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Saturday, October 28, 2006
Times Endorses the Yellow DogMichael Kinsley calls them out on it even as he acknowledges the validity of voting a straight ticket. In a remarkable editorial on Wednesday, the New York Times endorsed Diane Farrell for Congress from a district in Connecticut.
Who is Diane Farrell? I have no idea, and the Times seemed to have not a lot. After eight years as first selectman of Westport, the paper noted somewhat desperately, "she has a better understanding than most legislators of the impact of federal mandates and tax policy on local government." By contrast her opponent, Christopher Shays, has held the seat for almost 20 years and been endorsed by the Times "in every race in which he has faced a serious opponent" -- until now.In other words, they endorsed her because she's a Democrat. Fine, says Kinsley, just don't pretend you've made a thoughtful analysis on the basis of anything other than partisanship. I agree. What drives conservatives nuts is not that the media are liberal. It's that they are liberal and deny it. They pretend to come down on the Democrats' side of every issue after careful deliberation and weighing the arguments on both side, but in reality the fix is in and everybody knows it.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Steyn on the ElectionThere's a transcript of an interview with him here, but there's also a podcast that I recommend listening to. They’ve [Republicans] been in the majority now for 12 years. You know, basically the Iraqis are being expected to pick up the hang of this self-government thing in 12 weeks but the Republicans have had 12 years and still can’t do it. That’s a pretty shabby excuse. I think they’re disconnected from, in large part, they’re disconnected from their base and there’s a ratchet effect in Washington that happens whereby “the pull,” “the pull”—the minute you’re in a kind of East Coast media environment “the pull” is like toward Diane Sawyer’s hair-do—it’s like, you know, the gravity in Washington pulls them away from where they ought to be. And I think there’s very little price to be paid for being—people don’t get defeated for being too conservative.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Kitty's Back! Well, actually that's Rocky Balboa's back, but Kitty has returned to the blogosphere!
Moron the Google Bombing EffortThe New York Times notes the MyDD tactic: If things go as planned for liberal bloggers in the next few weeks, searching Google for “Jon Kyl,” the Republican senator from Arizona now running for re-election, will produce high among the returns a link to an April 13 article from The Phoenix New Times, an alternative weekly.
Mr. Kyl “has spent his time in Washington kowtowing to the Bush administration and the radical right,” the article suggests, “very often to the detriment of Arizonans.”Just Googled his name and that article comes up #6 on the hit list; maybe it's time to make sure that this article is associated with Jon Kyl. It's the Time article describing Kyl as one of America's ten best Senators.
Castro Down for the Count?Oh Lucy! We got some celebrating to do! This time the rumors are real: Castro is dying of stomach cancer. He may have already died, even before the funeral preparations were finished, so the news is not out. Confirmation of the terminal illness comes from the usual sources but in a non-conventional manner. The Cuban government has been summoning to Havana representatives of the major international media to negotiate the best seats, camera angles, and interviews with the despot’s political survivors, and to inform them of the ground rules for coverage of the state funeral.
