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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Moron the Politics of the Next Five MinutesHere's a clueless article from Ron Fournier. Cutting short his vacation and marshaling the power of the federal government could help reverse his sliding job approval rating. But the president's hands-on approach looks a bit too political for some, and makes him an easy target should Katrina's victims start looking for somebody to blame during the long, costly road to recovery.Typical Clinton fan; the only thing that matters is what it does to the poll ratings. Hat Tip: Lucianne
Ankle-Biters on FireBulldog Pundit looks through a long list of people that Cindy Sheehan thanked and finds a modestly surprising name. And by the time he gets through gnawing on a ridiculous WaPo poll, there's nothing left. John Hawkins checked the Hagel story and found that Chuckie Bagel's office is denying any contact with Mrs Sheehan.
So Much for Equality of Suffering--UpdatedWell, the NY Times notwithstanding, ABC News is going with a little class warfare: Hurricane Katrina ravaged much of the Gulf Coast, but it was especially cruel to the poor.
In New Orleans, a third of the residents live below the poverty line. The very poorest live on the lowest land, south of Lake Pontchartrain, where the floodwater is now up to their rooftops.Update: Good counter-arguments here (even if he did trackback without linking, a mistake I made myself this morning). A case can be made that the poor are harder hit, but would it be a story if the rich were harder hit?
Sheesh, What a Dumb IdeaWhy not suggest that Republicans impeach President Bush for failing to meet with Cindy Sheehan? Wizbang's a good blog and Jay Tea's a good blogger. But this is moronic. Let me add here that one of the biggest reasons we have illegal immigration is that we don't allow enough of the legal kind.
Looting(Welcome fellow La Shawn Barber readers! I'm going to track the stories of looting here today. If you want me to link something you've posted, either link to me and trackback, or leave a note in the comments. First, lest you believe this is a new phenomenon, check out these panels from two different Batman stories circa 1956:   Rick Moran has a great post on the breakdown of social order that looting implies. How to stop it? Well, if we saw more pictures like this:  And heard fewer stories like this: With much of the city flooded by Hurricane Katrina, looters floated garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street in a dash to grab what they could. In some cases, looting on Tuesday took place in full view of police and National Guard troops.We'd see fewer scenes like these:    The word should go out; looters will be shot on sight. It's one thing for people to take food and bottled water in an emergency like this; it's quite another to take a case of Heineken or a TV set. Michelle Malkin has a solid post with lots of links on this topic. La Shawn Barber also has more. And if anybody thinks, hey, everybody else is doing it, why shouldn't I, remember: You'd be going into a confined area where criminals are operating. There have already been stories of looters shooting other looters. One looter shot and wounded a fellow looter, who was taken to a hospital and survived.Here's an attempt to justify the looting (at least in the headline): Need and greed trigger lootingAnd get this detail in that story: At a flooded Walgreens store, police officers took control and dispensed medicine, diapers and other essentials to a small crowd of would-be looters.I suppose that's one way to handle it. Chris has a Photoshop pic that will probably draw some comment. I told Chris in an email that I don't see the looting as a black/white thing myself. That said, I do suspect that if Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have anything to say it will be to condemn those taking the pictures and writing the captions. There was one interesting caption on a photo of a woman (either white or Hispanic) that commented on her "finding" food and soda, contrasted with pictures of black people where their activities were called looting. They're not blacks or whites; they're looters. Excellent post here as well.
Blogging for ReliefI will be blogging tomorrow as part of the effort for Katrina relief. My designated charity is Catholic Charities. While local agencies along the Gulf Coast anticipate that they will be provide some type of emergency assistance in their communities, Catholic Charities' niche in disaster relief is to provide long-term recovery work. In fact, Catholic Charities agencies in Florida are still providing services to help people recover from last year's devastating hurricanes.
Based on past disasters, possible long-term services that Catholic Charities may provide include temporary and permanent housing, direct assistance beyond food and water to get people back into their homes, job placement counseling, and medical and prescription drug assistance.I'd like to mention here that although the charity typically represents Catholic donors, its assistance is non-denominational; that is, it helps everybody in need, not just Catholics. Link to Instapundit's relief post.
False Equivalency--Updated!This Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi paints a pretty clear picture of the zoo around Camp Casey: If the pre-Sheehan anti-war movement had a problem, it was stuff like this. The movement likes to think of itself as open and inclusive, but in practice it often comes off like a bunch of nerds whose favored recreation is coming up with clever passwords for their secret treehouse. The ostensible political purpose may be ending the war, but the immediate occupation for a sizable percentage of these people always seemed to be a kind of rolling adult tourist attraction called Hating George Bush. Marches become Hate Bush Cruises; vigils, Hate Bush Resorts. Hence the astonishingly wide variety of anti-Bush tees (Camp Casey featured a rare film-fantasy matched set, home at various times to BUSH IS SAURON and DARTH INVADER); the unstoppable flow of Bush-themed folk songs. If you spend any amount of time involved with peace protests, as I have, you very quickly start to notice that Hating the President just seems like a little too much of a fun thing for too many of your brothers-in-arms.But get the false equivalency: Then again, here as in the rest of America, there's no shortage of folks who spend too much time sick with the opposite disease, Loving the President. In downtown Crawford, the two groups are separated by a Mason-Dixon line. While the anti-Bush protesters congregate at a Zonker Harris-style commune called the Crawford Peace House, the pro-Bush crowd has a meeting place in a giant gift shop called the Yellow Rose.You see? There are people who hate the President too much and there are people who love him too much. Except of course that the hate Bush crowd will blame him for a car stuck in the ditch, while it's doubtful the love Bush crowd will attempt to give him credit when the sun pokes through the clouds. More on that theme: It's a striking visual scene: On one side of the railroad tracks running through town there's a creaky old house, bedecked with peace signs, that looks like the home of the Partridge family. A few hundred yards away, across the tracks, is the Yellow Rose -- a patriotic storefront drenched in red, white and blue whose entrance is obscured by a Liberty Bell, flanked by two huge stone tablets bearing the Ten Commandments. Together, the two places look like a pair of rides in a Crossfire theme park.On the one hand, you've got a bunch of peacenik kooks and on the other hand, you have folks who love their country. It's not too hard to figure out where Matt's sympathies lie despite his attempt at "even-handedness". Update: Pam Meister has more.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
At Least the Women and Minorities Didn't Suffer DisproportionatelyJames Dao of the NY Times finds a silver lining in Katrina: The Misery Is Spread Equally
WAVELAND, Miss., Aug. 30 - The storm was nothing if not equal opportunity in its misery.
