We could see this one coming, could we not?
Bush accused of supporting Haitian rebels
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Haitian activists Friday accused the Bush administration of covertly supporting opposition forces to oust President Aristide from power."The Bush administration is again engaged in regime change by armed aggression," former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark said. "This time, the armed aggression is against the administration of the democratically elected president of Haiti."
Activists at a Friday press briefing outlined what they believe to be a well-crafted plan by the Bush administration to overthrow Aristide. Former Haitian military members, drug dealers and militants were armed and trained in the Dominican Republic thanks to military support from the United States. They have now crossed the border into Haiti, activists said.
Although the writer seems a little confused:
The crisis in Haiti has been looming since flawed legislative elections were held in 2000 during which Aristide's party claimed victory with an overwhelming majority of votes.In response, international donors froze millions of dollars in aid, cutting off a vital lifeline for one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
In addition, Aristide, who became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1990, has been accused of not doing enough to alleviate poverty, condoning corruption, and using violence to quell political opposition.
Activists blamed the American government for the failure of Aristide's social programs.
"The U.S. brought this about by keeping an embargo on the country since 1994. How could Aristide have succeeded?" former attorney general Clark asked. "His goal has always been to move the people of Haiti from a state of poverty to a state of dignity."
Clark trots out his usual hate-America script. A brief history and timeline from the Federation of American Scientists.(FAS.org)
In December 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a charismatic Roman Catholic priest, won 67% of the vote in a presidential election that international observers deemed largely free and fair. Aristide took office in February 1991, but was overthrown by dissatisfied elements of the army and forced to leave the country in September of the same year. From October 1991 to June 1992, Joseph Nerette, as president, led an unconstitutional de facto regime and governed with a parliamentary majority and the armed forces. In June 1992, he resigned and Parliament approved Marc Bazin as prime minister of a de facto government with no replacement named for president. In June 1993, Bazin resigned and the UN imposed an oil and arms embargo, bringing the Haitian military to the negotiating table. President Aristide and Gen. Raoul Cedras, head of the Haitian armed forces, signed the UN-brokered Governors Island Agreement on July 3, 1993, establishing a 10-step process for the restoration of constitutional government and the return of President Aristide by October 30, 1993. The military derailed the process and the UN reimposed economic sanctions. The political and human rights climate continued to deteriorate as the military and the de facto government sanctioned repression, assassination, torture, and rape in open defiance of the international community's condemnation.In May 1994, the military selected Supreme Court Justice Emile Jonassaint to be provisional president of its third de facto regime. The UN and the U.S. reacted to this extraconstitutional move by tightening economic sanctions (UN Resolution 917). On July 31, 1994, the UN adopted Resolution 940 authorizing member states to use all necessary means to facilitate the departure of Haiti's military leadership and restore constitutional rule and Aristide's presidency.
In the weeks that followed, the United States took the lead in forming a multinational force (MNF) to carry out the UN's mandate by means of a military intervention. In Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY US objectives were fostering democratic institutions and reducing the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States. Despite the pledges of a military-backed regime in Haiti to return power to the democratically elected government it had ousted, the regime did not relinquish authority but became increasingly repressive and presided over a deteriorating economy. As the result of deteriorating conditions, tens of thousands of impoverished Haitians fled the country, many attempting to enter the United States.
The United States responded with Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY, the movement of forces to Haiti to support the return of Haitian democracy. The U.S.-led Multinational Force for Haiti (MNF) began on September 19, 1994 with the approval of the Security Council, which, at the same time, approved the follow-on U.N. operation. In preparation for this contingency, DOD simultaneously planned for an invasion and for the peaceful entry of forces into Haiti, and executed portions of both scenarios. For the invasion, an airdrop was planned involving 3,900 paratroopers. Most of this force was airborne when Haitian officials agreed to a peaceful transition of government and permissive entry of American forces. With U.S. troops prepared to enter Haiti in a matter of hours, President Clinton dispatched a negotiating team led by former President Jimmy Carter to discuss with the de facto Haitian leadership the terms of their departure. As a result, the MNF deployed peacefully, Cedras and other top military leaders left Haiti, and restoration of the legitimate government began, leading to Aristide's return on October 15.
UPHOLD DEMOCRACY succeeded both in restoring the democratically elected government of Haiti and in stemming emigration, thanks to well-executed political, military, diplomatic, and humanitarian activities.
On March 31, 1995 the United States transferred the peacekeeping responsibilities to United Nations functions.
A news timeline since the UN assumed control in Haiti:
-CONGRESS / HAITI Voice of America 09 November 1999 -- Members of the U-S Congress are keeping a close watch on preparations for next year's Haitian elections. Views on Capitol Hill range from outright skepticism to a defense of those engaged in the political process in Haiti.
--HAITI / U-S / FILES Voice of America 05 November 1999 -- A leading human rights organization says the United States is impeding efforts to prosecute alleged human rights abusers in Haiti.
--U.S. Support of Haiti Continues, Despite Change American Forces Press Service 23 September 1999 -- The last active duty U.S. support troops are leaving Haiti, but this does not mean the end of U.S. interest in and concern for the Caribbean island nation.
--DoD News Briefing January 20, 2000 -- We are down to four people left in the permanent support group in Haiti, and they will go on January 31st. We made a decision some months ago to pull out the permanent support group in -- or to pull out the support group in Haiti -- it was based mainly in Port-au-Prince -- and to replace that with a series of intermittent military exercises called New Horizons.
You may note that the dates preceed the Bush Administration.
The Imposter Chickens or Wacko Jacko?
Is it just me? or did this Michael Jackson story strike you as a pale imitation of a Foster Farms Chicken Imposters ad?
Jackson Pulled Over While Wearing Mask GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Michael Jackson was pulled over by police and asked to identify himself after shopping at a Wal-Mart while wearing a ski mask.An employee called police Tuesday, police Lt. Bill Kimminau said. The employee gave a description of the vehicle and Jackson was stopped a short time later.
Authorities asked Jackson to identify himself, which he did by removing his mask.
"The police car pulled to the side and just asked that he show his face, and he did, and that was it," Bain said. "There was no altercation or any kind of encounter."
Tom and Bob the clueless Foster Farms Imposter Chickens hit upon an idea to wrap themselves in plastic to mimic the new individually wrapped chicken breast packaging. As usual, their scheme runs afoul of reality as Tom wrapped in plastic, cannot raise his wings to steer their dilapidated Chevvy and they careen into a roadside fruitstand.
Fade to a cop writing the hapless pullets a ticket wherein the incredulous Tom remarks "Can't drive in a plastic bag?! Since when is that a law?"
M'Lord, I rest my case.
Speaking of Bolsheviks and snark, the media seems to have itself all in a dither about gay marriage, not knowing exactly who to blame for what, they seek their usual target; Republicans (code word for Christians.)
Robert Prather of Insults Unpunished notes that Al Mascitti's opinion in the Delaware Online, News Journal It's really about gay sex, not marriage, isn't it, Mr. President? may be off the mark:
The gist of this guy's column is that the objection to gay marriage is gay sex. I'm not so sure of that, but my opinions are necessarily coloring my viewpoint. I don't really care who's buggering who (whom?) or how often.I suspect that most people that oppose gay marriage aren't worried about the sex -- after all, they have to know that it's going on and it's not really their business -- but they are concerned about putting an official stamp of approval on it. I don't dismiss these concerns lightly and see getting the government out of the marriage business as the best solution. It won't lead to a breakdown of the family because the government isn't propping families up -- unless they're on welfare.
Mascitti writes:
Sorry, just dreaming. Polls show that 80 percent of Republicans oppose gay marriage, and the irony of that goes beyond the fact that conservatives supposedly want to keep government out of people's lives.
Hmmm...only one slight problem Al...California, the state that started this kerfuffle.
The SecState website shows voter reg as of Jan 2004 is 43.2% Dem, 38.6 Reb and 20.5 Other. In 2000 when California passed Prop 22 the percentage of Dems was 46.2%.
Proposition 22 which provides that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Marriages performed in other states and countries would not be legal in California if they did not meet this criterion. Prop 22 passed with a 61.4% Yes vs 38.6% No vote, even half of the Bay Area's counties voted Yes. Do the math Al, Democrats voted to ban gay marriage in uber-Liberal Northen California counties such as San Mateo.
Although Mascitti's next sentence is rather amusing
Gay marriage would actually be a boon for business - weddings are a $20 billion industry in this country.
While fossicking in the basement among empty vodka bottles, Politboro researchers found remnants of an important work missing since the Bolsheviks sacked the Kremlin.
Joanie at Da Goddess presents what may be the most titillating Carnival of the Vanities theme yet.
Merde In France posts this and I am sickened, but not surprised...are you?
Where were you on 9-11? Alain Soral, French writer and OBL worshipper (like MANY French) who calls for American civilian deaths in his writings, remembers ..."I was in my home office writing a pen-named freelance psy-sex piece for a womens' magazine in order to put some food on the table, the phone rang and it was an old friend who I had a falling out with a few years ago, an old friend who was doing the same debilitating work under a pen-name for a different magazine. He screamed into the telephone: "switch on your TV, this is great!". I turned the TV on and it was so beautful that we put our differences aside. I then called an other friend who I had had a falling out with over some political nonsense. He had gone to Spain. On the backdrop of the same images we experienced the same communion and we buried the hatchet as well... Guys the world over who share the same feelings with those who are humilated, felt the same sense of euphoria while watching these biblical images of justice and punishment! For me, 9-11 represents the reconciliation, concerning most subjects, with all those that this mediocre life has forced me to hate because of insignificant differences... Truthfully, it was a beautiful moment of love. That should tell you how much I remember it!"
