This is quite possibly the most brilliantly funny piece of political satire I’ve ever seen. I’ve watched it about sixty times already and I am still crapping myself laughing.
“The voters have stolen my election!” Christ, how accurate is that, huh?
You know, it’s stories like this that make me think there’s a God.
Bernie Ward, the most prominent liberal voice on Bay Area talk radio for more than two decades, admitted Thursday to distribution of child pornography by e-mail in a plea deal that will send him to federal prison for at least five years.
Ward, 57, a former Roman Catholic priest, was a fixture on KGO-AM 810 for three hours every weeknight, known in recent years for his fervent denunciations of President Bush and the war in Iraq during his news talk show. He also hosted “God Talk,” a Sunday morning program on religion, and was a prolific fundraiser for the station’s charity drives.
A child molesting left-wing Catholic priest from San Francisco. It’s like hitting the blog trifecta.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- What will it take for a Democratic presidential candidate to win the support of California superdelegate Steven Ybarra?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Organized labor is paying more attention to Republican John McCain as Democrat Barack Obama solidifies his status as the front-runner in the Democratic contest against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday that Republican John McCain was ''losing his bearings'' for repeatedly suggesting the Islamic terrorist group Hamas preferred Obama for president.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats' plans to help hundreds of thousands of homeowners struggling with rising subprime mortgage rates and plummeting house values could be sidetracked by President Bush's threatened veto and the backing of many congressional Republicans.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida's Democratic congressional delegation called on the national party Thursday to seat the state's delegation based on its January primary, and the state party is growing more hopeful that the campaigns will agree on a plan by the end of the month.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Married couples with joint incomes of up to $1.5 million from their farm operation could still qualify for crop subsidies under a five-year, $300 billion farm bill compromise that would boost food and farm programs.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman -- who quit the Democratic Party 12 years ago to become a Republican -- has accused likely Democratic opponent Al Franken of changing positions, demeanor and rhetoric in his attempt to win a Senate seat.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady. ''You know, my husband and I have been married 28 years and we have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. This is a privacy issue."
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush stuck out his right elbow Thursday, jokingly demonstrating how he'll escort his daughter down the aisle at her wedding this weekend. ''He's looking forward to it,'' White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seeking to referee a stalemate over how the CIA can interrogate prisoners, a top Senate Republican says Congress should ban water-boarding and seven other abusive methods of interrogation but allow the spy agency some leeway in how it questions detainees.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong is calling on Congress to renew the nation's war on cancer. ''It's time for our country to refocus and relaunch a comprehensive war on this disease."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the U.S. military was stepping up preparations for a relief mission in Myanmar, but he said he couldn't imagine air dropping aid without permission from the closed regime.
By Oliver North -- Here at the U.S. Army's biggest base on the East Coast, soldiers and their dependents are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their "economic stimulus payments."
By Michael Reagan -- Here we go again. After being subjected to eight years of the collegial presidency of Bill and Hillary, when we were told that when we got Bill we got Hillary as a bonus, it looks as if we are facing another twofer: Barack and Michelle.
By Frank Salvato -- Now comes news that George McGovern has called for Hillary Clinton to withdraw from the Democrat's primary race. Pardon me for my raised eyebrow but how much of a fool would someone have to be to take campaign advice from the man who got slaughtered by Richard Nixon?
By Dick Morris -- Bill and Hillary Clinton have always believed that they're very different than the rest of us. Over their more than 30 years in politics together, they've learned one important and consistent lesson: that rules don't matter. Rules don't apply to them. Rules are for other people. Rules can be bent, changed, manipulated.
By Christopher G. Adamo -- As the Hillary/Obama melee continues, America is increasingly able to see their politically fatal flaws.
By Linda Chavez -- Remember when Mother's Day was a simple affair? The kids woke Mom up with breakfast in bed -- Froot Loops floating on a sea of slightly pink milk -- and handmade cards. Everyone was especially nice to one another so Mom could enjoy some "peace and quiet," commodities in short supply in most mothers' lives.
Support for US attack on Iran grows in Middle East
The potentially transforming events in the 2008 campaign are matters of war and peace. Both may be in play between now and November, in ways that add extra volatility to the presidential race. Let's start with war: The United States is already fighting two of them, in Iraq and Afghanistan. But judging from recent statements by administration officials, there is also a small, but growing, chance of conflict with Iran.
