(parenthetical remarks)

The Bush Legacy

2008-12-29T15:18:00.002-06:00

Back in January, President Bush predicted that by the end of his term, thanks to his Too Little Too Late^TM brand of foreign policy, the Israelis and Palestinians would have signed a peace treaty.

How's that working out?

Soul Survivor

2008-12-18T13:42:00.002-06:00

Headline on Drudge:

BUSH: 'I didn't compromise my soul to be a popular guy'...

I haven't actually read the article yet. Does it say why he did compromise his soul?

The War on Christmas

2008-12-12T11:14:00.002-06:00

My wife took our daughter to the mall yesterday to get a photo of her sitting on Santa's lap.

Packages start at $18.

No personal cameras allowed.

I guess that approximates the Christmas spirit for an industry that thinks trampled security guards is the price of doing business.

Bah humbug!

A Chicago Original

2008-12-09T12:56:00.002-06:00

After reading the complaint against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich—which includes staggering allegations that he brazenly tried to sell Obama's vacated senate seat to the highest bidder, threatened to scuttle the Tribune Company's plans to sell Wrigley Field if they didn't fire Chicago Tribune editorial board members who had been sharply critical of him, and contemplated appointing himself to Obama's old seat in preparation for, get this, a possible 2016 presidential run (not kidding)—I am convinced that he truly embodies the maxim of one of Chicago's favorite sons, architect Daniel Burnham: make no little plans.

Indeed.

Now Illinoisans need to see if they can elect a governor who won't make a direct trip from the Governor's Mansion to federal prison. They're 0 for 2 on that count in recent memory.

Hate to say it, but this makes Sarah Palin's Troopergate corruption scandal look like amateur hour.

Morning in America

2008-11-05T03:25:00.001-06:00

Yes we did!!

A Question for Sarah Palin

2008-10-23T16:16:00.000-05:00

What didn't she know and when didn't she know it?

Joe the Plumber

2008-10-16T07:42:00.002-05:00

I wonder how Bob the Builder feels about all this attention Joe the Plumber is getting.

Joe Sixpack was too drunk to notice.

Wall St. Hates McCain

2008-10-15T16:34:00.002-05:00

Or at least it sure looks that way.

Debate days have been particularly brutal ones for the Dow Jones, and, as we all know, bad economic news is especially bad for the McCain/Palin ticket. (Let's call it the Unstable/Unable ticket, or maybe Unsteady/Unready?)

No amount of McCain's "fear Obama" act or Palin's hockey shtick is likely to distract voters whose life savings are disappearing faster than the last remaining shreds of John McCain's honor and dignity.

The first debate date wasn't so bad. The Dow actually rose (remember when that used to happen?) 124 points on September 26.

It's been downhill from there:

October 2, V.P. Debate — Dow down 365 points
October 7, Obama/McCain II — Dow down 508 points
Today, October 15, Obama/McCain III — Dow down 733 points

What does this all mean?

For starters, please don't have any more debates!

Between September 26 and today, a span of just 15 trading days, the Dow is down a gut-wrenching 2,565 points, or 23%.

On the days of the last three debates alone, the Dow has tanked 1,606 points, accounting for 62.6% of that overall loss. Three days!

Do you think maybe Wall St. is trying to tell us something?

Other than "you will never retire", that is.

Anyway, look for any McCain attacks on Obama's character to go over like, well, the rest of his campaign.

B.S. Quote of the Year

2008-10-07T22:17:00.002-05:00

Sen. Barack Obama has "waged the dirtiest campaign in American history..." — Cindy McCain

As in politics as in, er, other things, he who smelt it dealt it.

Memo to John McCain

2008-10-06T17:54:00.002-05:00

The only people old enough to know who William Ayers is are the same people who just saw their retirement plans get sucked down the black hole of Wall St. The Culture Wars just might not be the first thing on their minds...

Quote of the Day

2008-09-04T12:16:00.001-05:00

The last thing we need is for Republican officials to mock us on television when we're trying to rebuild the neighborhoods they have destroyed. Maybe if everyone had more houses than they can count, we wouldn't need community organizers. But I work with people who are getting evicted from their only home. If John McCain and the Republicans understood that, maybe they wouldn't be so quick to make fun of community organizers like me.

John Raskin, founder of Community Organizers of America

Traditional Values

2008-09-04T10:13:00.002-05:00

Here is some nice conservative Palin-wear for the Young Republican set.

They also have some options for Palin's daughter.

Palin Comparison

2008-09-04T09:56:00.001-05:00

We're in the Twilight Zone.

The media, expertly gamed by McCain's faux-outrage performance art over the past few days, are gushing about the "great" "speech" Sarah Palin gave last night. This morning, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough wanted to know if it was "the greatest political speech ever made, or just the second-greatest."

I guess that would make it better than the Gettysburg Address or Lincoln's Second Inaugural; more nuanced than JFK's "Ask Not.." speech; more inspiring than FDR's "We Have Nothing to Fear..." speech; more prescient than Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech. Reductio. Ad. Absurdum.

In fact, it was a petty, mean-spirited, cloying, manipulative, disingenuous, empty piece of garbage. In other words, standard Republican fare.

I was particularly struck by how Palin brutally mocked Obama for community organizing on the South Side of Chicago, as if helping poor people and laid off steel workers (remember, Palin's husband is not just an America-hating secessionist and snowmobile racing super-he-man, he's also a member of the steel workers union) is dilettante's work.

Certainly it's less respectable than being the mayor of a town of 4,500 that also happens to be the meth capital of Alaska. Right?

A question for the GOP: Wasn't it just yesterday that you were tearing down Barack Obama for being all oratory and no experience? And now you want to add Sarah Palin to the Holy Trinity (she will sitteth at the far-right hand of God) on the basis of an (un-pretty) speech she gave at the Republican Convention?

There's a word for that: "hypocrisy". Although you guys might just know it as "business as usual".

Up for the Count

2008-08-26T10:04:00.001-05:00

What is it with Republicans and counting?

Last week, John McCain couldn't count high enough to number all of his houses. This morning, on the fair and balanced Fox News, one of the Stepford Anchors made a reference to the 300,000 protesters creating havoc for police at the Democratic Convention.

Only they meant 300.

They were only off by an order of 1,000.

It does make me wonder how they'll celebrate John McCain's 73,000th birthday this week.

Jobama!

2008-08-23T17:55:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to get in on the Democratic Party 2008 ticket naming action.

Truth Is Stupider Than Fiction

2008-08-22T22:45:00.003-05:00

A friend sent me this photo the other day. In the foreground is The Onion. In the background it's the Chicago Sun-Times.

Words fail.

Saint McCain

2008-08-22T11:49:00.000-05:00

John "President Bush is 'a man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius'" Hinderaker puts his finger on the pulse of middle class America:

The latest campaign kerfuffle is Obama's effort to make hay out of John McCain's inability to tell a reporter how many houses he owns. McCain mumbled something about condos and said the reporter should talk to his wife. Predictably, Obama is trying to spin this exchange as showing that McCain is "out of touch."

I can relate, though. For example, if a reporter asked me how many ties I own, there's no way I could answer.

...

The truth is that McCain isn't out of touch with "ordinary people" because he's rich, he's out of touch with his own domestic arrangements because he cares little about material things, and for many years has devoted his extraordinary energies not to enjoying his wife's money, but to serving the American people. Given the number of nights he's spent in hotels or on military bases over the last few years, it's no wonder he hasn't seen much of his wife's condos.

Wow, nice try! And I guess he doesn't really step on those $550 Italian loafers because he walks on air?

Clintonian Democracy

2008-06-03T21:55:00.003-05:00

A horrendous and narcissistic non-concession concession speech, as if that's a surprise.

New odds: Hillary Clinton will concede when Guns 'n Roses releases Chinese Democracy.

Hillary Clinton: Feminist

2008-05-28T19:39:00.001-05:00

From Hillary Clinton's letter to superdelegates:

I am in this race for all the women in their nineties who've told me they were born before women could vote, and they want to live to see a woman in the White House. For all the women who are energized for the first time, and voting for the first time. For the little girls – and little boys – whose parents lift them onto their shoulders at our rallies, and whisper in their ears, "See, you can be anything you want to be." As the first woman ever to be in this position, I believe I have a responsibility to them.

