March 30, 2004
Brings a tear to your eye
Some thoughtful individual has created a Flash montage (link via BoingBoing) of Bush/Cheney posters created on the campaign's web site before they realized it was... well, it was being used for good instead of evil.
My favorite Bush/Cheney slogan? "The ass fucking stops now!"
Pull the other one
Bush Campaign Seeks to Regain "Compassionate" Image
Or, "I have no new tricks. Please accept this old trick."
Facing a tight re-election fight over the next seven months, President Bush has quietly revived the kind of cozy voter forums that helped craft his image as a "compassionate conservative" in 2000, analysts and Republican insiders say.
Reminds me of an old comedy skit about how to pick up women that advised "If you can achieve the appearance of sincerity, she'll do anything. Anything."
'Bout time
Condi will testify publicly, under oath. (Hmm, didn't she say she couldn't do that legally?)
White House Offers Public Rice Testimony on 9/11
The White House has reversed its position and offered to have national security adviser Condoleezza Rice testify publicly under oath about the Sept. 11 attacks before the 9-11 commission, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.
Fire up the EyeTV and pass the popcorn. Man, I can't wait for the drinking game. "Every time she lies under oath..."
Krugman
Krugman starts off by taking a look at our world standing.
Last week an opinion piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz about the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin said, "This isn't America; the government did not invent intelligence material nor exaggerate the description of the threat to justify their attack."
Ouch! And that's Israel.
Krugman's main thrust, though, is the administration's smear tactics against anyone who goes over the wall.
Some journalists seem, finally, to have caught on. Last week an Associated Press news analysis noted that such personal attacks were "standard operating procedure" for this administration and cited "a behind-the-scenes campaign to discredit Richard Foster," the Medicare actuary who revealed how the administration had deceived Congress about the cost of its prescription drug bill.
But other journalists apparently remain ready to be used. On CNN, Wolf Blitzer told his viewers that unnamed officials were saying that Mr. Clarke "wants to make a few bucks, and that [in] his own personal life, they're also suggesting that there are some weird aspects in his life as well."
Nice. "Unnamed officials say Clarke likes little boys." That's such bullshit. You don't let people speak on the condition of anonymity if they're just doing it to get in a free punch. Blitzer's a hack.
And here's a chilling ending for you.
John Dean, of Watergate fame, says, "I've been watching all the elements fall into place for two possible political catastrophes, one that will take the air out of the Bush-Cheney balloon and the other, far more disquieting, that will take the air out of democracy."
March 29, 2004
Clarke's book
Kevin Drum provides the Cliff Notes for Clarke's book if you don't have the time or wherewithal to read it yourself.
To make it even shorter...
- Republicans ham stringed Clinton's efforts to fight al Qaeda by hounding him relentlessly.
- Neither administration was perfect, but Clinton at least tried and was better at executing.
- By invading Iraq, Bush has just played into bin Laden's hands.
Remember, this is from a guy who was, from most accounts, either a Republican before a few years ago or at least non-partisan.
March 28, 2004
Friedman
I so hunger to wake up and be surprised with some really good news — by someone who totally steps out of himself or herself, imagines something different and thrusts out a hand.
And yet, he continues to tune out.
I have a confession to make: I am the foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times and I didn't listen to one second of the 9/11 hearings and I didn't read one story in the paper about them. Not one second. Not one story.
Too bad, you twit. Because seeing Richard Clarke apologize to the families of the 9/11 victims was the moment you were looking for.
He then proceeds to provide a wish list of things for the Bush administration to do that... well... monkeys flying out of my ass... etc.
Bush driving a Prius? Is he fucking high? I suppose he wants a pony too. A magical fucking pony that can fly and talk and is pink and will be his bestest friend for ever.
He closes with a request for Kerry.
Most of all, I want to wake up and read that John Kerry just asked John McCain to be his vice president, because if Mr. Kerry wins he intends not to waste his four years avoiding America's hardest problems — health care, deficits, energy, education — but to tackle them, and that can only be done with a bipartisan spirit and bipartisan team.
I suspect that if Kerry thought that McCain would commit suicide within the Republican party and agree, he might ask him. The problem is not Kerry. It's McCain. He's not Zell Miller. He's not a Democrat in a Republican's hide. He's a principled Republican. But he's still a Republican.
Plus, why the fuck are they the ones who get the extremist administrations and we're the ones who have to be centrists? I'm sick of this shit.
Nader
I'll take this as a good sign.
Nader, Kerry to Discuss Defeating Bush
While stressing that he is still a competitor in the race, the independent presidential hopeful said he views his candidacy as a "second front against Bush, however small."...
At the same time, Nader prodded Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to push traditional Democratic values of helping working families. He said the Democrats in general need to be reminded of that.
Say what you want to about him (no, really, go ahead), but there's no denying that both parties are more beholden to corporate America than they should be.
Still, despite what Nader says, there's a world of difference between Kerry or Gore and Bush. And I'm talking a world like Jupiter. Big ol' gas giant. That kind of world.
