Lefty Soapbox

Free Lance-Star sticks it the MSM AND the Bush Administration

2005-05-23T06:59:00.000-05:00

The Free Lance-Star, my home paper, had a great opinion column on the MSM and the Bush administration yesterday. It is absolutely fantastic, and you really need to read it. It is title "Media doing a poor job, but maybe not for the reasons you think". Fantastic. It calls for more accountability from both the emdia and Washington.

Because, honestly, if the left and right came together to demand real answers and accountability from our leaders, would that be so terrible?

Go read the whole thing.

Go my home paper!

Only A Sith Thinks In Absolutes

2005-05-19T12:12:00.000-05:00

Dan Froomkin points out one of the number one reasons I am SOOOO looking forward to Revenge of the Sith:

At one point, Darth Vader, already deep in the thrall of the dark side and echoing the words of George W. Bush, hisses at Obi-Wan, 'If you're not with me, you're my enemy.' Obi-Wan's response is likely to surface as a bumper sticker during the next election campaign: 'Only a Sith thinks in absolutes.' "

So what will the bumper sticker be? Only a Republican thinks in absolutes?

Go Lucas Go!

Ignore the boycott! Like anyone's going to actually boycott Star Wars. Pfffft. I especially liked the line "Our Country is at war and Lucas spouts off this crap?" Because when you're at war, the government is always right(not left)!

What All Successful Democracies Need

2005-05-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

Bush gave a speech last night in which he detailed what all successful democracies need. What he said just boggles the mind. Here is an excerpt (empasis is SO totally mine):

Yet we know that in all cultures, successful democracies are built on certain common foundations -- and they include the following rights:

First, all successful democracies need freedom of speech, with a vibrant free press that informs the public, ensures transparency, and prevents authoritarian backsliding.

Second, all successful democracies need freedom of assembly, so citizens can gather and organize in free associations to press for reform, and so that a peaceful, loyal opposition can provide citizens with real choices.

Third, all successful democracies need a free economy to unleash the creativity of its citizens and create prosperity and opportunity and economic independence from the state.

Fourth, all democracies need an independent judiciary to guarantee rule of law and assure impartial justice for all citizens.

And, fifth, all democracies need freedom of worship, because respect for the beliefs of others is the only way to build a society where compassion and tolerance prevail.

So I guess the United States is not a successful democracy.

Bill O'Reilly Lies

2005-05-13T09:17:00.000-05:00

Bill O'Reilly, everyone's favorite commentator who never spins facts or lies, apparently does spin facts and lie.

He reads from an editorial from the Houston Chronicle that he claims says Florida is being too harsh on Sex Criminals. But it says nothing of the sort. What he reads aloud and claims are "excerpts" from the editorial is not from the editorial, or any other place in the paper.

Hey Bill? Why you lyin', foo?

"Conservative" Doctor Influential In Plan B Decision

2005-05-12T10:31:00.000-05:00

A memo written by a conservative doctor persuaded the FDA to ignore its advisory panel and reject Plan B.

Conservative Doctor, eh?

I didn't know conservative doctors forcibly sodomize their sleeping wives.

Fascinating.

Oh wait, we did write that one.

2005-04-07T07:34:00.000-05:00

So a few weeks ago, a memo leaked saying that the Terri Schiavo issue would be a great way to fire up the Republican's base and a great way to score some points. Democrats were outraged by the memo, saying it was playing politics with an issue no one should even be touching. Republicans countered, saying none of them had written the memo. What's more, some conservative bloggers claimed that Democrats had manufactured the memo to make Republicans look bad. Now, that would be rather awful if the Democrats had done this.

Instead it turns out that a Republican staffer did, in fact, write the memo.

Oops.

To be fair, the staffer in question claims he has no idea how he got out, that it was just a rough draft of something he was working on, and that he has no idea how it ever got off his computer, since he didn't print it. And the senator in question has no idea how it got into his hands either, even though he claimed he never saw it, and has no idea how he could have mistakenly passed a Democrat the memo when he didn't even know he had it in the first place.

Did you follow that?

Yeah, me neither.

Wait, this is the Wall Street Journal?

2005-03-29T09:45:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal's editorial page criticized Tom DeLay yesterday.

Yes, you read that right. Quite shocking that a bastion of conservative opinions would turn on such an individual. This remark in particular is rather scathing:

His real fault lies in betraying the broader set of principles that brought him into office, and which, if he continues as before, sooner or later will sweep him out.

Zing.

No wonder he's spending so much time and energy talking as loudly as he can about Terri Schiavo.

Thanks to Howard Kurtz.

The President Ignores His Greatest Advisor

2005-02-10T08:38:00.000-05:00

North Korea has publically announced it has nuclear weapons.

This never would have happened if the President listened to his greatest advisor.

I don't know what else to say.

Bush's Message to the American People

2004-11-08T19:41:00.000-05:00

Oh, we're reading it loud and clear.

Why Jon Stewart and The Daily Show Rule

2004-11-08T19:27:00.000-05:00

All of these are paraphrases:

1. It just goes to show that Americans can dream about anything they want, as long as it doesn't make Midwesterners feel "icky".

2. New York went 85% for Kerry. It has more Terror and more Gay Marriage than anywhere else in the Country, and yet they voted the opposite way of most of the country

3. The Christian Right, what could be more elitist than believing only you will go to heaven

Bitchin.

Election Predictions

2004-11-02T09:13:00.000-05:00

Whoever wins two of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida wins the election. My predictions:

Kerry WILL win Pennsylvania.

Bush will PROBABLY win Ohio.

No idea who will win in Florida.

Which means it's up to Florida. Again.

Dear GOD! We'll find out who the President is in December.

Go Vote!

I don't even know how to respond to this

2004-09-22T06:17:00.000-05:00

Cat Stevens barred entry into the United States.

Bush is an amazing singer!!

2004-09-20T17:03:00.000-05:00

Listen to him cover U2's Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

It's quite good.

I'm voting for Obama. I bet you're all jealous.

2004-08-09T16:36:00.000-05:00

As a new Illinois resident, I get to vote for Obama in the upcoming election. More importantly, I get to vote AGAINST Alan Keyes, who has replaced Nader as the official "egomaniac running for office in 2004" in my book. It might be the hypocrisy, it might be the brimstone righteousness that he speaks with when denouncing Obama's "straying from the will of the creator," it might be just the fact that he used to be a conservative talk show host, but whatever the case may be...fuck off, dude. Try a few more times in Maryland.

If you really want to follow the election....

2004-08-04T14:58:00.000-05:00

...bookmark this site.

Bush uses War on Terrorism to his own political advantage? Impossible!

2004-08-03T15:55:00.000-05:00

Bob Harris says it best, no need trying to one up him. Go there and read, it's short.

It's morons like you that got us in this mess

2004-08-03T07:11:00.000-05:00

My job can be very frustrating some times, mostly because of people I work with. FOr example, take the conversation I just overheard/joined in. John was talking to Marc, and John waws offering his views on how to fight the war on terrorism and win the hearts and minds of the people. His idea is that we should go to where we think the terrorists/insurgents are, ask the locals who the badguys are, and if they don't tell us, kill them all. Then move on to the next area and repeat. Eventually they'll become so afraid of us that they'll pooint out the terrorists. Either that or they're all be dead, and hey, no loss. According to John, this is the only way to do it. You have to use fear.

Wow.

So I slide my chair over and comment that the problem with that strategy is that we'll just make them hate us more and breed more terroists. That you have to fight the root causes of terrorism. Economic aid, respecting their religion, rebuilding the country, giving them freedom, showing that we aren't as awful as the radical islamic jihadists picture us out to be. Marc agrees with me, and John says that yeah, you can glad handle them (making a masturbatory motion as he said this) but fear is a more effective weapon. (Wait, I thought killing them all and making them fear us more than the terrorists was the only way?) I say you can't kill them all. He maintains we should try to.

What a flaming idiot.

Last week I attended a conference where the keynote speaker was Dr. David Kay, the guy in charge of the search of Weapons of Mass Destruction. He gave a very interesting speech on the root causes of terrorism and what we have to do to fight it. I'll give some more information on this alter when I can write it up, but one thing I have to share is this fact. Did you know that 62% of the Iraqi population is under the age of 15?

Just think about what that means.

!?!?!?!?!?!?!

2004-07-15T18:19:00.000-05:00

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh of the NewYorker told the American Civil Liberties Union this week that videotapeswere made of young boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib. "The worst is thesoundtrack of the boys shrieking," the reporter told the group's convention. Hersh reports there was "a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher." See the video of Hersh's ACLU speech - the information about the prison comes at about 1 hour and 30 minutes in.