In Waveland and Bay St. Louis, modest bungalows and working-class apartment buildings were thrashed, torn open like cellophane bags and filled to their first-floor ceilings with muddy Gulf of Mexico water by Hurricane Katrina's howling winds and powerful tidal surge.
But a few miles away, affluent Diamondhead fared no better, and perhaps worse, as the hurricane obliterated an entire subdivision of $500,000 houses, leaving just the pilings they once stood on and piles upon piles of rubbish, sodden clothing and battered appliances.Simply amazing. The Times dips deeper and deeper into self-parody mode.
No Overrated Big BlogsJohn Hawkins had a question last week about which big blogs were overrated. I quickly replied that none were in my opinion. Yeah, it's easy to point to the liberal blogs, and wonder at their success, but that's somewhat like me as a SF 49er fan decrying the Oakland Raiders' blog--they aren't writing for my benefit. So cross the liberal blogs off the list and go down the list of big "right-wing" blogs and tell me who's overrated? Nobody. Oh, there are times I get frustrated with individual bloggers who threaten to leave the Republican fold over ID or stem cells, but let's face it, I'm reading those blogs and I care about what they say because they're great blogs. One of my favorite blogs is Michele Catalano's A Small Victory. She writes a lot of cultural stuff; about video games, comic books, baseball, metal music, and it's tempting to think that her blog is just for fun. Well, not solely. She has a terrific post up today about the good stories coming out of New Orleans, one of those posts where other bloggers feel their gonads shrinking as they recognize their inadequacy. We are not worthy!   
GlobaloneyHere's an idiot who couldn't wait to claim that Katrina was caused by global warming: THE HURRICANE that struck Louisiana yesterday was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming.This part made me wonder if he was joking: When the year began with a two-foot snowfall in Los Angeles, the cause was global warming.But no, he appears to be dead serious. There was some snowfall outside of LA and in the mountainous areas there may have been trace amounts, but 24 inches? It's not hard to find the reason for these outrageous claims: Ross Gelbspan is author of ''The Heat Is On" and ''Boiling Point."He also mentions a week of 110+ degree heat here in Phoenix. I've lived in the Valley of the Sun for 22 summers and there hasn't been one where we didn't have at least a week of those kinds of temperatures; in 1989 or so we had a two-week stretch of 113+. It comes with the territory.
Here's An Easy PredictionThe Left will be slightly less interested in prosecuting this guy for outing spies than they have been about Karl Rove: SCORES of British spies fear their cover is blown after they were named by a US website.
It listed 121 alleged secret agents - including former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown. Some are understood to be serving intelligence officers based around the world.The website is run by John Young, who "welcomes" secret documents for publication and recently said there was a "need to name as many intelligence officers and agents as possible".
He said: "It is disinformation that naming them places their life in jeopardy. Not identifying them places far more lives in jeopardy from their vile secret operations and plots."And since no possible harm could come to Mr Young for being exposed as the one who exposed these agents, here's a picture:  Hat Tip: L-Dotter Zalmon
Cluebats for Moonbats and WingnutsRick Moran has posted the 12th edition of the Carnival of the Clueless.
Flooding in New Orleans Michelle Malkin's got a links-rich roundup. Also, Mrs Media Matters has a photo of some of the looting going on.
Monday, August 29, 2005
The Reality-Based Community? Part LXIHere's a bland little article about a 10-year-old girl winning a second-place art prize. True, it's the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance's "9/11 Truth for Peace and Justice", which gives you an idea of where they're coming from. (Hint: "X and Justice" = "X and Socialism" in 99% of all cases). Here's a look at the second place winner's entry: (Click on pictures to enlarge if you really feel like punishing yourself)  Hmmm, we'll be kind here and not critique Hannah's obvious artistic skills. Check out the grand prize winner:  It's helpful that there's a fighter plane in the picture about to hit the second tower. If only the artist could have come up with some way to graphically represent another plane not hitting the Pentagon. Note as well that these two "award-winners" rely on text within the art itself in order to explain the meaning. Hugh Hewitt said today on his show that bad journalism chases out good journalism. Looking at this dreck, I'd say that one of the things that bugs me most about the Left is their absolutely appalling taste. There's nothing really engaging or thought-provoking here; this is art meant to confirm the world view of the idiots who like it, not to challenge the world view of those who don't. This is crackpot MIHOP at its finest. More stupid art here. Here's a picture of the tinfoil hat crowd behind the contest:  And, lest you think that all the moonbattery is about 9-11, did you know that the wackos are now questioning the July 7 bombings in London? Be sure to check out the informative timeline: 2004
Bob Kiley becomes Commissioner of Transport for London.
Kiley worked for the CIA between 1963 and 1970, then starting to work as an assistant director at the Police Foundation in Washington D.C.
During 80s he was Chairman and CEO of the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
It's obvious, that Kiley's function is either to coordinate, allow or tolerate moles into the Transport System who supervise and coordinate the upcoming 7/7 attacks.Well, now that you mention it, that is rather obvious, isn't it? Maybe we could call those CITHOP, AITHOP and TITHOP, for short? Michelle Malkin has more examples of this group's tired "art". And if you want to play the Kevin Bacon game, it's not hard to get from this group to Cindy Sheehan, for example. Carol Bruillet appears to be the leader of 9-11 Truth for Peace & Justice; here's an article where she describes a march in Washington against the World Bank shortly after 9-11: At one point we stopped in front of the World Bank building (I recognized it from earlier demonstrations), where our path was blocked by police. The pagans decided to circle up and dance. Then Starhawk suggested another ritual- exorcising the World Bank.Starhawk is a Wiccan who is a "training partner" of Lisa Fithian. Lisa Fithian is is basically running the show at Camp Casey.
Random MNF ObservationJoey Harrington isn't going to make it in pro football. He doesn't set up quickly enough, he locks onto one receiver just like a rookie, and he's got bad pass rush evasion skills. He has improved every year since he's been in the league (which is a plus), but he's got a ways to go before he even moves into the category where he's helping his team win games instead of losing them. In fairness, it also looks like his offensive line sucks. If I were the GM of an NFL team I would never take a quarterback in the first round. They cost you way too much in salary, you can't give up on them until three years into their career, and there are just too many capable ones who've proven themselves in the NFL, as compared to college ball.
A Blog I Don't Link Often EnoughChris at Right-Wing and Right Minded really does a great job. I enjoyed his music download from the group Indigenous--solid blues rocker. Lots and lots of excellent posts; spend a little time over there while I'm watching Monday Night Football.