The best thing Nader could do is stay in for a while, keep the heat on Bush and remind the Democrats of what they're supposed to be about.
And then get out.
Because Ezra's right. Nader's great at causes, but he would just suck as a President.
Condi
No wonder she won't go under oath. She's incapable of not lying.
March 27, 2004
Pond scum
Opus 163 at the Department of Louise notices that serial cat killer Bill Frist thinks Richard Clarke's apology to the families of the 9/11 victims was out of line.
Yeah, I guess when it makes your buddies in the administration look like the pedantic, childish, ill-mannered, self-righteous, opportunistic, extremist louts they are, you might think it's out of line.
You might also be a fucking asshole.
March 26, 2004
The real answer
I feel like I keep bringing this up, but people keep asking, "Why has Bush misstepped so badly this year? When will Rove find his game?"
It should be patently obvious that Bush hasn't "misstepped". He's continued to do exactly what he's always done. What's happened is that the miasma of blind allegiance generated by 9/11 and misdirected to the most right-wing administration in decades has lifted from Democrats, the press and the nation.
This piece on Bush War discusses the change (link via This Modern World).
What went so wrong so quickly? It was as if these notorious practitioners of hardball, smash-mouth politics had never even considered the prospect that they might have to absorb a punch at some point themselves.After all, they never really had. And watching their façade crack in seeming slow motion, you might have been tempted to wonder if the myth of Karl Rove’s genius, and George Bush’s invincibility, owed as much to everyone else’s failings as to their side’s successes.
Ha-ha!
What a bunch of maroons!
Yeah, they like to say Al Gore said he invented the Internet. Apparently they've only just discovered it.
"Grr? Dahr? Gronk! Grrr.... Aooooogah! In... tah... net?"
Visit Stephanie's "secret page" and give her some love. You know you want to. She is cute.
March 25, 2004
Collect them all! Trade them with your friends!
Henry Waxman's office has created an online database of the administration's public statements on Iraq (link via Mr. Barrett).
Don't look now, but...
... it looks like someone's been hittin' the sauce again.
Dissembling
Hesiod details the passage in Clark's book I alluded to yesterday.
Wow.
It's amazing, isn't it? A few hundred votes in Florida...
And, speaking of recent posts, Tom Tomorrow provides some Fox News buffoonery about "supportin' the troops" that would be humorous if... well... it weren't. The sequence of events is:
- Bush ignores real terrorist threat and sends armed forces out to get killed attacking a straw horse.
- Democrats and Richard Clarke attack Bush for doing so.
- Fox News guest deplores them for attacking the president while the armed forces are in harm's way!
Duh... whaaaaaaaaaa?!!!
Reminds me of the gag in the Jerk where Navin R. Johnson falls on hard times and picks up a drinking problem. His wife tries to stop him and he says "Honey, not now! Can't you see I'm drinking?!"
Only, like I said, that's funny and this... not so much.
Those concerned with facts need not apply
The American Prospect looks at the people who have left the Bush administration and why.
Not THAT separation!
I thought Condi Rice's comment that she won't testify because she has a...
responsibility to maintain what is a longstanding separation -- constitutional separation between the executive and the legislative branch. (Quote via Talking Points Memo.)
...was rather humorous. Apparently that separation is a big deal, but Republicans in the House are busy trying to tear down the separation of the legislative and judicials branches by pushing a bill that would allow them to override the Supreme Court with a two-thirds majority.
Separation of executive and legislative: good.
Separation of legislative and judicial: bad.
Gotcha.
Oh, and you should read Marshall's post.
Evidently there are very few classes of confidential information Rice is not willing to publicize. She just doesn't want to get questioned.
Much like, Marshall notes, the Nixon-era White House execs before her. How apropos.
The cure for Zell Miller
A day after reading about Democrat-in-name-only Zell Miller's attack on Kerry, I see...
Democratic Party Leaders Unite for Kerry
And there's another email in my inbox from Howard Dean asking for people to support Kerry. I'm sure that just breaks William Safire's heart.
But, I'm sure that even though Clinton's helping Kerry kick off a big fundraising drive he's machinating about Hillary's eventual take-over at the convention. Or, he's secretly planning for Kerry's failure so Hillary can run in 2008. Or Kerry's just a zombie under Hillary's evil voodoo control that...
Ah, the rhetoric
Will voters invite terrorists back into this country?
It's mostly that "I support our courageous president who single-handedly took out those Iraqi/Al Qaeda MIGs before landing on the Abraham Lincoln... blah, blah, blah... moral clarity... blah, blah, blah... Clinton's cock... blah, blah, blah," garbage. But this line...
We have liberated regimes worse than Hitler's in two countries...
Worse than Hitler's?!
Wow.
You know he... ha-ha! He killed 6 million Jews and... invaded most of Europe and... uh... with the... Panzers... and... there was that Blitzkrieg... thing... and...
Wow.
Do you think these people really believe what they write? Because that's just fucking scary.
