January 03, 2005
The Pale Criminal
John Hawkins posts The 40 Most Obnoxious Quotes Of 2004. To paraphrase Nietzsche; they have the courage of the knife, but not the blood.
December 30, 2003
Hooah
This story and overall recruitment figures seem to give lie to the media claim that people are not joining or extending....of course Stop/Loss may affect retention in guard units...but in the past it hasn't resulted in a significant loss.
Father, daughter to serve in same unit in IraqPOINT PLEASANT, W.Va. (AP) -- If West Virginia National Guard Sgt. Shari Wright gets homesick while serving in Iraq, she won't have to look far for support.
Her father, Sgt. James Gheen, also serves in her unit, which will be deployed in January.
"I think it will bring us closer together," said Wright. "Whenever we get lonely or miss home, we can talk to each other."
Gheen, 40, and Wright, 23, both of Middleport, Ohio, are members of the 3664th West Virginia Army National Guard maintenance unit and are undergoing training at Fort Dix, N.J. In Iraq, Gheen will help repair vehicles while Wright will serve as an administrative clerk.
Gheen spent 10 years in the Army before joining the National Guard eight years ago. Wright, a student at Marshall University, joined the guard in 2001.
"It was just something that she said she wanted to do," Gheen said about his daughter's enlistment. "I didn't want her to think that she had to join because of me or anything. She said she wanted to do it and serve her country."
December 29, 2003
December 24, 2003
Cows In Berkeley?
First case of mad cow in U.S.!
Wrong.
My bad, couldn't resist. Justin at My Word has an appropriate quote from the NYT:
"There was a time when Mrs. Clinton did her best to fade into the woodwork and be seen as just another lawmaker on Capitol Hill."
Merry Christmas everyone! Blogging will be light-to-nonexistent as the Feste manse prepares for merriment and kinfolk...blogging and general snarkiness will resume Friday.
December 18, 2003
Back Away From The Cliff, Governor
CBS Poll: Dean Pulls Away In Demming Race.
Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has pulled away from the field in the Demming Presidential nomination race: his support among Demming primary voters nationwide has risen in the past month, and held steady after the news of Saddam Hussein's capture. But the race remains open: more than half of Demming voters still have no opinion of Dean, most have not made up their minds for sure, and large numbers remain undecided.
In order to better understand this phenomenon, a little background:
The North American Demming’s range is, but not limited to, the politically obtuse, union halls, the Black Caucus, Northern Cailfornia, elite Northeastern salons, the media, universities and the lush green tundra of monied Hollywood – where it is found to thrive.
Demmings are notorious for the extreme fluctuations in theirs numbers. In presidential election years they seem to be everywhere, but during mid-term election years they are only conspicuous by their absence.
Demming populations typically exhibit pronounced cyclical variations over periods of 4 years, with numbers in peak years dozens of times higher than during mid-term election years. The heights of these peaks also vary, with the North American Demming tendency to run off the nearest policy cliff during a national crisis.
During these special Demming years, populations are so dense that journalists on the fells of Liberal Land can hardly move without sending the creatures scurrying off in every direction. Some Demmings also become so fearless that they will boldly stand their ground when faced with irrefutable facts.
Demming years have waxed and waned since the Great Depression. Some believe that Demmings fall from the sky like rain, while others even suggest that they are searching for their former home, Camelot. Priests even registered election victories of Demmings in church diaries, as they were also thought to be an precursor to war.
Demming populations can increase dramatically during primaries when zealous presidential nominees are at their peak; but conservative voter registration and donations will then increase, and defeat more Demmings, soon causing a downturn in their numbers. With opposition in short supply, the conservatives will subsequently themselves become complacent, until a Demming Leader, such as Howard Dean, stirs the Demming horde, and the whole cycle begins again.
December 09, 2003
Party Realignment Or Revenge?
An interesting day for Democrats as Gore endorses John Dean. Has Hillary overplayed her hand? Why is Gore wresting control of the party and agenda from the Clintons at this point in time? What's in it for Gore? Secretary of State in a Dean Admin? Is this simply an opportune time for Dean to sideline Hillary? Perhaps Dean's driving this train, not Gore. Gore's secretive coalition with Dean and assertion of political power might indicate that Green delegates in key primary states are in play and Gore would be a natural ally for Dean with this constituency. Clinton and McAuliff's strategy misfired against a voter revolt in the California Recall election and Pelosi failed to hold the party line against Bush's agenda in Congress. The Greens could abandon the Dem ship if the party leaders do nothing but rearrange the usual suspects deck chairs as the 2004 iceberg looms.