What's your state of mind?

2004-07-15T10:01:00.000-05:00

Are you blue or are you red, and how much?

I was "in the middle", and I was basically in the middle of the in the middle scale. I'm an independent! Or I just read too many blogs so the stuff I know about the red balances out the blue. Plus living in Virginia. Anyway, go take it.

(via Oliver Willis)

Lefty Soapbox breaks the story two months before anyone else!!!

2004-07-12T22:48:00.000-05:00

Damn, our investigative reporting skills (plus ESP and Ultra Guessing) are superior to all other blogs!

Bask in our glory. Bask in it, I say! We were right!

Two HUGE stories unfold...

2004-07-08T16:50:00.000-05:00

I've been reading about these in multiple sources, but Bob Harris over at This Modern World has been on top of both:

First, Bush puts pressure on international allies to coordinate the capture of key terrorists to coincide with key US political events such as the November election and the Democratic National Convention so as to maximize the political benefits for the President.
The article
MisLeader picked it up
Bob Harris' commentary is excellent

BUT EVEN BIGGER NEWS:
And this is breaking as I type this, which means thanks to the slim and sporatic readership this blog gets, you'll probably (hopefully) read this after it's already hit the mass media of the US. I say hopefully because this one is big and needs to hit the mainstream ASAP.

CHILDREN AT ABU GHRAIB

Look what the cat dragged in....

2004-06-30T16:55:00.000-05:00

Or, should I say, look what Matt Drudged up....

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX WED JUNE 30, 2004 11:18:25 ET XXXXX
VICE PRESIDENT HILLARY; SPECULATION INTENSIFIES IN WASHINGTON
Official Washington and the entire press corps will be rocked when Hillary Rodham Clinton is picked as Kerry's VP and a massive love fest will begin!
So predicts a top Washington insider, who spoke to the DRUDGE REPORT on condition he not be named.
"All the signs point in her direction," said the insider, one of the most influential and well-placed in the nation's capital. "It is the solution to every Kerry problem."
MORE
"There are three issues that this campaign will be decided on -- national security, health care, and the economy, not necessarily in that order."
"Kerry believes that no one is better on national security than he is, he served in Vietnam after all, so he has that covered and the suggestion that he needs to strengthen the ticket with someone who has national security credentials is dismissed as foolish."
The insider continues: "The Democrats feel like health care is the domestic issue. But how to make it the dominant topic of conversation -- break through war and terrorism? Hillary Clinton. She catapults it out front with her commission. She tried to provide health care before and the Republicans in congress attacked her and her husband and used a bunch of scandals dirty tricks to stop it, we know they are scandals and dirty tricks because the former president book says so. So now you have the number two person on the ticket who is a 'health care expert' and what will Republicans do? Attack on health care pointing to her commission saying that it was government medicine. Her response -- it wasn't, and the Republicans are a bunch of dirty tricksters, "Liars and Crooks," as Kerry calls them, and its been too long and Democrats wont let the Republicans do it to them again. By the way, it puts prescription drugs on the back burner, the Republicans health care ace. You will have a fully engaged national debate on health care from now until the election."
MORE
"The Democrats economic plan is to say Bush sucks, it's never enough, we must get back to the Clinton Era when 22 million jobs were created. You can't do much better at making that point then-- Kerry/Clinton 2004.
"But what about impeachment and Monica -- wont that overshadow her being picked? It' now been covered in the book. Not only that, but she is a women scorned who has dealt with what so many American women deal with and stuck it out to keep her family together. And Whitewater? It's in the book. Vince Foster? Book. Billing records, White House travel Office? Book, book. All have been covered. All Republican slime tactics.
"Why would Kerry make such a public spectacle about trying to get John Mccain, wont whoever you pick be considered a second choice. Not if it is Hillary!
"There are differences of opinion about how this election will be won but one school says its all about the base. Republicans are bumping up against the ceiling with support from their base and Democrats are sitting on the floor. This would change that.
"Official Washington and national media will fall in love with the idea immediately letting Kerry/Clinton dominate the news through July and up to the Republican convention. She will say she is doing it for the good of the country. I am convinced this is going to happen."
MORE
"But what Hillary about having to wait to run for president? If Bush wins then she is the nominee for 2008 because it will be all Kerry's fault. If she wins she is the first woman VP of the United States, which would help her become the first woman president of the U.S. It would be historic in its own right and change the nature of politics in this country, and mark her place in the history books for ever-- a different history than her husbands."
Developing...

Bush's

2004-06-21T10:29:00.000-05:00

So it seems Bush's nominee for the federal appeals court in Washington (the steppingstone to the Supreme Court) was practicing law without a license. Twice.

Thomas B. Griffith, President Bush's nominee for the federal appeals court in Washington, has been practicing law in Utah without a state law license for the past four years, according to Utah state officials.

Griffith, the general counsel for Brigham Young University since August 2000, had previously failed to renew his law license in Washington for three years while he was a lawyer based in the District. It was a mistake he attributed to an oversight by his law firm's staff. But that lapse in his D.C. license, reported earlier this month by The Washington Post, subsequently prevented Griffith from receiving a law license in Utah when he moved there.

Under Utah law, Griffith's only option for obtaining the state license was to take and pass the state bar exam, an arduous test that lawyers try to take only once. He applied to sit for the exam, but never took it, Utah bar officials confirm.

The bar exam's too hard for me to renew my law license and not break the law!

What's the big deal, right? He's just like everyone's favorite conman Ulysses Everett McGill.
Breaking News: Thomas Griffith may not be a Dapper Dan man! Shocking!

Best line ever

2004-06-10T18:43:00.000-05:00

Ashcroft needs to invoke the writ of douchebaggery!

The Daily Show is the best news source ever. Other than the Onion of course.

George Tennet Resigns!

2004-06-03T09:57:00.000-05:00

Well, as of mid July.

But still.

Wow.

Draft! Draft! Draft! Oh soon we'll have a draft!

2004-05-26T16:24:00.000-05:00

Congress.org reports this amazing issue.

The Draft will Start in June 2005

There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin at early as Spring 2005 -- just after the 2004 presidential election. The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately.

$28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. Please see website: www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html to view the sss annual performance plan - fiscal year 2004.

What's more, the story goes on to say that going to Canada is not a safe haven for draft dodgers, nor is college.

College and Canada will not be options. In December 2001, Canada and the U.S. signed a "smart border declaration," which could be used to keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada's minister of foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security director, Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30-point plan which implements, among other things, a "pre-clearance agreement" of people entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at making the draft more equitable along gender and class lines also eliminates higher education as a shelter. Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year.

Yeah, the thing about this is that the authors of both bills and the cosponsors of the house bill are ALL democrats. Bush isn't trying to slide this through. Read this.

I don't like Bush, but he's not THAT dumb.

He'll wait until after he gets elected to introduce the legislation for the draft. So never, hopefully.

Today is a fabulous day!

2004-05-17T08:02:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to all the happy couples who have persevered and triumphed in Massachusetts. I love the bay state. There are a few towns that are saying "eff that!" to the Governor's proclamation that gay non-residents of Massachusetts can't get married. One of them is, surprise surprise, Provincetown. I've been there. It is truly the awesomest place ever. I want to live there.

This is truly a great day for America. *sniff*

Actually, AJ....

2004-05-07T22:11:00.000-05:00

AJ, in the article you linked, it stated that Moore wrote in a letter to his supporters that "he had learnt only on Monday that Disney had put the kibosh on distributing the film, which has been financed by the semi-independent Disney subsidiary Miramax" but that in a CNN interview he said: "Almost a year ago, after we'd started making the film, the chairman of Disney, Michael Eisner, told my agent he was upset Miramax had made the film and he will not distribute it."

I don't know if the new email from Michael Moore that's sitting in my Inbox is meant to "clarify" the situation as a result of this new "finding," but here is the complete text of the email, (warning: it's long)

When You Wish Upon A Star... by Michael Moore

May 7th, 2004

Friends,

Thank you for all the incredible letters of support as my film crew and I once again slog our way through the corporate media madhouse. Does it ever end? Are we ever going to get control of our "free press" again? Can you wish upon a star?

The Disney spin machine has been working overtime dealing with this censorship debacle of theirs. I don't think they thought they would ever be outed. After all, they know that all of us are supposed to adhere to the unwritten Hollywood Code: Never tell the public how business is done here, never let them have a peek at the man behind the curtain.