Supportin' the troops
U.S. sent medically unfit soldiers to Iraq, Pentagon
To meet the demand for troops in Iraq, the military has been deploying some National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers who aren't fit for combat.More than a dozen members of the Guard and reserves told Knight Ridder they were shipped off to battle with little attention paid to their medical histories.
Those histories included ailments such as asthma, diabetes, recent surgery and hearing loss. Once in Iraq, the soldiers faced severe conditions that aggravated their medical problems, and the medical care available to them was limited.
Now... I'm confused. Is that... "supporting the troops"? Cause...
Clarity of purpose
And that purpose was... get Saddam.
Missed Chances in a Long Hunt for bin Laden
He also reported frustration that some policy makers in the new administration "who had not lived through such threat surges before, questioned the validity of the intelligence or wondered if it was disinformation, though they were persuaded when they probed it."
Intelligence that pointed to Al Qaeda threats was questioned. Intelligence that pointed to Iraqi threats was exaggerated.
To be sure, the Clinton administration seems to have been unable to settle on a clearly defined policy on how to get bin Laden according to the Times account, but it did take the threat seriously and did make numerous efforts.
Instead of action and new initiatives, the Bush administration engaged in a lengthy policy debate.
...
Some intelligence officials expressed frustration over what they viewed as the Bush administration's slow pace and its apparent unwillingness to grasp what they viewed as the extreme gravity of the threat. Two C.I.A. counterterrorism officers, who were not identified, told the commission that they were "so worried about an impending disaster" that they considered resigning in protest, a report said.
And when 9/11 happened, Saddam was always thrown into the mix. Clarke has indicated Bush personally asked him to investigate Saddam's involvement in 9/11. Rumsfeld wanted to attack Iraq because there were "no good targets" in Afghanistan.
The Times does not make this connection and, indeed, does not even mention Iraq in the story.
The Clinton administration may not have been perfect on Al Qaeda, but they didn't take their eye off the ball.
March 24, 2004
Uptime
So, I realized that there were a few software updates out there I hadn't grabbed and I got into Software Update to take a look. iChat, iDVD, iPhoto, OS X 10.3.3...
Then I looked down at the Konfabulator widget that shows me how long it's been since I've rebooted.
32 days.
Wow. In OS 9 I used to have my machine reboot every day automatically just to clear memory of accumulated garbage.
I read an interview with Jef Raskin a few days ago and he said he had to reboot in OS X several times a week.
What's he doing wrong? Sure, maybe an interface guru needs to do some bizarre things to his machine, but if you're doing weird shit anyway you shouldn't be bitching about how many times you have to reboot. Particularly when someone such as myself, who plays games, does some coding, and runs the occasional sudo command can keep his system up for 32 fucking days.
Anyway, I thought, fuck it, and quit out of Software Update. I'm not loading anything.
Why screw with a good thing?
Walking and chewing gum at the same time
Bush Briefed on Al Qaeda Threat Before Taking Office
During this period, some CIA officials expressed frustration at the pace of policymaking, the report said. Tenet's deputy, John McLaughlin, "told us he felt a great tension -- especially in June and July 2001 -- between the new administration's need to understand these issues and his sense that this was a matter of great urgency," the report said.
And yet they all scream about Clinton being more interested in his trysts than national security. "Dereliction of duty! Dereliction of duty!"
Well, guess what? Clinton was able to do both. His administration left Bush with a rational policy that aimed at taking out Bin Laden.
Bush, typically, dropped the ball and then went after the guy he wanted to go after in the first place.
Remember, we didn't launch a spring offensive to get Bin Laden last year because we were invading Iraq.
Talk about dereliction of duty.
March 23, 2004
Whistler pictures
OK, remember, it's not about me, it's about the beauty of nature.
And... uh... I also get commission on certain rental properties up there.
Darn the luck!
Jeez, you know... imminent, not imminent... it's a 50/50 shot, right?!
Bush Defends Actions on al-Qaida Threat
President Bush said Tuesday he would have acted more quickly against al-Qaida if he had information before Sept. 11, 2001, that a terror attack against New York City was imminent.
So, despite being warned by the Clinton administration that Bin Laden was... well, kind of an imminent threat, Bush ignored the warning for 9 months. Then he decided Iraq was an imminent threat (see Rumsfeld, Donald) and... oops... not so imminent.
D'oh!
Sometimes a dude just can't catch a break!
March 20, 2004
Off
We're off to Whistler for some skiing for a few days. Hope it doesn't rain, but the weather report doesn't look so good. Fortunately, we have a strong backup plan.
Drinking.
See you next week.
March 19, 2004
Well...
...it sure sounds like Rumsfeld.
Ex-Advisor: Iraq Considered After 9/11
Richard Clarke, the president's counterterrorism coordinator at the time of the attacks, said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained on Sept. 12 — after the administration was convinced with certainty that al-Qaida was to blame — that, "there aren't any good targets in Afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in Iraq."
Sure sounds like those boys were hot to trot for Iraq.