Yes, let me imagine having that conversation with my own daughter:

See, you can be anything you want to be. All you have to do is grow up to marry a very powerful man and then use his fame to win a seat in the U.S. Senate in a state where you've never lived and without ever having held any prior elected office. Then, when you finally run for president, you can unleash your ultra-famous ex-president husband as your attack dog and co-campaigner, all the while complaining about what a disadvantage you're at because (sniffle, sniffle) the boys are so mean.

Do that, and you could join a long line of female heads of state who got where they did for similar reasons: Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan was the daughter of the first prime minister, Megawati Sukamoputri of Indonesia was also the daughter of a beloved former prime minister, Corazon Aquino in the Philippines was the widow of an assassinated senator and leader of the political opposition, and the current president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez, is the wife of the ex-president.

What's that? Yes, it would be quite an honor for the United States to join that illustrious group of nations. Quite an honor, indeed. And what a step forward for women, too!

Lieberman Jumps Shark - With Sharks!

2008-05-27T11:57:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sullivan says Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Asshole-Conn.) has "jumped the shark", thanks to his wise decision to headline Pastor/Screaming-Bigot John Hagee's 2008 Christians United For Israel Washington-Israel Summit in July.

You may remember Hagee as the kind-hearted soul who referred to the Catholic Church as the "Great whore" and, perhaps hitting a little closer to home for Sen. Lieberman, blamed the Jews for their own history of persecution because they denied Christ and said that Hitler was doing God's work by "helping" to convince the Jews of Europe to establish the state of Israel. (Thanks, God!!)

So Lieberman isn't just jumping the shark. He's jumping a cage teeming with hungry tiger sharks while waterskiing astride two massive great white sharks that are being pulled by a dozen frenzied hammerhead sharks.

Just to be clear.

Image of the Day

2008-05-11T11:03:00.002-05:00

Up next? Campaign surge.

ABBA Drummer Found Dead

2008-03-17T18:21:00.002-05:00

I'm guessing it was a "bizarre gardening accident".

News for Kids

2008-03-17T00:24:00.001-05:00

Being a new parent can really change your perspective on things like family, values, priorities—and cable news anchors.

My 8-month-old daughter and I have been watching a lot of coverage of this protracted primary battle, and I've noticed something weird. She really perks up whenever Chris Matthews or Lou Dobbs comes on the air.

And I think I've figured out why: she thinks these moon-faced babblers are babies just like her. She may be right. Consider:

Mercifully, she hasn't started hating immigrants yet, but I'm getting worried that her first words are going to be "border fence".

Bonus observation: Tim Russert looks like a 4-year-old who's eaten Christopher Hitchens.

Or is that the other way around?

What's In a Name?

2008-03-16T22:40:00.002-05:00

A new rule for Wall St. investment firms: you really shouldn't put the word "Bear" in your name.

Why tempt fate?

According to the Wall St. Journal, J.P. Morgan Chase has agreed to buy venerable investment firm Bear Stearns for the low, low price of $236 million. That's million.

For the sake of context, BS (heh) was valued at $3.54 billion at the end of business Friday. It was worth in the neighborhood of $20 billion back in January 2007. That would be a one(ish)-year drop in value of over 98%.

Perhaps I'm just spitting into the wind, here, but maybe it's not a good sign for our economy when a respected 85-year-old Wall St. firm could conceivably be bought by a PowerBall winner.

The Obama Steamroller

2008-02-13T13:45:00.001-06:00

A huge day yesterday for Barack Obama, who swept primaries in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. In all three races Obama got more votes than all of the Republicans combined.

He beat Hillary Clinton by at least 23 points in each race and won 63.9% of all Democratic votes in all three races to Clinton's 36.1%

And there's good news for the Democratic Party as well. Double the number of voters turned out for the Democratic primary in Virginia as for the Republican primary, and that's in a state that went for Bush in 2004. There were 2.6 times more Democratic voters in Maryland, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, 19.8 times more Democratic voters in D.C.

That's good for the Democrats—and good for Obama in particular—since he's clearly responsible for the overwhelming turnout that has been seen in Democratic primaries all across the country.

In head-to-head polls with presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, Obama holds a 3.7% edge, while Clinton actually loses to the Arizona septuagenarian by 1%.

The writing is, as they say, on the wall. What with Obama's demonstrated ability to garner critical independent votes, it would be insane to nominate Hillary Clinton to run in the 2008 general election. So, is the Democratic Party insane?

Good question.

Headline of the Day

2008-02-12T10:56:00.000-06:00

Drudge links to an article using the following headline: World's Biggest Christ Struck by Lightning

Jolted Jesus

No word on whether ElectroChrist came to life and wreaked havoc in the streets of Rio. Here's hoping.

Spinning in a Downward Spiral

2008-02-12T09:38:00.000-06:00

The New York Times has an article this morning about Hillary Clinton's campaign woes which quotes a number of donors and supporters worried that the nomination campaign is slipping away from her.

Enter Clinton spinmeister Mark Penn:

She has consistently shown an electoral resiliency in difficult situations that have [sic] made her a winner... Senator Obama has in fact never had a serious Republican challenger.

It's true that Obama won his Senate seat against carpetbagging Republican Alan "Crazy Eyes" Keyes after his much more formidable opponent, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race amidst a sex scandal that surfaced during his divorce from Star Trek: Voyager actress Jeri Ryan.

That said, Penn's spin is a load of crap. Hillary has never faced a serious Republican challenger, either.

In 2000, Hillary was poised to run against former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was expected to make it a very tight race. In May of 2000, however, he was forced to drop his Senate bid after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. Oh, and because he had been very publicly cheating on his wife.

His replacement was a Long Island Republican named Rick Lazio who had little more going for him than the fact that he had an attractive wife and couple of cute kids, whom he shamelessly exploited in countless campaign ads touting his 'family values'. He gave it his all (one unintentionally hilarious NY Daily News headline read "Lazio Pitches Tent in Swing Country"), but Clinton, with her massive name recognition, steamrolled the relatively unknown Lazio, winning by a 12-point margin.

In 2006, Clinton was expected to face Jeanine Pirro, the ambitious and somewhat well-known Westchester County District Attorney. After a few months of lackluster campaigning, Pirro withdrew from the race, leaving the Republicans to offer up John Spencer, former mayor of Yonkers, as its sacrificial lamb. Clinton held on to her Senate seat by crushing Spencer with a 36-point margin.

Does Mark Penn consider either of these races to have been seriously contested? If he's an honest man, he couldn't possibly. So I suppose that leaves it an open question.

George Bush: Hope Peddler

2008-01-10T09:20:00.000-06:00

President Bush wants a legacy. A good one, that is.

Hence his little trip to the Middle East where he hopes to unite (not divide) the ornery folks now squatting on land ultimately set aside for the Miraculous Second Coming of Jesus Christ^TM—after which, conveniently, all the squatters will be evicted straight to the fires of hell.

In the meantime, G.W. wants to take care of some business. Forgive him if he's unclear on the concept. Yesterday, Bush predicted that the Israelis and Palestinians would sign a peace treaty before he leaves office a year from now.

Nearly in the same breath, however, he conceded that it was unlikely for the problem of Hamas to be solved within that timeframe. How Bush plans to get Israel and Palestine to sign a peace agreement while the Palestinian Authority still has no control over the Gaza Strip—from which Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel—is beyond my meager capacity to understand. Maybe it will be a faith-based initiative.

So we're really faced with three possibilities here: President Bush is a bold leader with innovative ideas about international diplomacy (no), he is a hopeless naïf with an unjustifiable optimism over matters about which he knows little (yes) or he's screwed everything else up so badly that he thinks, "what's a little more garbage on the pile?" (this requires some self-awareness and the admission of error, so, no)

Sound Familiar?

2008-01-07T09:41:00.000-06:00

Here's Josh Marshall of TPM talking about the panic and confusion over at the Hillary Clinton campaign as her presidential dreams circle the drain:

I find it difficult to conceive of how unprepared her team was for this not-that-hard-to-predict turn of events.

What it tells me is that they never really planned for this. And they literally have no idea what to do at the clutch moment. For the now they are grasping for anything and everything.

