Keeping a jaundiced eye on the corporate media.
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
GLOATING
From Billmon:
President Bush on Wednesday rejected international condemnation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and said world leaders owed him a “thank you” for his plans for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank … In “my judgment, the whole world should have said, ‘Thank you, Ariel. Now we have a chance to begin the [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
RATS, SHIP, SINKING
Even Bruce Bartlett thinks Bush is an incompetent moron:
In short, President Bush often seems to operate like the character from “Alice in Wonderland” who declared, “Sentence first — verdict afterwards.” Instead of figuring out why and how things should be done before acting, the White House seems to act first and then create [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
SETTING THE SIGHTS
Ted Koppel speaks on the future of TV journalism:
All too often, we delude ourselves into believing that by simply focusing a live camera on an event, and dropping in the occasional ad lib, we are committing journalism. We’re not. Journalism requires context and prioritizing. It entails separating the wheat from the chaff. What [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
SOMETHING CAUGHT IN THE WRINGER
More on Diebold’s electronic voting machines:
It is an uncommon day when the nation’s second-largest provider of voting systems concedes that its flagship products in California have significant security flaws and that it supplied hundreds of poorly designed electronic-voting devices that disenfranchised voters in the March presidential primary.
Diebold Election Systems Inc. [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
ROGER THAT
Roger Ailes has so much good stuff today, it’s hard to pick one. So we’ll start with Nooners:
[Bush] reminds me of a man I know who was imprisoned in Vietnam. We went to lunch in a place with short candles on the table. I was asking about the Hanoi Hilton. A waiter walked by [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
BECAUSE HE CAN
TBOGG mopping up The Corner:
As you can see here, The Corner has now hired Jonah Goldberg’s dog, Cosmo, as a contributor, which has not only raised the level of discourse, but now The Corner can proudly say that it has two contributors capable of licking their own dicks.
They won’t say who the other [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
COPY CATTING
Sometimes imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. The Democrats have learned a thing or two about 527s from the Republicons.
The Media Fund and Americans Coming Together — which back Democratic candidates — “collect $34 million in first-quarter 2004, dwarfing Republican-allied counterparts,” the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire reports. “A Bush adviser predicts [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
LET’S PLAY ‘ANALOGY!’
Boo fucking hoo.
A U.S. policy shift that may allow former Baathists join a new Iraqi government was akin to putting back Nazis in charge of Germany, Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi said on Friday.
Or like letting Republicans serve in the first Kerry term?
UPDATE: From Billmon - we did let former Nazis rebuild Germany.
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
DEMOCRACY-ESQUE
“We didn’t really mean an actual democracy in Iraq. A kind of democracy lite, as it were. Democracy-esque.”
The Bush administration’s plans for a new caretaker government in Iraq would place severe limits on its sovereignty, including only partial command over its armed forces and no authority to enact new laws, administration officials said Thursday.
These restrictions [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID
The problem with Democrats is our tendency to get bogged down in details, to want to talk about the facts.
Screw that. The only appropriate response to these attempts to attack Kerry’s service record goes like this: At least he has a service record to attack. We’re still trying to find anyone who [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
ARTISTS AGAINST THE ARTFUL
Here’s a great idea: It’s called “Designs on the White House,” and they’re sponsoring a contest. Get busy!
* WHO: Designs on the White House, a grassroots fund-raising organization in support of the John Kerry 2004 Presidential campaign.
* WHAT: An online design contest, judged by designers, celebrities, and activists. Winning designs will be [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
SECOND-HAND SMOKING
I love bars, especially dive bars. But I don’t go to them anymore. It’s the smoke. I can sit there for a while, but within a half-hour or so, my ears start watering uncontrollably. It doesn’t take long before my right Eustachian tube swells up from the irritation and I can’t hear out of [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
THEY GIVE A PENNY WITH ONE HAND AND TAKE A DOLLAR WITH THE OTHER
A new report details how the the tax burden has been shifted off the rich and onto everyone else:
* For fiscal years 2002-2004, state governments filled approximately $200 billion in budget gaps by raising state taxes and fees and by cutting services. [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
THE SPOILS OF WAR
Krugman:
Cronyism and corruption are major factors in Iraq’s downward spiral. This week the public radio program “Marketplace” is running a series titled “The Spoils of War,” which documents a level of corruption in Iraq worse than even harsh critics had suspected. The waste of money, though it may run into the billions, [...]
Posted in General on Apr 23rd, 2004
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
Yesterday the Memory Hole released photos of the dead soldiers arriving at Dover Air Force Base.
