about "Republicans Nearly Blow It, But May Be the Big Winners"? Why? Because this has given the hard Left their head of steam heading into 2006. The argument the left wing has advanced as to why John Kerry didn't win in 2004 is that he wasn't tough enough on President Bush. If only they'd nominated Dean, he'd be in the White House right now. So Hackett comes along, runs a red-meat to the wolves campaign except for his TV ads, covers the spread and nearly wins. Advantage to the idiot side of the Democratic party. If that analysis sounds facile, it is. But the Democrats are facile at this point. They sense that they're adift in this horrific conservative nation with very little chance of regaining power. So they grasp at whatever thin reed they can find. The Left is fairly strong within the Democratic party right now and Hackett's "overwhelming victory" will give them the false confidence to argue within the party for a more agressive anti-Bush stance. In 2006 they will be disproportionately strong in the primary stage, and there is already talk of purges of those deemed insufficiently deferential to the desires of the left wing bloggers. The Democrats are the big losers yesterday. Indeed, looked at in this light, a win for Hackett might have been the best outcome the Republicans could have imagined.
More Thumbsucking on HiroshimaI disagree with the tone of this article, but I do find the points the author raises about conservatives condemning the use of the atomic bomb back in the 1940s and 1950s interesting. Perhaps this is one of those cases where Left and Right have turned 180 degrees on the issue? That is, when the liberals began to actively question the use of the bomb in the 1970s, did the conservatives hustle around to the other side?
Some Good Guy StuffOur buddy John has an update at Operation Soldier. Operation Soldier will be on hand at a minor-league ballgame in Fresno, with a ceremonial first pitch, a brief announcement to the crowd, and a booth, where they will be on hand to answer your questions and accept contributions. The game takes place on Saturday, August 6th, so if you're going to be in the Fresno area, definitely take it in. Operation Soldier is a terrific cause and deserves our support. Our other buddy Chris at Lucky Dawg has some thoughts on the Dukes of Hazzard movie, and excellent photos of his trip to the Bataan Death March Memorial (scroll down a bit). BTW, the Mike McNaughton shown in one of the photos is the same guy who appeared with President Bush in a famed photo of the two of them jogging that still chokes me up when I see it.
End of ACT; Will Media Matters Be Next?The Washington Post reports on the shuttering of the liberal 527 ACT (Americans Coming Together). By all measures but one, ACT and the Media Fund were a great success, helping to turn out record numbers of new voters.Of course, we all know what that one measure was: Victory! The question is how long can Media Matters hold out?
An Email From Paul HackettA long time ago I signed up on the Dean website so I could comment on their blog. I occasionally get emails from the Democracy For America group, and today I got one from Mr Hackett: A Victory for America (Hackett & I agree!) Yesterday, one of the reddest regions in America turned a whole lot bluer.
I ran in a special election to serve in the United States House of Representatives from the 2nd District of Ohio. I am a Marine recently returned from Iraq, a husband, a father, an attorney, and a Democrat.
When I won the Democratic primary for this contest, few people believed we had a shot at victory. But DFA put its faith in me -- and went to work organizing on the ground and online. Your support helped build the greatest Democratic get-out-the-vote effort this district has ever known.
While we didn't pull out a victory yesterday -- we came incredibly close. We got 48 percent of the vote. And in those results rests hope for the future.
It had been 15 years since a Democratic candidate for Congress received more than 30 percent of the vote in Ohio's 2nd District and decades since a Democrat held the seat. Your support helped me improve Democratic performance by nearly 20 percent. This is a victory for democracy. And if we can do this in Ohio -- we can do it anywhere.
Join me, and help DFA elect Democrats in Ohio and across the country:
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/bat
We have the power to win back Congress. Yesterday proved it. And DFA is on the front lines of the fight -- determined, hopeful and fearless.
I believe we can change this country. I believe we can win in every state -- and I know that you do too. Please join me today:
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/bat
Thank you,
Paul Hackett
Lessons from the Hackett/Schmidt RacePat Hynes analyzes the race and has some lessons for both sides. Of course, we all know that only one side will be listening. Bruising primaries are still a problem for Republicans. Despite talk of the GOP being a ‘machine,’ the fact remains that there are altogether too many aggressive GOP primaries, which tend to weaken the eventual nominee. That was the case in OH-02. Democrats very often will anoint a single candidate to run for a competitive seat, dedicating all their resources to him or her. Maybe it’s our individualistic mindsets, but Republicans tend to duke it out. And that can often be counterproductive.
