December 31, 2004

Year End Fun

Time for the Year in Review. I'm seeking a little reader feedback. The question is what is the catch phrase of 2004. Michelle Cottle starts us off with:

Top Five Most Ridiculous Additions to the American Lexicon This Year:

1. Wardrobe malfunction
2. Swift Boat Veterans For Truth
3. NASCAR dad
4. Security mom
5. George Tenet, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

I would add:

YYYARRRWWWGGGGLLLEEE (That sound poor Dean made)
Desperate Housewives

So when VH1 is doing "I love the 2000's" shows what will they remember and mock. How are we going to remember 2004. Click on the Comments link at the bottom of this post and put in your two cents. Bonus points if you can come up with a better name for this decade than the 2000's.

Iraq is Fine Part 89

They will not know who they are voting for:

Candidate name recognition doesn't appear very important, however. For security reasons, the actual names of most candidates on the 78 party or multiparty lists have so far not been released. This odd situation, in which the candidates are not known amonth before the election, attests to how dire the political and security situation in Iraq really is.

This comes from Juan Cole via Kos. Must read stuff for Iraq.

A vote were you don't know then names on the ballot is not "freedom on the march" It's freedom hiding in the dark under the covers. Remember that during the next Bush remarks after the next bad day for American troops.

God's eye view of the destruction

Before:



After:





Before:



After:




More satellite images of the tsunami's aftermath.

December 30, 2004

News from the Courts

Anna Nicole Smith has lost 88.5 million in ruling. Tough break.

Judge rules $5.6 million for 94 year old Grandmother to be paid over 20 years. Really tough break.

Detroit sets up "Blight Court" Now, I was kidding about the other two but this really is interesting:

Starting next week, Detroit has a new, more powerful weapon to force owners of decayed properties to clean them up and repair them: blight court.

Actually, it is not a court at all. Under the new legal process, building code violations will be heard not by judges, but by administrative hearing officers. And such violations will no longer be criminal offenses but civil infractions.




One World

Everyone talks about globalization. They protest it, hype it, debate it. The Tsunamis are showing us what globalization is. It means one world. Instant communication - cable TV, the web and so on means everyone knows about it, sees it, feels it, live and in color. It moves people to help. It lets people help with two clicks and a credit card. The institutions that the anti-global protest like the world bank are already putting money in to rebuild. Global tourism means every country in the world has lost people. Globalization means that the countries affected are not alone in this. The whole world is watching and the whole world will help. I don't mean to be pollyanna here, globalization hurts plenty of people, but it will also save a lot of people as well. There are no backwaters any more. Everyplace is as close as the TV or computer so everyplace is a neighbor. And we help our neighbors.

December 29, 2004

Iraq...

...Still a bloody mess. For more fun let's through in some good old fashion corrupt officials. Just your normal 3rd world crap. The difference is that this is our bloody mess and those are corrupt officials that we are fighting to keep in power.

December 28, 2004

Time to Face the Horror

The death toll from the Indian Ocean Earthquake just keeps going up. Latest figures put the total at over 58,000, which makes 9/11 look like children fighting in a sandbox. Tragedy like this is enough to start someone questioning God.

There seems to be a little spat going on about the level of generosity of the United States. Everyone has stats on their side. In terms of absolute numbers the US gives more than anybody, however if you calculate the amount per capita or per GDP then...not so generous. Let's put it this way, US initial pledge of aid 15 million. Cost of Bush inauguration 30-40 million. We are going to give more, but come on.

I really total have to back up Slate's Surfer Girl that CNN is the place to go to get real news on the quake. They have real reporter who live in the area and know what the hell they are talking about. They by far have the best real stuff to B.S. ratio of any cable network.

Trying to Find Good News Edition

Here's a fun headline:

Reelection Honeymoon With Voters Eludes Bush, Polls Say

The case can be made that Bush I was, in fact, worse than Bush II.