Der Spiegel Does Irony?Here's a comment I never expected to read in a German paper: For weeks, she has been besieging the ranch near Crawford where US President George W. Bush has been spending his astonishingly lengthy vacation.Astonishingly lengthy? Isn't Germany the land of the 6-weeks-paid vacation?
The Undead ConstitutionMr Right got a glimpse at some proposed changes to the US Constitution. This is funny, but it would be easier to laugh if it weren't true.
And He Does This Without Feline Viagra?Here's a little fascinating tidbit from an otherwise crapulent post over at the Huffpo: The male lion mates every 10 minutes for three days or so before he crashes.Now, that's stamina!
Turn Out the Lights....Updated!Third Wave Dave says Cindy Sheehan's 15 minutes are up.  Update: Turns out the Reverend Al couldn't wait to get out of Crawford. The Reverend Al Sharpton's driver is free on bail after sheriff's deputies say he was arrested for driving 110 miles per hour on an Ellis County highway near Waxahachie.
Interesting Hate CrimeHere's an oddball story: Two swastikas were spray-painted in the road in front of Ginger Ragans' two-story home Sunday and a third was etched onto her lawn, along with the word "Fascist" and an obscenity scrawled in the grass. Her trees were draped with toilet paper and someone had urinated and defecated on the porch.Gwinnett County police are investigating the vandalism in the town northeast of Atlanta and are uncertain whether to classify it as a hate crime, spokesman Darren Moloney said.
Ragans, 36, who has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, said the incident likely was the work of neighborhood teens retaliating against her for her work as a neighborhood liaison for a community watchdog program.
In a recent edition of the community's newsletter, she mentioned that cameras had caught groups of teens hanging around the tennis courts long after the county's midnight curfew.Sounds like teenage punks with a leftist point of view; calling someone a "fascist" is certainly right out of the "reality-based community's" playbook.
Michelle Malkin All Over KatrinaThere's nothing more I can contribute than to link.
The Mainstreaming of the Protest MovementI knew it wouldn't be long before the Left started this meme: "The vigils were something we hadn't seen in quite some time. It was a turning point, I think," says Todd Gitlin, a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University, noting large turnouts in cities like Salt Lake City, not just Democratic strongholds. "Something was afoot in its mainstreamness."Sigh. This is a classic example of something I've commented about in the past. How does the Left "mainstream" itself? By saying they're mainstream to an uncritical media. Getting a turnout at the vigil in Salt Lake City may sound impressive, but were there 135,000 people there? Because that's how many people in Salt Lake City voted for John Kerry. In fact, there were a claimed 2,000 people at the protest vigil. So basically they got about 1.5% of the folks who voted for John Kerry to turn out. That's not mainstream, that's fringe.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
The Town That Dare Not Speak Its NameThis is mildly amusing.
The Bell Curve RevisitedI put up a post last week about the differences in IQ between men and women; Charles Murray takes another look at that as well as the always-contentious differences between whites and blacks. Evolutionary biologists have some theories that feed into an explanation for the disparity. In primitive societies, men did the hunting, which often took them far from home. Males with the ability to recognize landscapes from different orientations and thereby find their way back had a survival advantage. Men who could process trajectories in three dimensions—the trajectory, say, of a spear thrown at an edible mammal—also had a survival advantage. Women did the gathering. Those who could distinguish among complex arrays of vegetation, remembering which were the poisonous plants and which the nourishing ones, also had a survival advantage. Thus the logic for explaining why men should have developed elevated three-dimensional visuospatial skills and women an elevated ability to remember objects and their relative locations—differences that show up in specialized tests today.On the racial issue: In the reading test, the comparable gaps for ages nine, thirteen, and seventeen as of the first NAEP test in 1971 were 1.12, 1.17, and 1.25 standard deviations. Those gaps had shrunk by .38, .62, and .68 standard deviations respectively at their lowest points in 1988. They have since remained effectively unchanged.His point here appears to be that while some of the black/white gap of the past can be attributed to social causes, there remains a portion of it that appears genetic. Such differences do seem to violate our general standards of fairness. I remember my mother explaining to me as a small boy that the reason my penmanship was so atrocious was that abilities are spread out among people; if one person had good writing skills, he might be worse at math, for example. She wasn't attempting to be scientific, but rather to reassure me that things were "fair". And to a certain degree I have internalized that notion of fairness in other areas. The mean kid on the block who had the ten-speed bicycle and other cool items probably had a miserable family life. But when it comes to IQ in this meritocracy, it is a small consolation to highlight group advantages in other areas. Point out that blacks seem disproportionately represented in the NBA, for example, and you will be assured that it's just socialization. But even within sports, there is a fairly substantial segregation by position. In football, attention has been focused on the relative lack of black quarterbacks compared to their dominance at other positions, although their percentages have been on a fairly steady upward climb. In the NFL last year, only 5 of the top 30 QBs in passing yards were black. Contrast that with, say, running back, where all of the top 30 rushers were gentlemen of color. You can see a similar pattern in baseball, where there are comparatively few great black pitchers compared to, say, great black outfielders. Although blacks have played in baseball for fewer than 60 years, they already hold 5 of the top 10 spots in home runs. Contrast that with the pitcher's glamour category, strikeouts. None of the top 10 for a career are black (Fergie Jenkins is #11). I chose K's over wins there because the wins leaderboard includes a lot of pitchers who pitched before the color line was broken. I've wandered a bit from the IQ story, so to bring it back, I think Murray is dead on the money when he points out that the differences in IQ between the genders and the races need to be examined honestly: Good social policy can be based on premises that have nothing to do with scientific truth. The premise that is supposed to undergird all of our social policy, the founders’ assertion of an unalienable right to liberty, is not a falsifiable hypothesis. But specific policies based on premises that conflict with scientific truths about human beings tend not to work. Often they do harm.
The Racism of the PeaceniksHere's a very smart little article. President Bush is actually the greatest liberator of Muslims in history, considering that there weren't 50 million people in the entire MIddle East when Saladin beat back the Crusader hordes. But to the anti war activists, providing freedom from slavery, democratic and economic opportunity to brown skinned people isn't worth the sacrifice of white Americans. Good thing they weren't around when Lincoln was drafting the Emancipation Proclamation.