Fatina's Sports Illustrated ColumnInspired by this: Next assignment: An op-ed in the Washington Post about the rise of anti-Muslim discrimination when she doesn't get the right change back at Krispy Kreme.I could sense the hostility of the baseball fans around me as I made my way to my seat at Fenway Park. Was it because of my hijab, the traditional Muslim scarf I wear? I could hear muttered comments about "Why doesn't she go back where she came from?" I felt like nobody was giving me credit for being an American. Did I have to wear a sweatshirt that read "Terrorism Sucks"? A sudden gust of wind (or was it an angry person who sees all Muslims as the enemy) blew my hijab off. I felt the weight of the world crushing down on me. Just then a man tapped me on the shoulder. To my surprise and delight it was none other than John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 nominee for President. "Here's your hijab, Ma'am," he said. 
Air America Scandal UpdateMichelle Malkin wonders where the race hustlers are. A bunch of rich white folks stealing from poor black kids, and Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are silent? If a conservative radio network had been entangled in a scam to steal from black children to line the pockets of wealthy white con artists, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would already be staging hunger strikes in protest. But both have hefty political and financial stakes in Air America's success — and the big mouths aren't about to badmouth their friends.She also comes up with a financial reason why the aggrieved minorities have stayed relatively silent. Come on, Jesse, you know you want to say it. It's another Selma!
This is Pretty FunnyScott Burgess, who caught the Guardian employing the talents of a young jihadi, returns with a vigorous fisking of this post at Cernig's News Hog. Cernig, commenting on an op-ed writer for the London Times, calls him "a known racist", and presents this evidence: You wil no doubt find it as interesting as I did that Browne enters into friendly correspondence with V-Dare, an online journal of the Center For American Unity where you will find such gems as "black men have on average 3 to 19 percent more testosterone than white men"...Burgess did a little digging and found that the bit about more testosterone appeared originally under the byline of that well-known racist Andrew Sullivan, and appeared in that known racist publication the New York Times. Blogging at its best!
The Professional Grievance Monger Is BaaaaackFatina Abdrabboh returns with another tale of woe about hijab prejudice in Massachusetts: I can't help wondering if the fact that I'm identifiably Muslim through my hijab, or scarf, is so potent that the only response I evoke is anger.
Last month, while driving home from the airport, I managed to get lost in construction detours. I rolled down my window and asked a woman in the car next to me for directions: "Will this road take me into Cambridge?" I couldn't believe my eyes when she ignored my question and rolled up her window.If only it had been Al Gore! Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin, who points to this humorous fisking of Fatina. Also, be sure to check out this hilarious fisking by Bulldog Pundit. But what's my excuse? Do my two gold chains, one with a cross pendant, and the other with an "Italian Horn", along w/ my gold bracelet mean that the people who haven't given me directions are prejudiced against Italians?
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Schmidt Beats Hackett(Welcome Polipundit readers! Thanks, Lorie!) The left will try to claim that Hackett got a far better percentage of the vote in this district than did Kerry, but the fact of the matter is that he tried to sell himself as Bush's buddy in ads, however much red meat he served up to the Kos Kidz. "Voters declared that they support our president and approve of his leadership," Ms. Schmidt, 53, told supporters gathered at a suburban Holiday Inn late Tuesday evening. "They want us to stay the course so the enemies of freedom cannot bring their terrorism to our shores again."Note that the Times highlights how well Hackett did, selling the message that this was not a defeat for the Democrats: But Mr. Hackett's showing was unexpectedly strong in this district, a Republican bastion that snakes along the Ohio River from affluent Cincinnati suburbs to struggling Appalachian hamlets. President Bush won the district with 64 percent of the vote last year, and Republicans have held its Congressional seat for two decades.Dems are on a roll--lost in 2000, lost in 2002, lost in 2004, and they've just lost in 2005. They're in trouble in 2006, defending more Senate seats in states where Bush won than the Republicans are with seats in states Kerry won. John Hawkins does a little well-deserved gloating. But of course, it's a overwhelming victory for the Left says Swing State Project. We have sent a powerful message for 2006 tonight, and over the past several weeks. Close the book on round one, an overwhelming victory of us.Hatrios says: A win would've been great, but I certainly didn't expect to do this well. One of the Kos Kidz: No spin - the GOP is on the run.Let's get real. Turnout in this election was about 114,000 voters. Turnout in 2004 was 308,000. Hackett, with the left-wing blogosphere exercising its organzational muscle, managed to get about 60% of the voters who supported the Democratic candidate in 2004 to pull the lever for him. Schmidt, with the right-wing blogs essentially asleep, was only about to get about 25% of 2004 Republican voters out to the polls. The left can't devote all those resources to every race in 2006. Let's hope that the Democrats buy into Swing State's theory that this validates the 50-state project. They'll waste time and resources on unwinnable races.