In a predictable and hackneyed political season this is the most intriguing move to date.
December 05, 2003
December 01, 2003
The Left's Faustian Deal?
Here's an interesting story from Singapore published in The Straits Times, Asia's largest English language newspaper. Is this story a cautionary tale for 2004 or simply sour grapes?
Shevardnadze blames Soros for his downfall
MOSCOW -- Deposed Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze accused US billionaire and philanthropist George Soros of orchestrating a campaign that led to his downfall, in an interview broadcast on Russian television on Sunday.
Mr Shevarnadze, who is still feted in the West as the man who helped end the Cold War, told reporters about his dramatic resignation: 'It was not an easy decision, but it was the only solution.'
'America is a large country. It has thousands of organisations, one of them is Soros' -- you know him, Russia has shoved him out...,' Mr Shevardnadze told state-run Russian television.
Mr Soros shut down most of his operations in Russia last month amid a complicated property dispute with Moscow authorities.
'And so he formulated this whole idea -- to hold elections (in Georgia), and make sure that new people come to power,' the ousted leader added.
'This was Soros' plan. Everything was drawn up in advance: how much money to spend, what non-governmental organisations to trust and with which ones to cooperate -- these are American organisations, but I cannot remember their names,' said Mr Shevardnadze.
You may interested in this column, The 'capitalist threat' and the Soros mission as well.
Dick Morris' column is a must read to understand how Soros may be gaining control of the Democrats through their pocketbook:
November 25, 2003 -- THE Democratic Party is being replaced by a new group called "Americans Coming Together," which has been launched with two $10 million donations from financier George Soros and Peter B. Lewis, chairman of the Progressive Corporation. The new organization wants to raise $94 million to finance a massive campaign against Bush - all with soft money. The Democratic Party, which is only allowed to raise hard money (donations limited to $2,000 per person) by the McCain-Feingold law is unable to amass the resources necessary for a national campaign, so it is ceding the main role to Americans Coming Together.
November 12, 2003
Step Away From The Hog, Senator
Senator John Kerry has a Dukakis moment on the Leno show. Kerry, or his handlers, think riding a borrowed Harley onto a TV set is cool? Politicians who aren't HOGs should stay the hell away from Harleys...it's terminally lame.
One suspects that this [WARNING: LINK NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK ] doesn't reflect Kerry's touchy-feely Northeastern Liberal demographic.
BUWAHAHAHAHAHA!
One would also think that a presidential contender and "front runner" would appear at the top of the Tonight Show bill not following a puppet act. I think that says it all about his team and his chances of becoming the nominee.
Kerry is suffering from the same sort of weirdo cultural advice that sank Gore's campaign...the Dem electorate isn't going to embrace another unfocused candidate who doesn't know who he is. The faint whiff of lugubriosity that hovered over Kerry's campaign has become the stench of flop sweat, Kerry's done.
November 06, 2003
A Reality...
...that the mainstream media, DNC, Democratic Congressional Leadership and candidates dare not address, they have painted themselves into a politically correct box.
This article by The Black Commentator published on Counterpunch needs no comment, it stands on it's own:
White Liberals Don't Understand How Angry Black Voters are at the Democratic Party Establishment
by THE BLACK COMMENTATOR
Forget about the smoke and fog spewed by corporate media and chattering consultants of all colors. Let us begin with a stark forecast: The Democratic Party primaries must result in a national ticket that is fit for Black participation. If the party cannot loosen the fatal grip of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC)--the Republican wing of the party--it will die. Black voters and their allies will either purge the DLC from national influence this primary season, or leave the Democrats to spiral into deserved oblivion.
That is what the polling data actually foretell--not an incipient Black conservatism, but levels of frustration with the national Democratic Party so high among Blacks that one more betrayal will likely spark a massive exit, even if the destination is... nowhere, the negative alternative that has already been chosen by a huge chuck of younger African Americans.