The administration is signaling the Iranians that they need to stop supplying and training Shiite militias in Iraq -- or run the risk of U.S. retaliation. The Maliki government in Baghdad, worried about the danger of escalation, is passing this message to Tehran, but so far the only consequence has been that the Iranians have broken off talks in Baghdad that were aimed at stabilizing the situation.
Saber rattling from the Bush White House may seem almost routine, but pay attention to the comment last week by Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Iran is not going away. We need to be strong and really in the deterrent mode, to not be very predictable."
The risk of a U.S.-Iranian confrontation is growing in part because Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies in the Middle East are so eager for it. "Behind closed doors, we are praying that the Iranians will make a mistake so that you will have a reason to attack," one Saudi told me this week. Another prominent Arab official said he hopes the United States will strike Iranian training camps just over the border from Iraq.
How would a U.S.-Iran confrontation play out in the campaign? Obviously, that depends on how you read the American political mood. Usually, we assume that the nation rallies around the party of war, but that's less certain in this case. America is war-weary, and it mistrusts President Bush. So a military skirmish with Iran might backfire, adding to public dissent -- much as happened with the Nixon administration's attack on Viet Cong sanctuaries in Cambodia in 1970.
Adding to the combustible mix is Hillary Clinton's hawkish position on Iran, which has support from the center-right of the party even if she drops out. Her rhetorical threat to "totally obliterate" Iran if it launched a nuclear attack against Israel was sharper than anything that has come out of the Bush White House. The anti-Iran stance from centrist Democrats blunts John McCain's appeal as the tough-guy candidate. But it complicates the Democrats' argument for withdrawing U.S. troops rapidly from Iraq, since the main beneficiary of such a move would be Tehran.
Source
*********************
The Democrat defence of voter fraud
(Toon via Mamacita)
*********************
ELSEWHERE
Real economic truth: "Does the media accurately report economic news? Some are raising that question after the release of several highly anticipated economic reports last week. The new data show that the United States is not in a recession, as the economy continues to grow. Fewer jobs have been lost than expected, with unemployment staying low at 5 percent. And the stock market has been surging over the last few months, with the Dow Jones Industrials average rising back over 13,000 last Thursday. But many news articles are painting a different picture. 'The bruised economy limped through the first quarter of this year,' the Associated Press reported. '... as housing and credit problems forced people and businesses alike to hunker down.' The article noted in the second paragraph that, 'the statistic did not meet what economists consider the classic definition of a recession.'"
British judge has obviously never heard of the age of responsibility: "A paedophile who molested an 11-year-old girl escaped jail yesterday when a judge ruled the victim had "welcomed" his advances. Judge Robert Atherton triggered outrage when he told Manchester Crown Court the child had invited Jon Dixon's attack as she had a "sexual awareness" that would make someone twice her age blush. The judge rejected an assessment by the probation service that Dixon, 20, posed a "high risk of serious harm to children".
Stopping promiscuity key to aids prevention: "The fight against the Aids epidemic in Africa is founded on ineffective strategies and should focus on male circumcision and reducing promiscuity, according to leading scientists in the field. HIV containment is generally based on the "three pillars" - promotion and provision of condoms, HIV status testing and treatment of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that can increase the risk of becoming infected. There is little evidence, however, that any of these methods works well in sub-Saharan Africa, where two thirds of the 33.2 million people who carry the virus live, a review for the journal Science has found. It was published in a special issue to mark the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes Aids." [They think they can stop Africans from sleeping around by lecturing them??]
Hillary: Big rewards?: "Hillary may not want to stop until there's blood on the Convention floor, but apparently Big Rewards Await Clinton If She Ends Campaign Now. Like a Discover card, there are cash rewards. One of the most inviting is the near certainty that the Obama campaign would agree to pay back the $11.4 million she has loaned her own bid, along with an estimated $10 million to $15 million in unpaid campaign expenses."