How long until Hillary declares "Mission Accomplished"?

We already have a president with tunnel vision; utterly irresponsible and incapable of contingency planning. Do we really want to go down that path again?

Spam Poetry

2008-01-01T23:09:00.001-06:00

Constructed entirely from my spam subject lines:

Exquisite Replica

Dearest
like others, allows
scalding democratic
skeptically smoking
of quality face time

And itself
As my tide
Find that special someone
Don't be shame
Napoleon enjoyed this,
Stop flossing now!

Happy New Year!

Romney-bot 3000

2007-12-06T15:18:00.000-06:00

More proof, as if we needed it, that Mitt Romney is a plasticized empty vessel—all facade, no content.

Andrew Sullivan has the side-by-side comparison of his obviously staged Kennedyesque "respect mah religion" pose.

Governor, you're no Jack Kennedy.

Quote of the Day

2007-12-06T13:46:00.000-06:00

He warned that if Democrats succeed in forcing a quick end to the war, the American people will be at greater risk.

"I think, among other things, it would encourage [Al Qaeda terrorists] to launch further attacks," he said. "I think it would encourage them, if we were to operate in way that said, 'You're right, if you kill enough Americans, you can change U.S. policy,' they'll kill more Americans."

That's from a Dick Cheney interview in Politico.

Of course, we've already sent the message that "if you kill enough Americans, you can change U.S. policy" to the terrorists loud and clear. They killed nearly 3,000 Americans in 2001 and U.S. policy changed drastically. Now we have gulags and torturers, a multi-trillion dollar military mistake in Iraq, warrantless wire-tapping of U.S. citizens and an executive branch that disdains the Constitutional rights and responsibilities of the other two branches and of the American people. America is at a low ebb in popularity worldwide because of these and other changes in U.S. policy, brought on by the killing of many fewer Americans than have died in Iraq.

This is the kind of policy change that Cheney likes, however. Naturally, what he really means is policy changes that weren't his idea. But he's not just being hypocritical, here. Look at the implication of what he's saying. If no number of killed Americans is "enough" to justify a policy change (a proposition that has never been true in the history of this nation, by the way), then an unlimited number of Americans could be killed and the 'appropriate' response would be to change nothing.

That's a pretty handy philosophy to have when you're trying to wage permanent war.

Trivial Yet Ridiculous

2007-12-05T10:40:00.000-06:00

No, I'm not talking about George Bush. He's not trivial. Yet.

I was logging in to a certain financial website where I track my meager 401(k) holdings and was greeted with this strange screen:

Looks pretty normal on the surface, but look at the lower half. If you have forgotten your e-mail address? Are they serious? Out of all the things you need to remember to log in—e-mail address, password, username—your e-mail address is the last thing you're going to forget.

Beyond useless.

Ok, now that I've shattered your world with this investigative report you can go back to reading about how Incurious George either knew all about the NIE on Iran's nuke program and lied about it all this time, or didn't find out about this huge news until last freakin week even though this vital information was available at least six months ago. Either way, it inspires confidence, no?

Hey, maybe the White House folks had some hand in designing that login screen.

I Knew It!

2007-11-30T15:26:00.001-06:00

Scientific proof that Republicans are delusional: Republicans Report Much Better Mental Health Than Others.

I guess this explains how they can sleep at night.

Gay Flap Flop

2007-11-29T10:17:00.000-06:00

Who cares about this flap over the "gay question" asked at last night's debate—allegedly by a member of Clinton's campaign apparatus?

It is as if people think that candidates should not be subjected to challenging or hostile questions during a debate. Well, they should. We're electing a president, here, not a beauty queen (as was all too clear from the pallid and dour faces on display last night in Florida).

Retired Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr has some 40-odd years of experience in the U.S. military and is gay. He has as much of a right to ask questions as the next guy. Do the Republicans getting all bent out of shape over this really think that the debate questions should be nothing but softballs? ("Mr. Burns, your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?")

All this hyperventilating (I'm looking at you, Drudge) looks suspiciously like an attempt to change the subject from the abysmally poor answers the candidates gave to Kerr's question.

If Kerr really isn't a military veteran, then you've got a scandal. Otherwise, quit yer whining!

Getting Away With Murder

2007-11-23T22:31:00.000-06:00

New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides in 2007—the lowest number in over 40 years.

How do you know I don't have a dirty bomb in one of my fists?

Something is obviously wrong, here. How could this be possible? Everybody knows that Mayor Giuliani was entirely responsible for the drop in NYC crime during his reign, thanks mostly to his manliness and his "I don't give a crap what you think" moxie. (Can you simultaneously have both manliness and moxie?) But America's Mayor left office in 2001 (not long after 9/11^TM, as he might have mentioned once or twice), back when there were 661 murders in the city—the lowest figure for his years in office.

If NYC murders continue at the same pace for the last month of the year, there will be 487 murders in 2007. That means Rudy's lowest total would be 35.7% higher than this year's figure.

This raises some troubling questions. Does this mean that Mayor Bloomberg is a better mayor than Rudy (the greatest mayor of anywhere for all time), or, gasp!, 35.7% more of a man? Or could it be that Rudy was a beneficiary of serving as mayor during a time of drastic crime reductions across the entire country and his tough-on-crime tactics were only a part of a much bigger puzzle?

If you take away his anti-crime superhero cape and couple that with his serial exaggeration of the super-big role he played in keeping America safe from Islamofascists (and their $10,000 donations), all of a sudden Rudy doesn't appear to be even slightly qualified to run for president.

And that just can't be.

Birds of a Feather?

2007-11-12T15:32:00.000-06:00

See, the Bush White House does have something in common with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after all.

An Inside Job

2007-11-07T16:29:00.000-06:00

The people who did this to a harmless Japanese tourist on the Amtrak from New York to Boston—these people, and the unaccountable bureaucrats and politicians to whom they answer, who live only by fear and fiat—are the true threat to America and its way of life.

Terrorists can blow up buildings and bomb trains. They can kill people, but they can't kill America. That can only be done by people with the power to shred the Constitution and plunge our government into a state of paranoid vigilance.

The "Truthers" have it all wrong about 9/11. The real inside job's right here.

Strange Bedfellows

2007-11-07T13:51:00.000-06:00

And they say irony died on 9/11.

Today Rudy Giuliani accepted the endorsement of charlatan/preacher Pat Robertson. This is a little odd, since Pat Robertson believes that America "deserved" to be attacked on 9/11 because God had withdrawn his protection from our once-beatific nation on account of Internet pornography, secularism and, of course, abortion.

Rudy "9/11" Giuliani, as we all know, has built his entire national political reputation on the fact that unlike President Bush, he didn't instantly crap his pants when we got attacked. (Suffice it to say our standards for leadership have slipped a bit.)

During a GOP debate not long ago, Rudy lashed out at Ron Paul for having the temerity to suggest that certain US policies toward the Middle East may have played some part in the radicalization of the 9/11 terrorists. From TPM:

"I don't think I've ever heard that before...I would ask the Congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn't really mean that."

Actually, Rudy has heard something similar to that before. And far from asking the fellow who said it to withdraw his comment, today Rudy cheerfully accepted his endorsement. Go figure.

But, as they say, politics makes strange bedfellows. Especially when the politician in question is a shallow and cynical opportunist who (perhaps rightly) has no respect for the intelligence of the American voter and who regularly exploits the true victims and heroes of 9/11 for his own political gain.

Still, I never thought I'd see Giuliani get in bed with one of those Blame America First characters.

Especially not one who probably thinks that Giuliani is going to hell for being a Catholic. And a cross-dresser.

Moratorium

2007-11-05T09:18:00.000-06:00

Drawing comparisons between liberals and fascists is a time-honored tradition on the right. It's not just lunatic exhibitionists like Ann Coulter, either. Even slightly less lunatic figures like Jonah Goldberg have gotten in on the act.

Maybe it's time to place a strict moratorium on this kind of rhetoric. It all rings a little false when the Republicans and their mouthpieces are simultaneously in full embrace of detention and interrogation techniques actually used by Stalin, Hitler and the Khmer Rouge.

Don't you think?

Vote For Me!