Hmm. Then what was all that talk about giving the UN time and Saddam having a chance to avoid war but he refused to allow inspectors in?
Just girl talk, I guess.
Sent to letters@nytimes.com
David Halbfinger's report of John Kerry's vacation ("Amid Natural Splendor in Idaho, a Weary Kerry Gets Away From It All" - 3/19/2004) does indeed tell volumes, but not about the Senator.
Halbfinger doesn't even get through the lede before he describes Kerry as "...the candidate often ridiculed as straddling both sides of political divides..."
Ridiculed by whom? Halbfinger leaves out that Kerry is ridiculed exclusively by Republicans because the insinuation that he is widely ridiculed is so much more pleasing and supports the trite anecdote he provides that is supposed to speak volumes about the man.
He then calls Kerry "The image-conscious candidate..."
Phony, phony, phony, he cries. "As opposed to what?" one might reasonably ask. A president who trapses about in a flight suit and does all that brush-clearing in Crawford? A president who describes himself as a "war president" and a "compassionate conservative," while admitting in private he doesn't understand poor people?
Halbfinger then notes "Kerry beat a retreat back into the lodge..." after being heckled by a skier. It's convenient for President Bush that he never lets himself get into a situation where he might get heckled. His crowds are always hand-picked and recently some of them don't even speak English.
This article makes me very sad. It makes me very sad at the state of journalism at the New York Times - that it has learned nothing from the irresponsible coverage of Al Gore during the 2000 campaign and that it continues to treat the country's most important business with the seriousness of a group of high school Heathers who spin oh-so-delicious tales that are ultimately made of whole cloth.
That apparently doesn't matter to your publication and Halbfinger, though. This tale is not designed to inform, it's designed to cast the journal and the journalist as those that don't cotton to Washington "phonies." After spinning George Bush as "the real man" for so long, Halbfinger and the Times can't turn back now, and you can't have two "real men" so Kerry must be the phony, just like Gore supposedly was before him.
Will we be forced to endure eight months of articles about Kerry's suits and sweaters, as if they make a bit of difference to the governing of a nation?
That is what makes me sad. If there's a real story here, it's about shallow journalists who attempt to make characterizations of politicians for their own convenience, spin tales that are fabricated, but at least don't require them to think hard, and care not at all about the serious business at hand.
Well, someone please tell David Halbfinger to stop. Because I've heard this one before.
Sincerely,
John Moltz
Not worried
Kerry's taken a few cheap shots to the gut over the past week and is continuing to take more.
Kerry Trade Policies Likely To Make Talks Tougher (Alternative headline: Bush Trade Policies Likely To Continue To Send Jobs Overseas, Weaken Dollar.)
Kerry's 1994 Effort To Cut Defense Eyed (Forget the fact that in 1994, people wanted to know when we were going to get that "peace dividend," we were trying to get out from under Republican deficits and his cuts had to do with weapons systems not related to fighting terrorism, unless terrorists suddenly decide to fight us in tanks on an open battlefield.)
If it seems discouraging, keep in mind what month it is. We have a long way to go still to November. Dean showed that the way to take away the sting is to collect bushels of money. Whenever Dean got attacked, his supporters would throw more cash at him. We need to do the same for Kerry. At Atrios, Kos, Demagogue or here, I don't care where. Let's show him and them we're not taking it lying down anymore.
Indeed
Soldier who lost feet optimistic about future, but puzzles over war
"The other day I went to my son's house, and he crawled to the window and yelled that he couldn't get to the door till he put his legs on," his father, also John Fernandez, says. "Things like this break my heart. I keep asking myself, `For what?'"Says Mary Fernandez, John's mother: "The people who say this war is OK don't see the dead and wounded. They don't know how it affects their families."
And the House spends the day debating the Orwellian resolution 557, which is designed to convince the U.S. people that, ooh, golly, yes, we're so much safer after Saddam Hussein's removal. So much safer that a regime that was effectively contained is out of power.
But I think people are smart enough to realize that Saddam Hussein was never going to be able to effectively launch an attack on the U.S. (let alone want to make such a stupid move) that would have taken over 500 lives and lost John Fernandez his feet.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Lucien Dupont, this quarter's Quarterly Karma winner! A delicious $10 gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store will be one its way to Lucien shortly!
March 18, 2004
A plea
My site statistics say there are over 100 unique visits to this site every day. I've long since given up trying to figure out if that's 100 individuals or 50 people who visit once from work and once from home or one guy in a college computer lab running around in visiting the site on 100 machines.
The thing is, if I can appeal to any one of you - be it one, 50 or 100 - to make a decision that you're going to give some money to help remove Bush from office this November then I need to do that.
Bush Campaign Ad Hits Kerry with His Own Words
We may wish it were otherwise, but this is going to be one ugly campaign season. Bush already is hitting the airwaves and trying to throw anything at Kerry that he thinks will stick and the press has shown no signs that it won't play this as a "he said/he said" matchup.
We have to be able to respond.
