May 30, 2004

Vice President Jokes

There is something about the office of VP that just leads itself to good jokes. John MaCain has a good one on Conan.

O'Brien: "There is, first of all, a lot of speculation lately — rumor, speculation? — that you might be a vice presidential candidate with John Kerry, form kind of a bi-partisan juggernaut. Any truth to that at all?"

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz: "I spent several years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, in the dark, fed with scraps. You think I want to do all that all over again as vice president of the United States?"

Via ABC News.

The VP job could be the worst in DC, just something to keep in mind as play the veepstakes game.

May 29, 2004

Rewriting History Games

The thing about rewriting history is that you have to get it anywhere it appears. China has censored a game I've played on PC called Hearts of Iron. It's a World War 2 grand strategy games. China pulled it because it showed (historically) that Tibet, Manchuria and Xinjiang as independent nations, as well as Taiwan as occupied by Japan during WW2. The Chinese government said that the game was "distorting history and damaging China's sovereignty." Keep in mind the game is historically accurate. I guess China in trying to get a claim on Tibet and Taiwan has rewritten history so that they were always part of China. You can get all the textbooks, but can you get everything? It boogles the mind.
Just Wondering

Is there some kind of Anti-American militia weapons program that gives out one RPG free with every 10 AK-47 that you buy. I swear that everybody we fight these days seems to have that mix of weapons.

May 26, 2004

More Clancy

TNR's Alan Wirzbicki writes up the Clancy switch just like I did, only he uses complete sentences and stuff.

Bush is losing Tom Clancy

I know he is a right wing kind of guy (The domestic politics parts of Executive Orders made me bang my head against a wall.) but I have always had a soft spot for Tom Clancy. His books both fiction and non have taught me much about the technical side of military issues. Its good to hear that he is having second thoughts about Iraq.

May 24, 2004

More Sucky Bush Poll Numbers

I just love to post these things. CBS has his job approval rating at 41% with John Kerry kicking his ass 49 to 41. If you look at the demographic breakdowns you find that Bush is losing support mostly with Republicans the Dem numbers have not changed.

May 23, 2004

Chalabi

American Prospect has a good roundup of all thing Chalabi here.

What I want to know is if he's passing secrets to Iran, then why was he on every single Sunday morning talk show?

Prove it


Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.

George Bernard Shaw

May 20, 2004

Cans Open, Worms Everywhere

So our dear friend in Iraqi a "formery close advisor to the pentagon," and close person guest of the First Lady has had his home and party headquarters raided. Chalabi is of course the main guy as far as "sure Iraq has WMD" and "the people of Iraq will welcome us with open arms." I think now would be good time to revisit the massive stupidity that led the administration to believe this man.

May 19, 2004

Iraq as Vietnam part 4

Crooked Timber has Chris Hitchens going off the rails making comparisons to Vietnam.

May 18, 2004

Local Kid Dies

So in my random news surfing I con across that a 19 year old kid from Arroyo Grande died in Iraq. AG is a small (16,000) town south of SLO. I was helping out with a public workshop there just last month. Knowing small towns the way I do, I a pretty sure a lot of people will know about the death of Pfc Michael A. Mora. Other kids who went to high school with him and their parents, and their parents friends. I think more and more towns are going to lose a kid as this thing drags on. More every day. Here are the towns that have lost somebody.

May 17, 2004

Can't Get Any Worst

You know how in movies someone always says "At least things can't get any worst" just before they do? I really think there is someone in the White House who's job it is just to keep saying "Well at least things can't get any worst in Iraq." Every day he says this, just before the news comes in.

May 16, 2004

Iraq as Vietnam part 3

Hey want to read a 70-something page report comparing Iraq to Vietnam? Yeah me neither but here it is anyway.

May 15, 2004

Bush Panic

So at what point do Republicans panic over Bush. His rating are going down. (By the way Franklin did this thing with a penny whisle and the history of Bush poll numbers on his show, very funny.) TNR notes that Bush is losing ground on both the War on Terror and Iraq as well as losing Jobs, Heathcare etc, etc, etc. Donkey Rising has Kerry winning in the battleground states. The founder of USAToday has called on Bush to drop out. Kaus over at Slate has a Dem panic watch going so why not a Republican panic watch?

May 11, 2004

Good Sign

So this paper in Wisconsin was not getting any pro-Bush letter for their letters to the editors page so they call for people to sent in Pro-Bush letters so the paper can be fair and balanced. This in an area the went for Bush over Gore 52 to 43. The paper is now in trouble over seeming Pro-Bush, but I think that the important point is that no one in the town of Appleton can bring themselves to speak up for Bush.

Poll Questioned

In the latest CNN poll 46% of people do not think Bush is doing a good job as president but 48% would vote for him. 2% of the American people think that Bush is doing a bad job but want him to continue to have that job.

May 9, 2004

Not One Thing Right

So I read this column by Fareed Zakaria (international relations guy for Newsweek and ABC News) and I get to thinking has the Bush administration said one thing about Iraq that turned out to be true? WMD? Democracy? Electricity? Cost? Anything?

May 8, 2004

Babes against Bush.

This is good. Something I surf for politics, sometimes for pictures of hot chicks now you can do both at once.

May 7, 2004

W is a Stupid.

George W Bush is clearly not a fit man to be President.

That is the short version. The long version can be found here.

May 5, 2004

No Worries

Kerry to win in landslide, news at 11:00.
Worst. PR. Ever.

Can anyone possible think of something can could make us look worst in Iraq than pictures of US troop torturing Iraqis in an old prison of Saddams? How about we burn down a mosque with women and children in it with an Al Jareeza camera filming the whole thing. There may not be much left for Kerry to salvage by the time he takes over in Jan 05.

May 2, 2004

SLO Has Air America

One of the local AM stations here has just switched to Air America the new liberal radio network with Franken and company. I was tuned in a bit of the Randi Rhodes show on my way out of town on Thursday. She really kicks ass. I think this might be the public discourse form of crack. Not good for your mind, not good for the republic, but sure is fun to hear. Another interesting thing is that the station AM 1340 used to have all conservatives. It didn't have Rush but it did have Sean Hanity the conservative (and better looking) part of the FOXNEWS debate show. There used to be 3 conservative AM stations and a FM Sports/News station that had Bill O'Reilly. I guess 1340 didn't want to be the #3 conservative station when it could be the #1 liberal station. So the good people of SLO now have "Left Coast Radio." The forces of light gain a little ground.