Disney has been hoping for nearly a year that they could keep this thing quiet. As I promised on Wednesday, here are the details behind my sordid adventure with the Magic Kingdom:

In April of 2003, I signed a deal with Miramax, a division of the Walt Disney Co., to finance and distribute my next movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. (The original financier had backed out; I will tell that story at a later date.) In my contract it is stated that Miramax will distribute my film in the U.S. through Disney's distribution arm, Buena Vista Distribution. It also gives Miramax the rights to distribute and sell the movie around the world.

A month later, after shooting started, Michael Eisner insisted on meeting with my agent, Ari Emanuel. Eisner was furious that Miramax signed this deal with me. According to Mr. Emanuel, Eisner said he would never let my film be distributed through Disney even though Mr. Eisner had not seen any footage or even read the outline of the film. Eisner told my agent that he did not want to anger Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida. The movie, he believed, would complicate an already complicated situation with current and future Disney projects in Florida, and that many millions of dollars of tax breaks and incentives were at stake.

But Michael Eisner did not call Miramax and tell them to stop my film. Not only that, for the next year, SIX MILLION dollars of DISNEY money continued to flow into the production of making my movie. Miramax assured me that there were no distribution problems with my film.

But then, a few weeks ago when Fahrenheit 9/11 was selected to be in the Cannes Film Festival, Disney sent a low-level production executive to New York to watch the film (to this day, Michael Eisner has not seen the film). This exec was enthusiastic throughout the viewing. He laughed, he cried and at the end he thanked us. "This film is explosive," he exclaimed, and we took that as a positive sign. But "explosive" for these guys is only a good word when it comes to blowing up things in movies. OUR kind of "explosive" is what they want to run from as fast as they can.

Miramax did their best to convince Disney to go ahead as planned with our film. Disney contractually can only stop Miramax from releasing a film if it has received an NC-17 rating (ours will be rated PG-13 or R).

According to yesterday's New York Times, the issue of whether to release Fahrenheit 9/11 was discussed at Disney's board meeting last week. It was decided that Disney should not distribute our movie.

Earlier this week we got the final, official call: Disney will not put out Fahrenheit 9/11. When the story broke in the New York Times, Disney, instead of telling the truth, turned into Pinocchio.

Here are my favorite nuggets that have come out of the mouths of their spinmeisters (roughly quoted):

"Michael Moore has known for a year that we will not distribute this movie, so this is not news." Yes, that is what I thought, too, except Disney kept sending us all that money to make the movie. Miramax said there was no problem. I got the idea that everything was fine.

"It is not in the best interests of our company to distribute a partisan political film that may offend some of our customers." Hmmm. Disney doesn't distribute work that has partisan politics? Disney distributes and syndicates the Sean Hannity radio show every day? I get to listen to Rush Limbaugh every day on Disney-owned WABC. I also seem to remember that Disney distributed a very partisan political movie during a Congressional election year, 1998—a film called The Big One... by, um... ME!

"Fahrenheit 9/11 is not the Disney brand; we put out family oriented films." So true. That's why the #1 Disney film in theaters right now is a film called, KILL BILL, VOL. 2. This excellent Miramax film, along with other classics like Pulp Fiction, have all been distributed by Disney. That's why Miramax exists -- to provide an ALTERNATIVE to the usual Disney fare. And, unless they were NC-17, Disney has distributed them.

"Mr. Moore is doing this as a publicity stunt." Michael Eisner reportedly said this the other day while he was at a publicity stunt cutting the ribbon for the new "Tower of Terror" ride (what a pleasant name considering what the country has gone through recently) at Disney's California Adventure Park. Let me tell you something: NO filmmaker wants to go through this kind of controversy. It does NOT sell tickets (I can cite many examples of movies who have had to change distributors at the last minute and all have failed). I made this movie so people could see it as soon as possible. This is a huge and unwanted distraction. I want people discussing the issues raised in my film, not some inside Hollywood fracas surrounding who is going to ship the prints to the theaters. Plus, I think it is fairly safe to say that Fahrenheit 9/11 has a good chance of doing just fine, considering that my last movie set a box office record and the subject matter (Bush, the War on Terror, the War in Iraq) is at the forefront of most people's minds.

So what will happen to my movie? I still don't know. What I do know is that I will make sure all of you see it by hook or crook. We are Americans. There are a lot of screwed up things about us right now, but one thing that most of us have in common is that we don't like someone telling us we can't see something. We despise censors, and the worst censors are those who would dare to limit thoughts and ideas and silence dissent. THAT is un-American. If I have to travel across the country and show it in city parks (or, as one person offered yesterday, to show it on the side of his house for the neighborhood to see), that is what I will do.

More to come, stay tuned.

Yours,

Michael Moore
http://www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com

P.S. Be sure to check out yesterday's New York Times Editorial, "Disney's Craven Behavior"

Michael Moore, why?

2004-05-07T09:22:00.000-05:00

As I feared all along, it turns out that Michael Moore was making up that Eisner censorship thing. Why he felt the need to undertake such an easily refutable publicity stunt is a mystery to me. Although I haven't seen it, I believe that Farenheit 9/11 will stand on its own as a powerful document of the connections between the Bush family and the ruling Saudi elite. It will find a distributor, regardless of whether Disney prohibits it or not.

Why does Michael Moore sabotage his own credibility like this?

Disney = Good Clean Family Fun! Censorship

2004-05-05T10:17:00.000-05:00

Hey, why did Disney tell Miramax that it will block the distribution of Michael Moore's latest documentary, "Fahrenheit 911"? Was it because Disney, which bought Miramax more than a decade ago, has, as a stipulation in the contractual agreement with Miramax honchos Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the right to prevent the company from distributing films under certain circumstances, like an excessive budget or an NC-17 rating? Well, yes, but those aren't Disney's reasons. According to Ari Emanuel, Moore's agent, Michael Eisner expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor.

And as Michael Moore says, "Should this be happening in a free and open society where the monied interests essentially call the shots regarding the information that the public is allowed to see?"

The problem with that argument is that he assumes we live in a "free and open" society.

Tying the threads together

2004-05-05T09:34:00.000-05:00

I am assuming you are all aware of the Taguba report detailing the atrocities committed against prisoners by American troops in Abu Ghraib. And the pictures, for which Bush is going on Arab TV to address. And you may have also heard about the attacks on the prison by insurgents, killing many Iraqi prisoners.

Why would the insurgents attack the prison? Were they trying to kill the guards? No. They were trying to kill the prisoners. Why were they trying to kill the prisoners, who are, supposedly, insuregents themselves? Because they believe it is better for them to die than it is to suffer the humiliation, abuse, and torture. They aren't so much worried about the men.

They are worried about the women. And the children.

You read that right. Women and children are also being held at the prison and are also being abused, raped, and tortured by American troops, contractors, and Iraqi guards under their supervision. There are hundreds of pictures and video tapes as evidence.

At least, that's what I heard. By my friend's sister's teacher's mailman's dog's vet's brother who read it on the internet somewhere.

Watch the news in the next few weeks for this. If it comes out, assuming it is true, Fallujah is going to look like a carousel at an amusement park.

Oh...my...God

2004-05-04T07:38:00.000-05:00

This is frightening. The situation in Iraq is so fabulous right now and there is no shortage of troops, yet there is a proposal to start drafting women, and increase the draft age to 34.

Nice to see the major names in the Liberal Media are all over this, like the Toronto Star and the Arizona Daily Star.

(via Atrios)

Ha!

2004-04-30T10:05:00.000-05:00

The Onion is spot on, as usual.

I am so Effing depressed right now

2004-04-29T19:55:00.000-05:00

I like to consider myself an informed person. I like reading/watching/listening to news. I like knowing what's going on in the world.

I wish I was totally ignorant about it all right now.

With everything this damn administration is doing to this country....I have almost burst into tears at least a dozen times this past week.

I hate that I am starting to wish I lived in Canada.

I love America and living in America more than anything...yet I am starting to actually dislike it here. Not because of the country itself. Oh no. America is the single greatest country in the world. Yet America under George is worse than America was under that last George, who was eventually declared INSANE. Maybe this one will be also?

This man has single handedly begun the destruction of the homeland.

God Damn him.

Please?

AHHHHH!!!!

2004-04-29T16:30:00.000-05:00

How come, when over a million terrorists descend upon our nation's capitol, the Administration does nothing? Oh, well, I guess disguised hate speech from Hurricane Karen is a pretty good start. That seems to be the preferred method of attack when it comes to domestic terror fronts...

Yes.

2004-04-21T16:41:00.000-05:00

Awesome.

