Our buddy Gaius has another missive from his son in Iraq, on the topic of Israel:
I wonder what would happen in the United States if, say, Mexico began launching artillery rockets into Texas, if the images of destruction and death were coming not from Haifa, but from San Antonio? Would the left wing and the media be crying for moderation and peace talks? Would the world condemn us for taking the fight to them? Some would say that Israel is a contested territory, that hundreds of thousands of Muslims were forcibly removed from their homes, and for that reason, the analogy does not hold up. To those people I say you are wrong, because a large portion of Texas was once under the Mexican flag.
A new poll by InsiderAdvantage shows Johnson leading McKinney 46 percent to 21 percent, with one-third of voters undecided. The survey recorded the responses of 480 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
An analysis of primary election results showed McKinney's support eroding slightly in predominantly black south DeKalb County, her traditional base. Johnson won more votes than McKinney in predominantly white north DeKalb, Rockdale and Gwinnett, according to the analysis.
InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery said his poll detected some interest among Republicans in the race, which would also work against McKinney. In last week's primary, many Republicans stuck to their own races, headlined by the confrontation between Christian Coalition leader-turned-lobbyist Ralph Reed and state Sen. Casey Cagle in the GOP race for lieutenant governor. A poll released by InsiderAdvantage four days before that race showed Reed and Cagle in a dead heat, but Cagle got 56 percent of the vote.
(Answers of course will be posted by commenters, so do the questions first)
1. True or False: Every current NFL Division has one or more teams that have never won the Super Bowl.
2. Which Division has had the fewest Super Bowl Champions?
3. Which Division has the most Super Bowl Champs?
4. What franchise has won more games and more NFL titles counting Super Bowls than any other?
5. Who started at quarterback in 10 consecutive professional football championship games including 6 consecutive NFL title games?
6. What NFL quarterback has won the most postseason games as a starter?
7. I was the starting quarterback for almost all of the season for two NFL teams that are acclaimed as among the greatest of all time, and won MVP awards in both years. And yet I am not in the NFL Hall of Fame. Who am I?
8. Name the three NFL coaches to win Super Bowls with two or more starting quarterbacks.
Who knew Hillary's boobs were that big? Kitty Myers has the story. Of course, she does have a third boob that's even bigger living in Chappaqua.
Kevin Aylward comes down square against blogging on the taxpayer's dime. I don't know; considering the blogger in question is working in John Conyer's office, I think she might be saving us all a lot of money by blogging. Besides, she's even bigger than Hillary up top!
Getting off that topic, we turn to the Senate, where John Hawkins has a list of his most competitive Senate races. I like his list, but my local sources tell me that Kyl's poll numbers don't look as good as he'd like them to. The fortunate thing is that everybody agrees that Pederson is turning out to be a disaster as a candidate. But it does cause me some concern; if an incumbent Republican with strong marks in a solid Republican state isn't doing well, then there could be trouble elsewhere. I'd certainly move Lieberman into the dogfight territory. But you can't miss the fact that in 5 of the top 7 races, it's a Republican incumbent.
Back to beautiful women, Neander News covers Foxbabe Megan Kendall. Well, no, actually he blogged about her.
Go check out Chicago Ray to see a gorgeous, intelligent blog. We covered Ray a lot back in the Kerry Haters days, and it's nice to see him back in the blogosphere.
But when she was asked about how she would vote in the Democratic primary next month, Ms. Korzennik, 46, who says she strongly supports Israel, sighed. “Given all that’s going on in Israel right now,” she said, “I am not going to let Lieberman go.”
Ms. Korzennik expresses the mixed sentiments a significant number of Jewish Democrats feel about Mr. Lieberman, who is facing the toughest race in his three-term Senate career, just six years after he was Al Gore’s running mate.
Ned Lamont has been careful to claim that there is no substantive difference between him and Lieberman on Israel; the question is whether that's really credible given Lamont's stated opposition to the Iraq War.
Some of Mr. Lieberman’s supporters say there is a strain of anti-Semitism in the antiwar left that could make Jewish voters uneasy about supporting Mr. Lamont.
“There’s a small but vocal pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel and perhaps anti-Semitic faction of the Democratic Party,’’ said Dan Gerstein, a former Lieberman aide and informal adviser to the campaign. “It is a small minority but it is getting bolder, and even worse. There is a growing tolerance of it in the progressive community.”
The only part I'd disagree with is the word "small". I suspect that it's large and growing. As a former Leftist myself (Ronald Reagan converted me), I can tell you that the Left tends to view conflicts in terms of oppressor and oppressed, and they have chosen the Israelis as the oppressors. Hence we hear quite often kooky stuff like that the Israelis are no better than the Nazis. Disgusting and historically wildly inaccurate, but compelling to a fair amount of people on the Left.
"We decided to buy property in Crawford to use until George's resignation or impeachment, which we all hope is soon for the sake of the world," Sheehan said in a newsletter set to be sent to supporters Thursday. "I can't think of a better way to use Casey's insurance money than for peace, and I am sure that Casey approves."