First and foremost, Black participation hinges on denying the presidential nomination to the dreadful, racist Senator Joseph Lieberman (CT), the DLC's champion. He will soon be recognized as wholly unacceptable to Black voters, who are the progressive mass base of the party, and to anti-war voters, a majority sentiment within the ranks at this time, nationwide.
Lieberman and the DLC spell electoral non-participation by Blacks. Therefore, he and his ilk are the enemies of all those who seek the broadest, most intense political involvement of African Americans in national life. There can be no compromise with people who poison the political well. Cohabitation with Rightists and racists means death to the Party.
Ninety percent of Black voters participate in national elections as Democrats. Therefore, the Democratic Party and its primaries are the field of national electoral expression for Black people as a whole. It is where the bulk of the people are--for now. In a fundamental sense, African Americans work out their political yearnings and programs through the mechanisms of the Democratic Party. If the political house is unwholesome, polluted with the unmistakable odors of white supremacy and Black sycophancy, African Americans recoil as one body.
To believe otherwise is to misread history--which is the norm in a society that prefers to operate on a succession of lies. No group turned more quickly and dramatically to the promise of Democratic liberalism than Black Americans. It is on the residual strength of the promise of inclusive, progressive Democratic politics that Blacks have remained solidly Democratic since completing the transition en masse and in the political blink of an eye four decades ago.
Black loyalty to Democratic Party structures has been misinterpreted as inertia--a racist conclusion that implies laziness of thought and action. This false reading of African American motives and intelligence has led whites in the Party--and some Black operatives--to miscalculate the cumulative effects of the savage compromises that have been foisted on Black Democrats since Jimmy Carter's "New South" term in the White House. Assuming that Blacks will "stay" simply because they have nowhere else to "go," national Democrats refuse to understand that Rev. Al Sharpton's support derives from deep anger and heartfelt disappointment, not with Trent Lott and the White Man's Party, but with them. Sharpton is dismissed as a mere showman, in effect relegating Black voters to the status of an Apollo Theater crowd on amateur night. The expectation appears to be that Sharpton and his supporters will make a lot of noise, attain emotional release, and return meekly to the fold.
The Democratic Party and its consultants grossly underestimate Black capacity for decisive action, ignoring the sea changes that have swept over the Black body politic in the past. More specifically, they underestimate Rev. Sharpton, who has no personal stake in the Democratic Party's institutionalized structures of Black mollification and is the sworn foe of the Democratic Leadership Council.
When Sharpton tells Village Voice writer Thulani Davis, "Many people who are running, in my judgment, are to the right of Republicans," he is speaking most directly about Sen. Joseph Lieberman and the DLC. When Sharpton declares that he is in a battle for "the soul of the Democratic Party" he means he is running against the existing structures that have brought the Party "to the right, not the center." And when polls show that Sharpton will capture Black majorities in the primaries, that means masses of African Americans agree with his assessment of the Party and are as anxious as he is to disassemble its racist components. Huge numbers will follow Sharpton despite his perm, because they know that he "speaks truth to power," an esteemed quality among African Americans, the most sophisticated electorate in America.
Al Sharpton will not tolerate the influence, much less nomination, of Lieberman, the standard bearer for all that is wrong with the Democratic Party. Sharpton will treat Lieberman as the Republican that he is, methodically "outing" the devious crypto-racist in terms that no amount of corporate media ridicule and distortion can obscure. It is at that point, in the heat of foreign conflict and domestic anxiety, that the Black public will approach a sea change in their perception of the Democratic Party.
The future of the Party will then be in the hands, not of Rev. Al Sharpton who does not seek to destroy it, but of the men and women who have disrespected Black voters for the better part of a lifetime. They can have a Party crippled by Lieberman's DLC, or they can retain a Sharptonized Black electorate. But they can't have both.
Uh-oh
Just when things couldn't get worse for the Dem Dwarves than their lackluster performance, petty infighting, gaffs and election losses...they do.
- Jobless Claims Plunge, Productivity SoarsThe number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits took an unexpectedly sharp plunge last week, reaching a level not seen since before the economy tumbled into recession in 2001, a government report showed on Thursday. A separate report showed U.S. business productivity soared in the third quarter, suggesting little risk inflation will flare despite signs the economic recovery is on firmer ground.
- After Years of Cuts, Merrill Is Hiring. Merrill Lynch & Co. , which has spent much of the past three years slashing jobs, on Thursday said it plans to increase its brokerage force by 5 percent annually over next three years in response to improving stock markets and demand for financial advice.