You can give to Kerry directly, or you can give to the DNC ePatriots or MoveOn.org.
I'm not Atrios. I can't raise $75,000 for Kerry in a day. But if I can get someone to contribute $20, I'd be happy.
Losing the message
There is something to learn from Spain's election. I fear the message isn't getting through, though.
Bush Calls for Unity Behind War on Terrorism
"It sends a terrible message if the terrorists believe they can attack those who are fighting them the hardest and have an effect on them," said a senior Bush administration official.
What I wish is that it would send a message to the Bush administration that "fighting terrorists the hardest" isn't going after straw horses and delaying going after the real enemy until it's the best time politically.
Quarterly Karma reminder
Get me your name by 9 AM tomorrow if you want to be in the drawing for a $10 iTunes Music Store gift certificate.
Give the man credit
He does speak his mind.
McCain Says Kerry Not Weak on Defense
Arizona Sen. John McCain, arguably the Democrats' favorite Republican, managed to step all over the GOP's carefully honed message of the week Thursday by rejecting the notion that John Kerry is weak on defense.
Democracy For America
Read Dean's announcement here.
I'm pissed the guy's going to be speaking this morning just up the road from me and I have this damn final.
March 17, 2004
Busy, busy, busy
Final tomorrow so I'm grinding away. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon, most likely.
March 16, 2004
Quarterly Karma reminder
Late on Friday I announced this quarter's Quarterly Karma give-away. Don't forget to email me before Friday to enter.
Ugh
It's going to be a long election cycle.
They're already trying to blame Kerry for 9/11 in an act of cognitive dissonance that will make your brain ooze out of your ears. Effectively the Post is saying, "We know he told the administration they should tighten security at Logan, but he didn't tell them hard enough! Oh, if only the president had gotten this information... er... more forcefully! Perhaps then he wouldn't have sat on his ass and not done jack shit about it."
Then, they're trying to make a tizzy out of Kerry's remark that he knows leaders of other nations who want Bush ousted in November.
Shit, I practically know leaders of other nations who want Bush ousted in November. Is the implication that he's lying or are they just interested in adding to their enemies list? Because I don't get it.
And try to believe Bush delivered the following line without his head exploding from irony.
"If you're going to make an accusation in the course of a presidential campaign, you've got to back it up with facts," Bush told reporters during a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
KA-BOOM!
Krugman
Polls suggest that a reputation for being tough on terror is just about the only remaining political strength George Bush has. Yet this reputation is based on image, not reality. The truth is that Mr. Bush, while eager to invoke 9/11 on behalf of an unrelated war, has shown consistent reluctance to focus on the terrorists who actually attacked America, or their backers in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
And we're the ones tarred as "soft on terror". So, if people won't believe Bush is "soft on terror", will they at least believe he's "stupid on terror"?
Apparently it doesn't matter what direction you're running in as long as you're running as fast as you can.
This wasn't just a rhetorical switch; crucial resources were pulled off the hunt for Al Qaeda, which had attacked America, to prepare for the overthrow of Saddam, who hadn't. If you want confirmation that this seriously impeded the fight against terror, just look at reports about the all-out effort to capture Osama that started, finally, just a few days ago. Why didn't this happen last year, or the year before? According to The New York Times, last year many of the needed forces were tied up in Iraq.
That argument sounds familiar. Everything they do is political.
March 15, 2004
One a month.
Ezra on Pandagon notes a Time article that says the administration has asked the Department of Homeland fricking Security to work on Bush's campaign for a while.
Administration sources tell TIME that employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been asked to keep their eyes open for opportunities to pose the President in settings that might highlight the Administration's efforts to make the nation safer. The goal, they are being told, is to provide Bush with one homeland-security photo-op a month.
It really fucking galls me that my tax dollars are going toward Bush's campaign instead of making the country safe.
March 14, 2004
Awwww...
Another conservative wet dream bites the dust.
Once a Bitter Rival, Dean Praises Kerry
Oh, man! What about the third party bid?! What about tearing the party apart?!
Dean is clearly not thinking about William Safire's feeling here. He's so... selfish.
Ah, well. There's always Hillary's surprise coup at the convention.
March 13, 2004
Oops
According to Dori at Backup Brain, this page on the Bush campaign web site would let you enter any text you wanted to create a custom Bush/Cheney poster.
Reading the comments and visiting now, however, it looks like they started by trying to weed out words like "Iraq" and "Halliburton" and eventually just took off the option to enter your own text.
Backfire much? I guess it is a little embarrassing when more people are using it to create sarcastic posters than pro-Bush posters.
UPDATE: Wired gets in on the story.
Yeah, that'll happen
Democrat Kerry Challenges Bush to Monthly Debates
President Foot-In-Mouth will never agree to that in a million years. His ardent supporters will cry "Too a-busy prosecutin' the War on Terra!", but it'll make him look like a chicken to everyone else.
Kerry's keeping the pressure on.
March 12, 2004
Smart or just good?