2007-11-02T23:17:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to announce that I have inexplicably been named as a finalist for a 2007 Weblog Award. I am competing in the "you get as many hits in a year as Andrew Sullivan gets in 10 minutes" category. You may vote for me here. Chicago-style ballot box stuffing is strongly encouraged.

Here are a few "greatest" "hits" from the past year that I invite you to peruse. Please wait until after you cast your ballot, though; I don't want to lose any votes.

A Moment of Stupidity, in which the author opines on school prayer. He's against it.
Lost in Translation, in which the author meditates on the strange phenomenon of a Turkish politician named Ufuk Uras.
Separated at Birth?, in which the author notes some striking and disturbing similarities between Kathy Griffin and Brian Eno circa 1973.
'What's Wrong With Being Sexy?', in which the author uses the words "sexy" and "Don Imus" in the same post without causing a rip in the space/time continuum.
A Whiff of Bigotry, in which the author notices that Andrew Sullivan loses control of his critical think faculties when writing about Islam.
The Myth of Global Warming in which the author glumly notes that global warming naysayers are trying to run out the clock on our lives for their own personal gain.
Atheism Is Not a Religion, in which the author pops an evangelical bubble and chides some militant atheists just for good measure.

Curveball in the Dirt

2007-11-02T12:23:00.000-05:00

Turns out that "Curveball", the secret intelligence source used by the US to bolster the WMD case against Iraq, wasn't a "prominent chemical engineer" after all. His name is Rafid Ahmed Alwan and he is a failed chemical engineering student who spun his tales of pure fiction to help gain asylum in Germany.

A presidential intelligence commission found that Curveball, who mostly told his stories to German intelligence officials who passed them on to the U.S., was a fabricator and an alcoholic.

It just goes to show: put your trust in a liar and an alcoholic and you'll end up in a horrible, pointless war.

We're still talking about Curveball, right?

The Worst Among Us

2007-11-01T11:46:00.000-05:00

I despise Fred Phelps and his pathetic Westboro Baptist Church. If fact, I once referred to them as the worst people in America.

But doesn't this verdict set a dangerous precedent?

Free speech laws that fail to protect dissenting opinions—even horrible ones—are meaningless and ultimately protect no one.

Reality Check

2007-10-31T06:37:00.000-05:00

How could it be that we're actually having this conversation in the United States of America.

What happened to our soul?

A Moment of Stupidity

2007-10-26T08:42:00.000-05:00

The Illinois state legislature has passed a law mandating a "moment of silence" in public schools.

According to Democrat Monique Davis, who supported the measure, the moment of silence will allow children "to listen to the rustling of leaves, to listen to the chirping of a bird, to listen to the tip-tap of a child walking." That doesn't sound too "silent" to me, and what's that kid doing tip-tapping? Shouldn't he be observing the damn moment of silence?

And do they really need to enshrine this in law? If they want a moment of silence in the public schools,they can just call for a volunteer to come up and point out the United States on a map. But I digress.

As anyone with a brain can figure out, this legislation is really all about school prayer. And like calls for posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms and courthouses, it has nothing to do with protecting the sensibilities of the religiously inclined.

Those children who want to pray are going to anyway, and they don't need any legislated moment of silence to do it. As with any statutory intrusion into the "sacred", the target is the kids who don't pray. By ritualizing the act into a moment of silence, they are either trying to force these kids to pray or, more to the point, to feel bad and abnormal for not wanting to. It's pretty safe to say that no one's going to find their way to Jesus while being forced to listen to rustling, chirping and tip-tapping by the state.

In addition to being blatantly unconstitutional, school prayer is bad for religion (the real kind; not the pseudo-faith strong-arm kind). It takes what is supposed to be a sacred and transcendent moment and turns it into farce—just another quotidian ritual no different from recess or gym class. My wife recalls during her public school days back East that they would combine their moment of silence with the mandatory "Swish & Spit" program, which brought the wonders of fluoride to the unwashed masses.

There's no better illustration of how paltry and demeaning all of this really is.

Quote of the Day

2007-10-26T08:35:00.000-05:00

One of the ways that you help instill, if you will, family values is by having a White House be a place that demonstrates family values. And, you know, I think during the last Clinton presidency, the White House did not demonstrate that in a way that was helpful to our nation's character.

That's Mitt Romney, striking out at Hillary Clinton by essentially suggesting that she was responsible for her husband's philandering.

In other news, the current White House, occupied by a member of Mitt's own party, exhibits family values by denying healthcare to poor children and threatening to have a man's family tortured to elicit a bogus terrorism confession.

Tragedy in Osh

2007-10-25T00:27:00.000-05:00

Terrible news from the city of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan yesterday. Journalist and newspaper publisher Alisher Saipov—an ethnic Uzbek who worked tirelessly to expose the brutality of the regime of Islam Karimov in neighboring Uzbekistan—was shot to death near his office.

Details are sketchy, but many suspect that Uzbek security forces, who have been known to operate in and around Osh, were behind the murder. Saipov, publisher of the Uzbek-language newspaper Siyosat (Politics), was only 26.

This excerpt from the UZNews.net report is a real heartbreaker:

It is hard to believe in such cruelty and injustice. Alisher fathered a daughter two months ago and was extremely happy about her. He had to live…

Saipov, like many in the Uzbek community, was galvanized by the massacre of nearly 1,000 civilians in the Ferghana Valley city of Andijon in 2005. Ken Silverstein wrote an important article in Harpers about how Karimov's regime has some powerful neocon apologists like S. Frederick Starr of the Central Asia Caucasus Institute and people like Zeyno Baran of the Hudson Institute.

For some compelling background on the Andijon massacre, state propaganda in Uzbekistan and an expose of Karimov's lapdogs at home and in the West, see my wife Sarah Kendzior's article "Inventing Akromiya".

Update: There is a sad and touching tribute to Alisher on UzNews.net that's well worth reading.

Light Blogging

2007-10-24T23:18:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post for a while but I just can't find the time. I have a good excuse, though:

That's right, I've gotten a lot younger! But seriously, folks...don't forget to tip your waitress.

Fatherhood has put a crimp in my writing schedule, but I do plan to post a little more regularly going forward.

I know. Baited breath.

Journalism in Action

2007-09-30T20:05:00.000-05:00

Is getting the name of the country you're covering right too much to ask for the J-School glitterati polluting the mainstream media? Apparently, yes.

Yahoo is running an AP story on Kyrgyzstan that manages to flub the Central Asian country's name—twice.

First, in the headline, where Kyrgyzstan is rendered "Kyrgzstan". That could be Yahoo's fault.

But not the second mistake. In the second-to-last paragraph of the story, they screw it up in new and wonderful ways, this time calling the country "Kygyzstan".

Gosh, it's not that hard. Ever wonder if these people should, you know, even have the jobs their well-connected parents helped them get?

The Worst Person in the World

2007-09-30T19:28:00.000-05:00

With apologies to Keith Olbermann.

John McCain pandering to the Worst Base in the World^TM:

I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles ... personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith.

He went on to add that the Christian faith is an "important part of our qualifications to lead."

Somebody better tell Joe Lieberman and Keith Ellison and hustle these undesirables out of Congress.

Of course, we all know what McCain thinks should happen to people who express such outrageous un-American beliefs.

Need any help packing those bags, John?

Bush in Wonderland

2007-09-25T08:57:00.000-05:00

Chutzpah, indeed, for Barack Obama to be called "intellectually lazy" by the most morally and intellectually bankrupt White House in decades—if not in the history of this great country.

How do they arrive at such a bizarre conclusion? Perhaps Karl Rove left his math book behind when he left.

Anyhow, Obama should take this slight as a badge of honor and as a good omen, since the Bush administration has been so disastrously wrong about nearly everything lately and they have an even worse record, if that's possible, in predicting election results.

The only thing Bush is worse at is coming to terms with reality. He continues to act as if his beleaguered party did not lose control of both houses of Congress in 2006.

Unfortunately, so do the Democrats.

Republican Bigotry Watch

2007-09-20T08:37:00.000-05:00

I know, I know—so much material, so little time.

Today's jaw-dropping GOP chauvinism comes from prominent House member Peter King (R.-NY), who told Politico that there are "too many mosques in this country".