Her anti-war gathering in Crawford is scheduled for Aug. 16 through Sept. 2. But Bush is scheduled to be at his ranch mainly during the first two weeks of August.
No word on whether there's a Jamba Juice on every corner.
Brainster's buddy John Ruberry will be on the radio today with my other buddies, Andrea Shea-King and Mark Vance on Constitutional Public Radio. If you're not lucky enough to live on Florida's Space Coast, you can tune in over the internet here. They also have a chatroom where you can interact with the hosts and guest here.
The IP address used by “strummers” is the same one Leopold has used very often, the same one which appeared in Leopold’s emails to AnonymousArmy under his own name. As I said yesterday, Leopold threatened to sue me for extortion, defamation, and slander before and after my story broke. In order to make this credible, Leopold falsified portions of emails I sent to him and posted them at Think Progress in a thread I had commented in.
Note that since this article appeared, Seixon has received a death threat.
Background on all this nonsense is here. It also ties into Larisa Alexandrovna, one of the ten worst people in the blogosphere, and Topsecretk9, one of the better commenters in the blogosphere.
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq – Marines from Regimental Combat Team 5’s, 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, and soldiers from 2nd and 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division, rescued three Iraqi hostages in an intelligence-driven operation July 23.
The three were personal assistants and bodyguards to Dr. Rafa Hayid Chiad Al-Isaw, an Iraqi government official in Baghdad.
“We are extremely pleased we were able to recover these three Iraqi citizens,” said Col. Larry D. Nicholson, commanding officer for RCT-5. “The safety of Iraqi citizens to move freely about their own country without fear is a priority for U.S and Iraqi forces and we will continue to assist the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police in ensuring their citizens have a future that is free of terrorism.”
The three were held captive by al-Qaeda insurgents in a spiderhole complex for 27 days. The hostages were beaten with electrical cords, bitten and threatened with their lives at gunpoint by their captors. They were treated by Coalition Forces medical personnel.
As we know, many of the major liberal blogs have been exercising restraint in posting about Israel, since they know almost anything posted will result in a heck of a lot of paranoid anti-semitism.
Fortunately, restraint is not a word that appears in the Huffington Post dictionary, and so we can get a look at the attitudes over there quite easily. James Heffernan plays the numbers game:
During the 13 days in which Hezbollah rockets have killed about 40 Israelis in northern Israel, Israeli airstrikes have displaced more than 700,000 Lebanese, destroyed much of the country's infrastructure, and killed about 380 Lebanese-most of them civilians, and about a third of them children. Last Sunday's targets included two ambulances racing an injured family to a hospital in Tyre--but not moving quite fast enough. They were directly hit by Israeli bombs that wounded six Red Cross volunteers and left the injured family still more shattered.
As the Israel-Lebanon war nears the end of its second week, it's become obvious that the U.S. isn't going to do anything to stop the conflict. No matter how vicious the Israeli attacks, no matter how many civilians are killed, the Bush party line will be, "Hezbollah started it, Israel has the right to defend itself." Yet, many political observers wonder at the wisdom of this policy.
It ain't going anywhere. Jane Hamsher yucks it up with some college boy about how they both got denied entrance to the Bill Clinton/Joe Lieberman event in Connecticut. Some profanity.
And if that is the case, it would not be hard to write a scenario in which the real loser from a Lieberman defeat to anti-war candidate Ned Lamont might be the Democratic Party itself
That would especially be the case if Lieberman's good friend Sen. John McCain of Arizona becomes the 2008 Republican presidential nominee and picks Joe as his running mate.
Interesting speculation, but it still seems to me unlikely that the Republicans will nominate John McCain. Not as unlikely as I thought a year ago, but still not the most plausible scenario. And if McCain were to win, what would he gain by picking Lieberman as his running mate? McCain has tremendous crossover appeal to moderate Democrats and centrists on his own; what he'd need is somebody to shore up his right flank.
Meanwhile, Democracy For America (and doesn't that name suck eggs?), run by the Vermonster's brother is pushing Lamont in a video today:
Jim Dean rewrites history here a bit:
The story of an insurgent, people-powered candidate moving to the top of the polls against the Democratic establishment is not new. My brother, Howard, was in a similar position three and a half years ago in the 2004 presidential primary. I don't need to remind you about what happened when the Beltway Democrats placed a giant target on his back and took aim. Let's make sure that history doesn't repeat itself with Ned Lamont.
Three and a half years ago, nobody outside of Vermont had heard of Howard Dean. Two and a half years ago, his campaign imploded when his orange hat brigade got too obnoxious for the Iowa farmers.
Chris notes that Patty Madrid is using some creative techniques to make herself appear younger and prettier. Be sure to click on the linked photo evidence.
Here's an excellent article on former Weather Underground member Bill Ayres. Ayres has burrowed into the system, becoming a teacher of teachers in an attempt to foment the long-awaited "Revolution".
Ayers makes clear that his political views haven’t changed much since those glory days. He cites a letter he recently wrote: “I’ve been told to grow up from the time I was ten until this morning. Bullsh*t. Anyone who salutes your ‘youthful idealism’ is a patronizing reactionary. Resist! Don’t grow up! I went to Camp Casey [Cindy Sheehan’s vigil at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas] in August precisely because I’m an agnostic about how and where the rebellion will break out, but I know I want to be there and I know it will break out.”