Gonzo Journalism at the Young RepublicansHere's a post over at the Kos Kidz about a young Democrat's encounter with the wild beasts of the young Republicans. It's entertaining, if profane and obviously clueless, as this passage reveals: Everyone thinks Liberals are all about being tolerant and accepting other people's points of views while Conservatives are selfish and inclusive, but the exact opposite is true.There is no way to make sense of that statement, other than to assume that Avi doesn't know the meaning of many of the words he uses, like "inclusive" and "opposite". Not to mention "Everyone" and "thinks".
More on the Intelligent Design Versus Evolution ArgumentThis story really heated up nicely. Rick's post got picked up by Instapundit, The Commissar and elsewhere. As I've already said, I don't really know much about ID, so instead I'd like to talk about how both sides use this issue. Robert Reich, who's not one of my favorite people to say the least, said something pretty intelligent once on NPR. He was talking about the minimum wage and why it came up as an issue every couple years. He thought it would be a lot more logical to just peg the minimum wage to the CPI and be done with it. That's not the intelligent thing he said; I don't favor pegging the minimum wage to the CPI. But he went on to explain why Congress didn't do it. It was because the debate over the minimum wage gave both sides a chance to posture to their respective constituencies. Republicans could point out to small businesses that they had battled to keep the increase to a small amount, while the Democrats could not to organized labor that they'd moved it up a buck or two over a period of time. Something similar goes on with the evolution controversy. Republicans pander to the ID crowd, Democrats pander to the secular humanists, and in the end nothing really happens. And I'm just a little leery of the "all scientists agree" formulation. Our side is pretty good about slapping down that statement when it comes to man-caused global warming. Years ago, Carl Sagan felt that he had demonstrated the truth of evolution in the TV series Cosmos. Talking about crabs, he pointed out how crabs in this one area of Japan had developed a pattern on their shells that looked like a human face. Was it God, or was it evolution? Sagan had the answer. Over the years, superstitious crab fishermen had thrown back the crabs that had the facial patter on their shells, so that the crabs who had it had stayed alive to have more baby crabs than the ones who didn't. Of course, Sagan never explained what happened to the crab fishermen; did they evolve to the point where they had less compunction about keeping the crabs with the human faces? But more important, this does not prove evolution; it proves natural selection, which is a part of evolution.
Please Remove Your Shoes Before Breaking Down DoorThis is via The Sun, so it may be phony, but Danegerus has a good take.
There Are No Second ACTs in American LifeCaptain Ed posts that according to John Fund's Political Diary, Americans Coming Together aka ACT, one of George Soros' pet projects run by Hillary Clintonista Harold Ickes, has quietly closed its doors. There's no mention of this on the website, but I note that the contribution page is still open. Gerry Daly has more.
Best Post Header On Air Scamerica?Noticed that a lot of people were coming over here from the TTLB page on Air America. Surfed over there and found this: Embezzlement and the Embezzling Embezzlers Who Embezzle :) Now, that's a great header!
Carnival of the CluelessRick Moran's got more moonbats than you can shake a stick at. BTW, just to show our side is willing to bash our own, check out Rick's (perhaps a bit overly agressive) smackdown of the President on intelligent design. I'm not really up to speed on intelligent design; I think a lot of the focus on evolution pro and con is misplaced. It's just not that important.
Safety BloggingHere's an article about a guy getting ticketed for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk. Yesterday, Mr. Surprise, who is 22, pleaded not guilty to the charge in Toledo Municipal Court. He said he plans to fight the citation on the grounds that the city law discriminates against adult bicyclists.