Kerry Versus KerryBoth the Lieberman and Lamont campaigns wheeled out their support from Senators whose last name is pronounced Kerry. Lamont had DYKWIA by his side, while Lieberman relied on Bob Kerrey, a former senator from Nebraska (and a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient). Like Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Kerrey supported the toppling of Saddam Hussein early on and said that the region was safer without him in power. But he added: “Do I think invading Iraq helped the war on terror? No, I do not. I think it reduced the threat in the region, which was serious.”Certainly arguable, but get this from the Boston Fog Machine: “I don’t think a lot of the countries around there get serious about what you have to do to really quell the violence and resolve the issues until you’ve made it clear you’re not going to be there forever,” Mr. Kerry said. “There is nothing compelling them to say: ‘Wow, this is our mess now. We’ve got a stake in it.’ It’s just logic, it’s common sense.”Of course, Kerry's plan has been voted on several times and failed each. David Broder reports on the debate Monday between the Senate hopefuls: When a raucous bunch of zealots in the theater audience interrupted Lieberman's closing statement, and the feeble shushing of the senator and moderator George Stephanopoulos failed to silence them, it was Schlesinger who stepped to the edge of the stage and, with his size and commanding voice, ordered them to pipe down -- receiving thanks from Lieberman for his intervention.I seem to recall reading a few days ago that the zealots in question were not Jane Hamsher and company, but a bunch of LaRouche nutbars. Broder notes as well that the only person who seemed relaxed was Republican Schlesinger. Of course, he's got nothing to lose. But Broder does get in one good crack about Neddy: Lamont himself is not a strong figure or a compelling politician; he looks like a juvenile in a drawing room comedy, and he is competitive mainly because he has sunk much of his fortune into this race.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Auction for a Good Cause(Wednesday Bump: Donations to SC Eagle's site are now over $28,000, and the auction is up to $1009. Great job, folks!) Dave's take here. (This post will be periodically bumped to the top over the next couple weeks--scroll down for newer content). Our buddies Andrea Shea-King and Mark Vance of CPR are going to have an auction of Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson's books as a fundraiser for SC Eagle, an Afghanistan campaign vet, whose wife has cancer and needs funds for home hospice care. They have three young children and mounting expenses. The auction will be on ebay starting Thursday night at 10:00 Eastern time. I will update this post with a direct link to the auction. If you'd care to just donate to SC Eagle, go here. Update: The auction page is here. Let me mention here that Snappy Auctions, a firm on Florida's Space Coast, did a terrific job of setting up the auction page.
Gore Compares Global Warming Skeptics to Moon Landing DeniersWhich is ironic, because the only Moon Landing Denier I know is a science teacher who believes in Global Warming. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, who introduced the speakers, said Reichert doesn't think climate change is caused by humans.
"Did he say that?" interrupted Gore, whose film about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," grossed $23.7 million. "He's not sure it's caused by humans?"
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"He's not convinced that it's caused by human beings," responded Nickels.
"C'mon! And this man is a United States congressman?" asked Gore. "You know, 15 percent of people believe the moon landing was staged on some movie lot and a somewhat smaller number still believe the Earth is flat. They get together on Saturday night and party with the global-warming deniers."
Making Sure the Trannies Run on TimeInstead of making sure the trains run on time. Men who live as women can now legally use women's rest rooms in New York's transit system under an unprecedented deal revealed yesterday.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to allow riders to use MTA rest rooms "consistent with their gender expression," the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund announced yesterday.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Sitting On Your Hands This Election?Take a stroll over to the Lone Star Pundit and you may change your mind. Democrat Randall Kallinen is running for judge in the Criminal District Court District 185. Kallinen recently wrote an editorial in the Houston Chronicle about Houston’s unofficial “sanctuary city” policy in which he stated, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Kallinen was honored by the Houston Atheist Society “for his success in representing Kay Staley in her suit against Harris County” in 2004, forcing the removal of a Bible from a memorial in front of the Civil Courts building in downtown Houston. Kallinen has been endorsed by several liberal organizations, including the Houston GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender) Political Caucus, which held a fundraiser for him just last week.Terrific post!
There's Something Smelly in Malibu...Our buddy Gaius Arbo has the details.
Who Is The Most Conservative?Our buddy Mr Right put together a ranking about 18 months ago of every single member of Congress. He's done it again, with a slightly reworked formula and of course, new data on voting records since then. This is a very handy little ranking system, drawing from both conservative and liberal scorecards. As you can see, Hillary, who ranks a 10, is actually more liberal than Steny Hoyer or Harry Reid. Highly recommended!
Former Human Shield Puts Man in ComaOh, the irony! A smirking peace activist who left a rising rock star fighting for his life after a row over his girlfriend was jailed for eight months today.
Christiaan Briggs, 30, attacked 19-year-old singer Billy Leeson and left him in a coma, after Mr Leeson asked him to stop staring at his girlfriend on a late night number 29 bus.Of course, his defense attorney portrayed him as virtually a saint: In mitigation Bartholomew Casella said Briggs was a "committed pacifist" and was "absolutely horrified by his behaviour".