Personally, I think there are too many asshole Republicans like Peter King in this country, but I guess that's where he and I differ.

King now says his words were "taken out of context". Unfortunately for him, Politico has video. Oops.

All You Need to Know

2007-09-19T18:53:00.000-05:00

A passage from an article called "A Crisis of Political Faith for Evangelicals" that was featured on Yahoo the other day (and that originally appeared in Congressional Quarterly Weekly) caught my eye:

...the president's support for granting a path to citizenship for those who entered the country illegally has further strained the GOP's relations with the evangelical base...

Certainly there are erroneous yet plausible religious arguments against gay marriage and abortion; there's no conceivable faith-based argument against illegal immigration. If anything, true Christians are enjoined to love their neighbors and forgive those who trespass against them. Literally.

The fact that "softness" on illegal immigration creates strain with the holy rollers tells you everything you need to know about the so-called "evangelical" political movement in this country.

Oh, they're evangelizing alright, but that ain't the Good News they're spreading. The "evangelical base" is a political bloc that uses "faith" as a cover for advocating draconian social repression and outright racism.

There's no pretty way to say it. Nor should there be.

Ignorancetapundit

2007-09-19T08:32:00.000-05:00

Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds has a little post on how a formerly pro-Osama cleric is now condemning his violent acts against Muslims and others.

Reynolds responds with this pearl of wisdom: "When terrorist violence was a problem for America nobody minded. Now that it's a problem for Arabs...."

How could even a semi-intelligent, half-informed person say such a stupid thing? Has he never heard of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya or, say, Algeria, which had an admittedly easy-to-miss eleven year civil war between the government and Islamist militants that claimed upwards of 200,000 lives?

Violence aimed at the West and America in particular is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of Islamist terrorism. It's traditional and natural target has always been what Fawaz Gerges calls the "Near Enemy", or the repressive and corrupt regimes of the Arab world. Sadly, terrorist violence has been a "problem for the Arabs" far longer than it's been a problem for America.

Would this kind of fundamental ignorance ever be countenanced in a "respected" commentator on any other subject? Outside of the Giuliani campaign, I mean.

Joke for the Day

2007-09-11T17:06:00.000-05:00

...the right has somehow, and without it being really commented upon, become the chief bulwark of civil liberties in this country, while the left...has become timid and authoritarian.

—Istapundit, 9/12/2001

Bonus Joke:

Someone will propose new "Antiterrorism" legislation. It will be full of things off of bureaucrats' wish lists. They will be things that wouldn't have prevented these attacks even if they had been in place yesterday. Many of them will be civil-liberties disasters. Some of them will actually promote the kind of ill-feeling that breeds terrorism. That's what happened in 1996. Let's not let it happen again.

—Instapundit, 9/11/2001.

Yeah, let's not. Thanks for all your help with that, Glenn.

On a side note, what a traitor-commie-nazi Glenn Reynolds was, calling for restraint even as the wreckage of the WTC burned in lower Manhattan. It's good to see he's picked up his game since then.

Grammar Nazi

2007-08-22T17:47:00.000-05:00

Snippets of awful prose and criminal copy editing to make you feel just a little bit smarter.

From an article by Josh Funk of the AP business desk.

A deal combining TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and E-Trade Financial Corp. appeared unlikely Wednesday, several analysts said, even though such a combination would likely make economic sense economically.

And, financially.

Shark, Jumped

2007-08-21T22:11:00.000-05:00

The freewheeling attitude to torture on 24 has always made me a bit queasy. But, in the light of the show's latest addition, I've decided I'm sending Jack Bauer some new thumb screws for Christmas.

Unrelated 24 Trivia: Marisol Nichols, who portrays the ever-so-serious and competent CTU analyst Nadia Yassir, got her first big break playing the improbably attractive upgrade version of Audrey Griswold in National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation.

Remember that one? Didn't think so.

Cancer Can Wait...

2007-08-21T22:06:00.000-05:00

...because there's more important stuff what needs researchin'. Now if they'd only devote some of that precious time to studying the physiology of hangnails. Then we'd really be set.

Unless we have cancer, that is.

Still the King

2007-08-07T23:16:00.000-05:00

...until A-Rod catches up, that is.

Lost in Translation

2007-08-07T00:20:00.000-05:00

The American political scene is rife with hilarious names like Dick Armey, Mike Crapo and Orrin "G." Hatch, but sometimes you just have to go overseas to find a truly unfortunate political name. May I present to you Turkish politician Ufuk Uras:

I notice that he's set up shop at ufukuras.net, probably because ufukuras.com was already taken. Of course Dick Cheney has dibs on ufukurself.gov.

But now to the real question at hand: did our unfortunately-named candidate win a seat in the Turkish parliament in last month's elections? Ubet uras he did.

Rummy the Dummy

2007-08-01T12:48:00.000-05:00

Disgraced ex-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld went before a House committee today to deny any cover-up in the Pat Tillman case.

"Nothing nefarious here," said the architect of America's involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. "It's just that we're a phenomenal pack of idiots over at the Pentagon. You wouldn't believe some of the crap I've seen. I swear, it's a miracle we haven't nuked ourselves by accident yet. Nope, no cover-up at all. Honest."

Power Outage

2007-07-28T15:47:00.000-05:00

Rumor has it that when Dick Cheney went in for his pacemaker replacement/heart blackening procedure today he briefly turned over control of the U.S. government to George W. Bush.

Spooky.

Short Hiatus

2007-07-17T18:59:00.000-05:00

I'm on a short hiatus but I will be back in a week or two. Play nice.

Non-Comp. Lit.

2007-07-05T12:45:00.000-05:00

In a recent Christopher Hitchens article about the inadvisability of trying to satisfy the rage of particularly vile Islamic supremacists (thanks for that necessary bit of advice, there!), the professional controversialist writes something exceedingly bizarre.

He's discussing outrage prompted by Salman Rushdie's recent knighthood when he pens the following sentences:

In front of me is a copy of this week's Economist, which states that Rushdie's 1989 death warrant was "punishment for the book's unflattering depiction of the Prophet Muhammad."

There is no direct depiction of the prophet in this work of fiction, and the reverie about his many wives occurs in the dream of a madman (emphasis added).

I'll start off by stating that I in no way support the fatwa against Rushdie and I see it as a crime against literature and, more importantly, against the human conscience. That said, the Economist doesn't get it quite right. Quoting from the actual text of the fatwa, Rushdie et. al. were condemned to die because the novel was "compiled, printed, and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur'an." That, I think we can agree, casts a much wider net.

What really caught my attention was Hitchens' statement that there is "no direct depiction of the prophet in this work of fiction." There's no real way around it: this is just plain false. The Satanic Verses contains a long section that deals with Muhammad and the circumstances surrounding his reception and recitation of the Koran.

In the novel, Muhammad is alternatively called "Mahound" and "the Messenger", but it would be disingenuous in the utmost to claim that this character is not actually supposed to be Muhammad. In fact, "Mahound" was a name routinely used for Muhammad in medieval and later European writings. Since the novel deals in part with the relationship between Islam and Europe, this would be an altogether appropriate—even artful—use of the name.

The fact that Mahound/Messenger has the text of a holy scripture dictated to him in a cave by the Archangel Gabriel and has other experiences drawn directly from the life of Muhammad would seem to seal the deal.

Hitchens has always borne up as a literarily astute and well read author. How then can we explain this egregious error? Such a statement could only be made by someone who has either not actually read the work in question, or whose recall of its details is so sketchy as to be downright untrustworthy. I find both options extremely difficult to believe, but there it is in print for the whole world to see.

The only other possibility is that because these descriptions of Muhammad/Mahound are part of a madman's dream, Hitchens thinks this means Muhammad has not been depicted "directly", but rather obliquely. This explanation is almost too stupid to countenance and, in any regard, would certainly have been too subtle an argument for the ignorami who condemned Rushdie's book in the first place.

The lesson? Don't trust everything you read.

Unless you read it here.

Devil in the Details

2007-07-05T11:26:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sullivan dusts off his religious studies credentials and provides us a fascinating glimpse into Islam—and into his own mind, too.

Apparently, referring to non-fundamentalist Muslims as "moderate" or "secular" is passé. Professor Sullivan prefers the term "insufficiently crazed".