He said he was riding on the sidewalk that day because it is safer than riding in traffic on Alexis or on some other busy roads.The irony here is that the guy got hit by a car while riding on the sidewalk. I wonder how many times he's been hit by a car while riding in the road? This is something that a lot of people don't understand. Riding on the sidewalk is very dangerous for bicyclists, even though it gives them a false sense of security. Why? Because nobody stops their car at the sidewalk to check for oncoming traffic; they stop at the curb. Another big mistake is riding against the traffic. Again, it gives the rider a false sense of security: I can see everybody coming at me. The problem comes when somebody is pulling out of a side street or a driveway and turning right. When you're turning your car right, which way do you look? You look left. Nobody bothers looking right because nothing's supposed to be there.  See the problem? Unless the bicyclist is going slowly, he's going to plow into the side of the car. Many cyclists assume that the car will stop for them and speed up in this situation, potentially turning it into disaster. Riding with the traffic is much safer, because when somebody's pulling out of a side street, they always have to look left and will see you, no matter which direction they're turning. Very few people would allow their kids to ride a bike without a helmet these days. How many teach them not to ride on the sidewalk or against the traffic?
Hackett Versus SchmidtThis is a congressional special election that the libs have been pushing for a good month now as a chance to send a message to pResident Bushron. Hackett's been running a cunning race, embracing Bush's policies in ad buys but bashing him as a "chickenhawk" on the stump. Ankle-Biting Pundits was covering the moonbats on this last week. Polipundit says that if Hackett wins, the flag-burners win. (Love the picture on that post). John Hawkins says that it's an easy win for the Republicans; Bush carried the district by 64%-36% in November. This is the libs' one chance at a victory since 1998, however symbolic. Let's hope that Jean Schmidt can deny them.
All You Need to Know About BoltonThe summary of the NY Times OpEd today: President Bush's appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations is terrible news for the U.N.Sounds good to me!
Air ScamericaFrom American Digest:  Much better than Air American Scandal! Michelle Malkin and Captain Ed have roundups off today's NY Sun story. Captain Ed notes the ineptitude of Airhead America's lies on this topic. The initial response was "we didn't get the money from the prior owners and don't intend to pay it back", but now, according to Al Franken, it's "we made arrangements to pay it back starting this month." I liked this bit from the Sun piece: Mr. Franken said that around the time of Air America's launch in March 2004, Mr. Cohen said the radio network could survive for three years without making a profit." It turned out to be three weeks," Mr. Franken said. "We were all shocked." Mr. Franken said his most "charitable" interpretation of the Gloria Wise transfers to Air America was that Mr. Cohen had a "dream and tried to keep it going."
Monday, August 01, 2005
The Republican Ticket That Would Drive Libs NutsOver at Irish Pennants. What's the comparable ticket that would drive us conservatives over the edge? Ted Kennedy and Jane Fonda? Dean and Kos? Al Franken and Arianna Huffington?
Sucker-Cide Bombers ReduxHadn't revisited this theory in awhile; to be honest the attempted second round of bombings rather convinced me that the first round must have been intended. But Michael Leddeen channels a famed spymaster: ML: "Well, officially they seemed pretty confident. I think the main thing was that the three bombs in the subways went off more or less at the same instant, and that suggested there were timers. And then I think they actually found physical evidence of timers."
JJA: "Really. How brilliant. And since when do suicide terrorists need timers? Isn't part of the cult that you get to push your own button and blast off?"
ML: "Well, I think the simultaneity of the three explosions suggested technological coordination, if you see what I mean..."
JJA: "Couldn't they just coordinate their watches? They all met before they set off to kill, didn't they? And they were all well educated, I don't think any of them had a problem telling time."
ML: "Yes, some of the British papers, and a very smart Italian journalist named Guido Olimpio, have suggested that the terrorists were duped, that they didn't expect to be blown up..."
JJA: "Yes, notice that the London police chief was 'puzzled' to discover that the bombers were carrying around their personal identity documents. That's pretty lousy tradecraft, isn't it? It's what led the police to Leeds, where they found explosives and all kinds of leads."Mark Steyn hints at something similar in the Telegraph: The more we know about the events of July 7, the more it seems likely that at least some of the suicide bombers were set up, that they were happy to kill others but not themselves. That's good news: it suggests that the jihad has limited appeal in Leeds, at least as a participatory sport. If, as the clichés have it, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were really creating "a thousand bin Ladens" every day, there'd be bombs on the Tube every day. But, if you have to sucker suicide bombers into signing up for the gig, that indicates a certain operational weakness.