- Greenspan Sees Job Market Poised for Growth
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, in his most upbeat assessment of the U.S. economic outlook in years, said this morning that continuing solid economic growth should soon lead to the job creation that has been lacking since the end of the 2001 recession. - Cisco's earnings look promising Tech bellwether Cisco Systems on Wednesday reported growing sales, swelling profits and mounting evidence that corporate America was starting to spend again.
The world's largest maker of computer networking equipment racked up $5.1 billion in sales for the most recent quarter, a jump of 8.5 percent from the previous three months and Cisco's best performance since early 2001.
- Chip industry ready to make a comeback. The battered and bruised semiconductor industry is finally ready to emerge from its worst slump ever and could grow nearly 20 percent in 2004, an industry group said Wednesday.
However the Dem Dwarves can take heart, their goal of tanking the economy to win the White House still has a slim chance as California auto sales plummet in the wake of the Davis auto license fee increase.
Car sales usually slip between September and October as the weather cools and dealers sometimes have to wait for shipments of next year's models. But, comparatively, this year looks like more of a free-fall than a slip. Last year,sales fell 9 percent during the first few weeks of October nationwide and just 5 percent in California.
"The major difference we're aware of this year versus last year in California is the (increased) tax being put into effect," said Tom Liddy, director of industry analysis at Power Information Network, a division of J.D. Power and Associates, a research firm that calculated the numbers.
The difference between the Golden State and the rest of the country is even bigger for higher-priced cars, for which the fee increase has had the biggest impact. Luxury car sales dipped 22 percent in California but only 5 percent in the other 49 states.
Auto sales have weakened for October 2003, comparison of sales in October 2003 with sales in October 2002, and year-to-date totals for the two years. Light trucks include pickups, vans, minivans and sport utility vehicles.
Of course that will hurt their bedrock union base in the Northeast more than middle America and may result in union defections in 2004 on the order of the 32% who voted against Gray Davis.
Looks like the Dems best hope is still the wholesale slaughter of American GI's and failure in Iraq.
Today General Clark revealed "The Clark Doctrine":
Clark said his Iraq plan draws on his experience leading NATO forces in Kosovo. Clark would transform the U.S. occupation into a NATO operation led by the U.S. forces. A civilian from an allied nation would guide reconstruction, taking over the job from the U.S. chief administrator, L. Paul Bremer.Giving more authority to allies and the Iraqis themselves would "defuse the American hand in Iraq," Clark said before his speech, and should deflect the resentment that fuels attacks on U.S. forces.
On the military front, Clark would shut Iraqi borders, rebuild the Iraqi military and send in more intelligence officers and troops to guard weapons dumps.
He said Iraqis should have more control of their future -- including responsibility for drafting a constitution and control of oil revenues
The money graf/pander to the left base of the party:
Finally, Clark would create a new Atlantic Charter that would stipulate that although the United States will not give up the right to act alone, working together with European allies should be the first option.
A sure-fire plan to a quagmire on the order of that he left in the Balkans.
Dem Post Election Confusion
Is clue beginning to seep into the Democrat body politic?
Election result leaves McAuliffe in limbo
'04 impact weighed after Mississippi and Kentucky votes
Democrats across the country rallied to support Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Terry McAuliffe yesterday, a day after the party lost governorships in Kentucky and Mississippi and less than four weeks after losing the gubernatorial race in California.
But on a morning of bitter misgivings for Democrats there were also rumblings in Mississippi, California, New York, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, with many party rank- and-file members complaining that the DNC has written off the South, taken black voters for granted and picked a poor 2004 convention site in Boston.
“Terry McAuliffe is out there on his own agenda, which does not involve the South,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the only black member of his state’s congressional delegation.
Democrats both attacked and defended the party’s direction under Terry McAuliffe.
“It does not involve African Americans to the extent that they need to be. There are some real organizational problems at the Democratic National Committee that need to be corrected if in fact this party is to ever regain a majority status in Washington.”
Well, mebbe not.
DNC officials and Democratic House members, including Reps. Frost and Barney Frank (Mass.), downplayed the gubernatorial elections, arguing that the committee is right where it wants to be. DNC officials insisted that the party is looking forward to hosting its national convention in Boston.
Think Wellstone memorial.