All Muslims are crazed. We know that. I mean, they're Muslims. It's just a matter of degree. Are you an actual terrorist, or just a potential one? Andrew Sullivan wants to know.

News of Note

2007-07-03T15:59:00.000-05:00

I want to put a spotlight on this story from AFP because so many Terror Hawks^TM claim stuff like this never happens.

Britain's main umbrella group of Muslim organisations on Tuesday strongly condemned the three failed car bomb attacks here, calling for cross-community efforts to tackle the extremist threat.

"Those who seek to deliberately kill or maim innocent people are the enemies of us all," said Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the moderate Muslim Council of Britain....

"Those who engage in such murderous actions and those that provide support for them are the enemies of us all, Muslims and non-Muslims, and they stand against our shared values in the United Kingdom," he added.

This story was in the top Yahoo headlines for a little while, but it seems to have totally vanished, and I can't find it at Breitbart or Google either. Not that I'm saying anything...

Fair & Balanced

2007-07-03T12:34:00.000-05:00

I've spent much of the last several days dumping on Andrew Sullivan, but it's only fair give props where props be due. Today's extended primal scream about the Libby atrocity is Sullivan at his best.

Thought for the Day

2007-07-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

From Talking Points Memo:

The deeper offense is that the president has used his pardon power to shortcircuit the investigation of a crime to which he himself was quite likely a party, and to which, his vice president, who controls him, certainly was.

The president's power to pardon is full and unchecked, one of the few such powers given the president in the constitution. Yet here the president has used it to further obstruct justice. In a sense, perhaps we should thank the president for bringing the matter full circle. Began with criminality, ends with it.

A black day for American democracy. One amongst many.

Bumper Sticker for Our Times

2007-07-02T21:39:00.000-05:00

Via The Truffle, in response to the Libby madness:

If you're not outraged, you're probably just waiting for January 20, 2009.

567 days, people. 567 days.

Moral Idiocy Watch

2007-07-02T15:53:00.000-05:00

[Recent flooding] is a strong and definite judgment because the world has been arrogant in going its own way. We are reaping the consequences of our moral degradation....

We are in serious moral trouble because every type of lifestyle is now regarded as legitimate....

The sexual orientation regulations [which give greater rights to gays] are part of a general scene of permissiveness. We are in a situation where we are liable for God's judgment, which is intended to call us to repentance.

No, it's not a trailer for Evan Almighty—and it might not be what you'd expect at all.

Not too long ago, Jerry Falwell would be a usual suspect for suggesting that some weather catastrophe was God's judgment against society for permitting homosexuality. Of course, he's in hell now, and Pat Robertson was too busy counting his money to make these outrageous comments.

These awful words come not from some American fundamentalist or wild-eyed imam. They come for a prominent bishop in the Church of England. They are the words of the Rt Rev Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle, to be exact, who, according to the Telegraph, said that floods are a judgment on society's moral decadence.

And he's not alone.

The Rt Rev James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, said the floods that have threatened large areas of England and Wales are God's way of "exposing us to the truth of what we have done." Whatever that means.

Anyhow, nice to see some good old-fashioned Western sanity to counter the threat of religious extremism and intolerance being imported into the UK from abroad.

Ugly Nativist Bigotry Watch

2007-07-02T12:38:00.000-05:00

Not to pile on the poor guy, but I have to take exception to Andrew Sullivan's knee-jerk reaction to the pathetic show of terrorist "prowess" in Glasgow over the weekend.

The title of his post is a quote from a bystander describing what he saw as the police tried to wrestle one of the bombing suspects to the ground: "Every Time He Was Throwing A Punch He Was Saying Allah". I'll quote the entire post since it's only four sentences long.

That just about sums it up, doesn't it? And there's something oddly comforting about hearing these words from a Scot whose accent and common sense seem as alien to the Middle East's pathologies as can be imagined. What a cultural clash. But my money's on the Scot.

The first sentence is key to understanding one facet of Sullivan's general approach to terrorism: ridiculous oversimplification. (The fact that his other posture on the terror threat is deeply nuanced only makes this sort of consistent Neanderthal outburst all the more disturbing.) No, this doesn't about sum anything up. It tells but one small part of a much larger story. But Sullivan's not interested in a larger story right now, as we shall see.

The true, astonishing bigotry of this post comes in the second sentence. Sullivan's appeal to the speaker's accent, which he then illogically equates with "common sense", is alarmingly nativist. Contrasted as it is with the "pathologies" of a massive swath of foreigners, this description is clearly bigoted. How is this any different from what one might expect to hear from the BNP?

How can we trust Sullivan's take on the "cultural clash" when one culture is inferred from an accent, and the other from a bit of overheard dialogue? Are these the measly standards we live by today? Is this all we expect from our armchair pundits? If so, then no thanks.

How about a high road? What if we could be staunchly opposed to terrorism and Islamist theocracy without having to agree with Bernard Lewis, vote for Rudy Giuliani or gleefully and uncritically support some stupid cartoons that grew out of an attempt by a xenophobic European government to pander to its right-wing base? That might be nice.

Think about it: if we have really been reduced to this false dichotomy of black and white, then the irrationally-accented terrorists have already won.

P.S. Andrew, most of your colleagues in the hand-wringing class are convinced that these suspects are of Pakistani background. Just in case your facts are getting a little rusty, I'll remind you that Pakistan is definitively not in the Middle East. I suppose that just goes to show that ugly pathologies can crop up almost anywhere, like the Middle East, Central Asia—even Provincetown.

Jonah and the Wail

2007-06-29T14:53:00.000-05:00

Let me get this straight: a foiled terrorist bombing is the same as a successful terrorist bombing—only worse?

Anyway, the irony is that from a policy standpoint, it seems to me that security officials have to view things like the failed London bombing as basically no different than a successful bombing. But because the bombing failed, the policy options to security officials are far narrower precisely because the bombing failed and therefore didn't rouse the sort of political reaction it might otherwise have.

Yes, if only...

The real irony is that Jonah titled his post "Dogs That Don't Bark" when he clearly should have called it "That Dog Don't Hunt".

Sound Familiar?

2007-06-29T12:07:00.001-05:00

Hungry victims of monsoon-spawned floods rioted Friday, protesting slow, meager aid reaching their marooned villages....

Military helicopters continued to drop relief supplies, but many of the more than 800,000 people hit by monsoon flooding in southwest Pakistan appeared to have received little or nothing.

Yes, George Bush's vaunted emergency preparedness apparatus is about as good as Pakistan's. Do you feel safer now?

Sullivan's Self-Delusion

2007-06-27T16:32:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sullivan believes in nuance when it comes to the term "conservative." In fact, his definition is so supple as to exclude the vast majority of the war-mongering, Coulter-supporting, Jesus-freaking, Limbaugh-loving knuckleheads who make up the Republican Party.

Fair enough, I suppose. If he wants to live in rarefied air of Oakeshott and Burke, that's his deal. He just shouldn't fool himself into thinking he has much company.

You might think that a pundit who has written a whole book devoted to teasing out the complexities of conservatism would at least attempt to give similar consideration to liberalism.

You would be wrong.

Here's what Mr. Sullivan has to say about liberals. They are not fascists, he kindly allows, but:

They engage in a subtler form of well-meant self-delusion, one that tends to inhibit human freedom at best and create statist nightmares at worst.

I find this odd. Out of context, I would have assumed Sullivan was talking about conservatives generally and himself specifically. It is, after all, the "well-meant" support of people like Sullivan that gave us George W. Bush in 2000 and failed to deliver us from him in 2004.

Let's be clear: Sullivan knew who Dick Cheney was in 2000; he knew who George Bush was, too. Anyone with a pair of eyes and a functioning bullshit detector knew all too well what they were about. Maybe he didn't know the extent to which they would betray the country, but us "liberals" sure were screaming about it way back then. Turns out we were right and guys like Sullivan were the victims of a "self-delusion" that cost us our values, our freedoms, our reputation and way too many of our soldiers.

I would like to know, as we stand in the ruins of Bush/Cheney America and look across the world to the smoldering wastes of Iraq, how Sullivan could possibly accuse liberals of inhibiting human freedom and creating statist nightmares. Does he really take his readers for such a pack of morons? Or is it that self-delusion again...?