Air America Radio Doing Better and Better! And Better Than That Even!--UpdatedHmmm, interesting comparison here between two posts at Blogcritics by Balletshooz. In this one, which I linked just a day or two ago: Denver's KKZN AM was up 300%This post, by the same person, a few days later: In the previous quarter, KKZN received a 1.6 rating. Thus, KKZN has shown an increase of 25% in just 3 months.Update: Okay, looks like the guy at Blogcritics was right; I tracked down this story on Airhead America in Denver that says the station's rating as of Spring 2004 (prior to the changeover) was 0.5; they pulled that up to 0.9 in the 3rd quarter, 1.6 in the fourth and stayed at 1.6 in the first quarter of 2005, with 2.0 in the latest quarter. From 0.5 to 2.0 is a quadrupling of the audience, or an increase of 300%. Of course, at 0.5 the station was pulling in about 10,750 listeners so even with the dramatic rises, it's about 43,000. But in Denver, it seems safe to say that Air America has shown pretty good growth.
Funeral of a HeroLorie Byrd pointed me to this terrific account by Matt of Froggy Ruminations of a funeral service for a Navy Seal. Get out your hankies! Upon the dismissal of the assembly by the funeral director, the men of SDV Team ONE solemnly formed a single file and approached James’ immaculate wood coffin. One by one, each man removed his Trident from the breast of his uniform and pounded it into the gleaming wooden lid of his coffin. Dozens of golden Tridents were left shimmering in the sun to accompany James on his journey… forever.
The Reality-Based Community? Part LVHere come the impeachment mongers again: Promising a cast of "hundreds of thousands", the anti-war crowd will take their "Impeach President George Bush" agenda right to the front door of the White House, on September 24. While hundreds of thousands of people will pour onto the streets for major anti-war demonstrations, a march will assemble at the White House at 12 noon.
Activists are even bragging that President Bush is fully aware of their impeachment plans: "Haunted by the threat of impeachment, Bush has received the news that he dreaded most."The media will do their best to ignore the kooks and emphasize the "mainstream" people involved with this; expect to see nuns and priests getting sudden respect.
I Actually Did Use Steroids....Before he didn't use them. Rafael Palmeiro, doing his best to prove me wrong.
Right of Center Bloggers List Their Least Favorite ConservativesJohn Hawkins polled a bunch of right-of-center bloggers (including yours truly) on their least favorite folks who are generally considered conservative. The results, not surprisingly break down into a few pretty easily defined categories: Bomb-throwers, RINOs, and bible-thumpers (not a knock, just a description). I'd suspect that there was little overlap in the latter two categories; those who picked James Dobson probably did not also list John McCain. I was surprised a bit that Rush Limbaugh got 5 votes. I can't imagine anybody on our side of the aisle not liking El Rushbo. I'm a little surprised at the #1 pick, mentioned on a full 25% more ballots than anybody else.
Something a Little DifferentI generally link to blogs and stories, not to artwork per se. However I'll make an exception for Marian Jordan Lewandowski, aka Catcher in the Rye. There's something about the photographs on his site that is just hypnotic; I couldn't resist looking at them all. This one's probably my favorite, but this is terrific too.
Frist Preferred Sinking(Welcome Just One Minute readers) If Bill Frist hoped to jump start his presidential campaign with his support of stem cell research, it didn't work, as a look at the values of his shares over at Tradesports reveals:  Tom Maguire has more about Frist and Giuliani.
Telethon to Save Air AmericaMr Right has the transcript. AL FRANKEN: No, thank you, Janeane! And a great big thank you to all the wonderful folks at Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club!
JANEANE GAROFALO: (Whispering) Uhh... ixnay on the Loriagay Iseway, Al!