I recently watched the magnificent Don Cheadle film "Hotel Rwanda" with a group of friends, certified Bush Bashing Democrats all. After it was over, the general murmur in the room was 'why didn't America do something!' to stop the carnage in Rwanda. If Cindy Sheehan were to get her way, and President Bush would be 'impeached and tried for war crimes' over his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as she has demanded, the real losers will be the future citizens of Rwanda, and the other places where brutal dictators will have free reign to massacre people in large numbers, knowing that American leaders will pay too high a political price for them to get involved and 'do something.' And I don't think many of those places will be populated by white Europeans.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Some Fun from the PastOne of the things I enjoyed the most about Kerry Haters last year was doing quick humor posts on Kerry's ridiculous attempts to look like an athlete:   As you can see, he could never quite look like he understood how to throw a football. So they tried him at wide out, but that was even worse:    Then finally they discovered his natural position:  Kerry also liked to pedal his famously expensive Serotta bike. I called this photo, "The Old Man and the Seat".  The efforts to make him seem like a baseballer were even less succesful. I dubbed this picture "Kerry's a Reg'lar Feller--Just Not Bob Feller"  This image could serve as a metaphor for the entire campaign:  This post was inspired by Kitty in a post over at Lifelike.
Bye-Bye RioTheir line of MP3 players has been shuttered for good, squeezed out of the business by the success of the Ipod. I have a five-year-old Rio Lyra; terrific little piece of equipment. About four years ago I took a spill on my mountain bike and landed hard on my left hip, where the Lyra was playing. I thought, "There goes that $250," but when I hit the play button the music came on. Try that with your Ipod!
Friday, August 26, 2005
Shattering Cherished Beliefs, or If I'd Known You Were Coming I Would Have Baked a YellowcakeI've been engaged in a rather spirited debate with liberal commenters over at Lee Goldberg's blog. I thought I'd post a piece here about the Yellowcake story so we can put this to bed. Then I can move on to the next piece of nonsense; the supposed effort by President Bush to tie Saddam to 9-11. The "lie" about yellowcake is a cherished belief on the left largely because they don't expose themselves to a wider range of opinion and news. The yellowcake (a form of uranium) story concerns sixteen words that were included in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.There was some controversy over this intelligence well before the State of the Union Address, and as a result Joe Wilson, a former ambassador, was sent to Niger. He reported in the New York Times after the State of the Union that he'd investigated the yellowcake story between sips of mint tea and determined that there was nothing to it. This created something of a media sensation, as Wilson appeared on 60 Minutes and immediately became lionized by the Democrats. This article, pointed out by Writergurl, gives a fairly good account of the controversy as it existed in 2003, and I suspect this is the part she'd want me to hone in on: Bush said the CIA's doubts about the charge -- that Iraq sought to buy "yellowcake" uranium ore in Africa -- were "subsequent" to the Jan. 28 State of the Union speech in which Bush made the allegation. Defending the broader decision to go to war with Iraq, the president said the decision was made after he gave Saddam Hussein "a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in."
Bush's position was at odds with those of his own aides, who acknowledged over the weekend that the CIA raised doubts that Iraq sought to buy uranium from Niger more than four months before Bush's speech.And she specifically points to this part: A four-star general, who was asked to go to Niger last year to inquire about the security of Niger's uranium, told The Washington Post yesterday that he came away convinced the country's stocks were secure. The findings of Marine Gen. Carlton W. Fulford Jr. were passed up to Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- though it was unclear whether they reached officials in the White House.
A spokesman for Myers said last night that the general has "no recollection of the information" but did not doubt that it had been forwarded to him. "Given the time frame of 16 months ago, information concerning Iraq not obtaining uranium from Niger would not have been as pressing as other subjects," said Capt. Frank Thorp, the chairman's spokesman.Okay, so we have several charges implied here: 1. Wilson's charge that his trip to Niger had disproved the yellowcake story. 2. That Bush lied when he said that the CIA's objections to the story were subsequent to the State of the Union Speech. 3. Arguably, that Bush was notified by Myers of Marine General Fulford's doubts. Fortunately we do not have to search hard for the answers to these allegations. The Senate Committee on Intelligence conducted hearings (PDF file) to answer these and more questions. Their report on the Niger story takes up pages 36-83 of the report (which corresponds to pages 46-93 of the PDF file) On Wilson's trip, the evidence did not support Joe Wilson's version of events as related in several newspaper stories. Indeed, the Committee seems quite unimpressed with Ambassador Wilson's veracity as these key paragraphs indicate: (Note: You can click on the pictures here to make them larger)   However, interestingly, the CIA liked Wilson's report, mainly because it proved for them something exactly opposite to what Wilson later claimed:  So I think we can dispense with allegation #1, that Joe Wilson's trip to Niger had disproved the yellowcake story. What about when the CIA changed its assessment of the yellowcake story? It's pretty obvious that it was not before the State of the Union Address from this bit:  And in fact, the first time the CIA changed its position was sometime in the spring of 2003, but even then the President was not notified according to this:  So I think we can drop allegation #2, which is that the CIA had indicated objections to the uranium allegations prior to the State of the Union Address. Which leaves us with #3, the doubts of Marine General Fulford. That is mentioned only briefly in the Intelligence Committee report:   There is no indication at any point that this information was shared with the White House, and even Fulford's account in the Washington Post piece acknowledged that his superior, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers could not remember reading it. So there is zero evidence for allegation #3. And that's about it, folks. I know that the liberals reading this will not be pleased and no doubt will start in with the Valerie Plame stuff, which I'm not interested in. There are plenty of bloggers covering that; Tom Maguire's made himself the expert on the conservative side.
Beware of Stories that Match Your BiasLiberals and conservatives alike are pretty good at spotting phony stories that are put out by the other side; where we are in danger of being duped is with stories that fit our pre-existing biases. The Commissar came out pretty good on the American Center for Voting Rights story; he was the first center-right blogger to catch onto the fact that the ACVR was just a Republican front group trying to steal a few headlines. The reason I bring this up is the embarrassing story of Kodee Kennings, the little girl whose poignant letters to her dad serving in Iraq turned out to be a complete fiction. The Daily Egyptian, Southern Illinois University's student-run newspaper, today will admit to its readers that the saga - of a little girl's published letters to her father serving in Iraq - was apparently an elaborate hoax perpetrated by a woman who claimed to be the girl's aunt.
In fact, the newspaper will report today, the man identified as the girl's father was never in Iraq, and it was the woman who apparently wrote the letters and regular columns that were published under the little girl's name - and even impersonated the girl in telephone interviews.Here's the "suits the bias" part: Over the months, columns written by Kodee started to become a regular feature on the paper's editorial page. The columns, titled "Kenningsology," talked about her childhood, her newfound friends at the Daily Egyptian, her father, and even President Bush:
"I'm rily mad at you and you make my hart hurt,"' she purportedly wrote in one published letter to the president. "I don't think your doing a very good job. You keep sending soldiers to Iraq and it's not fair. Do you have a soldier of your own in Irak?"That was why the New Republic got stung a few years ago with the Stephen Glass incident; because the stories Glass wrote, as wild as they were, suited the biases of the editors who published them. Ditto Julie Amparano of the Arizona Republic. Update: I like this guy's take on the story. Marathon Pundit has run some stories about moonbattery at Southern Illinois University in the past.