One thing that's funny, one thing that's not

2004-04-20T07:26:00.000-05:00

So I was listening to NPR this morning, and Bob Woodward was on, talking about his new book, Plan of Attack. He was asked about a discrepancy between something he wrote in his book and something the President said. In the book, Woodward reported that the President told him that on November 22, 2001, he started serious planning for the war on Iraq. Now, in March of 2002, the President is recorded in a speech saying there are NO war plans on his desk, and that the diplomatic process must be given a chance. So either Bush is LYING (which is obviously not possible at all), or we accept Woodward's take on the matter. He said that technically it was true, because he's never seen ANYTHING on the President's desk. It's always empty.

Does he ever actually do anything? He really is incompetent.

Now the thing that pissed me off. When asked how history would judge the Iraq war, Bush responded that it doesn't matter because we'd all be dead.

...

He doesn't care about the consequences of his actions at all. Same thing with the debt. He's only going to be in office for 2 terms (according to him) so as long as he pretends to care about the debt but doesn't actually do anything he won't be held accountable.

What a ho bag.

Ooooooooooooohhhhhh.....

2004-04-18T14:35:00.000-05:00

"We've got tough work there because, you see, there are terrorists there who would rather kill innocent people than allow for the advance of freedom," Bush said in a speech in El Dorado, Ark. "That's what you're seeing going on. These people hate freedom. And we love freedom. And that's where the clash occurs."

Ooooh. So THAT's what this is all about....
Doesn't that sound like a line from a sixth graders social studies report?

Source

One of my favorite holidays

2004-04-09T08:02:00.000-05:00

I'd like to take time away from politics to talk about something that is very important to me.

Easter.

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. If you haven't been to an Easter celebration, and I mean a real Easter celebration, you are missing one of the most glorious experiences a person can witness. Despite what many people think, it's not about candy. It's not about the Easter Bunny. Many people forget the real meaning of this, the most joyous of all holidays. Take a moment to go and read about the true meaning of Easter. It's a refreshing change of pace from the secular world we live in now.

God bless.

(Edit: okay I have to say this. Whipping the Easter Bunny is DAMN funny. They should have had someone dressed up as Jesus doing it though. That would have been even more funny ~ Matt)

Kerry-McCain 2004?

2004-04-03T15:41:00.000-05:00

Hmmm, what's this I read? That would be a verrrry interesting ticket indeed...

I love my state! LOL!

2004-04-01T19:39:00.000-05:00

(via Matthew Yglesias)

Only in FUCKING GODAMN Virginia could you be charged with a CRIME AGAINST NATURE for getting your vagina licked by a man.

Virginia is for LOVERS!*

So now a woman can't have her genitals pierced OR licked.

What's next? Touched? Or how about seen?

Gynocologists will be out of jobs

*virginia is only for lovers who consist of one man lying atop one woman and engaging in missionary style sex

Keeping Faith

2004-04-01T08:50:00.000-05:00

We watched a segment of Bill Moyers' NOW in class last night titled Power Politics: Media Ownership Caps in Congress. It's available at that link, and it's only fifteen minutes, so go watch it. I can wait.

...

Humorous response: Shit like that makes me want to go to the Capitol this weekend and punch Tom Delay in the face. That son of a bitch makes me feel physically ill.

Serious response: There are a powerful few that have complete control over even the people that are supposed to be our representatives in Congress. As one guy put it in class last night, there's no outright conspiracy, but self-serving actions in Congress also serve the powerful companies, so there doesn't need to be a conspiracy.

After watching something like that, I can't help but lose all hope that I can change anything. How do you keep faith that you can make a difference?

The O'Franken Factor

2004-03-31T15:16:00.000-05:00

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Al Franken.

There's a new liberal talk radio station, Air American Radio, and you can listen to it online or on the air if you live near New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Inland Empire CA, or Minneapolis. It's starting small, and hopefully <fingers crossed> it will one day match Rush Limbaugh's 600 stations </fingers crossed>. Listen, support, and drop them some $bling$ if you like what you hear.

Just when you thought the government couldn't invade your privacy any more than it already has

2004-03-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

this happens.

If I were a woman, I would go to Georgia and get a piercing in protest. But maybe not, since I might then go to jail for TWENTY YEARS.

(via Pandagon)

2004-03-25T10:11:00.000-05:00

Go Oregon County Go.

George W. Bush, of the literal mind

2004-03-23T15:08:00.000-05:00

President Bush said Tuesday he would have acted more quickly against al-Qaida if he had information before Sept. 11, 2001, that a terror attack against New York City was imminent.

Is it just me, or is that like telling your girlfriend you wouldn't have fucked her sister if you had known she was getting ready to walk into the bedroom?

Jimminy Cricket, where are you?!?

2004-03-17T00:53:00.000-05:00

OUCH.

You have to read it to believe it, folks. I wonder how these people can sleep at night.

That's News to Me

2004-03-16T14:02:00.000-05:00

Worth reading...

Let the games begin...

2004-03-14T19:06:00.000-05:00

The Bush team has unleashed the first attack ads against Kerry. Here's what MoveOn.org has to say about them:

Attack Ad: "100 DAYS"

Lie #1: John Kerry will raise taxes by $900 billion in his first 100 days.

The Truth: John Kerry has promised to lower taxes on working families, not raise them. He will repeal the Bush tax cut only for families earning $200,000 or more, simply returning those families' taxes to pre-Bush rates. He will close corporate tax loop holes. And he will provide additional tax cuts to working families to help with health care costs which have increased dramatically under Bush. Click here for more.

Lie #2: John Kerry wants to weaken the Patriot Act used to arrest terrorists and protect America.

The Truth: John Kerry wants to strengthen the parts of the Patriot Act that actually fight terrorism, such as intelligence information sharing. However, he believes there may be some parts of the Act that take away our freedom without providing any protection against terrorism, and that those parts should be reviewed. We need a president who knows that standing up for freedom means standing against terrorism. Click here for more.

Attack Ad: "FORWARD"

Lie: "We can continue to go forward to work to create new jobs...and decrease the cost of health care."

The Truth: America has lost 2.4 million jobs since the Bush recession began in March 2001. [Source: Economic Policy Institute] Bush has tried the same remedy for three years: massive tax cuts for the rich, and for three years that remedy has failed. Meanwhile, health care costs have increased by an average of $793 since Bush took office -- a stunning 49 percent increase -- according to a survey of Employer Health Benefits by the Kaiser Family Foundation. [www.kff.org]

What if?

2004-03-11T21:44:00.000-05:00

What if George Bush is reelected in November? What's the worst that could happen? Three words: Scalia Supreme Court.

What does the Religious Right need in the 2004 elections to achieve their political goals? President Bush needs to be re-elected, Republicans need to gain enough seats in the U.S. Senate to stop Democratic filibusters of Bush's extreme judicial nominations, and 2-4 justices need to retire from the U.S. Supreme Court. Then the president, with consent from a Republican-controlled Senate, could give the country a Scalia Supreme Court. At that point it's possible that the Religious Right could control all three branches of the United States government.

There's more of this at Rise of the Religious Right. It's one thing to be worried about radical Muslims setting off bombs around the country in an attempt to destabilize the government. It's another thing entirely to be worried about radical Christians destroying democracy from within the government itself. The latter is, insanely enough, more realistic than the former.

Kerry '04

2004-03-10T12:57:00.000-05:00

I guess it's all just about wrapped up at this point. Viva la Kerry! Kick Shrub out of the Oval Office this November.

Vote Bush: He'll Make Recess Longer and Homeroom Shorter

2004-03-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

First, let's all remember what George W. told us about four months after that tragic day in September of 2001: "I have no ambition whatsoever to use [9/11 or the war on terror] as a political issue."

Whew! Thank God! Seriously, that would be unconscionable*! But, since these words came out of the mouth of Mr. George W. Bush, we knew we had to take them with a grain of salt.

Remember the 2002 midterm elections? The one where Karl Rove urged Republicans to use 9/11 to their political advantage? That was the same election year that Republican donors who gave $150 to the party could receive, as a thank you gift, a picture of Bush conferring with Cheney over the phone on Air Force One just hours after the attack on the WTC and the Pentagon. Thank God someone had a camera and thought to snap that candid and completely unstaged** picture! Who would have thunk it would have come in handy to raise money for the Republican party***?