Psychics are having themselves a pretty bad year:

According to psychic forecasts made in December, 2003, the next year would bring the discovery of giant animal fossils on Mars, the election of Colin Powell, who would switch parties and trounce George Bush, and the development by Americans of a taste for pressed bricks of dried plankton. The Sun, the tabloid that most heralds the psychics, claimed that its predictions for 2004 were “from the world’s most brilliant psychics and seers.” Among them were twins Terry and Linda Jamison, who vowed that “Saddam Hussein will be killed by U.S. troops early in the year,” and that “Pope John Paul II will pass away in June.”

Finally the amount of spam is down, but you can't tell from my inbox.

December 27, 2004

Jesus Wept

To The People Of Islam:
Just think: If we'd invaded your countries, killed your leaders and converted you to Christianity YOU'D ALL BE OPENING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS RIGHT ABOUT NOW!
Merry Christmas
Currently at the top of Ann Coulter's Web Page.
She couldn't possibly mean this, could she? She's just trying to piss me off, right?

9.0

Some things are just beyond our capasity to understand. The world is ending for millions of people across Asia. Please help if you can.

Red Cross
Oxfam
ReliefWeb

December 26, 2004

Exit Polls in Ukraine

No elections left in this country so we bring you some elections in other countries. It appears that opposition canidate Viktor Yushchenko is beating Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The last time the two Viktors went at it the election was invalidated by the Country's Supreme Court due to massive voter fraud that brought thousands of Orange-clad protesters to the streets. The whole thing got a James Bond spin when it was reveled that Yushchenko was poisoned. Yushchenko is a reformer who will move Ukraine out from under Putin-dominated Russia. Putin is shaping up to be a first-class anti-democratic jerk so if these results hold up we can mark up a win for the forces of light.

December 23, 2004

Fun With Video Editing

Hot links, get your hot links here.

Holy Cow

It looks like the Democrats might win a recount!

Quote of the Day

"America failed its exam as a superpower, They are a military and economic superpower but not morally or politically anymore. This is a tragedy for us."

Lech Walesa, the former Solidarity trade-union leader who became Poland's first post-Communist president.

December 22, 2004

Hey

Does anybody want to buy Craigorian Chant? It's much cheaper than I'm sure Slate went for. I'll even throw in two John Kerry for President bumper stickers. What do you say? Make Craigorian Chant a part of your media empire today.

Other subjects -

DailyKos on Bush's War.

Matthew Yglesias mixes sarcasm and X-Mas well.

All you need to know:

President Bush will spearhead an election-style public relations campaign early next year to try to convince Americans that Social Security is in urgent need of change but will keep dollar and cent details deliberately vague, analysts and officials say.

December 21, 2004

Oh, Now You Get it Edition

It seems the American People are starting to turn on this whole Iraq war thing. 56% of Americans now think that the Iraq war was a mistake. A little late don't you think? But don't worry I'm sure a few more scenes of absolute horror like today are sure to turn people around. What will Bush do? Bush won the election so John Kerry doesn't have to try and clean up this mess. What will Bush do? I would put money on a U.S. troop withdrawl within over/under of six months. All the conservatives will declare victory, Iraq goes into civil war and Fox News goes to wall to wall coverage of the Robert Blake murder trial. Nothing to see here folks.

December 19, 2004

Sunday Odds and Ends

Don Rumsfeld - Ass.

Doonesbury is just great today.

Remember, the criteria is the people who most effected the world, for good or ill.

Arnold calls for the GOP to move left. Let's see how that goes.

While I did realy like the new Ocean's 12 movie, it lacked something that the first movie had and I can't come up with the right word. Any ideas?

December 17, 2004

Quote of the Day

"People have the misconception that everyone goes to war and gets killed."