Better Late Than NeverHugh Hewitt raved about this terrific post at Michael Yon's yesterday on my drive home, but I forgot about checking it until I surfed over to his blog this afternoon. Absolutely mesmerizing!
Heterodoxy OnlinePeter Collier and David Horowitz are making their 1990s magazine Heterodoxy available online. The first issue's ready for downloading (PDF file). Although the material is now 13 years old, the perspectives haven't changed a great deal. Interesting reading.
Are You Ready for Some Football?I took a quick look at the NFL quarterbacks and came up with a fairly simple method of rating them. I just took their 2004 stats, multiplied them by two, and added them to their 2003 stats. Then I looked at the ratio of touchdowns to interceptions: Peyton Manning 4.23 Daunte Culpepper 3.12 Donovan McNabb 2.89 Drew Brees 2.24 Tom Brady 1.98 Trent Green 1.70 Jake Delhomme 1.67 Brett Favre 1.67 Aaron Brooks 1.65 Matt Hasselbeck 1.56 Chad Pennington 1.50 Jake Plummer 1.47 Marc Bulger 1.28 Jeff Garcia 1.23 Byron Leftwich 1.22 Joey Harrington 1.20 Drew Bledsoe 1.16 Patrick Ramsey 1.10 David Carr 1.00 Kerry Collins 0.98 A couple of points: I only included QBs who qualified for the NFL passer rating title in both 2003 and 2004. Unfortunately, this leaves out two of the more interesting quarterbacks in the league, Michael Vick (who was injured for most of 2003) and Ben Roethlisberger (who was a rookie last year). Vick would slot in between Bledsoe and Harrington, near the bottom of the list at 1.18. Roethlisberger would rate a 1.55, putting him right about middle of the pack. Obviously, with his relative youth (23), he seems on the verge of being one of the very best players in the league. If I were to adjust this, I'd put Brady at the top of the list (three Super Bowl wins and a 9-0 record in the postseason) and bump Favre up a couple spots for similar reasons (while recognizing that he's gotta be close to the end of his career).
Just Being Nominated Was The HonorThe Watcher's Council has voted, and Alpha Patriot's terrific post on Israeli Pride, Israeli Angst has been named the most link-worthy piece of writing for the last week. I was thrilled to get nominated for my "What If the Rest of the Fantastic Four Were Peaceniks" post and very pleased to get votes against such excellent competition.
August Straw Poll ResultsPatrick Ruffini has the numbers for the potential 2008 Republican nominees, along with his usual superb analysis. Fascinating read.
Little Busy Right NowI'll have some time for new posts later this afternoon. In the meantime, why not check out Pam Meister's blog? She's got very similar tastes in blogging to mine.
Crawford Peace House Gets a Whitewash from APHmmm, what's missing from this story about the Crawford Peace House and the sudden improvement in its financial condition? The Peace House, just across the railroad tracks from downtown Crawford, was established as a place for activists to gather in Bush's adopted hometown. Jawad and John Wolf, affiliated with the Dallas Peace Center, bought the white-clapboard house for $65,000. They made the down payment with proceeds from selling anti-war buttons for $1 apiece at peace rallies.Oh, I know! Maybe some discussion of the Crawford Peace House's support for getting Israel out of Palestine?
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Stop the Presses! Krugman Acknowledges Miami County Mistake!At the end of Friday's column, which I fisked over at Lifelike comes this startling announcement: Corrections: In my column last Friday, I cited an inaccurate number (given by the Conyers report) for turnout in Ohio's Miami County last year: 98.5 percent. I should have checked the official state site, which reports a reasonable 72.2 percent. Also, the public editor says, rightly, that I should acknowledge initially misstating the results of the 2000 Florida election study by a media consortium led by The Miami Herald. Unlike a more definitive study by a larger consortium that included The New York Times, an analysis that showed Al Gore winning all statewide manual recounts, the earlier study showed him winning two out of three.I can actually imagine Krugman deciding that the 98.55% figure, which I fisked here and here, had to be revised, but the notion that he actually fessed up about Florida is quite stunning, especially since he wasted his Monday column trying to row back on that claim. Still, he's not coming clean, according to Donald Luskin and the Chief Brief. But congrats are in order all around. Michelle Malkin has a great post on this subject. Hat Tip: Marathon Pundit
Pat Hynes Nails ItOur buddy from Ankle-Biters is back with another excellent column in the AmSpec on those always wacky libs and their ever-shifting rationales for hating Bush: The Democratic National Committee similarly attacked the president for spending too much time exercising and not enough on public policy.
On every other page of every other newspaper, meanwhile, you will read about our nation's "obesity epidemic," followed by calls for emergency remedies ranging from class action lawsuits against fast food companies to crackdowns on vending machines in public schools. Some might think a physically fit president would serve as a good role model for America's youth, especially in light of the rapid decline in the quality of our heroes from the world of professional sports.
Paradoxically, while Chait and others ridicule the president for being too active, other liberals have attacked him for relaxing too much. President Bush's vacation habits have become another bizarre obsession among the political Left. Speaking as a guest on the Imus in the Morning show earlier in the week, for example, Howard Fineman railed against the president's "almost religious devotion to his vacation time."The old joke applies here: if President Bush were to walk on water tomorrow, the headlines would read: Bush Can't Swim!
Meet Col. James H. Coffman Jr., Hero Story here: Coffman, 51, is a senior adviser to Iraqi Special Police Commandos with the Multi-National Security Transition Command- Iraq's Civilian Police Assistance Training Team. He accompanied a commando Quick Reaction Force with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Iraqi Special Police Commando Brigade on Nov. 14, 2004 to help a commando platoon under attack in a Mosul, Iraq police station.
As the QRF approached the station, it was besieged with rocket-propelled grenades, small arms fire and mortar rounds. Coffman and the commandos fought the insurgents for four hours before help arrived. When the initial firefight killed or seriously wounded all but one of the commando officers, Coffman rallied the remaining commandos while trying to radio for assistance, according to his award citation.
"Under heavy fire, he moved from commando to commando, looking each in the eye and using hand and arm signals to demonstrate what he wanted done," the citation said.