Remember this, folks, the next time you even consider picking up that bottle of French wine.
Remember when you go to the polls as well.
Blackfive 'splains what troop rotation really means. Pity such detail escapes the media...
We are not in the middle of a 'crisis'. This is not a 'contingency op'. We are a nation at war. Many don't understand this premise.We have now rotated 9 of our 10 active Army divisions to Iraq and Afghanistan. The only division that won't be rotated will be the 2nd Infantry Division which has responsibility for Korea. More than 128,000 reservists have been activated since 9/11. More than 300,000 soldiers have been deployed. We are at war.
Howard Owens asks a very good question:
Jon Henke uncovered this quote from John Kerry:"I personally didn't see personal atrocities in the sense I saw somebody cut a head off or something like that," Kerry said. "However, I did take part in free-fire zones, I did take part in harassment and interdiction fire, I did take part in search-and-destroy missions in which the houses of noncombatants were burned to the ground. And all of these acts, I find out later on, are contrary to the Hague and Geneva conventions and to the laws of warfare. So in that sense, anybody who took part in those, if you carry out the application of the Nuremberg Principles, is in fact guilty.
If true, wouldn't this make Kerry a war criminal?
But here's the part that bothered me -- how do you become an officer in the Navy and NOT KNOW that the acts he alleged violated the Hague and Geneva conventions? Hell, I never made it past senior airman in the Air Force, and I knew that.So in which part of Kerry's statement is he lying?
Pathetic Earthlings discovers an interesting paradox.
Michael Williams speculates that a positive effect of job out-sourcing may be a devolution of the centralized corporate structure. That we will turn to a cooperative network of cottage industries for our goods and services.
What's ironic is that such a "an interconnected network of cottage industries" -- brought about by capitalism -- would be a better fulfillment of Marx's dream than communism and socialism have ever brought about.
Seriously, an article in today's SF Chronicle discusses California's job hemorrhage and what may be a bleak job market as more corps downsize and/or leave the state.
Discouraged by high costs and strict regulations, just under 60 percent of California business leaders interviewed for a new study said they have policies to restrict job growth in the state or move jobs to other locations in the United States.
Posted at 12:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Is anyone else getting really fed up with the dozens of computerized political messages in their voicemail, having dinner interrupted, or sleep disturbed by late night automated calls?
I called several Pol's local office seeking to get off their call list. I was told that they were not responsible for compiling or managing the call lists. I asked for a contact name and phone number only to be told that they didn't know. Where the hell do these asshats get off sidestepping telemarketing regulations?
Fine. You just lost my vote.
Gary Cruse channels H.L. Mencken for this week's Symphony of bloggy goodness at The Owner's Manual.
Maureen Dowd's latest column is so annoyingly lame, that it cannot go unaddressed. As usual, Dowd wants it both ways, mocking Laura Bush’s role as wife, mother and helpmate, denigrating her demeanor and profession while protesting any assertion of opinion by the hapless Mrs. Bush as strident and calculating.
Laura Bush does not want that Chanel-wearing, shawl-draping, senator-marrying Teresa Heinz Kerry to get her house.It's a swell house, with doting servants, fresh flowers and grand paintings.
And she does not want her Bushie to be tarred for lacking character, after he ascended by promising to restore character to an Oval Office still redolent of thongs and pizza.
Dowd longs for people of quality and taste to occupy the White House once more, not formerly smoking, short-fingered Philistines.
So the reserved librarian who married the rollicking oilman on the condition that she would never have to make a political speech has suddenly transformed herself into a sharp-edged, tart-tongued, defensive protectrix of her husband's record.
Protectrix? How chic. Our girl at the Times is so cutting edge that loyalty to one’s spouse is seen as equivilent to S&M domination.
Many White House reporters, including ones the first lady has been testy and sarcastic with, say they are thrilled with the new Laura. They found the old Laura "plastic" and "unreal," limited to treacly concerns about children, reading and being George's rock. The new Laura, they say, has "juice."
Testy and plastic? Which is it? Uh-oh, “juice” Code word alert! Republican men are controlled by their women. Wait, isn’t that a contradiction of the empty-headed little woman cowering in the kitchen meme?
But I kind of miss the old Laura, the one who long ago shocked W.'s paternal grandmother by describing her interests in a way that sounded, heaven forfend, French: "I read, I smoke and I admire." The new Laura reads polls, fumes and admonishes. A cool Marian the Librarian morphed into a hot Mary Matalin, running around the country spinning reporters, slicing and dicing Democrats, and raking in dough at fund-raisers.
Dowd misses a traditional marriage to scorn and a conservative woman to mock.
I always had a cozy image of Laura Bush curled up in a window seat in the White House solarium, reading Dostoyevsky and petting a cat dozing beside her. She seemed beyond politics, an estimably private, utterly classy presence unsullied by the nasty edge that Bush family politics takes on when a Bush pol gets in trouble, not the sort to needle political rivals and the press or rigorously catalog injustices the way Barbara Bush did.
The ever petulant Dowd grows impatient when Laura Bush asserts an opinion with which Dowd disagrees. Dowd considers loyalty and trust as liabilities. The Hillary model is so much more palatable in Dowd’s elitist world.
Not that Laura was bland. I liked the confidence with which this champion of literacy blew off the poets she'd invited to the White House last year, once she realized they planned to do to her husband what Eartha Kitt did to Lyndon Johnson — turn a cultural event into an antiwar protest. It was her party, and she could cry foul if she wanted.
The above reeks of cattiness and is little more than a cheap putdown. Is Dowd lamenting that Laura Bush was too smart to be used as a Leftie dupe? or is she simply distressed that the dim-witted Laura Bush challenged the moonbat intelligentsia Dowd admires.
During the 2000 campaign, she was content to be the serene counterpoint to her husband's boyish bouncing off the walls. She rejected Hillary's two-for-the-price-of-one mantra and told The Times's Frank Bruni, "I'm not that knowledgeable about most issues. . . . And just to put in my two cents to put in my two cents — I don't think it's really necessary."
Dowd obviously has not sustained a long term relationship or she would understand the subtext of Laura Bush’s comment. Married and/or committed couples talk, not to force opinions upon one another, but an ongoing dialogue that becomes a comfortable shorthand as the years lengthen...often listening is more effective than a diatribe.
Bush advisers liked her detachment from the messy arena. They thought she made her husband seem grounded, moderate and down to earth, a contrast with the obsessive, egoistic ambition of the Clintons and Al Gore.
Quite a strategy, the Bush advisors (read the evil Rove) used the simplistic Mrs. Bush as a beard to draw attention way from crazy King George.
But this time around, it is Mr. Bush who is getting attacked on credibility and do-whatever-it-takes ambition. His strategists, panicked about chaotic Iraq, confused economic policy, cascading deficits and incoherent National Guard records, needed to draw, if you'll pardon the expression, the most unimpeachable person in the White House into the fray. They pitched her as Mr. Bush's secret weapon. Maybe, after the David Kay debacle, the White House just needed to unearth a weapon — any weapon.
Isn’t Dowd just the cleverest wordsmith…working her Bush-as-liar meme into the piece with consumate skill and subtlety.
The woman known for telling her husband to tone it down is now telling his critics to get lost. In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, she said of the National Guard flap: "I think it's a political, you know, witch hunt, actually, on the part of Democrats."
How dare she defend her husband?! One would think that Laura Bush stage whispered, sotto voce, of a Vast Left Wing Conspiracy to a sycophantic Matt Lauer on national TV.
Speaking to The Times's Elisabeth Bumiller, a prickly Mrs. Bush defended her husband on Iraq and shared the chip on his shoulder about the East Coast elite, apparently resentful that they might consider her a 50's throwback, doing women's work.
A prickly 50’s throwback? As a charter member of the East Coast elite Dowd would recognize rejection of her values.
Talking to ABC's Terry Moran, Mrs. Bush harshly responded to Terry McAuliffe's AWOL charge: "I don't think it's fair to really lie about allegations about someone." She stated flatly that W. was pulling Guard duty in Alabama. When Mr. Moran asked how she knew, she replied, "Well, because he told me he was."
How very provincial and simplistic of Mrs. Bush, because he told her so, there’s that loyalty and trust thing again that so grates on Dowd.
The last time a powerful man from Texas got into trouble and sent his wife out to defend him, it was W. contributor Kenny Boy Lay.
Perhaps Dowd doesn't recall LBJ sending Ladybird on trips and photo ops to take the heat off his failing war policy.
The president can't skirt the issues by hiding behind Laura's skirts forever. One way of showing character is to come out from behind all her protestations about his character.
More of the trademark Dowd snark disguised as word play, Dowd claims Bush can’t have it both ways, neither can she.
Nader Announces Bid for PresidencyWASHINGTON — Consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced Sunday he is running again for president, this time as an independent, and rejected claims that a longshot candidacy would merely siphon enough votes from the Democrats to ensure President Bush's re-election.
But Nader's decision was greeted with a chorus of condemnation from Democrats, longtime friends and former supporters who blame him for Al Gore's loss four years ago.
Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, who personally urged Nader not to run, called the decision "unfortunate."