He told the packed courtroom that Briggs was a man of "far beyond good character, quite an exceptional young human being who has devoted a lot of time to helping others, who has rather selflessly gone about in his own way trying to make the world a better place."
Monday, October 23, 2006
Move Over Air America, There's a New Sheriff in Town!Nova M Radio, based here in Phoenix, is planning on taking over Liberal Talk Radio. As I have discussed in the past, the difference between Airhead America and Nova M, is that Nova M is planning on targeting an even thinner slice of the electorate than Air America. This is not radio for liberals, it's radio for Leftist kooks. The new network will include shows by hosts Mike Malloy and Peter B. Collins and a nonpartisan program by pollster John Zogby. Newcomb, who previously had a show on Phoenix-area radio, also will host a show.We've already seen signs of this on the local station, which frequently gives time to 9-11 "Truthers" (we're calling them Deniers at Screw Loose Change).
All Obama, All the TimeWell, this seems to be the week that everybody decides that Barack Obama has the right stuff. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) opened the door to a 2008 presidential campaign yesterday, saying he has begun to weigh a possible candidacy and will make a decision after the November elections.
"Given the responses that I've been getting over the last several months, I have thought about the possibility, but I have not thought about it with the seriousness and depth that I think is required," Obama said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "After November 7th, I'll sit down and consider it, and if at some point, I change my mind, I will make a public announcement and everybody will be able to go at me."I suspect that if indeed Obama runs in 2008 that it will be just a "get acquainted" outing. Although the Democrats are notorious for falling in love with the new face, I suspect that the Democratic nomination in 2008 is Hillary's to lose. If a challenge is to succeed against her, it's going to have to come from the antiwar wing of the party, which Barack does not represent. Obama's only 45, which means he's got plenty of time to lay the groundwork for a serious national run. Yes, 2008 is very tempting to any Democrat with presidential aspirations, because there will be no "heir apparent" on the Republican side, and thus it's a complete tossup. I remain firm in my belief that the first black president (and Hispanic president and woman president) will come from the Republican Party.
Netkooks Try Google-Bombing RunWell, if they lose now, they won't be able to claim it was because they didn't pull out all the stops. Chris Bowers writes: Step One: With help form readers at Dailykos and MyDD, I will compile a list of seventy article, one for each targeted race. Every article will focus on a different Republican candidate, and will be written by as generally trusted a news source as possible. It will also present as unflattering a view on the Republican candidate as possible. All of these articles will be placed into a database that I will maintain with the help of willing volunteers.You can probably guess the next step; Google-bomb the candidates with hyperlinks to that article. It's tempting to dismiss this as a desperation ploy, but it's actually not all that bad an idea. Remember, during the 2004 election, conservative bloggers did a great job getting John Kerry's campaign website to come up under a Google Bomb for "waffles"? Of course, it depends on there being mainstream media articles that while non-partisan, portray the Republican in a negative light. Okay, that doesn't seem all that difficult, thanks to our wonderful, unbiased media. Maybe we could do the same? Robert Menendez. Harry Reid. Sherrod Brown.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
The Amazing Race: Hurry Up & KuwaitThe race starts off with everybody getting a video clue: They have to find a set of towers in Kuwait City. Although there is some drama about an early plane to Bombay, as it works out all six teams are on the same flight into Kuwait. Somebody notes that this is where Saddam's downfall all started. There does not seem to be a great deal of difficulty locating the Kuwait Towers, an imposing structure:  Everybody arrives within a few minutes of each other. They must take tags numbered from 1 to 7 and Team Cho gets the last number. There is a fast-forward in the cluebox, and for a moment several teams consider it. The Chos indicate to the Beauty Queens that they are going for it, but really they are trying to hold up to see if Team Coal Miner will take it. Of course, the Kentuckians must, because they have to finish first or incur a half-hour penalty, and the Chos bravely distract the