Al-Masri the Egyptian falls : "Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq was captured today in the northern city of Mosul according to the Iraqi ministry of defense. Al-Masri's life parallels that of al-Qaeda itself. Born an Egyptian he followed al-Qaeda's fortunes from the Middle East to Central Asia and back. According to US sources, Masri was born in 1967, "joined the Muslim Brotherhood, and in 1982 ... joined Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which later became part of al-Qaeda. He went to Afghanistan in 1999, where he became an explosives expert. In 2004 he was put in charge of al-Qaeda's overseas networks, and in 2006 he succeeded al-Zarqawi as the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq."
For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.
List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here
****************************
The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
****************************
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Apart from George McGovern, a plainspoken man who knows something about losing elections, not a single Democrat of national stature publicly urged Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday to end her campaign for the White House.
It’s Friday. I can use a break, and you can use a break. I’m the hero in my office for my Friday playlists, and they’ll never know it’s because of all of you (yet).
To start up our Friday thread, I have a couple of requests. First, in honor of Gripe, an emo set. I’ll leave the interpretation for that to our creative commenters.
Next, an 8 strong list. In honor of WVR. Fill me with an hour of listening. TGIF!!
Let’s hear it for subversives!
Priya Venkatesan taught English at Dartmouth College. She maintains that some of her students were so unreceptive of “French narrative theory” that it amounted to a hostile working environment. She is also readying lawsuits against her superiors, who she says papered over the harassment, as well as a confessional exposé, which she promises will “name names.”
The trauma was so intense that in March Ms. Venkatesan quit Dartmouth and decamped for Northwestern. She declined to comment for this piece, pointing instead to the multiple interviews she conducted with the campus press.
Ms. Venkatesan lectured in freshman composition, intended to introduce undergraduates to the rigors of expository argument. “My students were very bully-ish, very aggressive, and very disrespectful,” she told Tyler Brace of the Dartmouth Review. “They’d argue with your ideas.” This caused “subversiveness,” a principle English professors usually favor.
They were crushing her dissent by daring to disagree. And from then on it got even stranger:
Ms. Venkatesan’s scholarly specialty is “science studies,” which, as she wrote in a journal article last year, “teaches that scientific knowledge has suspect access to truth.” She continues: “Scientific facts do not correspond to a natural reality but conform to a social construct.”
The agenda of Ms. Venkatesan’s seminar, then, was to “problematize” technology and the life sciences. Students told me that most of the “problems” owed to her impenetrable lectures and various eruptions when students indicated skepticism of literary theory. She counters that such skepticism was “intolerant of ideas” and “questioned my knowledge in very inappropriate ways.” Ms. Venkatesan, who is of South Asian descent, also alleges that critics were motivated by racism, though it is unclear why.
After a winter of discontent, the snapping point came while Ms. Venkatesan was lecturing on “ecofeminism,” which holds, in part, that scientific advancements benefit the patriarchy but leave women out. One student took issue, and reasonably so – actually, empirically so. But “these weren’t thoughtful statements,” Ms. Venkatesan protests. “They were irrational.” The class thought otherwise. Following what she calls the student’s “diatribe,” several of his classmates applauded.
Ms. Venkatesan informed her pupils that their behavior was “fascist demagoguery.” Then, after consulting a physician about “intellectual distress,” she cancelled classes for a week. Thus the pending litigation.
Aside from the question of what, if anything, “French narrative theory,” whatever that is, has to do with “Science studies,” it sounds like the teacher is shocked that her students were willing to challenge her. I guess asking real questions amounts to “Fascism” these days.
Denis Leary, in No Cure For Cancer.
Remember that friend in high school wanted to make bongs out of everything. Making bongs out of apples and oranges and shit? Come in one day and find your friend going, “Hey! Look man, I made a bong outta my head! Put the pot in this ear and take it outta this one! Good! Take a hit! … What was the problem with just smoking a joint, eating a couple of Twinkies, and going to sleep? Was that a problem? They say marijuana leads to other drugs. No it doesn’t, it leads to fucking carpentry. That’s the problem, folks. People getting high going, “Wow man, this box would make an excellent bong! This guy’s head would make an excellent bong!…”
You can’t make this shit up.
Update: Ha! Two posts at the same time! That’s fucking dope.
Are we ready for a F.A.G. candidate?
A decade ago, Baldwin was interested in politics, but said he was only 39 and all the people who ran the world were in their fifties. Since then, he has publicly dismissed the notion of running for office. A few weeks ago, he changed his mind. “There’s other things I want to do [besides acting]. I mean, in a matter of weeks, I’m going to be 50,” says Baldwin, who turned 50 on April 3. “There’s no age limit on running for office, to a degree. [It is] something I might do one day,” says Baldwin.