"You know, he's had a whole distinguished career, fighting for working families, and I would hate to see part of his legacy being that he got us eight years of George Bush," McAuliffe said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico minced no words. "It's a total act of ego," he said.
Sorry, but if the candidate looks like a loser, walks like a loser and talks like a loser; the candidate is Al Gore.
What are you planning to do about this outrage against humanity, Senator Kerry?
It's only six weeks into the election year and the phony photo ops, macho posturing, regretful countenance, staged sincerity, the same old flacks and hacks with the same old class warefare spiel the Dems have been selling since they ran out of ideas, are wearing thin. Even the Left's obsequious media shills are losing patience with Kerry's flannel mouthing. Enough. Just answer a few questions straight up.
As we used to say in the 60's, Get real.
Kerry wants to debate Bush about Vietnam? WTF? This election is not about Vietnam. Let me make this very clear, just in case a few lefties still don't understand the difference:
One has the feeling that the driving force behind this ploy is the old media and a coterie of leftie ideologues who still carry a deep hatred of the establishment of that time, they are not done with Vietnam. However, I do believe most Americans are.
Kerry's handlers and strategizers don't remember that most Americans of Kerry's generation were not protesters or flower children. The majority of Americans then, as now, were middle-class folk, not political activists. If they did not serve, they went on about their lives, getting degrees, finding jobs, getting married, buying homes, raising kids. The protests in the streets and the rice paddies were a flickering TV image accompanying dinner, not their reality. Their safety and that of their family was not threatend by a misguided war half a world away.
We want to know what Kerry will do about the war on terror NOW. How he will handle pursuing Al-Qaeda, deal with rogue regimes and the prolifteration of WMD. Our lives may depend upon it.
This is not the 60's. Get. Over. It.
However Berkeley would be rolling in revenue if they taxed stupidity.
Snafu means UC students miss out on Fulbright grantsApplications will not be considered because mail courier did not pick
Thirty graduate students at University of California, Berkeley will miss out on the chance for a prestigious Fulbright-Hays research abroad fellowship next year because of what the campus has said was a Federal Express snafu.
The courier didn't pick up a packet containing Berkeley's applications on time, and the U.S. Department of Education has told campus officials they won't consider their students because they missed the application deadline.
The decision, announced Friday, has stunned and angered Berkeley officials and students, who contend that the applications should be considered because the mailing date on the package airbill met the Oct. 20 deadline.
"No one could have imagined the Department of Education could have reacted the way it did," said Chancellor Robert Berdahl, who made a special trip to Washington, D.C., last month to lobby on the students' behalf.
Because of the problems with the online system, Berkeley officials extended their internal deadline to allow students more time to complete the paper versions. The applications were ready on Oct. 17, a Friday, and the campus arranged for an overnight express pick-up on Oct. 20 -- the deadline by which application packages were to be postmarked.But FedEx never showed, even though a university employee called FedEx on the morning of Oct. 20 and again that afternoon to confirm pick-up.
In two letters to the university, FedEx took responsibility for the missed pick-ups, attributing it to problems with a new computer dispatch system.
The packages went out Oct. 21, Berkeley officials said.
Despite the late start, Mary Ann Mason, dean of the Graduate Division, said the FedEx airbill was dated Oct. 20 and met department regulations that a properly dated shipping label meets the application deadline.
"This is really just unbelievable," Mason said Wednesday. "I can't believe it has come to this. It's so senseless. The Department of Education is supposed to be helping students, and this kind of stupid regulation is hurting students."
Department of Education officials, however, have a different view. Sally Stroup, assistant secretary for post-secondary education, issued a statement saying the campus is solely at fault."The university blames Federal Express and the Department (of Education)," the statement said. "However, the reality is that when it became apparent that Federal Express would not arrive in time, a simple trip to the post office would have ensured that the university's application met the deadline. Sixty other institutions met the application deadline."
But student Carl Freire, whose fellowship application asked for upward of $30,000 next year so he could complete his studies in Japanese history, said the department's stance seems "mean-spirited."
"When I've told the story to various other people, the response I've gotten has been that it seems rather petty" of the Department of Education, Freire said.
Stroup said officials are sorry that Berkeley's students will lose out on the fellowship opportunity, but she said the deadline ensures fair and equitable treatment for all applicants.
University officials said they will assist the affected students to help ensure their research opportunities aren't hurt.
Mason said lawyers for the university were "talking with FedEx about sharing some responsibility." She said one idea is that FedEx would provide some doctoral research grant money.
Freire said he doesn't know if he would have received a Fulbright award anyway, but that's not really the point.
"You just want the opportunity to compete with your peers, and that's being denied," he said.
Those wacky Trotskites are at it again.
Berkeley steers toward creating car tax
Berkeley's passionate hate affair with the automobile is heating up.
Seeking to squeeze cash out of conspicuous consumers and packrats to help ease its budget crunch, the city of speed bumps and neighborhood traffic barriers is trying to figure out a way to do something unprecedented: tax residents who own multiple cars.
Mayor Tom Bates said, "If we had the option, we'd do it in a heartbeat. We feel cars are a luxury that is expensive for the community."
Berkeley Councilman Kriss Worthington, who doesn't own a car and rides a bike to City Hall, said he brought the idea to colleagues after hearing complaints for years. He estimates that the tax would apply to only a few hundred of the city's 103,000 residents.
Do the homes behind Councilman Worthington look like abodes of the rich to you? The cars in question are certainly not Bentleys or Ferraris.
The neighborhoods between Adeline and Hwy 80, are low income, with many extended families and students sharing houses with multiple cars. Perhaps Worthington doesn't need a car, but people working outside Berkeley do. The public transportation between East Bay cities is laborious, inefficent and bus stops and BART stations are very unsafe after dark.
UC Berkeley Professor Alan Auerbach, director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance, predicted that the tax would be impossible to levy -- whether it targets individuals with multiple cars or households with extra cars."People have different household arrangements, and you could imagine it as a tax on hard-working people," he said. "It's not a crazy motivation, but it's hard to see how they could make it work."
And people will cheat the system, said Glenn Oliveria, the 56-year-old owner of a Berkeley garage that services Alpha Romeos and Ferraris.
"They will say, 'My cat has a car, my dog has a car,' " he said. "The rich will find loopholes."
Ah Hah!
Proof positive that the White House has been infiltrated by agricultural special interests.
Indeed.
Actually the White House website has some pretty cool panoramas and tidbits to while away a slow news/rainy day. [Come on...admit it, you looked up your home state's egg, didn't you?]
President and Mrs. Bush's Dog Spot Passes On.
Not even a President can make a Springer give up a tennis ball.
Voters with special issues should take a lesson from how the Dems, especially in California, are handling the gay marriage issue.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, said Friday that she is concerned that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has decided to test the state law that specifically excludes same-sex marriage. That law, approved by voters in 2000 as Proposition 22, says the state will only recognize marriages between a man and a woman as valid."The people of California voted on Proposition 22 and by an overwhelming majority passed a law which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. If the mayor believes that law is unconstitutional the place to go is the court," said Feinstein, a Democrat and former San Francisco mayor. "I believe this makes the national situation much more complicated and gives ammunition to those who are pushing for a constitutional amendment."
Boxer, who is running for up for re-election this year and one of the state's leading liberals, has been a longtime supporter of gay rights. Still, she has refused so far to speak out since the gay weddings began and has only issued a statement through her spokesman saying that California law "is fair and appropriate because it gives equal rights to all citizens."
Note that Senator Boxer carefully parses her words when the issue threatens her re-election, after raising funds from the gay community for twenty years she dissembles when a basic plank of the gay rights platform is within reach. Coward.
LADIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIES AAAAAAAAAAAAND GENTLEMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!
Four Right Wing Wackos are proud to present the Carnival of the Vanities for your entertainment and elucidation. Step right up!
I've been wondering about Kerry's $6 million home loan, we hear a great deal about GWB's special interests, but exactly how did Kerry obtain such a large loan without special consideration or undisclosed assets?
William F. Buckley wonders as well:
THE BEACON HILL NIGHTMAREThe story of Senator John Kerry's mortgaged home in Beacon Hill is worth looking at. What made the papers was the suggestion that his access to it, in usufruct, was threatened by the sheer size of the loan and the attendant obligations of financing it. All of this, of course, in the context of his need for money to finance the ongoing campaign for the presidency.
There are several perspectives one needs in order to evaluate the problem of Mr. Kerry's mortgage. The first, of course, is that if you own a house valuable enough to warrant a loan of $6 million, you are living, by common standards, in an economic stratosphere, the implications of which require adjusting to normal standards of evaluation.If you hock the Hope Diamond for $10 million, attention focuses on your owing $10 million whereas, properly, it should focus on your owning the Hope Diamond.
Senator Kerry's widely publicized point is that he has had to finance his campaign by using his own resources, which are limited. But of course that is Hope Diamond talk. If a bank lends you $6 million, it knows it's going to get the money back.
How? Well, Senator Kerry is not wealthy, but he does have undisclosed assets. That is, assets undisclosed to the public, but not to the bank. All the bank needs is approximately $200,000 per year in interest payments, which is a little more than Senator Kerry's income as a senator. This point is mentioned in the news stories.