When an enemy round shattered his left shooting hand, damaging his M4 rifle in the process, Coffman bandaged it and continued fighting with AK-47 rifles he collected from commando casualties until each ran out of ammunition. He also passed out ammunition to the uninjured commandos with the help of the remaining commando officer; when all that remained were loose rounds, Coffman held magazines between his legs and loaded the rounds with his good hand.For his heroism Col. Coffman received the Distinguished Service Cross, the army's second highest award. Hat Tip: Polipundit
Lorie Byrd UpdateGlad to report that things seem to have gone well: Her surgery was long, but was a great success. The cholesteatoma had not recurred – something that surprised us and the doctor, since it was so pervasive in the past two surgeries. That allowed the doctor to replace the hearing bone (I don’t remember the name of which one) with a prosthesis. There was some scar tissue present, but other than that this was the best outcome we could have imagined.
After the ear has healed from surgery, she should have regained much of her hearing and will be able to splash and swim with the other kids for the first time in two years.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes. It was very comforting to know that so many prayers were being offered on her behalf. I should be back Friday. Thanks again.This sounds silly, but I'm a big believer in anticipating horrific outcomes, so that most of the time I'm pleasantly surprised. Of course, it means I'm pretty depressed before I know the outcome. It's just a superstition I suppose, but it seems to work for me.
Cindy Puts on the Rose-Colored Glasses--UpdatedHere's her speech on returning to Crawfordapalooza: CINDY SHEEHAN: The hardest thing for me to hear -- I don't care about them talking about me being a “crackpot” or a “media whore” or a “tool of the left,” you know? I’m like, if I truly was a media whore, do you think I would like maybe get myself fixed up a little bit before I went on? That doesn't bother me at all, though. What bothers me so much is when they say I'm dishonoring my son's memory by what I'm doing, that my son would be ashamed of me or that what they really like to say is I'm [bleep] or spitting on his grave.
And look what Casey -- look what Casey has started. You know, I'm here because of Casey. We're all here because of Casey. And, you know, literally there's over 2,000 of our brave young people and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, and I know they're behind us, and I see them all, all their faces on your faces.
But Casey was such a gentle, kind, loving person. He never even got in one fistfight his whole life. Nobody even hated him enough to punch him, let alone kill him. And that's what George Bush did. He put our kids in another person's country, and Casey was killed by insurgents. He wasn't killed by terrorists. He was killed by Shiite militia who wanted -- they wanted him out of the country. When Casey was told that he was going to be welcomed with chocolates and flowers as a liberator, well, the people of Iraq saw it differently. They saw him as an occupier.First, I doubt very much that Casey never got into a fistfight in his entire life; there's not a kid in the world that doesn't slug it out with somebody. And note how she's buying into the notion that the Shiite militia members represent the people of Iraq. Update: Let me specify here that Casey does seem to have been an exceptionally honorable young man, so maybe I should cut Cindy some slack on this (admittedly minor) point.
Great Raid Getting NoticedHugh Hewitt's flogging the blogs to publicize this movie. I haven't seen it myself but will try to make time for it over the weekend, based on this terrific article. By late 1944, Japan's defeat was imminent and Prince was tasting combat in the Philippines. In January 1945, with word of the massacre of Allied POWs at Palawan, Mucci was ordered to hand-pick a team to rescue prisoners at Cabanatuan.
Mucci, who embarrassed Prince by calling him "my wonderful captain," was to get the rescuers to the camp; Prince's job was to get in and out.
What made the "Great Raid" so tactically incredible was that there was no time to rehearse. "Some have months to rehearse, we only had hours," Prince says. "We were successful because we had all trained together and knew each other" and had the support of Filipino people, he says.Sounds like a thrilling movie. I always enjoyed POW movies; there were a slew of excellent ones in the late 1950s and early 1960s: The Bridge on the River Kwai, Stalag 17, The Great Escape, King Rat, Escape from Mindanao, etc.
A Hero's WelcomeTerrific post by Gateway Pundit. Get your hankies ready. Snifter Clink to Mrs G.
The Blogroll Giveth...I've taken some blogs out of the blogroll, solely on the basis of non-posting activity, including (sob!) Kerry Haters. I had so much fun with that blog because Kerry was seemingly the Blooming Onion at Outback Steakhouse; you'd pull a piece away and suddenly there'd be something new to examine. And of course Kitty, Aaron and I quickly grew that blog to the point where we were close to the top 100 in traffic, without ever once having an Instalanche. You can't imagine how liberating it is to know your topic to blog on every day, especially when your topic is getting more media attention than Natalee Holloway. Kerry was an endless topic of fascination, seemingly a bottomless pit of experiences and fantasies. As to my other former blogroll buddies, look me up if you start posting again. I linked you because I liked your writing and delinked because I dislike the lack of it. ;)
If You're Not Reading Tinkerty Tonk....I envy you because you've got one more treat left in the world than I do.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Don't Make Errors in Articles About IQCouldn't resist poking fun at this one: HALF the population will dismiss this story, but a study claims that the cleverest people are much more likely to be men than women.
Men are more intelligent than women by about five IQ points on average, making them better suited for “tasks of high complexity”, according to the authors of a paper due to be published in the British Journal of Psychology.The first sentence is true, but the second contains one falsehood and one truth. The very smartest people on earth are men, in general. Nobody seriously disputes this. That's not to say that there aren't women among the smartest people in the world, just that there are fewer of them. But there are also fewer of them in Special Ed programs, and fewer of them that drop out of high school, so that overall there is no significant difference "on average". What this means is that in terms of the bell curve, there are fewer women several standard deviations below the median and above the median: They showed that men outnumbered women in increasing numbers as intelligence levels rise. There were twice as many with IQ scores of 125, a level typical for people with first-class degrees.
When scores rose to 155, a level associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman.What is amusing is the obvious reluctance of the authors to go against PC notions of gender equality: Dr Irwing, a senior lecturer in organisational psychology at Manchester University, said that he was uncomfortable with the findings. But he added that the evidence was clear despite the insistence of many academics that there were “no meaningful sex differences” in levels of intelligence.
“For personal reasons I would like to believe that men and women are equal, and broadly that’s true. But over a period of time the evidence in favour of biological factors has become stronger and stronger,” he said.
“I have been dragged in a direction that I don’t particularly like, but it would be sensible if the debate was based on what we pretty much know to be the case.”
I'm Not a LawyerI just play one over at GOP & the City. :)
Pregnancy High Most of you have heard of the high school in Canton, Ohio, where something like 1/7th of the girls are pregnant. But how many know the nickname of the school? Mr Right checked it out, and it's rather appropriate. Partisan Pundit has more on the same topic, as does the Chief Brief.