Baldwin says he is ready for the public scrutiny and realizes the tact one must use when running for office because he’s learned a lesson about what he says and how it can affect others in the nasty divorce-custody battle with his ex-wife, Kim Basinger. The spat resulted in the publication of an embarrassing voicemail to his daughter in which he calls her a “thoughtless little pig.”
“If you go through the things I have gone through with the media like this thing with my daughter, there’s only one thing that comes to mind initially: that is how my daughter must have felt to have this played out in public,” Baldwin tells Safer. “The second thing I realize is: you can pretty much bet all you own that I would never leave another voicemail message for my daughter that wasn’t just like something out of a Rogers and Hammerstein score.”
I can see him on the campaign trail: “By following the rules of the Film Actor’s Guild, the world can become a better place; that handles dangerous people with talk, and reasoning; that, is the fag way. One day you’ll all look at the world us actors created and say, “wow, good going, fag. You really made the world a better place, didntcha, fag?”
I have to ask: Why hasn’t this guy been mentioned by Sean Hannity, et al as much as they’ve gone on about Rev. Wright ad nauseum?
During a 2005 sermon, a fundamentalist pastor whom Senator John McCain has praised and campaigned with called Islam “the greatest religious enemy of our civilization and the world,” claiming that the historic mission of America is to see “this false religion destroyed.” In this taped sermon, currently sold by his megachurch, the Reverend Rod Parsley reiterates and amplifies harsh and derogatory comments about Islam he made in his book, Silent No More, published the same year he delivered these remarks. Meanwhile, McCain has stuck to his stance of not criticizing Parsley, an important political ally in a crucial swing state.
In March 2008—two weeks after McCain appeared with Parsley at a Cincinnati campaign rally, hailing him as “one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide"—Mother Jones reported that Parsley had urged Christians to wage a “war” to eradicate Islam in his 2005 book. McCain’s campaign refused to respond to questions about Parsley, and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee declined to denounce Parsley’s anti-Islam remarks or renounce his endorsement. At a time when Barack Obama was mired in a searing controversy involving Reverend Jeremiah Wright, McCain escaped any trouble for his political alliance with Parsley, who leads the World Harvest Church, a supersized Pentecostal institution in Columbus, Ohio. Parsley, whose sermons are broadcast around the world, has been credited with helping George W. Bush win Ohio in 2004 by registering social conservatives and encouraging them to vote. McCain certainly would like to see Parsley do the same for him—which could explain his reluctance to do any harm to his relationship with this anti-Islam extremist.
.....Parsley approvingly quotes Christian theologian Jonathan Edwards’ reference to Islam as “Satan’s Mohammedan kingdom.” He points out that the United States’ first war—the battle against the Barbary Coast pirates—was “waged against Muslim pirates who took our people captive because they believed in a Jesus crucified by the Jews.” (With that one statement, Parsley slams both Islam and Judaism.) He repeatedly refers to the United States’ “historic conflict with Islam,” and adds, “We have no choice. The time has come. In fact, we may be already losing the battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam at this moment is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, more devastation than nearly any other force on Earth.”
Now, while you could make the argument that this doesn’t rise to the level of the personal relationship that Obama has with Wright, it is odd that McCain’s attempts to win the graces of the religious right (including sucking up to the late turd blossom Jerry Falwell) haven’t gotten nearly as much scrutiny as Wright’s wrong-headed rhetoric has. I’m just wondering where Sean Hannity of the “Fair and balanced” network is on this.
Talk about your deadheads:
Two men and a juvenile are accused of digging up a corpse, decapitating the body and using the head to smoke marijuana, according to court documents.
Matthew Gonzalez and Kevin Jones have been charged with the misdemeanor offense of abuse of a corpse, said Scott Durfee, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorneys Office.
According to documents filed in the case, Gonzalez, Jones and an unnamed juvenile on March 15 went to an Humble cemetery, dug up a man’s grave, left with the head and turned it into a “bong.”
Getting high off of a dead guy...that’s some bad karma, dudes.
Will the aftermath of the disaster do what the monks couldn’t?