Now pity for Mr. Kerry is immediately evoked by the circumstances of the mortgage. It is not as if he was taking $6 million to buy himself a G-V jet. No, he was using $6 million to pay the staff of his campaign and take out ads, all of this in anticipation of the returns in Iowa and New Hampshire. It added up to this, that returns from his campaign weren't large enough to satisfy his inclination to advance the cause of the campaign by additional advertising.Now if he had lost out in Iowa, he'd have needed to reduce spending, which would have given his most resolute backers a challenge, namely to continue to support John Kerry at least to the point of giving him back his home on Beacon Hill. But if he did well in Iowa, as indeed he did, everybody could assume that the flow of money would not only continue, but increase. The publicity attached to the mortgage can only have served the cause of alerting his donors to the need to save not only the nation, but the house.
This is because current law denies to a candidate the right to repay past loans from money that comes in after the operative political date (in this case, the national convention in late July). After that, you can use only $250,000 of campaign contributions to repay old debts, and $250,000 comes to only a little over one year's interest on the Beacon Hill loan.
So it has to be cleared up before then, Kerry supporters are being told.
We...Are...Not...Going...Away.
What is with Dean's robotic syntax? Is he channeling Al Gore?
Yawn.
Meanwhile:
Bush 48%
Kerry 43%February 18, 2004--President George W. Bush now leads Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry by five points in the latest Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll. As of this morning, Bush attracts support from 48% of the nation's likely voters while Kerry is the choice for 43%.
Today's reading is the largest lead for either candidate since John Kerry became the Democrat's front-runner. For most of February, the two candidates have been essentially even. Three days ago, Kerry assumed a modest lead that now appears to be statistical noise.
Kerry enjoyed an enormous bounce from positive coverage during the Primary campaign to draw even with Bush. However, in the race for the Democratic nomination, he lost ground among Democrats nationally over the past several days.
Looking through the questions and responses in this poll, one might posit that the fat lady hasn't sung, Edwards may still have a shot at upsetting Kerry on Super Tuesday.
As we are asked to trust the Democrats with foreign policy, another of Clinton/Gore's failures is roiling offshore in Haiti.
Aristide seeks help to end bloodshedGonaives, Haiti — Amid fears of a refugee exodus, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide appealed for international help to end a bloody 11-day rebellion.
On Tuesday, former colonizer France considered sending peacekeepers.
Ex-soldiers have seized the key central city of Hinche, setting fire to the police station and freeing prisoners. Rebels also control most roads leading in and out of the Artibonite, home to almost one million people, and have isolated the north by chasing police from a dozen towns. At least 56 people have been killed.
France ponders Haiti peace force
The wave of unrest began in Gonaives nearly two weeks ago
France says it is ready to consider sending a peacekeeping force to its former colony Haiti, where civil unrest has left more than 50 people dead.
France has set up a unit to monitor the crisis, as a revolt by opponents of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide spreads from the north....Other UN officials have expressed "extreme" concern about the humanitarian situation in Haiti.
Pondering, monitoring for two weeks, concern, maybe, perhaps. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. These are the people Kerry would consult before defending our interests? If Al Gore was in the White House is there any doubt that we would still be pondering and monitoring Afghanistan and Iraq.
For those of you inflicted with Leftie situational amnesia:
Carter Successfully Convinces Clinton to Change Haiti Policy
By Ann Devroy
The Washington Post, September 20, 1994At 9 p.m Thursday, President Clinton explained to the American people why U.S. forces had to move immediately into Haiti. The country's dictators, led by Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, were "thugs" who had created a "nightmare of bloodshed," a "reign of terror."
By 9 a.m. Monday, some 84 nerve-racking hours later, Clinton stood by as former President Jimmy Carter, briefing congressional leaders at the White House on his mission to Haiti, offered a quite different view of Cedras: He was not a dictator, and to call him that was "plain wrong." Cedras had not led the coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide but had saved his life during the coup, Carter said. Forcing him into exile was wrong.
How Clinton - wanting to avoid a hugely unpopular and risky military invasion - came to accept Carter's view is much of the story of the last four days. Clinton ended up adjusting his policies in the face of Carter's arguments that he had misunderstood Cedras and the Haitian psyche. Over the course of more than 20 hours of negotiation between Haiti and Washington, the Clinton policy became Carterized, its edges rounded, its demands softened, its rhetoric muted.
Carterized = failed.
CNN
February 4, 2001
U.N. mission in Haiti ends as Aristide returns to powerPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- In the peak years of the U.N. presence in Haiti, hotel verandas were packed with diplomats, white U.N. all-terrain vehicles lined the crumbling streets and impoverished Haitians imagined things might finally be getting better.
But as the United Nations prepares to fold up its latest mission on Tuesday, the cast of thousands has dwindled to fewer than 200. At the Hotel Oloffson, the gingerbread house made famous in Graham Greene's novel "The Comedians," the wicker chairs stand empty and forlorn.
Years after the U.S. military intervention and the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in 1994, the U.N. International Civilian Support Mission in Haiti was supposed to promote human rights, reform the judiciary and build an effective police force...And the lawlessness. In August, the U.N. transport chief, a Barbadian, was dragged from his car by a mob and shot to death. In November, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended closing the mission.
"A combination of rampant crime, violent street protests and incidents of violence targeted at the international community could severely limit the ability of" the mission "to fulfill its mandate," he wrote.
Annan said Friday the United Nations would continue its efforts in Haiti through development assistance and other U.N. projects on the ground.
"I wish the new government and the people of Haiti every success," he said, "and I hope that all the efforts that have been made to install democracy would not be for nought, and that the government will respect the rights and the will of the people."
How many billions have we poured into Haiti, where did it go and why isn't the media asking who is responsible?
This story brings to mind the Senate committee scene from The Godfather II where Frankie Pentangeli has given the FBI a sworn statement incriminating Michael Corelone and then denies his statement under oath after seeing his brother arrive with the Corleone's. Who got to these people?
Monday Feb. 16:
A statement by Terry and Donna Polier, the parents of Alexandra Polier: "We have spoken to our daughter and the allegations that have been made regarding her are completely false and unsubstantiated. We love and support her 100 percent and these unfounded rumors are hurtful to our entire family. We appreciate the way Senator Kerry has handled the situation, and intend on voting for him for president of the United States." (bold emphasis added)
What a difference a weekend makes.
Friday Feb. 13:
PRESIDENTIAL hopeful John Kerry was branded a “sleazeball” last night by the parents of a young woman he allegedly tried to woo.Alex Polier, 24, was named as the woman at the centre of a scandal that threatens to damage Democrat Kerry’s bid for the White House.
Her mother Donna claims Kerry, 60 — dubbed the new JFK — once chased Alex to be on his campaign team and was “after her”.
There is no evidence the pair had an affair, but her father Terry, 56, said: “I think he’s a sleazeball. I did kind of wonder if my daughter didn’t get that kind of feeling herself.
“He’s not the sort of guy I would choose to be with my daughter.”
Terry, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, added: “John Kerry called my daughter and invited her down to Washington two or three years ago.“He invited her to be on his re-election committee. She talked to him and decided against it.”
Terry Polier might want to stay out of the bathtub.
Since I'm on a media bashing roll...Tom Paine posts an excellent example of the media's elist attitude at Silent Running.
"These days, it's the Right that's full of enthusiasts for exporting freedom and democracy, while the Left scoffs at the idea, insisting that people with brown skin are simply too inferior to understand sophisticated modern political and cultural concepts.
Case in point - Louis de Bernières, writing in (where else?) the Grauniad.Arabs have no natural tradition of democracy, and their religion gives them an ultra-conservative, patriarchal, authoritarian and absolutist cast of mind. I fear that in Iraq they will simply vote to abolish democracy and create an Islamic state, in which case deposing Saddam Hussein would have been fairly pointless.
Put those words in the mouth of some dessicated Tory grandee serving in a minor capacity in the Arab Department of the Foreign Office circa 1935, and it'd be a perfect match. You can almost hear the bored, languid drawl, and see the sneer, can't you? "
Sad, isn't it?
Air Force One does a flyby of the
Daytona International Speedway.
Bush Races for Votes at Daytona 500
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - President Bush was giving the "Drivers, start your engines" cry Sunday to begin NASCAR's Daytona 500 in a high-profile speedway visit to court the highly sought votes of the millions of fans of one of the nation's fastest-growing sports.
The track has a history of attracting presidents. President Reagan came to Daytona for the Firecracker 400 during his 1984 re-election campaign. Bush's father stopped by the Daytona 500 during his unsuccessful run for a second term in 1992. The president himself came in July 2000 to watch the Pepsi 400 when he was running for president.
Bush's appearance at Daytona International Speedway for stock car racing's most prestigious and lucrative race provides him with an unbeatable opportunity to reach out this election year's coveted "NASCAR dad" constituency — stereotyped as mostly white, male and Southern even though the sport's reach is much broader.
The elistist media so doesn't get it; NASCAR fans are part of Bush's base constituency.
This in-your-face photo made me laugh out loud.
Payback is a bitch
Government threatens to break up BBCTHE BBC is facing the most radical shake-up in its history in a proposed overhaul that could split its Scottish operation from the rest of the UK as ministers seize on the crisis following the Hutton report.
Leaked Whitehall documents reveal that ministers are considering the complete dismantling of the Corporation, with regional wings being allowed to develop into "separate entities".
There are also plans to strip the BBC of its long-standing editorial independence, putting it under the control of an outside regulator and giving MPs more say over its affairs.