Air America Story Hits the MSMWell, the NY Sun, anyway. Ms. Graves said that Mr. Cohen also received another $213,000 loan for Air America in a check that was approved without her authorization and stamped with an imprint of her signature, and that the club wired more than $400,000 to him without her knowledge.The Sun, of course, is the tiny newspaper that hits way above their weight by finding the stories that the NY Times is embarrassed to cover. Captain Ed and Michelle Malkin have more, as does Brian at Radio Equalizer who first spotted the story. Amusingly, Michelle dubs the scandal "Air Deadbeat" and both she and Brian have logos for the story:  Brian has other potential logos, but this looks like the winner so far, designed here. Another reaction over at Flopping Aces. The Commissar wonders if Barbara at the Mahablog will issue a retraction. Of course she won't. She'll explain that her post was not about whether the story was true or not (never mind the title "How to Fake News"), but the way it was being "reported". Mr Snitch uncovers the obvious culprit in all this.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Chillin' LinksAt Ryan James'. Definitely worth the trip.
Just a ThoughtLooking at the two maps below, it hit me. One of the biggest differences between liberals and conservatives is where they live. Liberals tend to live in big cities, conservatives in small towns. So when liberals say man is ruining the planet, this is based on their experience in a big city. When liberals say we need more mass transit and fewer cars, that makes excellent sense in a big city. This does indicate one reason the Democrats have declined since the 1960s. Many people would rather raise children in the suburbs than in the cities. As people move out of the cities their needs and desires change, as does their outlook. On the other hand, it doesn't explain everything. For example, why should liberals be soft on crime living in areas where the crime rate is higher?
Who's Ruining the Planet?(Welcome Danegerus and Lifelike Pundits readers!) Interesting pair of maps here. The first is from a New York Times article on man's impact on the environment. Basically, the red areas are where the evil humans have wreaked the most destruction, while the green and yellow areas are the closest to pristine.  Now compare that map with this familiar one of county by county voting patterns:  Unfortunately the colors are reversed here--red is good, blue is bad. But it's pretty obvious that the evil humans who are ruining our planet are the Democrats.
Airhead America on Fire in LA--UpdatedOr so this post would have us believe: In Los Angeles, KFI, the station carrying Rush Limbaugh lost nearly 15% of its market share, dropping from a 4.6 to a 3.9. KABC, another conservative talk station continuing the pattern for right-wing radio, fell from a 2.3 to a 2.1. Air America’s brand-new affiliate KTLK, 1150 AM, gained in the first quarter of its existence, going from a 0.3 to a 0.8, an increase of more than 140%. Most in the radio business say that it takes 18 months for a new station to establish a consistent ratings pattern, but if early indications mean anything, AAR is in for tremendous success in the nations #2 radio market.I do suspect that right-wing talk radio probably suffered a big decline in audience during the first quarter of this year, as compared to the last quarter of 2004. I suspect once the Super Bowl is over, nobody tunes in to sports talk radio until the basketball playoffs roll around. Well, the presidential election is the Super Bowl of talk radio and so naturally the political talkers took a drop. Heck, the political bloggers took a big drop as well--right and left. And I'm very suspicious of this "data": In the fourth quarter of 2004 Al Franken's ratings in New York were 44% of Rush Limbaugh's. In just 3 months that ratio rose to 60%; that is bad news, but not for Air America. In the same New York Winter 2005 ratings, Air America's Randi Rhodes on in the crucial afternoon drive-time, went up 33%, while the conservative talk shows in same time slot on WABC and WOR each went down 33%. Air America's evening show, “The Majority Report” starring Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder went up 100%; while the WOR show in that time slot was flat and the WABC show went down 33%. In total audience, “The Majority Report” was the number one talk show in New York City in its time slot.The New York Arbitron ratings show WLIB (Airhead America's NY affiliate) in 24th position with an average 1.2 rating, while WABC, Rush Limbaugh's home averaged a 3.5. I doubt very strongly that the three shows noted could be charging ahead at the rates indicated while at the same time, the overall ratings were flat at 1.2. Update: Those were the first quarter numbers; the Leather Penguin notes that they're down to 1.0 since then.
Geldof Won't Like ThisHere's an African economist who says that foreign aid is the problem of Africa. To the aid workers charged with saving the dying, the immediate challenge is to raise relief money and get supplies to the stricken areas. They leave it to the economists and politicians to come up with a lasting remedy. One such economist is James Shikwati. He blames foreign aid."When aid money keeps coming, all our policy-makers do is strategize on how to get more," said the Kenya-based director of the Inter Region Economic Network, an African think tank.
"They forget about getting their own people working to solve these very basic problems. In Africa, we look to outsiders to solve our problems, making the victim not take responsibility to change."
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