Will the Burma cyclone lead to political upheaval in one of the worlds’ most oppressive regimes? The indirect impact of environmental crises on politics is well established. Water shortages, flooding, nutrient-poor soils, and deforestation have all put pressure on governments and provided the backdrop to ethnic conflict. But it’s been speculated that as populations rise in environmentally, seismically, and climatically fragile zones, unexpected natural events may not only pressure regimes but topple them as well.
....Last year, during the large-scale anti-regime demonstrations known as the Saffron Revolution, the Burmese army was on the streets attacking protesting monks, but so far it has been absent during the cyclone emergency. The Burmese democratic movement, though it has an icon in Aung San Suu Kyi, is highly disorganized, which is one reason why the Saffron Revolution failed to dislodge Burma’s generals. The days ahead will tell if the weather itself is any more effective.
One can only hope that something positive will come out of this-if there’s anyone left to celebrate the government’s downfall, that is.
Call them Black Magic Women.
Code Pink is now resorting to witchcraft to beef up the number of its supporters protesting Berkeley’s controversial Marine Corps Recruiting Center.
The women’s anti-war group has told ralliers to come equipped with spells and pointy hats Friday for “Witches, clowns and sirens day,” the last of the group’s weeklong homage to Mother’s Day.
“Women are coming to cast spells and do rituals and to impart wisdom to figure out how we’re going to end war,” Zanne Sam Joi of Bay Area Code Pink told FOXNews.com.
The group’s week of themed protests, which included days to galvanize grannies and bring-your-daughter-to-protest, appears to have done little to boost its flagging numbers.
If they started sacrificing some of their members, that would be entertaining.
Hillary Clinton channels her inner Klansman.
Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed Wednesday to continue her quest for the Democratic nomination, arguing she would be the stronger nominee because she appeals to a wider coalition of voters — including whites who have not supported Barack Obama in recent contests.
“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”“There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said.
Yes, there is. The ones with less income and less teeth are turning out for you in droves.
When it comes to foreign policy, John McCain could do well to take a cue from the Great One when it comes to dealing with goofball tyrants:
Ronald Reagan took a different approach. In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he continued President Carter’s covert aid to the rebels, but didn’t send American troops. Likewise when a pro-Soviet regime gained power in Nicaragua. The key to containment was finding affordable means to constrain and weaken the enemy, without bleeding ourselves down in wars we didn’t have to fight.
Our policy in Iraq has been just the opposite. And Iran could be the next mistake. McCain says Tehran cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons—which implies he would go to war to prevent it, no matter what the price in blood or treasure.
The claim is that the Iranians are too crazy to be deterred from using nukes against Israel or giving them to terrorist groups to use against us. One common trait of governments and their leaders is an overriding desire to survive. If Iranian nukes are ever used for aggression, the regime can be sure Iran will be, as Hillary Clinton so vividly put it, “obliterated.”
Shapiro told me he sees no evidence that Clinton or Barack Obama would return to containment. But the challenges we face are likely to push them toward it. Those dilemmas, after all, have prompted a reconsideration by none other than President Bush.
One member of the Axis of Evil, North Korea, has acquired a nuclear arsenal. Instead of launching a pre-emptive strike, the Bush administration has chosen to 1) live with it if we have to, 2) negotiate with Pyongyang to give it up, and 3) maintain strong defenses in South Korea.
Now remember, Obama has been called naive for saying he would talk to our enemies, but Bush did it and the world has not come to an end. The point here is not that we take the Jimmy Carter route when dealing with Iran, but that we have been dealing with them for thirty years now without firing a shot. Ima Dinnerjacket can spout off his one-note routine about how Israel will be destroyed all he wants-that’s for domestic consumption; even he understands in his pea brain that the Israelis could turn Tehran into a parking lot if they wanted to. If we play this smart we can wait Dinnerjacket out without having to go directly to war with him-which would be a political disaster for the Republicans in this election year if we did anyway. The past is behind us-and a President McCain could learn from it, more so than Bush ever did.