Hagel the Bagel to Run Independent Race in 2008?--Updated!That's the scoop from our buddies over at Ankle-Biting Pundits. Interestingly, after I got the email from them on this story, I was driving around at lunch and flipped over to Airhead America during a commercial break for Rush. Ed Schultz, who has the noontime show here, mentioned this story and even credited the Ankle-Biters(!). Schultz's take was that if Hagel did run, that the Democrats "would have a chance". ABP does point out that if McCain wins, Hagel would probably endorse him, since there's not a whole lot of difference between the two. Update: It didn't occur to me at the time, but a third-party candidate has a terribly hard time getting qualified for the ballot in anywhere near 50 states. Perot did it and Nader has done it, but Perot had surprisingly strong support and a compelling life story, and Nader piggybacked on the Greens (remember them?). So it becomes pretty obvious that Hagel's run is not intended as a serious run for the White House, but instead a petty attempt to deny the Oval Office to the next Republican candidate.
Prayers for Lorie ByrdHer daughter is in for another ear surgery today. Lorie's one of the nicest people in the blogosphere and we certainly send along our best wishes for her little girl.
There's No Business Like Show Business!Buckley F. Williams uncovers the real Cindy Sheehan.
The Free Speech ThingSigh. This seems to be a regular weapon in the Left's arsenal. Cindy Sheehan speaks out against the war. Republicans criticize her. Idiot columnist writes "Doesn't she have freedom of speech?" The central question is not whether Cindy Sheehan is right or wrong, or even if the war is right or wrong; the central question is, does she have a right to free speech, or not?
Even Bush, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the object of Sheehan’s increasingly caustic wrath, defends her right to have an opinion.
Cindy Sheehan is being lambasted as anti-American, but what’s more American than speaking your mind?I dunno, saying that somebody's anti-American? This is such an idiotic argument, but it gets repeated every time somebody comes out against the war. The Dixie Chicks get panned for their comments, and the immediate reaction from the left is "What about their freedom of speech?" As if freedom of speech means that you can't be criticized for what you say. Freedom of speech simply means that you cannot be arrested for what you say, with minor exceptions (yelling fire in a crowded theatre, for example). And indeed, I have not noticed President Bush having Cindy hauled away for violations of the Sedition Acts. Note as well, that the columnist feels free to bash Bill O'Reilly and Michelle Malkin for exercising their free speech rights: Among those leading the charge are Bill O’Reilly, who labeled Sheehan’s behavior “treasonous,” and Michelle Malkin, who once suggested that John Kerry may have earned his Purple Hearts by wounding himself.And notice as well, that nobody on the right is trying the "free speech" diversion when it comes to Pat Robertson's latest blatherings. There are some that might defend his comments (although I haven't read many), but nobody, nobody, nobody is throwing up that smokescreen, because unlike the left, we understand that free speech does not amount to a "get out of criticism free" card.
Echoes of VietnamPat Buchanan compares the situation to the Vietnam era politically, and surprisingly I agree with him. The reason Democrats must worry today is that the anti-war movement taking shape is virulently anti-Bush; it is lodged, by and large, inside their party; it is passionate and intolerant; it has given new life to the Howard Deaniacs who went missing after the Iowa caucuses; and it will turn on any leader who does not voice its convictions.
Consider Hillary's predicament. She is saying she supports the war and the troops, but the war has been mismanaged and America needs new leadership. No risk there.
Hillary's problem is she is three years away from 2008, the anti-war movement increasingly looks on her as a collaborator in "Bush's War," and Democrats like Feingold are going to give anti-war militants the rhetoric and stances they demand. Hillary's most rabid followers will depart if she does not leave Bush's side -- to lead them.Brian Preston has a good post on Iraq as Vietnam over at Michelle Malkin's. Meanwhile, Clarence Page suggests that the Democrats run out in front of the parade and pretend to be leading it. Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) last week became the first senator to call for a specific pullout deadline, defying the Democratic leadership. He later clarified on NBC's "Meet the Press" that his date, Dec. 31, 2006, for all troops to be withdrawn from Iraq is only a "target," not a "deadline," and can be pushed back if circumstances require it.
With that, Feingold, who also may run for president in 2008, gave voice to his party's increasingly impatient left-progressive wing, which wants leading Democrats to get tougher in pushing for a troop withdrawal. Call them the "Cindy Sheehan" wing, after the protesting mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. Sheehan's camp near Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch has invigorated the anti-war movement and put new pressure on Democratic moderates.Speaking of Cindy, she's due back in Crawford. Unfortunately for her, the president is not.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Yes, I Stole This From Lucianne Thanks, Mrs G!
Ashlee Simpson Will Not Be Performing In TurkmenistanNot after this story. Niyazov has ordered a ban on lip synching performances across the tightly controlled Central Asian nation, citing "a negative effect on the development of singing and musical art," the president's office said Tuesday.No word on whether Niyazov has any plans to ban air guitars.
Here's to Debbie Peevyhouse!This is another nice story about somebody honoring our heroes: Thanks to persistence, passion and a bit of verbal strong-arming, Debbie Peevyhouse of San Jose -- an amateur genealogist and avid military historian -- has collected enough money and convinced enough of the right people to place a small bronze emblem on the crypt of a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who died in 1946.
The ceremony to honor Marine Sgt. Edward Alexander Walker is scheduled for Sept. 10 at Oak Hill Memorial Park.Walker won the prestigious medal for his bravery in China fighting in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900-01. Other than his name, though, his crypt is bare. And aside from some short, fading newspaper clippings about his activities in veterans' groups in San Jose, little else is known about him.Here's some more discussion of Edward Alexander Walker, hero.
Moonbats in Crawford Maybe they could start a new show: Queer Eye for the Cross-Dressing Guy? Not that there's anything wrong with that!   And they're all waiting for the "New Face of Protest" to return from LA. 
How Voter Fraud Works at the Precinct LevelInteresting article. What we first need to know is that the Democrat operatives who are central to this fraud are known as “block captains” and “apartment captains.” Deep Vote tells us that a captain is a GOTV (Get out the vote) term for a campaign volunteer who knows the territory and is given a list of voters on his block or in his building who are believed to be sympathetic to his candidate. He is then charged with the task of driving these partisans to the polls.
Deep Vote then explains that since captains are usually “local/neighborhood leaders” or in the least have “been there for a while,” they “would know who has moved out.” It is then that the captains examine the voter rolls and “vote those people.”
Napolitano Proposes New National Spending ProgramAs part of the effort to identify what Democrats stand for: Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano today will unveil a national plan for education reform that includes universal preschool for children across the country, a standardized curriculum for all 50 states, full-day kindergarten and year-round schools.
Napolitano is co-chairwoman of a task force with ties to the Democratic Party that researched new approaches for education in the 21st century. The group concluded that American students need substantially more time in the classroom to compete with children in other countries.