Chickens. Home. Roost.

2007-06-26T09:09:00.000-05:00

In two partisan 5-4 decisions, the Supreme Court has decided that the First Amendment applies to mega-corporations and special interest groups—but not to ordinary teenagers. Hooray! Can you guess which side second-term Bush appointments Roberts and Alito were on?

But then, that's what we get for electing an empty vessel as president—twice. Oh, that and a tragic, unwinnable farce of a war; massive deficits; an out-of-control, unaccountable executive branch and a wholesale rollback of American values and freedom.

With Friends Like These...

2007-06-25T10:08:00.000-05:00

According to the Associated Press, U.S. and NATO forces have killed 203 Afghan civilians so far this year. The Taliban have killed 178.

Not exactly what you'd call "winning hearts and minds".

Separated at Birth?

2007-06-24T22:22:00.000-05:00

Have you ever noticed how Kathy Griffin is slowly morphing into Brian Eno circa 1973? I have.

Gimme Some Loving

2007-06-12T10:16:00.000-05:00

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Loving vs. Virginia that legalized interracial marriage over the protests of more than a dozen states that had anti-miscegenation laws.

It's hard to believe that interracial marriage was actually illegal in some parts of this country (guess which parts!) as late as 1967, but bigotry can be a very powerful force—especially when it's buttressed by religion. Here's Judge Leon Bazile upholding his original ruling against the Lovings in a 1965 decision:

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. ... The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

Praise Jesus! Funny, though, that the same god who wanted the races kept apart was enthusiastically in favor of white people relocating to the red man's continent and bringing a few million black slaves in tow. Mysterious ways, I guess.

An anniversary like this one is a good opportunity to see how far we've come, not to mention how far we have left to go. I wonder how long until we'll be marking the 40th anniversary of the legalization of same-sex marriage. Will it be 45 years, or 50? Maybe 80 years?

The same bigoted Christianity that gave cover to those who would deny the love between two people of different races is now what stands between homosexuals and equal rights in this country. Every 'religious' argument against gay marriage is but an echo of Judge Bazile's disgraceful justification of racism and intolerance.

One day, we will be embarrassed for the things we said and thought. Will that day be sooner or later?

Unintentionally Hilarious Headline of the Day

2007-06-07T17:03:00.000-05:00

From our friends at the AP:

Judge freezes congressman's assets

Nice try, Judge, but William Jefferson's way ahead of you. He was arrested, after all, when police found over $90,000 in cash stuffed in his freezer.

Neoconspiracy Theory

2007-06-07T15:25:00.000-05:00

A casual observer of the breathtakingly incompetent Bush administration might wonder if they're deliberately trying to revive the Cold War between the U.S. and the World's Only True Democratic Republic of Mother Russia.

I say, maybe they are. After all, these Bush administration neoconservative "intellectuals" are just old Cold Warriors who slapped a new coat of paint on their teetering dominos when the bogeyman switched quite abruptly from Ruskies to A-rabs.

Now all their hopes and dreams lie in tatters, having been horribly mutilated under the inevitable crush of Iraq's collapse. What better way to get that old blood flowing again than to dust off their outmoded theories and put them to use against the enemy they were actually intended for?

It won't be that bad. After a good half-decade of terror scare tactics, 'duck and cover' comes naturally.

Diplomatic Understatement of the Day

2007-06-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

A headline from Voice of America about the administration's reaction to the fact that those super-keen negotiations with North Korea may not have actually gone that well after all:

White House Says North Korea Missile Test 'Not Constructive'

West Wing officials went on to say that suicide bombings were "not conducive" to providing safety and security in Iraq.

Vice President Cheney is said to be "slightly miffed" about the whole situation.

Soul II Soul

2007-06-07T14:46:00.001-05:00

A headline we should be reading:

Bush Looks Into Putin's Soul, Sees Own Reflection

Too bad Putin already used the "I am the world's only true democrat" line. That sets about the right tone.

Quote of a Few Weeks Back

2007-06-07T14:40:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sullivan lifts a garbled nugget from Christopher Hitchens' Hannity & Colmes appearance on the occasion of Rev. Jerry's passing:

If you give Falwell an enema you could bury him in a matchbox.

Well, you know what they say about big asses.

Quote of the Day

2007-06-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

The physical design of these things is incredible — heroically ugly, radiating un-fun like a potato studded with razor-blade splinters.

Boing Boing expounds on the wretched glory that was Soviet arcade game design. Click the link to have a look.

Stupid Bumper Sticker Watch

2007-06-01T11:34:00.000-05:00

I saw a minivan the other day sporting the following bumper sticker:

True Love Waits For Marriage

Now, I know that the sticker intends to make a smug commentary on the value of sexual abstinence until marriage, but in point of fact it does no such thing.

It is actually either a defense of arranged marriage or of marriage between two people who kinda sorta maybe like each other. True love, you see, can't (or shouldn't) develop until after marriage.

This is why you shouldn't try to encapsulate a political or moral philosophy on a 3x12 sheet of sticky vinyl.

Gunliness Is Next to Godliness

2007-06-01T10:22:00.000-05:00

Talking Points Memo notes a movement among conservative Catholics to oppose Rudy Giuliani's candidacy for president.

A Michigan group aptly named Conservative Declaration blasted the ex-Hizzoner for being an "unacceptable Republican nominee" on these grounds:

He is pro-abortion, pro-partial birth abortion, pro-registration of handguns, and pro-homosexual rights.

Hmm. Which one doesn't belong? The Bible certainly has a thing or two to say about the abomination of homosexuality and one could reasonably argue that Jesus would be against abortion (if one could reasonably argue anything about Jesus's attitudes, that is). But I must have missed that part of Leviticus where God says thou shalt not permitteth the registration of handguns.

I'll bet you dollars to donuts that Conservative Declaration's motto is "praise the lord and pass the ammunition."

Hypocrite Lecturer!

2007-05-25T10:29:00.000-05:00

Funny. Yesterday Instapundit ran a big post under the headline More Non-Reform in Congress about how Democrats are leery of the lobbying reform bills because they would curb their money-grubbing ways.

Strangely, there's absolutely no mention thus far this morning of the fact that this pair of Democrat-penned bills passed the House late yesterday by gigantic margins.

You might think Mr. Pork-Buster himself would hail this advance and perhaps give the Democrats some credit for walking the walk after talking the talk in 2006 campaigning. Especially considering that he's been relentless in his criticism of the lack thereof so far.

But that means you'd also have to think that Glenn cares about being fair.

Quote of the Day

2007-05-24T15:32:00.000-05:00

Of course, if we're worried about armed jihadism, which we certainly should be, it's really difficult to think of a better way to exacerbate the problem than to permanently occupy a country at the literal and figurative heart of the Muslim and Arab worlds.

—Josh Marshall, stating the what-should-be-obvious today on Talking Points Memo

Tagg, You're Itt

2007-05-16T00:15:00.000-05:00

I think people, as they listen to him and hear him speak on the stump, they're very very convinced that's he's genuine and that he believes very strongly what he says.

That's Mitt Romney's spawn, Tagg, explaining how craven opportunism is the new sincerity.

I bring this up not to chastise poor Tagg for talking utter nonsense, but as an excuse to point out that Mitt Romney has a son named Tagg. I guess when the Mormons gave up plural marriage they focused on the doctrine of plural consonants instead. [rimshot]

But seriously, folks, if Tagg's dad becomes president we're all in deep shitt.

Farewell, Falwell

2007-05-15T13:39:00.000-05:00

I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

That's Jerry Falwell assigning blame for 9/11 to the usual suspects as the WTC ruins smoldered. Falwell died today at 73 and we can rest assured that the good reverend has gone to a better place—in that it's a place where he can't assault decent people with his hatred and spite anymore.

I'm not callous enough to be glad he's dead, but as I wish for the comfort of his family and friends, I wish a little bit harder for all those people he hurt along the way.

Failure of the Imagination

2007-05-14T00:20:00.000-05:00

And I must admit, I can't image anything more awful than polygamy.

'Take my wives, please!'