The proposals come with the Corporation still reeling from the Hutton report two weeks ago, which led to the resignations of BBC director general Greg Dyke and chairman of the Board of Governors Gavyn Davies.
The Corporation’s charter is up for renewal in 2006, and it now appears that ministers are planning to capitalise on the BBC’s current weakness to press home massive reforms.
Among them are proposals to split the BBC into "separate entities for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland".
The papers add that there could be more scope "to reduce perceived metropolitan bias".
"Metropoltian" bias? It's a tad ironic that the Goverment uses a typical mealy-mouth BBC phrase to describe the rabid Leftie bias at the BBC.
CBS has another flap on it's hands from the Grammy broadcast, I fell alseep long before the questionable performance.
CBS Apologizes for Indian-Motif OutKast NumberLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - CBS television on Friday apologized for any offense taken at the American Indian-motif Grammy Awards performance by the hip-hop group OutKast that some Native Americans have condemned as racist.
The San Francisco-based Native American Cultural Center (NACC) posted a notice on its Web site this week calling for a boycott of CBS, OutKast's label, Arista Records, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which sponsors the Grammys."It was the most disgusting set of racial stereotypes aimed at American Indians that I have ever seen on TV," NACC board member Sean Freitas said in the online statement. "It was on par with white people dancing sexually in black face, or yarmulkes ... I am shocked and outraged."
NACC Chair Andrew Brother Elk said he has lodged a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission over the telecast, which he branded as "racist TV programing.
Those of us who recall Dan "What's the frequency Kenneth?" Rather's on-air denouncement of the GOP at the 2000 Dem convention are enjoying a little comeuppance for the uppity.
Rather's Erroneous "Leak" (pdf)"Al Gore must stand and deliver here tonight as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. And now Gore must do so against the backdrop of a potentially damaging,carefully orchestrated story leak about President Clinton.The story is that Republican-backed special prosecutor Robert Ray, Ken Starr's successor, has a new grand jury looking into possible criminal charges against the President growing out of Mr. Clinton's sex life. "
--Dan Rather opening the August 17 CBS Evening News from Los Angeles. A federal judge appointed by President Carter admitted he inadvertently leaked the news.
Yes, Virginia, we are winning.
Sgt Hook puts it perfectly:
Iraqi sculptor Kalat forged this memorial from the melted bronze of formerrat bastarddictator Saddam Hussein's fallen statues. Ironically, Kalat was forced by Saddam for years to sculpt hundreds of busts of therat bastardbeloved Iraqi leader.
This post Iraqi Kids, from Kevin at Boots On The Ground, illustrates just how similar Iraqi life is in many ways:
Me and my friend in the tower just laughed, because alot of people back home see these people as religiously fanatical and most seem alot like ordinary people you would meet home.
Greyhawk makes a point in Mike's comments about the Guard flap.
And by the way, the Presidents "Band of Brothers" also includes the 90% of the current Active Duty Force who are damn proud to serve under him now. We see him "on duty", and like what we see.
Kerry has been pressing hard against the Bush administration on Iraq and the war on terror. Kerry, however, missed votes that dealt with Iraq's reconstruction and the Iraqi Intelligence Commission.
John Kerry of Massachusetts has missed 294 of the 459 votes, or 64 percent as of Jan 4, 2004.
Given Kerry's record, that may be a good thing.
Mea Culpa! I missed Jim's take on "Bush and I were lieutenants" earlier in the week. Good stuff. (note to self: read Smoke On The Water daily)
Last but not least, Tim, at CPT Patti, posts Homecoming Stories.
I caught a bit of the Campbell Brown interview with retired Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun this morning on MSNBC. The Col. related his story that he saw Bush in Alabama, Brown barely managed to concel her contempt as she archly asked "Do you have anyone to backup your story?"
Is it any wonder others haven't come forward? I wouldn't.
On Hardball with Chris Matthews last night Dana Milbank smugly snarked that Bush was shirking his duty, lounging around in the office, reading magazines instead of flying jets, even though he knows perfectly well that the AL ANG didn't have F-102's. Jesuschristonabicycle Dana, got bias?
It's quite obvious that the media think they have the mother-of-all gotchas, and that they learned nothing from their excesses of MonicaGate. The gleeful wall-to-wall negative coverage of the past two months may well turn Bush into a sympathic character, an underdog. Americans enjoy the primary season side-show, platform looniness, in-fighting and scandals, but they have a fairness crunch point, and the media passed the fairness doctrine in election coverage weeks ago.
John Kerry shouldn't choose new drapes for the Oval Office just yet, there are many news cycles between today and November. Once the public is saited with the demonizing of GWB, the media will turn to the other white-meat in the campaign. For all the high-minded demagoguery, political correctness and faux outrage, the media serve one master above all: the corporate bottom line.
They must sell papers and feed the 24x7 cable news/scandal maw. Given our national appetite for the salacious and the huge sums to be made from that lust, someone will come forward for their 15 minutes of fame, and we'll be off on another hunt for a blue dress.
Stephen Green offers his thoughts on the Kerry Whatsit:
What it comes down to is, I’m sadly conditioned to believe, and expect the worst from, our politicians....The moral outrage isn’t that John Kerry may (or may not) have cheated on his prenuptually-protected second wife. The moral outrage is that we’ve saddled ourselves with a system of government where a pathetic creature like Kerry can survive, thrive, and set his sights on the highest office in the land.
We asked for it, we got it -- don’t act all surprised.
I'm not, nor are the phony issues in the current media cycle pertinent. My opinion of Kerry and vote is based on Kerry's own words and deeds, his public record of issue waffling, a lackluster Senate career and anti-military voting record, not oppo-research, flack spin, rumors, potential personal scandals or media cheeringleading.
Bottom line: in a post 9/11 world I do not trust Kerry to protect my family; there is no there, there.
World Press Photo of the year 2003 by French photographer Jean-Marc Bouju of the Associated Press shows a detained Iraqi man comforting his 4-year-old-son at a regroupment center for POW's near Najaf, Iraq.
This makes me so angry. Let me remind these self-serving, anti-American weasels of a photo that preceded theirs.
Reading around the Blogosphere this morning; taking the temperature of the Kerry story. I dunno, I smell a rat, as does Jay Caruso. Seems like this rumor is coming from within his party rather than the VRWC. Has Al Gore declared war on the Clinton's control of the DNC money machine? He's about three years too late.
If this story has legs, it will hurt Kerry, not with his base, who will embrace any candidate with a chance to unseat Bush, but with ordinary married folk (swing voters in the main) who recognise that infidelity is not simply about sex, but trust, loyality and steadfastness to commitments. Lileks aptly puts it:
Does that matter in a Senator? A Congressman? A governor? Probably not. Oh, but if he lied to his wife he’ll lie to us! Trust me: many a faithful politician has lied to his constituency without first bedding a chippie to see how this lying stuff worked for him. But it matters in a President, for one reason: I just don’t want a guy who’s thinks a lot about whether his dowsing rod will find a new stream, okay? Yes, yes, as Glenn put it, I have to say that, to me, how Kerry would do on the war is a lot more important than what (er, or who) he's doing in the sack."True enough. But what I want is focus. Serial philanderers lack focus. (If that’s what he is, and I have no idea.) I want a guy who keeps his jacket on when he’s in the Oval Office, to say nothing of his trousers. I don’t want a guy who gets The Itch now and then, and finds the portion of the day devoted to scratching that itch getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until once again we get an intern scandal right about the time we’re supposed to be concentrating on Iranian nuclear tests.
Kerry denied the story on Imus, so until another shoe drops, it's a non-story.
Which segues into this Krauthammer piece and review by Dale Franks , who remarks:
"Maybe it's because the Bush Administration has done such a bang-up job at securing the country. But,even if that's true, they can't really claim credit for it."
Venomous Kate has a thoughtful piece on why she's still on the fence, while I agree in the main, I don't think we can begin to make a decision until the Dem nominee is a done deal and we consider his possible team roster.
Who would Kerry appoint to SecDef, SecState, SecTreasury? Who will be on his National Security team? We need to know the depth of his bench before we compare it to Bush's team stats. We don't need another Les Aspin in Defense or Albright at State.
On a humorous note: Timothy Noah offers Ten ways to rationalize the publication of infidelity rumors (with a disturbing advert for the GWB action figure...is Slate sending subliminal messages?)
Mining a similar vein Michael Wiliams posts this gem How to Tell If You're an Idiot, and Graumagus, of Frizzen Sparks reveals 100 Falsehoods About Me.
Moe Lane closes this post out with Centrism's Hue and Cry and raspberries a nitpicking commenter...which has a pleasing symmetry.
Librarians Kathy and MommaBear, of On The Third Hand, catalog and decimalize Carnival of the Vanities entries this week. Library cards will be checked, overdue fines levied and snogging not allowed in the stacks.
Allah took a link dump yesterday, and this one floated.
Muslim terror groups stepping up activities in Latin America
Muslim terror groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, have recently stepped up their efforts to consolidate their power in distant areas of Latin America, particularly in the triangle of borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, say Israeli and American security sources.
It's only a matter of time. Thirty years ago a friend fell into the deep end of the pacifist pool, quit the law firm, kissed the wife and kids goodbye for a year and joined Greenpeace, roaming the world on the Rainbow Warrior. He was very concerned about the rising tide of anti-Americanism in Latin America, fueled by what he saw as predatory corporate practises and interference in their governance.