The goal of the presentation is to start a debate on the ambitious recommendations. The implication is that national leaders eventually will buy into them. The estimated price tag for the makeover is $325 billion in federal money over the next 10 years.
The proposal calls for the money to come from the federal government but does not specify a source. However, the task force suggested that money for the programs could be generated by avoiding tax cuts proposed by Republican leaders, such as the elimination of the nation's estate tax.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Brainster's Makes the Radio!Our longtime blogging buddy Joel Gaines mentioned us this weekend on Tucson radio station KVOI. I'll put up the link to the audio archives when they have the program available. Thanks, Joel!
The Man in the MirrorThere's a classic scene in the movie Duck Soup, where Harpo and a look-alike confront each other through a doorway, or is it a mirror? Every time one of the Harpos does something, the other does the exact same thing. Eventually they circle around each other so that each is now on the opposite side of the doorway. It has been said that this dance sometimes happens in American politics, and an argument can be made. After all, the Republicans made their name as the party of the Union, but 100 years later they were supporters of states' rights. Nicholas von Hoffman, longtime bombthrower of the left has been circling around the neocons for awhile now, and finds himself suddenly espousing the principle (commonly associated with Republicans only 20 years ago) that "Yeah, he's a thug, but at least he's our thug." The first thing we gotta do is get that statue of Saddam, the one we pulled down for the TV cameras, and haul it back on its feet. Next we have to jerk the tyrant himself out of his hole in the ground, give him a haircut, a shave, a shampoo, a fresh set of underwear and a new suit.
Then we march him over to the Green Zone, tell him, ”It’s all yours, boy."Here's the kicker: I don't think he's joking.
Protesting the Protesters Who Are Protesting the Protesters....Third Wave Dave has the scoop.
She Turned Me Into a Newt!George W. Bush and the Holy Grail: ROVE: Let me take care of this, Mr. President!
(Daschardt and Rove clash in a furious sword battle for several minutes, then, with a keen stroke, Rove lops off Daschardt's left arm at the shoulder.)
ROVE: You fought well, brave adversary, now stand aside!
DASCHARDT: 'Tis but a scratch!
ROVE: A scratch? We've taken the House of Representatives from you!
DASCHARDT: No, you haven't!
ROVE: Actually, we took it back in 1994, but for the purposes of this sketch, it is represented by the symbolically severed arm on the ground over there!
DASCHARDT: My party's had worse!
ROVE: Liar!
DASCHARDT: Have at you!
(The battle begins anew. Rove severs Daschardt's right arm in short order.)
ROVE: Victory is ours! We have now taken back the Senate, which you had stolen from us without the benefit of an election! Now that we have lopped off both Houses of Congress, you have no arms left, stand aside!
Yes, Hillary's RunningIt seems safe to say there's no other explanation for this. Speaking of Summer Smackdowns, Bulldog Pundit over at ABP has the scoop on the brewing war between the Kos Kidz and the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. As I mentioned in the comments on that post, it seems that the Democrats' activists, because they are young and determined not to learn from the past, are doomed to repeat the same mistakes every couple of decades. I personally would love to see an all-out war between the Lefty bloggers and the DLC; it will just drive more Democrat-leaning moderates away from the party.
Krugman Forced to Waste A ColumnExplaining what he meant in the last column. This reaction seems to confuse three questions. One is what would have happened if the U.S. Supreme Court hadn't intervened; the answer is that unless the judge overseeing the recount had revised his order (which is a possibility), George W. Bush would still have been declared the winner.Can you imagine how angry our side would have been if the recount had gone President Bush's way, and then the judge revised his order and the result was a Gore victory? The third is what would have happened if the intentions of the voters hadn't been frustrated by butterfly ballots, felon purges and more; the answer is that Mr. Gore would have won by a much larger margin.And the fourth is what would have happened if the media had not declared Gore the winner in Florida before the polls closed in the panhandle of the state; some analysts estimate that the announcement cost Bush 10,000 net votes. Tons of ink have been spilled on why the media declared Bush the winner in Florida early in the morning; very little investigation went on as to why the earlier call was made. More broadly, the story of the 2000 election remains deeply disturbing - not just the fact that a man the voters tried to reject ended up as president, but the ugliness of the fight itself. There was an understandable urge to put the story behind us.One suspects that had Kerry eked out a victory over Bush in Ohio, Paul Krugman would never have written a word about how a man the voters tried to reject ended up as president. Moron Krugman at Ankle-Biting Pundits, the Chief Brief and Donald Luskin. Also Marathon Pundit.
Riding the Tiger is EasyIt's getting off that's a little tricky. The New York Times writes on the Democrats dilemma on Roberts: The party's liberal base, whose contributions during judicial confirmation fights earlier this year have helped the Senate Democratic campaign fund amass twice as much as its Republican rival, is pressing for another vigorous fight against Judge Roberts as documents from the Reagan administration clarify his conservative credentials.The Lefty bloggers seem to want a fight no matter what the cost. Over at the Daily Kos, we can see why with this post on a litmus test for candidates: Does candidate 'distance himself' from the party and/or its leaders, or is he proud to be a Democrat?
Does he talk like a bureaucrat or like a regular person?
Does she make it clear that she opposes Bush and the Republicans?
Does she back down when the corporate press/media or Republican pundits attack him, or does she stand by her words?
Does he sleepwalk through the campaign, or does he act like he wants to win?Note particularly that there are no issue litmus tests for Kos; instead it's all stylistic. One suspects that the key test is the middle one, the one about opposing Bush and the Republicans. Note particularly that Paul Hackett, the darling of the Left, violated two of the other tests: He avoided identifying himself as a Democrat, and in the last few days campaigned rather listlessly. Captain Ed has more on this theme: The centrists have tried mightily to maintain some distance from the radicals but cannot afford to lose them or their fundraising abilities, regardless of how the Republicans fare in the polls. This has led to a complete abandonment of message, as the two cannot agree on strategies for a single, coherent Party stance on issues.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Hunter Thompson Gets Blasted One Last TimeAnd like the last one, this didn't involve intoxicating beverages: Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson's ashes rained down on his Owl Farm property Saturday night as actor Johnny Depp, who paid for the $2.5 million ceremony, raised his champagne glass toward the night sky.
A star-studded crowd included 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and his 1972 counterpart, George McGovern.Sigh. Just like old times. And, uh, how in the world did Depp manage to blow $2.5 million? "It's a fantastic crowd," said Thompson's longtime friend and neighbor Don Dixon. "Half of the people here look like Keith Richards." That's not exactly a compliment.
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