others while they speed off. The next task is a roadblock. Teams must climb a service ladder to the top of the tower. It looks exhilarating, but now it turns out that the Chos are both afraid of heights, so their sacrifice for Team Coal Miner looks even nobler than before. At the top, the teams receive a jigsaw puzzle that they must assemble for their next clue. The teams finish the jigsaw puzzle in the same order that they started it. It's written in Arabic and tells them to go to Gharabelly street or something close. They must find a marked shop, which causes a great deal of anxiety as the teams seem to be having trouble locating it. Meanwhile Team Coal Miner is forced to simulate fighting an oil fire. Although this appears to involve quite a bit of fireproof clothing, it does not seem overly difficult. David comments that he'd always wanted to be a fireman, and thus he's grateful to the show for helping him live out his dream. Please! They make it to the mat and are spared the penalty, receving a vacation in Jamaica instead. All the teams eventually locate the shop with the next clue, but the Chos have slipped ahead of Team Gump and the Beauty Queens. Detour: Manual or Automatic. In Manual, teams must fill ten 110-lb bags of camel feed and stack it on a pallet. In Authomatic they must put a robotic jockey atop a camel, and then use it to whip the camel around a racetrack. Surprisingly, most of the teams choose Manual, even though this seems difficult and laborious compared to Automatic. But in reality, the real challenge here is finding the way to the Detour locations. Everybody struggles, having difficulty finding anybody who knows either location. Eventually the Beauty Queens and Rob & Kimberley find the location of the camel feed. Unfortunately for the Beauty Queens, they fall victim to the "good enough" mentality and are told that they must fill up the bags more completely. Rob & Kimberley finish first, the Beauty Queens second and the Cho Brothers third. Pit stop! Meanwhile, the other three teams (Gump, Recovery and Triathlon) are all hopelessly lost. Eventually Gump finds the racetrack and discovers that the camel-whipping is quite easy. Then Recovery locates it as well. Team Triathlon experiences a momentary bit of hope as they see a marker, but it turns out to be the firefighting Fast Forward. It grows dark and they finally make it to the camel feed. Phil doesn't even have the heart to draw out the drama; he says "I'm sorry to say you're the last team to arrive. You've both been eliminated from the race." Of course, he's supposed to say "You're the last team to arrive. I'm sorry to tell you that you've both been eliminated from the race." So it doesn't count as a real Phil-Limination. One last observation: Team Coal Miner appears to have gotten a pretty good lead on everybody with the fast forward. But you've gotta wonder about their chances at the end of this thing when we finally hit the puzzle. They don't seem smart enough to handle anything really challenging. As always, check out the Viking Pundit's excellent recap for details I may have missed.
Dad of Girl Who Threatened Bush Speaks UpSheesh, this family is now officially on their sixteenth minute of fame. The dad does admit his daughter was wrong and the Secret Service right to caution her and provides a little additional detail: Julia also had encouraged, through the MySpace site, communications with her middle school classmates and friends who "wanted to stab" the president. Julia had taken the picture and the offensive words off her Web site during the summer after learning in her spring semester history class that such starkly expressed sentiments were against the law.
As the Oct. 13 front-page story in The Sacramento Bee recounts, my wife Kirstie and I were unaware that our computer-savvy daughter had expressed her political passions in such inflammatory and inappropriate terms, and we agreed with the Secret Service agents that they had every right to sternly warn her about the seriousness of using violent imagery to express her dislike of Bush administration policies.But we also see the fuzzy-headed thinking of liberals apparent in this section: The things about Bush that Julia dislikes the most are his bigoted attitude toward gays and lesbians and his know-nothing attitude toward global warming. Though we share these perceptions, she has reached them independently, and she feels them with fervor.His bigotry being expressed in his desire to prevent gays and lesbians from getting married, despite the fact that they have been getting married in this country for hundreds of years, I suppose. And of course Julia has done marvelous research on the subject of global warming, which give her authority in this area.
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