Oh yes. But let's talk about the Bush reelection campaign for just a minute. As you may be aware, Bush's aptly named "war chest" has about the equivalent of the combined GDP of several Latin American countries^. And his first barrage of television ads contains (surprise!) images from 9/11! They're also primarily targeting middle-schoolers, it seems. In 2000, when Bush was battling McCain for the Republican nomination, I remember seeing an advertisement on TV with an image of McCain in front of black skies and smoke stacks, saying, basically, "This man makes bad air for the environment", then a picture of George W. Bush in front of a beautiful blue sky with eagles soaring, and the voice over said something like "This man like environment." I mean, I only saw it once, but that was the basic vibe of the ads. Like they were talking to 6 year olds. I bet the letter R was written backwards on the original script at least once. So here we are, 4 years later, and apparently the Bush camp doesn't think America got any smarter since 2000^^. So watch the first television ads from a politician who is likely to spend more money on television ads this year than any other candidate in presidential history. God, just listen to these ads. Listen to the way he says "I know exactly where I want to lead this country; I know what we need to do to make the world more free and more peaceful." Doesn't it sound like he's in 7th grade, promising the student body that, if elected, he will make the cafeteria stop serving meatloaf on Fridays?

Thank God he's not using 9/11 to his political advantage.

The 2004 Republican National Convention, to be held in (gasp!) New York City just three days before the anniversary of (shock! awe!) September 11th, is in no way a political stunt.

Let's hope Americans can see through this shit^^^.

*As in, "It's a slap in the face of the murders of 3,000 people. It is unconscionable." Monica Gabrielle, whose husband died on 9/11, said this about the Bush ads.
**It is the opinion of this author that there are no candid and/or unstaged pictures of the President. Everything is a photo-op. Karl Rove made sure of it.
***Karl Rove
^I made that up. Don't quote me on that. Unless someone wants to look into it, because it may in fact be true.
^^God, I hope they're wrong...
^^^Seriously.

The Law of God

2004-03-04T13:43:00.000-05:00

The Presidential Prayer Team is currently urging us to "Pray for the President as he seeks wisdom on how to legally codify the definition of marriage. Pray that it will be according to Biblical principles. With many forces insisting on variant definitions of marriage, pray that God's Word and His standards will be honored by our government."

Any good religious person believes prayer should be balanced by action. So here, in support of the Prayer Team's admirable goals, is a proposed Constitutional Amendment codifying marriage entirely on biblical principles:

A. Marriage in the United States shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women (Genesis 29:17-28; II Samuel 3:2-5).

B. Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives (II Samuel 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chronicles 11:21).

C. A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deuteronomy 22:13-21).

D. Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden (Genesis 24:3; Numbers 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Nehemiah 10:30).

E. Since marriage is for life, neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any State, nor any state or federal law, shall be construed to permit divorce (Deuteronomy 22:19; Mark 10:9).

F. If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother's widow or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law (Genesis 38:6-10; Deuteronomy 25:5-10).

G. In lieu of marriage, if there are no acceptable men in your town, it is required that you get your father drunk and have sex with him (even if he previously offered you up as a sex toy to men young and old), tag-teaming with any sisters you may have. Of course, this rule applies only if you are female (Genesis 19:31-36).

If you have other Biblical injunctions to add to this list, please share them with the Presidential Prayer Team.

Bush/Cheney '04 Slogans

2004-02-25T14:25:00.000-05:00

I saw this on a few websites, and I decided to try my hand at a few slogans. Feel free to contribute your own.

- Who needs a booming economy when we have less personal freedom?
- Providing the terrorists with a reason to get up in the morning.
- Because it takes strong moral leadership to rid this country of the homos.
- I don't see YOU capturing Saddam.
- Because rich people deserve better.
- Aren't you a little sick of that uniter bullshit too?
- It takes a wartime president to create the nuclear winter necessary for Hell to freeze over.

My favorite that I saw on another site was "Why switch horsemen mid-Apocalype?"

2004-02-25T13:18:00.000-05:00

Cost of the Iraq War

it makes me sad.....

Bush Is A Uniter

2004-02-24T13:28:00.000-05:00

Bush has finally lived up to his campaign promise of being a "uniter, not a divider." Today, he united me and, of all people, Andrew Sullivan, who I quote below:

This president wants our families denied civil protection and civil acknowledgment. He wants us stigmatized not just by a law, not just by his inability even to call us by name, not by his minions on the religious right. He wants us stigmatized in the very founding document of America. There can be no more profound attack on a minority in the United States - or on the promise of freedom that America represents.

I didn't think it'd get worse than it has been over the past three years, but now I am more embarassed than ever that George Bush represents this country to the world.

Quit playing games with my heart, George W.

2004-02-22T16:27:00.000-05:00

Dang it.
You know, there I go, like a fool, believing Bush when he tells us that there is no such thing as global warming, and then I have to go and read something like this.

It's always worse when you have to hear it from someone else.

Thank you, Guardian.

Sweet.

2004-02-21T12:22:00.000-05:00

Predictable.

My favorite part of that article?

The special forces are "absolutely confident" there is no escape for bin Laden, and are awaiting the order to go in and get him.

"The timing of that order will ultimately depend on President Bush," the paper says. "Capturing bin Laden will certainly be a huge help for him as he gets ready for the election."

At least everyone knows it.

Out of Curiosity...

2004-02-20T08:11:00.000-05:00

Has anyone seen ANYTHING in the news about the space program or steroid use or, for that matter, ANY of the issues Bush talked about in his State of the Union speech, in the past month and a half? You'd think we'd hear at least something, a blurb in the news, anything. Unless, of course, those were all just diversions from the real problems facing the Bush administration. I highly doubt that, though. I have too much faith in Bush's ability to run our country well. Why would he have to lie just to divert the nation's attention away from a crippled economy and a botched war? I see him as the type who would take responsibility for their actions.

Wait, who's going to win?

2004-02-17T23:08:00.000-05:00

I know they had a bunch of exit polls and whatnot, but was anyone watching CNN when they projected Kerry as the winner?

Edwards was winning.

Weird.

Bring It On

2004-02-17T22:33:00.000-05:00

Hey, John Kerry:

If you're going to run off of a 'Bring It On' platform, I think it's just common courtesy to have your campaign feature a squad of multi-ethnic cheerleaders dressed as different aspects of your campaign. Go universal health care! Go less dependence on oil-bearing nations! Ad infinitum. I mean really, whatever happened to basic politeness? Moreover, whatever happened to predictability? The milkman? The paper boy? And evening TV?

It's not 100% about sex anymore

2004-02-17T16:20:00.000-05:00

It's 0% about sex, since it never happened. So good of Fox News to go right with the story with no evidence other than Drudge's claims. We should look into Larry Flynt's claims though, given his track record in the late 90s. So should we ban all abortions, or just abortions for the non-wealthy?

Also, way to go Virginia. Anyone else as surprised as I am? I mean, we're talking about Virginia here.

The Moral Right

2004-02-13T23:18:00.000-05:00

You remember that thing with President Clinton, where he had borderline sexual relations with that intern, whats-her-name? Remember that the reason it was so important was because he lied to the American people while under oath and lied to a grand jury and abused his power as President and how it really wasn't about sex?

With John Kerry, it's 100% about sex.

(I got that link stright from Counterspin, and I'll understand if you won't be able to stomach reading it for the whole thing. It took me a couple sittings. It's worth it for the poorly photoshopped pictures, though. Classy.)

Let the Attacks Begin

2004-02-13T22:35:00.000-05:00

now

Separate But Equal is Always Unequal

2004-02-13T20:11:00.000-05:00

There is no such thing as terminologically separate, but realistically equal. There never has been. It didn't work with school systems or public transportation or even water fountains. It will not work with marriages either. The phrase 'civil union' is little more than linguistic camouflage for "fearful and prejudice." It's a way to decorate homophobia in such a way that even its victims feel triumphant. At least civil unions aren't constitutional bans. There is some gain. What I fear most is that we will get civil unions. A total ban on gay marriage is at least honest and open. It gives opponents a direct and visible reason to keep fighting whereas a pseudo-equal law may very well bury the issue for years to come while giving right-wingers the "look what we gave you, don't be greedy" attitude. More than the issue of civil unions, my overarching problem with conservatism specifically is guise of reason barely veiling subcutaneous lies. Civil unions make hiding discrimination easy. For the same reason that No Child Left Behind makes hiding underfunded schools, provisionally-licensed teachers, gender and race gaps in education, and using testing as the sole measure of a student's capacity easy. Also the same reason that paying small tribute to women business owners in masks no funding for women's health, pre-natal care, welfare programs for young mothers, battered women's shelthers, sexual education programs, distribution of contraceptives, day care programs, ad infinitum. It's not the vote against gay marriage or education or women's rights. It's the 'tide-them-over' bone the Bush administration throws and America runs to get. As long as we're tided over, nobody is going to be equal. No matter who you are.