We would tease him about his crazed conviction that the "end was neigh", nuclear prolifteration kill charts, rebel recruitment tracts and general gloomly ranting. Undetered, he would reply "You don't get it do you? Our government's focus is mano-a-mano with the USSR, the nuke that takes out LA or NY will be delivered on the back of a donkey, not an ICBM."
He was convinced that eventually a zealot/terrorist recuited from one of Latin America's rebel groups, would cross the southern border with a suitcase nuke. We lost touch, but I think I owe him an apology.
This item from John Hawkins is worthy of the BBC.
It's also not such a good day to be a liberal journalist at CNN, because Glenn Reynolds got a screenshot of a since corrected headline that put an anti-Bush spin on this news that has to be seen to be believed...
This is not spin, or simply Bush-hating, it's anti-American propaganda designed to give our enemies comfort. CNN is pandering to the Arab world, the Jihadis who would happily kill millions of us. As John says, we shouldn't be surprised when a snake acts like a snake or when a the liberal mainstream media shows their true colors during an election year.
However we don't have to sit here and take it. We can make our opinions known to the corporations advertising on CNN. I plan to take notes for the next few nights during CNN prime time and send snailmail & email protests with a copy of the above screenshot, you might want to do the same.
MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC CAUCUSES: Problems anger blacks; Sharpton sends message
The Rev. Al Sharpton's strong showing in Detroit in the Michigan Democratic caucuses sent a warning to U.S. Sen. John Kerry's front-running campaign: Don't take vote-rich Democratic Detroit for granted if he becomes the party's nominee.On Sunday, in the aftermath of Kerry's commanding Michigan win, some black leaders denounced the state Democratic Party for caucus site screwups Saturday that confused and kept away voters, and called on party cochairman Mark Brewer to resign.
But Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said reports of problems were "overblown and crap."
The Rev. Horace Sheffield III, president of the National Action Network Michigan chapter and a Sharpton supporter, led a coalition Sunday demanding Brewer's resignation. Sheffield said the group may go to court to overturn Saturday's results if Brewer doesn't quit.
Will this sort of disarray result in a disputed general election? Maryland's test "hack" of their new e-voter system was not encouraging either.
Md. Voting Machines Vulnerable, Firm SaysThe "Red Team" members attacked Maryland's new electronic voting system ruthlessly. They picked locks, yanked on wires, ripped out monitors and hacked into central computers. One agent even slipped a rubber keyboard into his polling booth to do his dirty work.
With cool efficiency, the computer security professionals did what they were hired to do: They gained control of the system, corrupting vote counts and deleting election results.
But the assault on Maryland's new computerized, touch-screen balloting machines, manufactured by Diebold Election Systems Inc., was not real: It had been ordered up by the state Department of Legislative Services, which hired a consulting firm to expose vulnerabilities in voting machines that have become increasingly controversial as the November presidential election approaches.Maryland has agreed to spend $55.6 million on the machines, which face their first statewide trial in the primary election barely a month away.
Maryland lawmakers learned the results of the attacks in a report issued yesterday by the department and the consulting firm, RABA Technologies LLC. In two hearings, a consultant assured lawmakers the machines would be "worthy of voter trust" in the March 2 primary, but outlined physical weaknesses and electronic vulnerabilities that would allow a determined hacker to corrupt or destroy election results.
Removable memory cards inside the machine can be tampered with if a lock is picked or if one of thousands of keys is stolen. If hackers find the phone number of the central computers used to compile vote totals, they could easily break into the system and tamper with results or introduce worms and viruses, said consultant Michael A. Wertheimer, a former National Security Agency analyst.
"You are more secure buying a book from Amazon than you are uploading your results to a Diebold server," said Wertheimer, recommending several changes to increase security. (emphasis added)
Linda H. Lamone, the administrator of the Maryland State Board of Elections, assured lawmakers that the board would comply with many of the recommendations but said that some of them would be impossible to put in place before the primary.
Should the election be a close as pundits predict, and this level of incompetence is the norm, we are in for a train wreck come November.
While the media blathers on about thirty year-old pay records, Smash notes a story that bears reporting.
“America… has no intention of leaving no matter how many wounded nor how bloody it becomes.” – Al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.THE US MILITARY has captured an internal al Qaeda memorandum requesting more assistance in waging a flagging campaign against Coalition Forces in Iraq, the New York Times is reporting.
The memo says extremists are failing to enlist support inside the country, and have been unable to scare the Americans into leaving. It even laments Iraq's lack of mountains in which to take refuge.
Al Gore's not. His "Dean moment" in Nashville on Sunday crossed the Rubicon into moonbat looniness...as Andrew Sullivan notes: "Gore is always a very good indicator of where the country isn't."
Chris Suellentrop, Slate's deputy Washington bureau chief sums up Gore's anger and how it may play out in the general election:
Gore is still popular with the Democratic base, but after this speech, the question for the party's nominee has to be, do you want this man to speak at the convention in Boston? Even if you like the sentiment behind this speech, if Gore delivers an address like this one in July, the historical analogy won't be to the Democrats of 1976 or to the Republicans of 1994. Instead, the comparison will be to the disastrous Republican convention of 1992. The angry white male is back. Do the Democrats really want him?
Steve Verdon dissects Kerry's John Kerry's Plan to Revive American Manufacturing. A must read.
A hat tip to Jay Caruso who makes a few observations about GuardGate and why it won't go away any time soon.
Allah posits that The only relevant lesson from Vietnam is this:
But enough of that...other matters weigh on the Blogosphere mind.
Harry at Crooked Timber asks what makes a good childhood.
Fred First sees winter Through a Glass, Darkly and wonders What Kind Of Wine Goes With Gopher? I suggest a Beaujolais Nouveau.
Natalie finds work and Jesus, maybe not.
The Alliance reveals the Dark Overlord of the Blogosphere's secret blogroll , Der Commissar posts Ten Signs You've Made It in the Blogoverse, while Lileks' mandible meets the macadam.
"The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." -- December 1, 1862 - Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress
The Clinton administration has dealt with six high-profile problems- Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, Bosnia, North Korea and Serbia/Kosovo -which demanded presidential attention, resulted in the deployment of U.S. military forces, and generated congressional and public controversy. All were small-scale operations when compared with U.S. involvement in major twentieth-century conflicts. Yet they are significant because the way they were handled may determine the way future large-scale emergencies are managed by John Kerry.
Shall we see how each panned out?
I opened this post with a quote, I'll close with what must be the Clinton Administration's most infamous last words; uttered in 1996 after the US declined to detain Usama Bin Laden in Sudan.
"He lost his base and momentum," said Samuel R. Berger, Mr. Clinton's national security adviser in his second term.
A huge carnival float with the effigy of US President George Bush, center, balancing French President Jacques Chirac with a UN flag on his finger, British Premier Tony Blair left, and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi goes through the streets during the annual carnival parade in Viareggio, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2004. (AP Photo/ Riccardo Dalle Luche)
Pretty much sums up what the good folks of Viareggio think of Chirac and the UN.
Viareggio is a small, but beautiful town on the west coast of Italy, primarily known as the premier luxury boat building port in the Mediterranean, if not the world. Power boat enthusiasts know Viareggio as the home of the elegant, super-fast Riva.
The Viareggio Carnevale was established in 1873 when some of the local "signori" decided to organize a a little different Lenten carnival, by inventing a procession of decorated floats which travelled up and down the main street of the city. On that occasion a masked protest was also organized by a number of citizens, as they were forced to pay too many taxes. In subsequent years the idea took hold to mount allegorical puppets on the floats. There are two schools of thought among float builders: the romantics (illustrators of legendary stories, humor and beauty) and the verists (imbued with ironic social-political messages and content, sometimes denouncing the system, or mocking the status quo).
The Viareggio Carnevale is an event attracting throngs from all over the world and is one hell of a party. The political floats are seen as a reflection of public sentiment and the themes are well noted by politicans and the European press.
Note: As you may know, Italians traditionally do not raise their middle finger as a rude gesture, but it is well known and I would speculate given the tone of this procession, a gesture selected to send a clear message to France and America.
Well, that was pointless. Perhaps I am too much of a news junkie and policy wonk, but Russert asked the stupidest damned questions. I can think of dozens of questions/followups and I am sure those of you who follow current events and politics could as well. Russert relied on a gotcha script that reflected conventional media/Liberal wisdom, polls and biased stats.
Imagine you have an hour with the President would this be your script?:
Russert: Will you testify before the commission?Subtext: Bush refuses to testify: Gotcha.
Russert: Will you testify before the commission?
Russert: Would you submit for questioning, though, to the 9/11 Commission?
Russert: How do you respond to critics who say that you brought the nation to war under false pretenses?Subtext: Bush is reckless/manipulated/uninformed: Gotcha.
Russert: But can you launch a preemptive war without iron clad, absolute intelligence that he had weapons of mass destruction?
Russert: You do seem to have changed your mind from the 2000 campaign. In a debate, you said, "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called 'nation-building.'"Subtext: Bush lied in 2000: Gotcha.
Russert: We clearly are involved in nation building.
Russert: But this is nation building.
Russert: Now looking back, in your mind, is it worth the loss of 530 American lives and 3,000 injuries and woundings simply to remove Saddam Hussein, even though there were no weapons of mass destruction?Subtext: Prevailing media anti-war opinion: Gotcha.