That's my favorite quote from last week. It's Mitt Romney doing a little old-fashioned pandering in response to a Mike Wallace grilling on 60 Minutes.

Personally, I find it very difficult to believe that a connoisseur of such outlandish science fiction fare as L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth, the works of Orson Scott Card and The Pearl of Great Price couldn't muster up a more awful mental image than having another wife or six.

Come on, Mitt, it easy. How about atheism, or a brain virus that slowly feeds on and liquifies healthy grey matter until you become a FOX News contributor, or the Mountain Meadows massacre, or, heck, you becoming president?

Condi-scending

2007-05-08T00:20:00.000-05:00

The jerks at the Atlantic Online won't let you read their articles past the first paragraph unless you're a subscriber. Thankfully, it only takes David Samuels that long to dig himself into a hole with his cover story about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Rice ushered me into her study, past portraits of her Cold War heroes, Dean Acheson and George Marshall. Impeccably dressed, in a lemon-meringue-colored wool suit, she settled into a corner of a creamy white settee and pointed me toward a chair.

While I truly feel like a fly on the wall—right there next to the McGeorge Bundy portrait—I can't help but wonder: what does it matter what the secretary of state is wearing, whether meringuesque or otherwise? I mean, if she's sporting a t-shirt that says "Ayatollah Assahola", then I could see bringing it up. Otherwise, what's the purpose other than to draw attention to the fact that she is, yes indeed, a chick?

This isn't the first time such a trend has been noted, either. Back in 2000, the New York Times ran an unbelievably shallow article about Rice that talked about her fashion sense and her dress size as if she was going to accessorize her way to peace in the Middle East.

What I wouldn't give to just once read something like this:

Vice President Cheney glided into the room on a pair of exquisite Gucci loafers, resplendent in size 48 Armani trousers with balloon seat, dusky hues of charcoal blending into basalt among the complex folds of their pleated front.

Now that's journalism!

There Is a God

2007-05-04T18:28:00.000-05:00

Paris Hilton sentenced to 45 days in jail!

Even Yet Still More Irony Watch

2007-05-02T09:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the Democrats erected a blown-up photo of President Bush declaring "Mission Accomplished" on the House floor in honor of the fourth anniversary of that momentous event.

Republicans were unamused.

Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino called it "a trumped-up political stunt."

That's as opposed to dressing the President of the United States of America in full flight gear, landing him in a fighter jet on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and having him deliver a maddeningly hubristic, self-serving speech about phantom progress made in his fantasy version of this all-too-real war.

That's strategery.

Mission Accomplished-ish

2007-05-01T10:26:00.000-05:00

Four years ago today George Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and performed what will long be remembered as his homage to Gerald Ford taking a tumble down the airplane steps.

Of course Gerald Ford only hurt himself...

Delicious Irony Watch

2007-04-30T09:35:00.000-05:00

Randall L. Tobias resigned as deputy secretary of state on Friday because he was a client of Deborah Jeane Palfrey's notorious escort service. Let's see how many people are surprised by this tidbit from the Washington Post writeup:

Tobias, who is 65 and married, was director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He previously held a top job in the Bush administration overseeing AIDS relief, in which he promoted abstinence and a policy requiring grant recipients to swear they oppose prostitution. (italics added to emphasize the extreme deliciousness of this irony)

Sometimes it seems like Washington is built out of nothing but glass houses.

Fascinating Report, Midget

2007-04-25T21:23:00.000-05:00

Overheard on the local FOX news report tonight:

He fights for truth, justice and the American way. But chances are the real Captain America was never arrested for assault with a burrito.

All of a sudden the cable network news channels don't seem so bad...

Shenanigans!

2007-04-16T21:41:00.000-05:00

As any regular reader of this blog knows, I'm no fan of President George Bush. In fact, that's putting it very mildly. But, bullshit is as bullshit does and if you don't call bullshit when you see bullshit, well, chances are everything you say is bullshit, too.

To wit: I'm listening to the top-of-the-hour NPR News wrap-up this afternoon, which is largely concerned with the awful killings at Virginia Tech. They played a sound bite of White House spokesperson Dana Perino giving the president's reaction to the news, which consisted of two parts: first, he was horrified; second, he stands behind the Second frickin Amendment.

Don't look now, but your pants are on fire.

That got my blood boiling. Political philosophy notwithstanding, it's just unconscionable to bring up the subject of the Second frickin Amendment scant hours after over 30 innocent people were slaughtered in a hail of gunfire.

The AP confirmed what I heard on NPR. In fact, their most recent write-up of the story still confirms this tin-ear moment from President Bush. Here's how it looks:

A White House spokesman [sic] said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia. "The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

That rat bastard!

There's only one problem: the AP/NPR angle is complete bullshit.

Fair minded fellow that I am, I decided to go check out the full text of the press briefing on Whitehouse.gov before laying in to our jerk president. Here's how Dana Perino starts off:

Good afternoon. I have several announcements and then we'll go to questions.

The President was made aware of the Virginia Tech shootings. He was horrified and his immediate reaction was one of deep concern for the families of the victims, the victims, themselves, the students, the professors and all the people of Virginia who have dealt with this shocking incident. And his thoughts and prayers are with them; we are monitoring the situation. And while state and local authorities are in the lead right now — I think that will remain the case, but federal assets are available should they be needed, if Virginia were to request them.

Then she's off talking about funding for the troops in Iraq. You may notice that there's no mention whatsoever of guns, gun control or the Second frickin Amendment.

That's because those comments don't come until after five more paragraphs of Perino's prepared statement and after eight questions from the press corps have been answered. Then we get this:

Q: Dana, going back to Virginia Tech, what more does this White House think needs to be done as it relates to gun issues? The President says current laws need to be strengthened, anything beyond that — you had a conference on school violence with guns — what more needs to be done?

MS. PERINO: I would point you back to the fact that President, along with Secretary Spellings, hosted last October — October 10, 2006 — a conference on school gun violence after the Amish school shooting and the other shootings that had happened, because the tragedies are the ones that just collectively break America's heart and are ones that we deeply feel, because all of us can imagine what it would be like to have been at your own school, your own college, and to have something happen. And those of us who are parents, or brothers or sisters of people at the schools have to take that into consideration.

As far as policy, the President believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed. And certainly bringing a gun into a school dormitory and shooting — I don't want to say numbers because I know that they're still trying to figure out many people were wounded and possibly killed, but obviously that would be against the law and something that someone should be held accountable for.

So, the President's support for the Second frickin Amendment came in response to a reporter's question and was simply a reflection of the administration's previously-stated policy. It was clearly not at all central to the message the president wanted to impart after hearing of the massacre. In fact, there are plenty of nice, squishy quotable lines in Perino's opening gambit that the AP passed up to go with the 'right to bear arms' statement instead.

They're already bad enough. Why make crap up?

So the question becomes: why did the AP/NPR choose to couch their reports the way they did—or does that question even need an answer? It's an extraordinarily misleading juxtaposition for which there really isn't a plausible innocent explanation.

I'll give NPR a provisional pass here because in all likelihood they simply took the AP audio and inserted it into their report. The Associated Press has long been in the business of providing stock text and images, but they now also sell video and—I believe—audio.

The 'liberal media conspiracy' charlatans are always crowing about an alleged 'editorial slant' in the straight news and hell! if this ain't a perfect example. The AP took a prepared statement and an answer to a question posed some minutes later and unquestionably made it appear that both remarks were part of the same statement. There's no other word for that than 'bullshit'.

Someone might want to remind the mainstream media that the best way to avoid the 'biased' tag is to not deserve it.

Conspiracy?

2007-04-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

Best wishes to New Jersey governor Jon Corzine as he recovers from serious injuries suffered in a car accident.

That said, I was struck by a bizarre fact as I was skimming through the AP writeup:

Corzine was the third straight New Jersey governor to break a leg while in office. James E. McGreevey broke his left leg in 2002 during a nighttime walk on the beach, and Christie Whitman broke her right leg while skiing in the Swiss Alps in 1999.

It's not exactly like being the drummer for Spinal Tap, but the next governor better watch his or her step—or at least make sure their payments to Tony Soprano are up to date.

Kurt Vonnegut Is Dead

2007-04-12T22:28:00.000-05:00

Long live Kilgore Trout!