Good articles:
here
and
here

Kerry's Friends

2004-02-12T22:43:00.000-05:00

Fellow New Jerseyan Ralph Brandi writes about the slimy bastard known as Bob Torricelli, his funding of a vitriolic anti-Dean organization, and his fundraising efforts for John Kerry.

His conclusion at the end--"I'll hold my nose and vote for him in November if it comes to it. But that's all I'll do"--is exactly how I feel. I just can't imagine getting myself psyched up for a Kerry administration.

I Do(n't)

2004-02-12T18:01:00.000-05:00

The topic of gay marriage has been on my mind a lot lately and I'm starting to get really angry and worked up about it. There's been a lot of activity in Massachusetts lately, as well the recent marriage of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin in San Francisco that makes me wonder what exactly these conservative groups are trying to protect the institution of marriage from. Phyllis and Del have been together for something like 50 years, living in delicious decadence and sin. 50 fuckin' years. How many divorced straight couples do you know personally? If the point of this proposed constitutional amendment is to protect the institution of marriage, couldn't there be a better place to start? And why wouldn't conservatives approve of a queer couple deciding to make the commitment to spend the rest of their lives together? If homosexuality is so bad, wouldn't banning gay marriage promote that sinful homo promiscuity that seems to be threatening the collapse of Western Civilization?

Coming soon: a rant on marriage, government, and why the two together violate the separation of church and state.

Booyah!

Vote

2004-02-11T18:23:00.000-05:00

I was going to write yesterday about Virginia having an open primary that any Virginia voter could vote in, regardless of party affiliation, and then remind everyone to vote. But then I worked 16 hours instead.

Note that Al Sharpton got more votes in VA than my boy Kucinich. Well, at least he got more votes than Lieberman and Gephardt, who still have Virginia supporters who either haven't been paying attention to national news or thought they were voting on a butterfly ballot when they weren't. I can't really blame the Lieberman/Gephardt voters though, since I voted for a guy named Dennis.

I'm gonna miss you, Wesley Clark. I liked you better than Ike. Hopefully the Democratic Administration will make him a cabinet member or something.

Hey, check out those pigs in the sky!

2004-02-10T22:01:00.000-05:00

Holy shit!

I'd write more, but the article says it all pretty nicely. Bill O'Reilly, one of the nation's biggest Bush defenders, says Bush was wrong and he feels deceived. Who'd of thunk it? This CAN'T be good for W. in November.

How Surprising

2004-02-09T17:22:00.000-05:00

Speaking of Conservative Disillusionment, a friend of mine has become so disillusioned with Everyone's Favorite President™ that he won't campaign at all for Bush, and what's more, he doesn't care who wins the election in November.

This is significant because:
1. He's the most conservative person I know
2. He's been politically active since Elementary School
3. He is the head of the Republican Party where I live, and former head of the Republican Party in a neighboring locality

If HE doesn't care who wins, that bodes extremely well for whoever wins the Democratic Party nod.

Thought Experiment

2004-02-06T20:17:00.000-05:00

The Governor of Ohio 'defends' marriage. Here are a few excerpts with one or two words replaced.

Ohio Gov. Bob Taft approved one of the country's most-far reaching mixed-marriage bans on Friday, saying its adoption was urgent because the nation's first legally sanctioned mixed-color weddings could take place as early as this spring in Massachusetts.

...

"It is necessary for us to act now to safeguard Ohio's marriage laws," Taft said. "Ohio could have differently colored couples who were 'married' in Massachusetts taking legal action in Ohio to recognize that marriage and to obtain the resulting benefits."

...

Taft, a Republican, denied assertions that the law promotes intolerance. He said the new law would send a strong positive message to children and families.

"Marriage is an essential building block of our society, an institution we must reaffirm," he said.

Separate-but-equal is dead as a legal basis in this country since 1954. Civil unions are not the answer. 200 years ago, the above (slightly-modified) excerpt might have been carried by a newspaper. 200 years from now, maybe people will realize how ridiculous the original text is.

The Ten Commandments Judge

2004-02-06T18:11:00.000-05:00

It's kinda funny that just yesterday I mentioned Roy Moore, the Ten Commandments Judge, when today I'd find out that he's the keynote speaker at a function ON MY CAMPUS. Right now. As I type this. I just found out about half an hour ago.

I would have went to see him, but look at the prices!

UPDATE:
Will Roy Moore run for President? I sure hope so.

Response to Matt

2004-02-05T23:39:00.000-05:00

The comments feature seems to be down at the moment, so I hope the rest of you don't find it too wildly innappropriate for me to reply here. As soon as it's back up I'll remove this and put it in the comment section, where it belongs, but I just wanted to get it out while I had it written down:

Funny. Your brother is getting married the same day as another set of friends, as I'm sure you know.

But excellent post, Matt. I feel like gay marriage is our generation's "blacks can't sit at the counter". Seperate but equal my ass. I agree that civil unions won't cut it. We have a responsibility to ensure that all Americans get equal rights. Me personally, I've pledged to not get married until all Americans have the right to.

In addition, how can someone intelligently argue that the USA is a Christian country? Have you heard this? I heard it a lot with Roy Whats-his-name, the "10 Commandments Judge" who wouldn't remove his ten commandments statue from his courthouse. These same people decry the religious fundamentalists that ran Afghanistan with absolutely no sense of irony. The US of A will never cease to boggle me.

Marriage is not a sacred institution

2004-02-05T23:01:00.000-05:00

Massachusetts will be the first state to allow two men or two women to marry.

Yet Bush finds this troubling, and reiterated that “Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman.”

What the hell? Okay, first off, regarding marriage as a “sacred institution”, specifically the “sacred” part. That implies religious connections. And indeed, there are marriages that happen affiliated with religious institutions. The problem I have is that there are also NON RELIGIOUS marriages, SANCTIONED and PERFORMED by the GOVERNMENT, or just by random joe shmo with a license. We’re talking Justices of the Peace and bloody ELVIS IMPERSONATORS. I’m sorry, no one can say that marriage is a sacred anything anymore, after Britney Spears’ shotgun wedding. If that hasn’t showed that marriage isn’t sacred, I don’t know what will.

And also the idea that two people who share a gender getting married will undermine the institution of marriage is just bogus. I think the past few generations have done a fine job of undermining the institution, what with HALF of marriages ending in divorce. HALF. So if two people you know get married (and not to each other), chances are one of them will get divorced.

But that will be taken care of, as Bush is spending 1.5 billion dollars on a campaign to advertise marriage. What was that part in the State of the Union about frivolous spending?

I can see it know: “Marriage. It’s what’s for dinner.”

Don't Do It!!!!

2004-02-05T21:44:00.000-05:00

I just got this email:

Dear Nader 2000 list subscriber,

I am considering whether or not to run for President in 2004, and because of your past support, you are invited to keep up to date and provide input about any potential run this year.

I intend to decide soon. Please take a minute right now to sign up at my exploratory committee’s website at the following link: http://www.naderexplore04.org/.

I hope you remain interested and personally involved in our country’s elections at all levels. Thank you for your support in 2000.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

Nooooo! Don't do it, Ralph! I loved you to death in 2000, but I don't want anyone to blame you again if you take votes away from the Democrats!

For the record, I don't blame Nader for what happened in 2000. That's the easy way out. I blame Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush for purging hundreds of blacks from the voting record before the election. I blame Dade county for using an illegal butterfly ballot. I blame Al Gore, the Vice President of the United State of America for 8 prosperous years leading up to the election, for not being able to defeat a guy who ran a failing oil business and a failing baseball team before getting himself elected governor based on having the same name as a former president, and then acted like a total idiot during the election. I blame the Democrats for kowtowing to corporate interests. I blame Clinton for passing NAFTA and doing a ton of other things Repulican that I can't think of off the top of my head that made me want to vote third party in the first place. I blame Leiberman for being the running mate. I blame Karl Rove because I just hate him in general. I do NOT blame Nader.

But that doesn't mean I want to see him run again.

I'll vote third party again I'm sure, but not as long as Bush is in office.

Frivolous Lawsuits

2004-02-05T16:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, this is ridiculous. America's judicial system has got to be the mockery of the world's law enforcement societies. Anybody can come up with any asinine claim to money, and then tie up the court system with it. I'm not arguing against this, because I appreciate the right to sue when you have been wronged, I'm putting more of the blame on the horribly greedy American public. Seriously. You can't wring money out of everyone. Stop trying.

um

2004-02-04T23:33:00.000-05:00

since deans chances aren't looking so hot

what do you guys think of kerry and/or edwards?

Praise Yahweh!