Russert: Mr. President, this campaign is fully engaged. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terence McAuliffe, said this last week: "I look forward to that debate when John Kerry, a war hero with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard. He didn't show up when he should have showed up."Subtext: Bush is privilaged coward: Gotcha
Russert: But when you proposed your first tax cut in 2001, you said this was going to generate 800,000 new jobs. Your tax cut of 2003, create a million new jobs. That has not happened.Subtext: Bush is incompentent/lied: Gotcha
How can a credible journalist formulate economic questions that don't take into account the devastating effects of the months after 9/11? Russert's economic graph was so transparantly bias that it was laughable. A perfect example of the old adage that there are lies, damned lies and statistics.
Russert: How about no more tax cuts until the budget is balanced
This exchange forces me to ask the farggin' obvious: Does the media realize that life, ergo political policy, is dynamic? They approach news from an isolated, statistical, out-of-context viewpoint, which may explain why they are so often wrong.
Russert: This is Time magazine: "Love Him or Hate Him: Why George Bush arouses such passion and what it means for the country."Subtext: Bush is unpopular/dangerous: Gotcha
Russert: But around the world, in Europe, favorable ratings unfavorable ratings, 70 in Germany, 67 in France.Subtext: Bush is an embarrassment in Europe: Gotcha.
Russert: Why do people hold you with such contempt.
Russert: This is what John Kerry had to say last year. He said that his colleagues are appalled at the quote "President's lack of knowledge. They've managed him the same way they've managed Ronald Reagan. They send him out to the press for one event a day. They put him in a brown jacket and jeans and get him to move some hay or move a truck, and all of a sudden he's the Marlboro Man. I know this guy. He was two years behind me at Yale. I knew him, and he's still the same guy.”Subtext: Bush is an idiot: Gotcha.
Russert: Are you prepared to lose?Subtext: This one is a pure Gotcha, designed to close the interview with a negative.
Russert: If you did, what would you do?
Thusly, the dumbing down of the electorate continues; this interview says much more about Russert's and NBC News' opinion of their viewers than Bush's character or job performance.
No one will be convinced either way. Bush didn't make a major gaff nor did Russert score any news or make any serious policy points. It was news-pap.
Bush haters will grasp on Russert's questions as proof that Bush is a liar/idiot. Bush's supporters will take comfort that he was the George Bush they admire and expected.
The rest of us are left stratching our heads and wondering what the hell happened to journalism and Tim Russert.
The SF BAy Area's subway/train system know as BART is in financial straits as commuters stay away in droves. They recently announced that the brand-spanking new multi-billion dollar airport extension attracted so few riders that it may be shut down. In an effort to attract new riders BART riders will be greeted by new schedules Monday designed to boost the transit system's sagging ridership, particularly on the new Peninsula (SFO) extension.
I am not sure this is what they had in mind:
20 clowns surprise BART riders and a train becomes a fun house
Red-nosed activists turn one trip into political theater
Twenty clowns on a mission rode BART on Friday, which is usually not a funny thing to do.Nobody told that to the clowns, however. They had a great time, and so did the perplexed passengers who made the mistake of asking what, exactly, they were doing.
"The world has become a circus,'' replied one clown. "Someone needs to pull the pants down on our leaders.''
Brenna Olivier, from underneath her red nose, said she was trying to "cultivate peace, harmony and throw the bums out of office.''
"Other forms of protest have been done to death,'' she said. "This is a way of energizing folks.''
The clowns were dressed as President Bush, as Attorney General John Ashcroft and as a porn star.
"Bush is giving clowning a bad name,'' said Lawrenzo the Clown.
The clowns, all members of a group called Clownarchy, boarded a westbound BART train at San Francisco's Embarcadero Station and rode to 16th Street. On the way, they passed out flyers urging non-clowns to put on a nose and join the troupe for a Million Clown March on Washington in October.
Trapped on a train with 20 braying jackasses? Kill me now. In the very best Leftie tradition they let us pay the bill.
The anarchist clowns realized that they could save the cost of a BART fare if they crossed the platform at 16th Street and returned on an eastbound train to Embarcadero without exiting the station. And that's what they did."We have to conserve our resources,'' said a clown.
Thank the gods that they weren't mimes or we might have had real anarchy.
Baldilocks puts the Bush AWOL charge to rest, of course that won't stop ignoramuses who simply refuse to educate themselves about the military.
A Spending Supermajority Rule in the Wall Street Journal, by Michael Rappaport and John McGinnis, is recommended reading.
While some have advocated a balanced budget amendment to address this type of problem, we argue that:A better structural reform would involve a spending limitation amendment. Such an amendment could address excessive spending directly by requiring that Congress obtain a two thirds or three fifths majority to pass any new spending laws. Spending could also be precisely defined as all net payments that move from the Treasury to other hands.
Our proposed amendment would avoid two kinds of criticisms that have been made in the context of balanced budget amendments. First, some critics might fear that a supermajority rule would perversely provide additional leverage to a minority favoring higher spending because that minority can threaten to shut down the government unless additional spending is enacted. As we learned during the Clinton era, citizens understandably fear government shut downs because the government’s core functions sustain the social order. Our amendment would deprive holdouts of additional leverage because it would allow a mere majority to pass spending laws so long as total spending remained less than ninety percent of the previous year’s total. A congressional majority could therefore prevent a government shut down, but there would still be pressure eventually to pass spending under the supermajority rule because Congress will almost always wants to spend at levels higher than ninety percent.
Sounds good on the face of it, however California's constitution, almost uniquely among the states, requires a two-thirds vote in each house of the Legislature to pass the annual budget bill. Since it's rare for either major party to have a two-thirds majority, the supermajority requirement is a recipe for gridlock and partisan gamesmanship.
Would the Congress fare any better? I am not sure given the acrimony and bitter partisanship of the Senate in it's current configuration. It seems tit-for-tat will continue until both parties are exhausted or one gains 60 seats.
Gov Schwarzenegger 's Proposition 56, the Budget Accountability Act, requiring a balanced budget seeks to remedy our woes and it is looking likely to pass.
Jay Caruso often gleans news tidbits others miss, which is why he is a must read, this one is amusing:
The economy adds 112,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate drops to 5.6% and to some that is bad news.Sure, the rise was not as much as expected, but only the Bush haters could attempt to say it's not good.
Incidentally, 5.6% was the rate of unemployment in November of 1996 when the economy was supposedly doing wonderfully. Isn't it amazing how circumstances change?
5.6% unemployment in 1996: "The economy is doing great!!"
5.6% unemployment in 2004: "This is no good!!"
Which closes out this blogosphere snapshot in time; leaving us with feelings of dread and A Sinking Feeling. (Brilliant Andrew!, simply brilliant)
...Please stand up?
As Wes Clark dons Argyles, gets all teary over his Momma and does the "good ole boy" shuffle, this article appeared in the Feb 9, 2004 issue of Fortune Magazine (bolded for emphasis):
Wes Clark Wins! (On Wall Street)Kerry may have swept Iowa, but Wesley Clark has taken the Street.
By Richard BeharJohn Kerry may have won Iowa, but Wesley Clark cleaned up on Wall Street. On Jan. 20, just a day after the caucuses, bankers tell FORTUNE, Clark made about $1.2 million in paper profit on his investment in Messer Griesheim, when the private German maker of industrial gases agreed to sell most of its assets to rival Air Liquide. While the $3.3 billion deal went largely unnoticed in the U.S., it was the best investment Clark ever made. And it barely cost him a dime—thanks to a low-interest, "non-recourse" loan from Goldman Sachs, which insulated Clark (a Messer director since August 2001) from any personal exposure. "Was he smiling yesterday?" wondered a Goldman executive, just hours after the Euro-deal was announced. "General Clark's probably got more money than he's ever had in his life."
Clark resigned nearly all his directorships last fall after he announced his candidacy. But he stayed on Messer's board until early January. Goldman co-owns 67% of the firm, and "Clark was our guy on the board," says a Goldman insider, who adds that the company wanted to find a way to give Clark a stake. But Goldman's stock was held by a fund whose bylaws didn't permit loans. So, in a complex swap, Messer loaned Clark 500,000 euros for his 6,734-share purchase in mid-2002, and then Goldman bought the note from Messer. The non-recourse terms mean that if the deal had gone south and Clark defaulted, Goldman would be stuck. In other words, pure upside for Clark, who repaid the note—but kept stock when he left the board.
Overall, that was the biggest home run of the general's brief tenure as a businessman. After leaving the military in mid-2000, Clark spent nearly three years working as a managing director for Little Rock's Stephens Group, one of the largest investment houses off Wall Street. He was eventually pushed out—and left behind some sour feelings.
Clark's primary role was to help the firm expand into defense and IT sectors. He used his impeccable contacts to gain not one but two audiences with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, giving Stephens an inside track on the government's Iraq thinking. And he was likable, often speaking to packed rooms during client forums. "He's smart, he knows the technology, and has the contacts," says Warren Stephens, the firm's CEO. "But we needed about five years with him—to help him filter deals. As with many who are new, he thought everything he saw was doable."Clark helped one Stephens-backed firm, SmartSignal—which uses harmonics to determine when an engine is failing—to get a contract at DARPA, the DoD's research wing. And as both a lobbyist and board director, he helped another Stephens-backed firm—Acxiom, one of the world's largest processors of consumer data—secure government contracts in homeland security.