Army Recruiting officer in Brooklyn, Via DailyKos

More On San Diego

I loved Jess's comment on the San Diego Mayor Race so much that I'm putting it up:

The SD mayor race is an interesting one. Here's the deal, as currently stands, Donna Frye (bad ass surfer/tree hugger/independent) lost to Dick Murphey (boring old white republican whose run the city into massive debt) by very little. Recently some news organizations filed to see all of the ballots that wrote in her name, but didn't fill in the bubble (i.e., all the people that are a really dumb). If you count those ballots, she wins.
Now, at first I'm thinking, that'll never fly. You have to draw the line somewhere, she's got a snowball's chance in hell on this one. Then, this morning on my way in to work, I heard something very interesting. As the ballots are coming in on election day, if election officials see ballots where the bubble is just checked or x'd, they fill it in for them, actually modify the ballot. Also, if there are extra pen marks around the ballot, they white those out so the machine won't get confused. In other words, only slightly less stupid people are helped along in having their vote counted.
So, where's the line? How dumb and incapable of following directions do you have to be for your vote to not count?
More to come, I'm sure.

December 16, 2004

Unfinished

It's a month and a half after election day and we still do not know who is Govenor of Washington State, the Mayor of San Diego or the Montana State House. Check out MyDD for a news round-up.

Doomed?

One interesting question as we debate the future of the world is the following -

Was the Iraq war doomed from the beginning?

By that I mean were the well-documented screw-ups of this administration responsible for the mess we are in now or was there no way to get Iraq right? Would we still have the bloody mess if Bushco made all the right moves? Peter Beinart is making the case that is was possible to get Iraq right:

But it wasn't inevitable that toppling Saddam would create widespread Iraqi anti-Americanism and a raging Sunni insurgency. Polls suggested that, in the immediate aftermath of Saddam's overthrow, Iraqis were far more grateful for the war--and far less hostile to the U.S. occupation--than they later became. The rapid souring was caused, above all, by Rumsfeld's refusal to provide enough troops to ensure security--a failure illustrated most dramatically in the spasm of looting that followed the U.S. victory. As the Rand Corporation's James T. Quinlivan has noted, at the beginning of the fairly successful Bosnia and Kosovo nation-building efforts, nato boasted more than 22 troops for every 1,000 local civilians. In Iraq, when Saddam fell, there were six.

Beinart wants to salvage the idea of the Liberal Hawk from the wreck of Iraq, which is an enterprise that I can totally get behind. But the troop ratio that he is talking about would mean over 480,000 troops in Iraq. We don't have the troops to do that. So, what would it have taken to get Iraq right and could we have done it with a non-feckless Defense Secretary?

December 15, 2004

Oooooo.Kaaaaaa

"There's a trade deficit. That's easy to resolve: People can buy more United States products if they're worried about the trade deficit."

George W. Bush

December 14, 2004

Death Penalty

Not that we have been following the Peterson case here at Craigorian Chant, but a little fact keeps getting mentioned is the massive backlog that California has on it's death row. I'm having trouble finding an article but there are over 600 people on death row in this State and only 10 people have been executed sence the death penaty was brought back in 1978. Scott Peterson has a much better chance of dying of natural or "other" causes (murder/suicide) than being executed.

I would like to go on the record as saying this is exactly how I like the death penalty to be administered: slowly. I support the death penalty because I believe that there are crimes that deserve it. I also believe that it should be slow, difficult, labor intensive and an all around pain in the ass to carry out. Death may be appropriate, but it should never be easy for the state to take a life. Taking a life is a terrible and final act and should be damn hard to carry out. Twenty years of appeals and millions of dollars in lawyer's fees hard. If we wish to give closure (revenge) to the families of the victims that fine, but you should have to work hard for that revenge.

December 13, 2004

U2 and Bush

I love it when it all comes together. Bush is stealing moves from U2.

By the way, shouldn't you be dead or at least retired before you go to the Hall of Fame.

Next Stop, Your Town

So the next round will be fought in the local. Did you really think this was the last election and last fight? Politics is an every day thing here in America and it not just about who is President or big Federal Programs like Social Security. It's about Mayors and County Supervisors and School Boards. It's where the next fight is happening. It's up to you to prevent really dumb things from ending up in school textbooks. Helps keep this blog in business.