2004-02-03T22:56:00.000-05:00

Lieberman's out. We can all breath a collective sigh of relief that the Democrat elected to office in November will actually be a Democrat.

Probe yourself

2004-02-03T22:35:00.000-05:00

Bush should launch a probe into why he pressured the intelligence community to support his idea that Iraq had weapons instead of why the intelligence "failed". It failed because you told them to tell you what you wanted to believe, Mr. President.

As someone who has worked in the intelligence community, I can vouch for its awesomeness. For a long time the intelligence community was very hesitant to say anything about there being WMD because there was little to no evidence. If there was evidence, we would have found it. After intense pressure by the administration, members of the intelligence community did everything they could to show there were things to be found in Iraq. We showed the UN Weapon Inspectors (Hans Blix, remember him? Speaking of which, how does Bush come off saying that Saddam would not "let us in" when there were bloody weapons inspectors in Iraq until the day before the war? Isn't that a lie? But then again, he also said "We found the weapons of mass destruction, we found biological laboratories," which turned out to not be the case) where to look based on our intelligence, and there was absolutely nothing. There were no WMDs in Iraq. And yet we go after them instead of countires like Korea, who we DO know have them and who we do know can reach us with them. This absurdity is pointed out nicely by our very own Doug.

So why did we go in to Iraq? Well, if you believe this characterization of Bush, it's because he's a psychopath and he wants to show daddy that he is good at something other than drinking.

But I'm no psychiatrist.

(edited for link)

Speaking of Cheney...

2004-02-02T22:51:00.000-05:00

His former company is doing some awesome things for the Iraqi people and the US government!

Bush just sent his budget to Congress, with a record $521 billion debt. Note that that is NOT INCLUDING the estimated $50 billion in wartime supplemental funding Bush is going to ask for, but not until after the elections. That's real shady.

Oh, and he does admit he was wrong about pre war intelligence, but without actually admitting it, and not doing that until after the election either, if ever.

And coming soon, an analysis of why I think, and have always thought, that the Electoral College is dumb.

Republican Rumor Mill

2004-02-02T14:50:00.000-05:00

About a week ago Matt wrote about Bush dropping Cheney and picking up Giuliani as a running mate in 2004. Well, apparently the intellectual conservatives want him to pick up McCain. This should be interesting.

A lighthearted romp

2004-02-02T12:03:00.000-05:00

I know we're trying to reserve this site for somewhat serious liberal political thought, but I thought this site pretty much summed up my feelings on Bush.

News Quiz

2004-02-01T22:36:00.000-05:00

CBS does not feel comfortable airing which of the following:
a. A commercial featuring some of the kids sued by the RIAA
b. A commercial questioning the wisdom of a US$1 trillion national debt
c. Janet Jackson's right boob

RIP Satire

2004-02-01T18:06:00.000-05:00

Both Bush and Blair have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Why? For "having dared to take the necessary decision to launch a war on Iraq without having the support of the UN."

...

huh?

The Boycott Is On

2004-02-01T13:48:00.000-05:00

CBS still refuses to air MoveOn.org's spot about the Bush deficit. As such, there will be two one-minute boycotts of the Super Bowl: one at 8:10 and one at 8:35. Flip to CNN at those times to catch the commercial. And let MoveOn know if you'll be joining the boycott.

Death Becomes Him

2004-01-31T19:54:00.000-05:00

It's a shame to me that, as shallow as it is...and it is indeed shallow, I want to support Howard Dean over John Kerry simply because Dean looks like a healthy human being:

see here

whereas John Kerry looks like he's been resurrected from some sort of horrific horse-zombie induced death:

see and morph here

As you can see from this picture, John Kerry is clearly soulless whereas the shocking underdog Al Sharpton appears to have the largest soul quotient of the bunch, and note, when I say "soul quotient," I do mean that in an entirely ethnic way. Soul or no soul, old dead-eye Kerry is wrasslin' up support left and right, but mostly left; however, I'm not sure that the truly penetrating questions have been asked. What about Presidential package? Can the American public truly leave it up to Hell's minions "Sex in the City" for the answers to life's most pressing questions? Instead of electability, I contend that we should focus more on erectability. There's been all this talk of getting "the female vote," (as if women should be allowed to vote in the first place...please...women voters...let me just park my space ship so we can discuss this further), but nobody has mentioned what really counts.

Also of note, I liked this picture sheerly because it combined shrewd criticism with ballet.

CBS = conservative broadcasting system

2004-01-31T19:21:00.000-05:00

Senator Durbin (D-IL) gives an excellent speech from the floor of the Senate regarding CBS's censorship of the MoveOn.org Super Bowl ad.

Kerry's Contraband cookies

2004-01-31T19:01:00.000-05:00

Okay, this is a little weird. I read this at Counterspin, but the story is from The Hill. Apparently, some guy is claiming that in the late 70's/early 80's, John Kerry stole his cookie franchise idea. If this is a Republican smear tactic, I hope this is the best they got. I'd really like to see them try to build some serious controversy over Kerry's cookie store dealings in the early 80's.

"Some guy who called me up was John Kerry, in ’79 or ’80,” [David] Liederman recalled. “He said he wanted to come down and talk to me about franchising. He came to the office and said he had an incredible space in Boston, which was Faneuil Hall. He said he needed some plans and some layouts and all sorts of things to get the approval of the landlord.”

“So I gave him the layout, the package, and he went back and I didn’t hear from him for six or seven months.”

Then one day Liederman got a call from someone who said they’d seen one of his stores in Faneuil Hall. Not having a store in Boston, Liederman decided to have a look for himself.

“It was a direct, 100-percent knock off of David’s Cookies,” said Liederman, from the appliances to the shop’s design to the cookies themselves. “If you had walked into a David’s Cookie’s store in Manhattan at the same time he opened ‘John’s Cookies’ in Boston, you couldn’t tell the difference.”

In his 1989 autobiography* “Running Through Walls,” where the charge first appeared, Liederman wrote that he challenged Kerry on the origin of his business. “I told him he had stolen my idea, and he replied: ‘You’re absolutely right. I am a politician; I shouldn’t be in the cookie business, so let me sell you my store,’” Liederman wrote.

Kerry, of course. denies it. And, like any good Republican smear campaign, the story ends with a glowing endorsement for Bush:

"I’d support anybody that wasn’t Bush,” he said. “If Kerry got the nomination, I’d absolutely support him — although Bush never stole David’s Cookies from me.”

HA! Take that, Bush! Seriously though, I can see where he's coming from on this one. If the Democratic candidate had eaten my first born child before my very eyes, I'd still vote for him over Bush.

* This cookie guy wrote an autobiography? Seriously? Wow.

Hallelujah!

2004-01-31T02:30:00.000-05:00

Via Daily Kos:

Bush Job Approval Ratings

Overall
Approve: 47
Disapprove: 47

Economy
Approve: 42
Disapprove: 54

It's about time America started getting smart.

Why I Love George W. Bush

2004-01-30T22:42:00.000-05:00

I love George W. Bush because he is our President and he is a good man. He's knows I don't like to think about things too hard because I have more important things to do like watch TV. That's why I'm glad he makes things simple to understand.

Like when he says "There is no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a gathering threat to America and others. That's what we know. We know from years of intelligence -- not only our own intelligence services, but other intelligence gathering organizations -- that he had weapons -- after all, he used them. He had deep hatred in his heart for people who love freedom. We know he was a dangerous man in a dangerous part of the world. We know that he defied the United Nations year after year after year. And given the events of September the 11th, we know we could not trust the good intentions of Saddam Hussein, because he didn't have any."

Thanks George! You're good, Saddam is bad. Because I not think so smart, I also keep forgetting that Saddam Hussein was the bad man who did September 11th, but thank George Bush because he keeps reminding me that he did!

Then President Bush says:
"I was hoping the United Nations would enforce its resolutions, one of many. And then we went to the United Nations, of course, and got an overwhelming resolution -- 1441 -- unanimous resolution, that said to Saddam, you must disclose and destroy your weapons programs, which obviously meant the world felt he had such programs. He chose defiance. It was his choice to make, and he did not let us in."

I think I remember a guy named Hans Blix when I think really hard, but I'm not smart like George, so I guess I must be wrong. Probably thinking of someone else. Doesn't he play for the NY Rangers?

"I said in the run-up that Saddam was a grave and gathering danger, that's what I said. And I believed it then, and I know it was true now. And as Mr. Kay said, that Iraq was a dangerous place. And given the circumstances of September the 11th, given the fact that we're vulnerable to attack, this nation had to act for our security."