But he couldn't persuade Stephens to back a DARPA-funded startup called PharmAthene—a Virginia developer of biowarfare vaccines, whose chairman, Joel McCleary, is a former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. (Clark joined PharmAthene's board last January, just days before Stephens suggested he resign.) And Warren tells FORTUNE that Clark never informed the firm about his Messer investment. According to top securities lawyer and ex-prosecutor Sean O'Shea, employees of securities firms "must disclose an outside investment" to their bosses. Violators can face disciplinary action by regulators. (Clark says he's "very grateful for the start" in business that the Stephens family gave him, but declines further comment.)
I bet. 1.2 million semolians buys a lot of gratitude. Well, we can can see why he's Clinton's boy can't we? Two-peas.
John Kerry in defense of Bill Clinton's problematic draft status:
Speech of John F. Kerry - Page S2479 Congressional Record February 27, 1992Mr. President, I also rise today--and I want to say that I rise reluctantly, but I rise feeling driven by personal reasons of necessity--to express my very deep disappointment over yesterday's turn of events in the Democratic primary in Georgia.
I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way. By that I mean that yesterday, during this Presidential campaign, and even throughout recent times, Vietnam has been discussed and written about without an adequate statement of its full meaning.
What is ignored is the way in which our experience during that period reflected in part a positive affirmation of American values and history, not simply the more obvious negatives of loss and confusion.What is missing is a recognition that there exists today a generation that has come into its own with powerful lessons learned, with a voice that has been grounded in experiences both of those who went to Vietnam and those who did not.
What is missing and what cries out to be said is that neither one group nor the other from that difficult period of time has cornered the market on virtue or rectitude or love of country.
What saddens me most is that Democrats, above all those who shared the agonies of that generation, should now be refighting the many conflicts of Vietnam in order to win the current political conflict of a Presidential primary.
The race for the White House should be about leadership, and leadership requires that one help heal the wounds of Vietnam, not reopen them; that one help identify the positive things that we learned about ourselves and about our Nation, not play to the divisions and differences of that crucible of our generation.
We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways. Someone who was deeply against the war in 1969 or 1970 may well have served their country with equal passion and patriotism by opposing the war as by fighting in it. Are we now, 20 years or 30 years later, to forget the difficulties of that time, of families that were literally torn apart, of brothers who ceased to talk to brothers, of fathers who disowned their sons, of people who felt compelled to leave the country and forget their own future and turn against the will of their own aspirations?
Are we now to descend, like latter-day Spiro Agnews, and play, as he did, to the worst instincts of divisiveness and reaction that still haunt America? Are we now going to create a new scarlet letter in the context of Vietnam? Certainly, those who went to Vietnam suffered greatly. I have argued for years, since I returned myself in 1969, that they do deserve special affection and gratitude for service. And, indeed, I think everything I have tried to do since then has been to fight for their rights and recognition.But while those who served are owed special recognition, that recognition should not come at the expense of others; nor does it require that others be victimized or criticized or said to have settled for a lesser standard. To divide our party or our country over this issue today, in 1992, simply does not do justice to what all of us went through during that tragic and turbulent time.
I would like to make a simple and straightforward appeal, an appeal from my heart, as well as from my head. To all those currently pursuing the Presidency in both parties, I would plead that they simply look at America. We are a nation crying out for leadership, for someone who will bring us together and raise our sights. We are a nation looking for someone who will lift our spirits and give us confidence that together we can grow out of this recession and conquer the myriad of social ills we have at home.
We do not need more division. We certainly do not need something as complex and emotional as Vietnam reduced to simple campaign rhetoric. What has been said has been said, Mr. President, but I hope and pray we will put it behind us and go forward in a constructive spirit for the good of our party and the good of our country.
I thank our distinguished manager of the bill and the Senator from Delaware. "
If John Kerry is the best the Democrats have to offer, they are indeed as morally bankrupt as the nation came to believe by the end of Clinton's presidency. Is it any wonder that so many of our young admire vacuous role models such as Paris Hilton, Kid Rock and Justin Timberlake?
Seems the love & peace crowd in Ess Eff have been stickin' to the rest of us for the past 80 years or so.
Bush budget soaks S.F. for Hetch Hetchy
Rent would jump from $30,000 to $8 million a yearSen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a former San Francisco mayor, pledged to fight any increase. "It's a raid on San Francisco resources. To go from $30,000 a year to $8 million is just a raid on the city's coffers,'' she said.
Feinstein said she didn't think the Interior Department proposal, which calls for the rent-increase revenue to go to the National Park Service to help offset its costs in operating Yosemite, had anything to do with possible political retribution by a conservative administration against a notably liberal and Democratic city.
Of course, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi invokes class warfare:
"The administration hasn't explained to us what this $8 million is for. Is it to raise money to offset the deficit? If so, this is yet another example of the administration putting a bigger burden on local government to pay for tax cuts for the rich.''But Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, whose district includes Yosemite, praised Bush's proposal.
"It's only fair that San Francisco pays to use the space in Yosemite that's taken by the Hetch Hetchy Dam and Reservoir," Radanovich said in a statement.
"The reservoir occupies a great deal of land in the park, and the funds generated by charging a fee for its use will help improve other parts of Yosemite," added the chairman of the House subcommittee on national parks.
Typical Effin' Limosine Liberals. What happened to everyone paying their fair share? This is so typical of California's corrupt water politics.
Wonder how much the corporate growers Heinz contracts for tomatoes in the Central Valley pay for their water?
Pete at A Perfectly Cromulent Blog hosts this week's Carnival of the Vanities and seems to have a meme going... to which I must add "You can keep your hat on, Baby."
[Can't wait to see the Google result off a gnome buttcrack]
Joe Lieberman isn't leaving the race, his party left him. Ironic that the only candidate not running away from the Clinton record was abandoned by the DLC in favor of Clark. Draw your own conculsions.
The Captain's Quarter sums up Leiberman's withdrawl nicely:
Lieberman's fate was decided when both Al Gore and the DLC dumped him, the former for the radical left, and the latter to chase after a faux-Democrat, Wes Clark. Lieberman deserved better for his service to his party than to exit with two knives stuck in his back.
Lieberman joins Al Gore as the lastest in a long line betrayed by the Clintons.
Outside the Beltway hosts this week's blog dreck fondly known as Bonfire of the Vanities.
While you're there, James has a must read post of the intelligence inquiry: KEEGAN: INQUIRY POINTLESS
Bush had to get out front and form a posse before the Dems found a suitable hanging tree, but unless the inquiry looks at the Clinton Administration intelligence failures, in particular Clark and Albright's war on Kosovo, an inquiry will be little more than political salve or election year ploy and resolve nothing.
Can the primary process be any more tedious? The best thing about this boob is that it eclipsed this one.
Russian winter long and dark, Commissar reduced to carving playing cards from turnips until Spring, when comrade wife bathes.
DemCom Deck of Cards for Operation Bloggi Freedom
DEMCOM - (For Immediate Release)DEMCOM has issued a deck of 52 playing cards to assist our troops in Blogistan to identify dangerous bloggers, regime holdouts, and hardcore Blaa-blaah-ists.
Perhaps contributors should have taken the 5th as TPB, Esq. presents a multi-count indictment for the jury's consideration at Unbillable Hours.
"I am sorry that anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the halftime performance of the Super Bowl," Timberlake said in a statement.
Wardrobe Malfunction, well mebbe that explains other infamous apparel failures.
According to the Starr Report, the Lewinsky affair started when Monica lifted up the back of her suit jacket in the Oval Office and flashed a teeny triangle at the top of her thong underwear for President Clinton. Since one would expect a well-round gal's skirt to ride up, not down, she obviously had a wardrobe malfunction.
Perhaps this hitherto unreported phenomena also explains Clinton's trousers falling down in the suite of The Excelsior Hotel.
BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
BOOBIE UPDATE: Okay... Dean has jumped the Jackson shark.
Lair exposes trackbombing, a ploy to suck readership from vastly superior, high-traffic blogs, of course a Deaniac is reputed to be one of the culprits. Cheesy.
Which segues into American RealPolitik's lede 'toon today. Scroll down to two gems from Samuel Clemens that still ring true. Thank God.
The Dems continue to bleat that the rich aren't paying their fair share. Soaking the rich might not be such a good idea as this article posted by John Hudock demonstrates.
The rich are no longer getting richer in California. And the rest of us, oddly enough, are suffering from their misfortune.
...
Why should we care?Because California's skewed income distribution, combined with progressive tax rates, means that the people at the very top of the income heap pay a very high percentage of the personal income tax collected in this state.
...
The media is very dishonest on this issue, they lean in earnestly and ask the candidates the wrong questions. This past Sunday, Tim Russert allowed Howard Dean to reinforce the "rich" canard without a blink. I waited for the follow-up question about small business tax rates and wouldn't Dean's roll-back of the tax cuts be a job killer? I'm still waiting.
Meryl lists a host of reasons why North Korea isn't our problem, concluding with:
America is not the world's policeman. We shouldn't act unilaterally. We have starving people here at home to feed. What's the United Nations for, anyway? The Axis of Evil, it's such a simplistic world view.It is far more important to protest Israel's treatment of the palestinians, or the security fence, or the American occupation of Iraq, or the prisoners at Guantanamo.
Chris Muir's take on the "America as bully" meme sums it up:
Poor ole CBS is snakebit.
"It's unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime." - Joe Browne, NFL executive vice president
Indeed.
Alan Forkum posts links as well as a reprise of their moving tribute to the Columbia crew; Fallen Star.