Billmon suggests Kerry might have known the mike was on. If he did, he's smart to know that would play well with the base (hmm, did that come after his meeting with Dean?). If he didn't, then it just gives him more street cred as someone truly fed up with Bush.
Either way, I'm very pleased with Kerry.
Quarterly Karma
OK, I realize that the end of the quarter is approaching and I haven't taken care of the promised Quarterly Karma, soooooooo I decided to pick something easy:
This quarter's Quarterly Karma will be a $10 gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store!
Rules: Send me an email indicating your desire to be entered into the Quarterly Karma drawing. One (1) winner will be picked by a little Java app I wrote that is totally unbiased to integers. I take no responsibility for determining if you can spend a $10 gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store from whatever country you're in. In other words, if Apple hasn't made the iTMS available in your neck of the woods please do not enter.
Friends and family of John Moltz are not eligible. I'm not sure why, really, since it's my money and I can do whatever I damn well please with it...
Actually, you know what? Screw that. Family members are not eligible (they can buy their own damn music), but friends are.
Oh, and previous winners are definitely not eligible.
The drawing will take place next Friday!
An easy mark.
Boy, there is just no down side to this for Chalabi, is there? The guy fills the administration's ears with exactly what they wanted to hear - information which, we all know now, he pulled out of his ass. Even if he doesn't get "elected" to run the new government, he and his buddies are still pulling down $340,000 a month (link via the Department of Louise) of the U.S. taxpayers' money.
That is why I have chosen this time to announce to the Bush administration that there are terrorists in my pants and that certain people I know who have been to my pants indicate these terrorists are hard at work on a nuclear program. I have special knowledge of my pants that would help the U.S. government in its efforts to route out the terrorists and set up a new democracy in my pants which will be a shining example to other people's pants.
Only by paying me $340,000 a month and invading my pants will the U.S. government be able to stop the threat that lies within them.
Chalabi certainly proved P.T. Barnum right, although Barnum probably never expected the sucker could somehow become president.
Daily Dose of the Daily Show
STEWART: Meanwhile the president got back on the stump yesterday, using a speech before a group of women entrepreneurs to tell people what he would do if he were president.
BUSH: We have a responsibility in government to create an environment that increases more jobs, and helps people find the skills to fill those jobs.
STEWART: Uhhhhh... you might want to get started on that.
And Samantha Bee hits one out of the park with her story on gay penguins.
BEE: When children see these... chum guzzlers, what message does it send to them?
Catch the rerun if you can.
The Triumph of the Will
brettd at kuro5hin notices that some stations are playing Bush's ad in its entirety as "news".
Cue the klieg lights!
March 10, 2004
Kerry/Batman
OK, that hasn't been speculated yet, but after Kerry/Brokaw and Kerry/McCain, I think it's the logical next step.
That ticket would rock. I'd pay good money to see Batman debate Dick Cheney. And you know Kerry would love to have Bruce Wayne's fortune at his disposal.
Your homework...
...while I'm doing my homework, is to read this scary Salon piece on the neoconservative's control of the Pentagon.
Busy
I'm a little busy today, but for a real pick-me-up, read this.
Can we just hold the election next Tuesday?
Also, if anyone knows how to code a little command line app that will delete and then undelete a file from a disk image, please email me.
Like, before tomorrow when I have to hand in a little command line app that will delete and then undelete a file from a disk image.
March 09, 2004
The influence of blogs
A while back James asked in comments about how we go about making a difference in the fight to beat Bush. I noted that blogs are nice, but they're not outreach.
That's true, but blogs can be the research engine behind the media, as Kos notes today.
Kos call the press lazy and basically says that if bloggers have to do the research for them, well, so be it.
I think that may be true in certain cases, but the more endemic problem with the political media is making everything, even arguments based on verifiable facts, into a "he said, she said" story. The administration would say the sky is pink with purple polka dots and for a long time Democrats would say "I support the president and his characterization of the sky."
"Administration Says X, Democrats Agree" doesn't make for interesting reading.
But, as blogs became more of an entity for the media (in no small degree because some of them actually started their own blogs), they could be tapped to create more interesting stories.
"Administration Says X, Clever Blogger Points Out It's Really Y, Democrats Mumble That They Really Thought It Was Y All Along."
Yes, Bush and his pals had a sweet deal when Democrats were mute and the press just let it all drop. But those days are over.
Comparisons of the absurd
Yes, when comparing records on votes to defend the country against terrorism, let's do make sure we're comparing apples to apples, not apples to magical fruit grown after The Day That Changed Everything (TM).
So, here's a handy reference for you cub reporters and not so cub reporters out there: 1995 != 2004.
And "!=" means "not equal to", OK?
Oh, and Nedra, if you're reading, this one's for you.
When George W. Bush criticizes John Kerry for voting to cut intelligence funding in 1995, he neglects to mention that his own administration was in favor of cuts the day before 9/11.
(Slightly changed to make use of more of the irony.)
March 08, 2004
What a hero
Lead Balloons on Bad Attitudes makes a good point about those "George W. Bush, Now With More 9/11!" ads.