I keep hearing this expression around the blogosphere about the increased Democratic turnout (emphasis mine):
Data released today by the Democratic Party reminds us all of just how much of a Democratic year this actually is and just how valuable a party-building exercise a competitive primary can be. The state which saw the lowest increase in turnout was Arkansas—a measly (!) 18 percentage points. Turnout in Kansas for the Democratic Primary increased by more than 2000%. Think of the psychological benefits for a moment: Democrats get to practice voting, they get to experience the satisfaction of being part of a cause greater than themselves; the get the chance to feel proud to be Democrats.
Practice voting? Practice voting? Are Democrats so dumb that they need a few tries before they can be sure of pulling the lever every time? No wonder their primary is dragging out into June.
As an aside, I think the huge Dem turnout is a positive for them, obviously, but not as much as they and many pundits are thinking. It’s yet another Number in the Dark. Primary turnout, especially in states that go late, is usually abysmal. If turnout climbs from 10% to 30%, that’s still pretty low, even if it did triple. That turnoff is significantly less abysmal has more to do with the unique primary than any particular surge of enthusiasm for Democrats. The Republican primary was over on Super Tuesday. You expect turnout to stagnate when the votes are only for local concerns.
I do think it’s yet another example of the stupidity of Operation Chaos, though. No matter what my spin on it, massive increases in Democratic registration and turnout do not bode well for the GOP.
The latest installment of Reason.TV is a half-hour documentary on the Cory Maye case:
There are probably a thousand cases like this all over the nation. Dead cops, ruined lives, innocent people in prison. Is it worth it so that we can pretend we’re doing something about drug use? Last week, police broke a massive drug bust at San Diego State. 75 students’ lives are now ruined. Six months of officer time was consumed. And for what? So that dumbass college kids go somewhere else to get high?
I’ve been thinking about this all day. That the problems we are having in this country are the result of 40 years of stupid policy coming home to roost. Whether its energy policy (high gas prices), agricultural policy (high food prices), neglected infrastructure (read this on the DC rat problem), the War on Drugs (two million in prison) or education.
We have two Presidential candidates who think this is mostly OK, except for some tweaking. Like Lee, I am registered to vote in Texas. I voted Libertarian in 2004 and it was the happiest vote of my political life. Voting in the Democrats in 2006 failed to wake people up. Perhaps abandoning both parties will let them know that this nonsense—whether left-wing nonsense about “economical and social justice” or right-wing nonsense about a drug-free America—needs to stop.
Or at least get down to more manageable levels.
When George Will is on, George will is on:
Hillary Clinton, 60, Illinois native and Arkansas lawyer, became, retroactively, a lifelong Yankee fan at age 52 when, shopping for a U.S. Senate seat, she adopted New York state as home sweet home. She may think, or at least would argue, that when she was 12 her Yankees really won the 1960 World Series, by standards of “fairness,” because they trounced the Pirates in runs scored, 55-27, over seven games, so there.
Unfortunately, baseball’s rules—pesky nuisances, rules—say it matters how runs are distributed during a World Series. The Pirates won four games, which is the point of the exercise, by a total margin of seven runs, while the Yankees were winning three by a total of 35 runs. You can look it up.
After Tuesday’s split decisions in Indiana and North Carolina, Clinton, the Yankee Clipperette, can, and hence eventually will, creatively argue that she is really ahead of Barack Obama, or at any rate she is sort of tied, mathematically or morally or something, in popular votes, or delegates, or some combination of the two, as determined by Fermat’s Last Theorem, or something, in states whose names begin with vowels, or maybe consonants, or perhaps some mixture of the two as determined by listening to a recording of the Beach Boys’ “Help Me, Rhonda” played backward, or whatever other formula is most helpful to her, and counting the votes she received in Michigan, where hers was the only contending name on the ballot (her chief rivals, quaintly obeying their party’s rules, boycotted the state, which had violated the party’s rules for scheduling primaries), and counting the votes she received in Florida, which, like Michigan, was a scofflaw and where no one campaigned, and dividing Obama’s delegate advantage in caucus states by pi multiplied by the square root of Yankee Stadium’s ZIP code.
I’m so happy that she’s going down in defeat. Her constant twisting and turning like a twisty turny thing to make herself into the front-runner was a reminder of the sort of crap Bill used to pull in office. Up is down. Black is white. Defeat is victory. Bullies are victims. Between them and Bush, we have had 16 uninterrupted years of Orwellian Newspeak that I’ll be glad to see the back of.