Ooop! There I go, dumb ol' me, forgetting that Saddam was the bad man who did September 11th! Good thing the President says things again and again and again, because I keep forgetting. He also says "grave and gathering danger" a couple other times, but it's almost time for my TV shows so I didn't write them all. If you want to see more, go here.

Hey, I'm from the North East!

2004-01-29T20:52:00.000-05:00

What the Bush camp is saying:

But the line of attack is the same: Whether Dean or Kerry, the Democrats' nominee would be a left-leaning New Englander who wants to "raise taxes" and reverse course on Iraq, campaign officials and Bush advisers say.
"This week's front-runner is very much like the front-runner of two weeks ago: a Northeast liberal who motivates his support based on anger and negativity," said Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt.

I hear this again and again and I never understood this logic. Dean can't win because he's from the Northeast. Kerry can't win because he's from the Northeast. Edwards lists being from the South to his credit. What is it about being from the North East that suddenly makes you unelectable? Haven't these people seen Deliverance? I'm writing this right now from my home in New York and let me tell you, I've seen the conservatives up here and if anyone seems out of touch, it's these people.

Valet parking. The Penthouse Suite. That's all I got to say about them.

The Hunt for Red Osama

2004-01-29T09:40:00.000-05:00

All the pieces are in place. Bush is doing poorly in the polls. His State of the Union speech got lower ratings than The Simple Life reruns. Voters have turned out in record numbers at the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary looking to nominate a president who can beat Bush. People are starting to talk/reports are starting to be written about how there were no WMD's in Iraq. What's a struggling president to do?

Try to find Osama bin Laden again. Nothing unites this country more than our hatred for those who hate freedom.

If finding terrorist leaders leads to higher polls, it's got to be worth a shot, right?

Trippi Resigns

2004-01-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

Joe Trippi has resigned as Dean's campaign manager. I haven't read any media coverage of this, and I honestly don't know what to make of it. Dr. Dean's statement that "this campaign is a marathon not a sprint" makes me wonder what's gone on behind the scenes in the past 24 hours.

My first impression of this move is that Dean's trying to pull a Kerry: Kerry fired his staff and came back to win Iowa and New Hampshire. Frankly, change for change's sake worries me, as Trippi's done an enormous amount of work building this campaign. Fortunately, though, that which he built can't crumble now that he's gone: it's self-sustaining at this point.

Anyone have any information on this Roy Neel guy? Other thoughts?

Still No Justification for the Iraq War

2004-01-28T10:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, George Bush was asked twice about the lack of any Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, and twice failed to answer the question [via Joe Conason's Journal]. In both answers, he cited humanitarian reasons as the new justification for the war.

A new report by Human Rights Watch asserts that "the invasion of Iraq failed to meet the test for a humanitarian intervention." The report by Ken Roth is another damning blow to any case for war in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was not an imminent threat to the United States, and he was not an imminent threat to the people of Iraq.

NH Primary Wrap-Up

2004-01-27T22:53:00.000-05:00

The New Hampshire primary is over. Kerry, the media favorite at this point, came out on top, but by much less than he expected. Dean pulled a solid second place. Edwards and Clark were neck-and-neck, but Clark was concentrating specifically on NH, so this is not a good sign for his campaign. Lieberman ought to get the hell out.

My take on this is that, with these results, Dean can still pull it off, ESPECIALLY since he has the money at this point, whereas Kerry is practically broke. Edwards will be the second choice once Kerry runs out of steam sometime in the next week or so. However, Kerry might win over the Gephardt crowd, and he might regain his momentum. Who knows? I'm sick of hearing predictions anyway, I don't know why I just tried to make one.

I'm still pro-Dean.

Rumor Mongering and Fantastic News!

2004-01-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

Word on the streets is that Bush will drop Cheney and possibly pick up Giuliani.

Cheney being gone is a good thing. But if Giuliani is Bush's running mate...wow. That is a very smart political move. That will definitely make Bush seem less of a right wing whore and more of a moderate conservative who cares about the people. Course, if they win, that means Giuliani will likely run for President in 2008, and I personally wouldn't mind seeing him win.

Hmmm....a 2008 Hilary vs Rudy. That will be something. Assuming she runs. (which she will)

At least Cheney can go back to the millions he'll be getting from Haliburton.

Part of the "Patriot" Act has been ruled unconstitutional. Hallelujah!!!

Too bad it's not the part that allows the government to take people away forever without access to a lawyer and without being charged. It's funny. I thought we lived in America. You know, land of the free?

Hello

2004-01-26T22:22:00.000-05:00

First post. No content.

The Vietnam War

2004-01-24T11:27:00.000-05:00

I, for one, can't wait for the 2020 elections. I know, that's a funny thing to look forward to. However, if I've done my math right, that will be the first election where the issue of where the candidate was during the Vietnam War will actually not be an issue. For the past, well my entire life, a big campaign question that is tossed around is where the candidate was during that late 60's-early 70's time period. I assume this is because, for the generation above us, this was such a big deal. However, honestly, I don't care. That war didn't really affect me, and it doesn't bother me all that much if so-and-so fought in the war and won a medal and so-and-so got a medical draft deferment for a slipped disc and so-and-so skipped the war to sell cotton candy in France. I don't feel that that's an issue that should affect us this year, when there are so many other bad things going on that could be talked about. The media just loves this point to harp on, though.

Yes, I know, my boy Dean is the one being attacked for this, so it bothers me a little more this time around. But for bush to criticize him for this is hypocritical, and for the war veteran Democrats to bring it up, well, that's cheap. Because he skipped a war thirty years ago, he's not LESS likely to be a good president now. Just get over it, and debate his talking points and his message, not his past.

yeargh!

2004-01-23T15:11:00.000-05:00

I kept hearing about it, but I didn't actually see it until now. So, what's the big deal, again? I thought it was a pretty good way to keep up the fight.

Good Vibrations with the Democrats and other thoughts

2004-01-23T13:00:00.000-05:00

I'm feeling good vibes with the Democrats, especially after the latest debate, where they remember that what the people really want is someone who can beat the Shrub*. That's a message that can really resonate with the electorate. And the fact that that this has the potential to be a very close race come Super Tuesday makes me even more excited, since it will invigorate the voters and get them more aware of and involved with the process, and hopefully get them to open their wallets a bit to help the Democratic nominee fight Bush's war chest.

After McCain lost to Bush in the 2000 primaries, it seemed like Bush had lukewarm support from the McCain supporters. In the Democrat camp, it seemed like Gore had the same lukewarm support. My opinion on this is definitely coloered by the fact that I was a Green Party activist at the time and a hard core Nader supporter, but I didn't really see anyone around me getting too worked up about either of these guys. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe you were a hardcore Gore fan. I don't know. Since I've been cursed with the unfortunate inability to predict the future, I really didn't think a Bush presidency or Gore presidency would be much different. OHHHH GOOD GOD how wrong I was. I, along with countless other conservatives and liberals alike, really bought the moderate picture Bush had painted of himself during the campaign. I also couldn't predict that terrorist attack that happened mid-September 2001 (the exact date is slipping my mind at the moment). Since then, it seems like Republicans just rally around Bush and worship the ground he walks on. Do you know what I mean? Do you get that feeling too? That man can do no wrong**. It's like he's the greatest thing since Ronald Reagan, and I want the Democratic nominee to have that same broad support from the Democrats. Howard Dean has done an amazing job in getting the Democratic hopefuls to let their balls drop a bit and take a serious stand against the President, and I think the Democrat party is stronger thanks to him. Otherwise, I fear that Joe "Republican" Lieberman would have won the party's nomination and we would have seen Election 2000 Part II, but without the benefit of a close race (and the Democratic win). Unfortunately, I don't feel like Howard Dean will be that kind of Democratic nominee. I'm not sure the party would rally behind him. Kerry and Clark both give me the impression that they could get broad party support and win swing voters, while Edwards, well, I don't know a single thing about him, and I'm waiting to see how he does in the Granite State** before I look into him a little more. But I don't forsee a strong united front behind Howard Dean, even though I personally think he'd make a fine President. Me, I'll be voting for Kucinich because I'm ridiculously idealistic, and then I'll be throwing my support and $$ wholeheartedly behind whoever it is the Democrats pick to be the next President. As long as it's not Joe the Republican (see above).

And thus ends my $.02

*doesn't that sound Dirty? With a capital "D"?
**Remember when Republicans were all about things like fiscal responsibility and were always criticizing those "tax and spend" liberals? Sure Bush is a "don't tax but still spend" conservative, but, aw, who cares! He likes to talk about domestic security! He's going to take us to Mars!
***LAME State Nickname Alert!