He's a complete and thorough nutbar, but unfortunately in teaching circles he's fairly influential.
And it’s not just from his government-funded outpost at the University of Illinois that Ayers is spreading the word about radical social justice teaching. He maintains a busy lecture schedule at other ed schools around the country, and he does teacher training and professional development for the Chicago public schools. All that still leaves him enough time to give nostalgic lectures on college campuses about his Weather Underground experiences.
The media are now running the story that a loss by Joe Lieberman will hurt other Democrats. Much as I want Lieberman to win (as a thumb in the eye to the likes of Kos and Hamsher), I don't see it other than the money thing:
Lieberman has traditionally given money to his fellow Connecticut Democrats. State Rep. Robert Godfrey, D-Danbury, a Lieberman supporter, said both Lieberman and U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., have contributed $800,000 to $1 million to the state party in election years. That money is then distributed to candidates running across the state.
And this part doesn't make much sense:
Godfrey said he also believes that if Lieberman wins the primary, it will encourage Democrats in the November election who might vote for Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell -- who continues to enjoy high approval ratings -- to return to the Democratic line on the ballot and vote for Lieberman and the other Democrats who follow.
"Those of us further down the ballot like him as the breakwater between Jodi Rell and all the other Democrats," said Godfrey, who is running for re-election.
Sounds like they think the voters will stick with the Republicans if Ned Lamont's the Democrats' choice.
Don't get me wrong; I do think a loss for Lieberman will be a loss for the Democrats, precisely because it will encourage the blogs. They make a big deal out of the fact that they are not going after some other Democrats who've angered them, like Diane Feinstein. What are the odds they will practice similar restraint in 2008? This has the potential to turn into a full-scale purge. As Zell Miller remarked, there are elements within the Democratic party that would rather be a majority in in a minority party than a minority in a majority party.
CBS Sportsline has a several times a day feature called the Trivia Tower, which is now offering prizes based on the number of participants. Pay no attention to the claimed $1,000 prize; that's if they get 100,000 people to play--maybe you'll make $50 to $100, but you've really gotta be good at sports trivia.
I won a $25 gift certificate today, finishing second. They do it like an NCAA tournament, where every round you're paired with somebody and the winner of that round goes on, the loser drops into a consolation round. Today was baseball trivia and I'm really good on that stuff and got lucky when I needed it so I made it to the finals. It takes about 4 minutes per round (five questions) so even if you make it to the finals it's about a half hour of your time.
Most of the games are general sports, but they do have regular games where the questions favor local fans. Tomorrow afternoon's game features the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Will we hear the obvious question: Who are the four Tampa Bay quarterbacks who have started and won a Super Bowl (obviously not necessarily while with the Bucs)?
I'll put the answer in the comments if nobody else gets it by tomorrow.
This prize has been contaminated over the years, with awards to Yasser Arafat, Rigoberta Menchu, Le Duc Tho, and others, but this is really ironic:
NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.
Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.
"I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent," said Ms Williams, 64.
"Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.
``Chicken hawk" isn't an argument. It is a slur -- a dishonest and incoherent slur. It is dishonest because those who invoke it don't really mean what they imply -- that only those with combat experience have the moral authority or the necessary understanding to advocate military force. After all, US foreign policy would be more hawkish, not less, if decisions about war and peace were left up to members of the armed forces. Soldiers tend to be politically conservative, hard-nosed about national security, and confident that American arms make the world safer and freer. On the question of Iraq -- stay-the-course or bring-the-troops-home? -- I would be willing to trust their judgment. Would Cindy Sheehan and Howard Dean?
Exactly. If we follow the logic here, only those who've served in the military can support sending our troops abroad. But if that's the case, then only those who've served in the military can be in Congress or the Presidency, because we all know that eventually our leaders may be forced to send us to war. Of course, that means that those who use the chickenhawk formulation cannot support Russ Feingold for President, since he never wore the uniform. Bill Clinton should never have been elected to the Oval Office, because he ran against two men who fought in World War II.
Is the fact of this group’s growing presence on the Internet a reason for studying it in a course on 9/11? Sure. Is the instructor who discusses the group’s arguments thereby endorsing them? Not at all. It is perfectly possible to teach a viewpoint without embracing it and urging it. But the moment a professor does embrace and urge it, academic study has ceased and been replaced by partisan advocacy. And that is a moment no college administration should allow to occur.
This goes along with something Ben Wallace and I have been writing in the comments here. Ben says:
Under Fish's rule, a faculty member in the South in the 1950s could not embrace and urge the idea that segregation is wrong and that students should act to remedy the situation. The only thing that would be available to a faculty member in that situation [w]ould be dispassionate analysis of the benefits and costs of segregation and a discussion of the different arguments behind segregation. Allowing advocacy and urging students to engage all ideas has demonstrated more effective than efforts to create speech codes, which is essentially what Fish has come up with.