It's not like he was takin' on terrorists with nothing but his service pistol and a hunting knife.
He was doing the aerial equivalent of "For the love of god do anything you want to the country but don't hurt me!"
I'd like to see those ads.
March 07, 2004
RNC tries to get MoveOn ads off the air
The RNC is trying to bully broadcasters into taking MoveOn.org's ads off the air, claiming the ads are illegal.
RNC tells TV stations not to run anti-Bush ads (link via BoingBoing)
I frankly don't pretend to know enough about campaign finance law to know if this is true or not, but I think, as much as they wish it weren't the case, the courts get to decide that, not the RNC. If they really thought it was illegal, wouldn't they lodge a formal complaint with the FCC and/or the FEC instead of going directly to local stations running the ad?
Uh... that's worse
In trying to issue a non-apology apology for saying a vote against Bush was a vote for Osama bin Laden, Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole said (link via the Whiskey Bar):
"What I am saying is that in a time of war, if our commander in chief is defeated in an election, our adversary will regard that as a triumph," Cole told CNN in an interview Thursday.
So, what you're saying, Congressman, is that in times of war, people should blindly re-elect whoever is in the White House, democracy be damned.
Blind faith is our best strategy for victory!
Uh, hate to be a pest, but remind me again when this "war" might be over? And I'm sure that maxim applies to the party as well, right?
The Wee Tomato
Just came back from a baby shower (this one featured excellent Bloody Marys) to see that Tina and Lane are off to deliver the Wee Tomato!
Best wishes!
March 06, 2004
For those of you who thought the iPod mini would bomb...
... I suggest a Chardonnay to go with that crow.
Of course, it's perfectly possible that Apple (again) just can't keep up with the initial demand, but I think the cheapest iPod is a winner.
March 05, 2004
What kind of crappy assed recovery is this?
U.S. Job Growth Anemic in February
The U.S. economy added a paltry 21,000 jobs last month, according to a surprisingly weak government report on Friday that turned up the heat on President Bush as he seeks re-election.
Well... no wonder they wouldn't stand behind their job growth prediction. Ha-ha! 2.6 million jobs before the end of the year! What a bunch of kidders!
What kind of crappy assed war for oil was that?
Jeez, can't he get anything right?
Oil Prices Rise, Supply Falls During Bush Years
When Bush was sworn into office in January 2001, the national weekly price for gasoline averaged $1.47 a gallon. This week, the pump price stood at $1.72, just three cents below the record set last August.
Let's see... rising demand... rising prices... who's that good for? Not the oil consumer certainly... Why, maybe it's good for the oil companies.
March 04, 2004
More like this, please
Sept. 11 Families Disgusted by Bush Campaign Ads
Families who lost relatives in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks voiced outrage on Thursday at President Bush's first ads of his re-election campaign that use images of the devastated World Trade Center to portray him as the right leader for tumultuous times."Families are enraged," said Bill Doyle, 57, of New York, who is active in several Sept. 11 family groups. "What I think is distasteful is that the president is trying to use 9/11 as a springboard for his re-election."
"It's entirely wrong. He's had 3,500 deaths on his watch, including Iraq," said Doyle, whose 25-year-old son Joseph died at the trade center.
...
The International Association of Fire Fighters, which endorsed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, also denounced the campaign spots as "hypocrisy at its worst."
"I'm disappointed but not surprised that the president would try to trade on the heroism of those fire fighters," the union's general president, Harold Schaitberger, said.
Hardly out of the gate and his ad's blowing up in his face. Could it be that the biggest war chest in the world can't save his ass when he has nothing to run on?
And when you do vote, please vote Hitler
(Actually, I find it incredibly stupid. What's the message board maxim that says the first person to mention Hitler loses the argument?)
March 03, 2004
I, for one, welcome our rich overlords!
Low-, middle-income folks need 'rich' buying goods
The Feb. 29 Beattie cartoon concerning Federal Reserve Chief Alan Greenspan, Social Security and Medicare is a typical depiction of class warfare - all, it seems, the Democrats have to offer.Consider Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ." When Mary asked her carpenter son, Jesus, what he intended to do with a beautiful table he had made with his own hands, he replied, "Sell it to a rich man."
The point is, without the "rich" there would be no market for what middle- and low-income workers produce. The collapse, and massive job loss, of the Florida yacht industry (circa 1987) after the imposition of a federal luxury tax (to soak the rich) on new yachts and new luxury cars further makes my point. That tax has since been phased out.
The "rich" directly or indirectly write the blue-collar paychecks.
That's right - it's really just 1% of America that keeps this economy going. The rest of you Coke-slurping, Dell-buying, Ford-driving, Wal-Mart monkeys would do well to just thank your betters!
Oh, and Christ?
Capitalist.
It's right out of the Bible. Or, the most recent Hollywood incarnation of that sacred tome as told by that Mad Max fella. Now, there's a guy who really knows about the apocalypse.