Mr. Kick, who operates his Web site from Tucson, describes himself as “an information archaeologist.” He did not respond to phone calls to his home last night. But on his Web site, he said he had filed a [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS
Via Atrios, Jesus’ General comments on the pending bill in Michigan:
Dear Rep. Richardville,
Congratulations on the passage of your bill granting medical professionals the right to refuse treatment to homosexuals. I sincerely hope other states follow suit, because no doctor should be forced to treat a class of people they despise. Such coerced compassion [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE
Gee, I hate to be cynical, but…
Citigroup’s largest shareholder, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, is reportedly launching a $5 million advertising campaign to generate U.S. interest in his Saudi company.
The weeklong TV and print campaign, a first for the prince, will feature Citigroup, News Corp. and other [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
‘GO FOR THE JUGULAR’
I hope to God someone in the Kerry camp reads this:
“First, get your heaviest liberal hitters to bring John Kerry into a closed room and read him the riot act. If he wants to win, if he wants to get Dems and Independents and Libertarians and moderate Republicans like me to vote [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION URGED FOR DIEBOLD
I really don’t believe there’s any legitimate way Bush will win the election, but…
An advisory panel unanimously recommended this morning that Secretary of State Kevin Shelley ban use of a computerized voting system in four California counties.
The panel also called on state Attorney General Bill Lockyer to open a criminal investigation [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
ARGHHH
Okay, I’m not sure how I got it but a few people have complained about a popup on my site. (I assume the rest of you have popup blockers.) I removed a site meter I’d just added (the likely culprit) but some of you are still seeing it.
To check and remove ad spyware, you can [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
WISHING MAKES IT SO
We’re in an economic recovery. Why, we’ve become an ownership society, and everyone is sharing the wealth. Really.
Six months have passed since the Phoenix reported that the US Census Bureau’s latest income and poverty reports contained significant errors (see “The Politics of Poverty,” News and Features, October 10, 2003). The reworked numbers, [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
FREE MARKET, HAH
Whatever happened to globalization?
A senior Food and Drug Administration official said Wednesday that it was unfortunate his agency stopped and inspected a busload of seniors returning from a medicine-buying trip to Canada.
“This is not consistent with our current practice,” said John Taylor, the FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. “I would not [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
CAUTION: EGO CROSSING
Here’s some dish from the NY Daily News:
According to pollster Paul Maslin, former strategist to one-time Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean, Nader seemed ready six months ago to cut a secret backroom deal: He would agree not to wage a troublesome third-party campaign (of the sort that denied Al Gore the White House in [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
HEADS UP
Is anyone else getting a popup ad on my page? Let me know if you are.
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
JOBS ARE JUST A POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECT
Via the Agonist, the transcript of Bush’s speech yesterday to the Newspaper Association of America. I especially liked this part:
The way I view the role of government is that the government’s role isn’t to create wealth, the government’s role isn’t to say, “I created jobs,” — the government’s role [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
THE REAL AGENDA
Juan Cole faces off with Richard Perle, and the results are intriguing:
But anyway, what struck me was the contradiction between Perle’s insistence that the US should have handed power over to Iraqis months ago, and his simultaneous opposition to free and fair elections. The only conclusion I can draw is that he wants [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
FREE MARKET
Yet another reason not to move to Detroit…
Doctors or other health care providers could not be disciplined or sued if they refuse to treat gay patients under legislation passed Wednesday by the Michigan House.
The bill allows health care workers to refuse service to anyone on moral, ethical or religious grounds.
The Republican dominated House passed [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
DEJA VU
While everyone else is seeing Vietnam, Sid Blumenthal sees Iran-contra:
“History? We won’t know,” President Bush tells Bob Woodward. “We’ll all be dead.” But Woodward’s “Plan of Attack,” outlining the administration’s shadowy rush to war with Iraq, moves the past from the shadows. The serious constitutional issues and governmental abuses, the methods and the continuity [...]
Posted in General on Apr 22nd, 2004
FAIR AND BALANCED
Kos has more on the law firm of John O’Neill, the Kerry critic who’s suddenly everywhere:
We also found out that he’s a partner at the Houston firm of Clements, O’Neill, Pierce, Wilson and Fulkerson. One of his co-partners is Margaret Wilson, who was George Bush’s general counsel 1998-2000.
Well, there’s more about good [...]
Posted in General on Apr 21st, 2004
EVEN A STOPPED CLOCK IS RIGHT TWICE A DAY
It scares me to agree with Joe Klein:
There is an odd confusion of style and philosophy here. Bush is bold to the point of recklessness—a quality conservatives usually associate with liberalism—whereas Kerry is cautious to a fault, a stylistic reactionary. Most successful presidential campaigns sail into Washington [...]
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