"It's like Florida taxing oranges" Now that Deval Patrick's casino scheme has fallen through, Massachusetts lawmakers - unable to cut spending - are searching for a whole new scheme to fund the state government. "Let's see," thought the geniuses on Beacon Hill, "it should be an institution with deep pockets that's also unable to move out of the state. It would be a bonus if we could portray
In the comments to this post I was asked the following.
Has Lee been falling for the same media BS as Gripe? BHO is THE most liberal person ever to run for president. Period. How could that POSSIBLY make him acceptable as president for anyone who even remotely leans to the right, particularly when teh next president will most likely have a drooling, partisan Democrat majority in Congress to enact his social experiments?
My response, in part was:
So we should vote Republican so that we don’t get universal healthcare, right? I seem to recall voting for a Republican who gave us the Medicare prescription drug bill, which is going to end up costing us about two-thirds of a trillion dollars.
You really think voting for McCain is going to make anything different? Really?
To illustrate my point further, I give you the always-brilliant Cato Institute.
Consider the following:
1. Research suggests the federal Medicare program spends as much as $100 billion per year on medical care that makes seniors neither healthier nor happier.
2. Medicare’s payment system continues to reward low-quality and even harmful medical care.
3.The trustees of the Medicare program have issued yet another annual report containing dire warnings about Medicare’s financial sustainability, including an unfunded liability of $86 trillion.
4. According to economist and former Medicare trustee Tom Saving, Medicare alone will require tax rates to rise by 25 percent within a generation, and to double within 75 years, absent reform.
5. The picture is far worse than it was when politicians were developing fundamental Medicare reforms 10 years ago.
You would think that Medicare reform would be a high priority for politicians. You would be wrong. The president has proposed reforms that would barely slow the program’s growing dependence on general revenues — a proposal that Congress has largely ignored. The leading presidential candidates advocate tweaks — such as reducing payments for private plans and prescription drugs, or tying payments to quality measures — rather than fundamental reforms.
So, I ask you again, when it comes to socialized medicine, do you really think a vote for McCain will make any significant difference? Really?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The reaction -- or lack of it -- by Indiana and North Carolina voters to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's incendiary comments emphasizes how deeply entrenched the racial lines of support are for the two Democratic presidential rivals.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Protests from moderate Democrats and a revolt by opposition Republicans prompted House Democratic leaders Wednesday night to delay a planned vote on a $195 billion measure to pay for the war in Iraq.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Declining mail volume and rising fuel prices resulted in a $707 million loss for the Postal Service in the quarter that wrapped up March 31.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats on Wednesday called for a windfall profits tax on oil companies and a rollback of $17 billion in oil industry tax breaks as part of an energy package. The proposal also would impose federal penalties on energy price gouging.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama's march toward the Democratic presidential nomination picked up support from four more superdelegates Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- From his five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp to his tenure as the Navy's liaison to the Senate, John McCain's Navy record boils down to a series of unadorned paragraphs that bestow upon him some of the nation's top military honors.
ROCHESTER, Mich. (AP) -- Republican John McCain pretended to snarl when asked about his temper Wednesday in Michigan. ''How dare you ask that question!'' McCain said, chuckling. His questioner persisted, reading a comment by a fellow Republican, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans on Wednesday questioned the speedy confirmation process for Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Helene White, who was chosen by President Bush last month as part of a compromise to address several judicial vacancies.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Strapped homeowners could refinance into government-backed mortgages and states would get money to deal with foreclosed property under Democrats' housing aid plan.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Clinton is pushing on in her race for the Democratic White House bid, despite calls to drop out. She has events scheduled today in the upcoming primary states of Oregon, South Dakota and West Virginia. Barack Obama will be in Washington today.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Wednesday that Cuba's post-Fidel Castro leadership has made only ''empty gestures at reform'' and rejected calls for easing of U.S. restrictions on the communist island.
By Robert D. Novak -- Buyer's remorse was beginning to afflict supporters of Barack Obama before Tuesday's primary election returns showed he had delivered a knockout punch against Hillary Clinton.
By Paul M. Weyrich -- Last week President George W. Bush held a press conference on the current state of the economy and the high cost of energy. In it he made several important points. First, he noted that one reason gas prices are increasing is that global supply has not kept pace with the growing demand worldwide.