So, the next time you class warfare-istas deride Bush's tax cuts for the rich, think about how they're spending that money on... uh... well, OK, admittedly, imported wine, imported cars, and imported clothes for the most part... but also on good ol' American yachts!
Which... is... probably only important for those of you in the yacht-making industry.
OK, let me start again... OK, this salt shaker is Ken Lay, see? And this Freedom Fry is the American worker, and the salt is trickling down onto the Freedom Fry...
(Does it seem sometimes like conservatives think they don't even have to try to come up with good arguments anymore? Also, didn't the administration go to great lengths to pretend that the tax cuts were for "average Americans"? This guy's way off on the talking points.)
In the trenches with Diebold
LKM in comments below points to a very interesting entry from Avi Rubin, one of the authors of the Johns Hopkins report that was so critical of the Diebold machines, who spent yesterday working the polls in Maryland where they use... Diebold machines.
One thing absolutely amazed me. With very few exceptions, the voters really LOVED the machines. They raved about them to us judges. The most common comment was "That was so easy." I can see why people take so much offense at the notion that the machines are completely insecure. Given my role today, I just smiled and nodded. I was not about to tell voters that the machines they had just voted on were so insecure.
And this would be me.
Perhaps the lightest moment in the day came when one voter standing at his machine asked in the most deadpan voice, "What do I do if it says it is rebooting?" Head judge Marie turned white, and Joy's mouth dropped. My heart started to beat quickly, when he laughed and said "just kidding."
It's an interesting account, but Rubin's experience didn't ultimately change his mind.
I continue to believe that the Diebold voting machines represent a huge threat to our democracy. I fundamentally believe that we have thrown our trust in the outcome of our elections in the hands of a handful of companies (Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S) who are in a position to control the final outcomes of our elections. I also believe that the outcomes can be changed without any knowledge by election judges or anyone else. Furthermore, meaningful recounts are impossible with these machines.
So, then the 9/11 commission says...
... we know you're busy, George, but... fuck you.
Oh, by the way...
Kerry, Kerry, he's our man!
If he can't do it, no one can!
I applaud yor victory, sah! The check's in the mail.
Now, remember... don't pick a goober.
No. Really?
Electronic Voting Runs Into Some Glitches
Frozen screens and malfunctioning computers plagued some Super Tuesday voters who tried to cast electronic ballots, and experts predict such problems will be repeated on a national scale in November.
Oh... yay.
Go... democracy.
March 02, 2004
Filling the gap
MoveOn.org to Counter Bush's Ad Blitz
A Democratic-leaning online group will run television commercials in 17 presidential battleground states starting Thursday to counter President Bush's multimillion-dollar advertising blitz that will begin the same day.
Keep the pressure on.
Give them some love, if you're so inclined.
Horseman of the apocalypse
Kevin Drum this morning (Whoops - last night, actually - I just didn't read it until this morning) discusses the possibility that the administration cut a deal with Pakistan to look the other way when their top nuclear scientist sold nuclear technology to other nations so we could launch the spring offensive to go after Osama bin Laden.
As great as catching bin Laden would be, if thousands of U.S. troops roaming unfettered through Pakistan flames the ire of anti-government sentiment among hard-line Muslims there, we could be left with something worse than having bin Laden free: a nuclear power run by an unfriendly, hard-line Muslim government.
While it's not known for certain there was a quid pro quo, given Bush's history of making Iraq into a terrorist's theme park and his penchant for borrowing against the future, it certainly wouldn't surprise me that he'd do the long-term wrong thing if he thought it would get him re-elected.
Compulsive borrower
Someone needs to take away Georgie's credit card. Now he's trying to borrow against Kerry's money.
Bush Seeks to Use $1M in Transition Funds
President Bush is making an unprecedented request to use up to $1 million budgeted for a possible presidential transition to train top officials who would join his administration if he should win a second term.
Congress had better not approve this. This, once again, is an example of someone who's living beyond his means and needs an intervention.
"It's unbelievable that the same budget proposal that asks Congress to cut money for education, veterans and port security would propose to set aside $1 million to take care of themselves," said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees White House spending.
Patty should not even have to invoke education, veterans and blah blah blah. This is just unprecedented and wrong. I mean, will he pay it back when he loses? Or is he just spitefully trying to screw the next administration?
March 01, 2004
Enough about me...
Anyway, back down here in reality, it looks like the Bush administration may have forcibly removed Aristide from power. How 'bout that?
Remember Venezuela?
Shoop-shoop
In case you're curious about my absence today, I'll take the chance to gloat. My lovely bride worked yesterday and got today off instead so I took the day off (like I have anything to do - ah, the life of a student/hourly contractor) and we hit the slopes.
There's nothing better than walking into the Starbucks at 9 AM on a Monday morning dressed in snow gear.
The people loading up on caffeine just to survive the day are sooooo jealous.
The snow wasn't perfect but, you know what they say... a bad day skiing is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
So far this year, two of the three times I've fallen have been when I was standing still. Strangely, I take great pride in that.