December 12, 2004

Too many jokes...

U.S. Warns of Terrorist Lasers

Would that be the same "Lasers" that Dr. Evil uses?

E-Mail Joke of the Day

The Center for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new
virulent strain of sexually transmitted disease. This disease is
contracted through dangerous and high risk behavior. The disease is called Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced "gonna re-elect him").

Many victims have contracted it after having been screwed for the
past four years, in spite of having taken measures to protect
themselves from this especially troublesome disease.

Cognitive sequellae of individuals infected with Gonorrhea Lectim
include, but are not limited to: Antisocial Personality Disorder
traits; delusions of grandeur with a distinct messianic flavor; chronic mangling of the English language; extreme cognitive dissonance; inability to incorporate new information; pronounced xenophobia; inability to accept responsibility for actions; exceptional cowardice masked by acts of misplaced bravado; uncontrolled facial smirking; ignorance of geography and history; tendencies toward creating evangelical theocracies and a strong propensity for categorical, all-or-nothing behavior.

The disease is sweeping Washington. Naturalists and
epidemiologists are amazed and baffled that this malignant disease originated only a few years ago in a Texas Bush.


Thanks Rob. Rob, by the way is a great humanitarian and all around nice guy and could really use a job so. Save a starving Grad Student today.

December 10, 2004

Massive Tech Problems

Blogger Eating posts left and right. Nothing working. Not sure if this will get through but I'm posting it anyway. People are sending me good jokes and I really do wish to share them, but Blogger keeps eating them.

December 8, 2004

Why, Vets, Why?

According to these CNN election exit polls, people who serve in the military voted 57% - 41% for Bush. Bush, of course, appoints a SecDefense who pulls this:

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Wilson asked, setting off what the Associated Press described as "a big cheer" from his comrades in arms.

Rumsfeld paused, asked Wilson to repeat the question, then finally replied, "You go to war with the army you have." Besides, he added, "You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can be blown up."


Why are Dems considered soft on defense? In the last 20 years republican presidents killed a lot more American soldiers than democrats did. Could you imagine a Clinton SecDefense saying something like this? Les Aspine, Clinton's first SecDefense, resigned over the fight that went bad in Somalia which cost 19 American lives. Well, it's 1,276 lives and counting and ... nothing. Why do vets support these guys?

December 7, 2004

What I'm Talking About

Rob Corddry: “The facts are biased… the facts in Iraq have an anti-Bush agenda.”

Via Altercation

Those facts will never see the light of day on Clear Channel Radio running Fox News content.

Forces of Darkness Gather

Fox News and Clear Channel are getting together. Clear Channel is the radio giant also responsible for the signs that Chris posted. Fox News is well...Fox News. This deal means that there won't be annoying ABCnews radio updates at the top of the hour to snap you out of your Rush/Hanity dreamworld. Millions of people voted for
Bush because they simply didn't know any better. This deal shuts off one more possiblity that the right fact might find the right brain.
I feel that the current resources of Craigorian Chant are not up to properly take on the combined resources of the forces of evil. I need an merger. I'm hoping for her.

Hubba, Hubba, Hubba.



December 6, 2004

Monday, Monday

How was your weekend? I bet it doesn't look so bad compared to some.
Hey the folks in charge deserve a medal, don't they?

Real reason Hillary is hated. Really.

Beware Bernard Kerik for TPM is on your trail.




December 5, 2004

Bush Economics

I bitch about the budget deficit a lot on these pages, but I figure it's time to go a little deeper into what sucks about Bush economic policy. The starting point is this brilliant article from last year in the Washington Monthly:

As president, Bush chose a group of senior advisors whose economic backgrounds have a century-old flavor. His vice president is an oil man. His treasury secretary, John Snow, is a railroad man. The White House's economic and fiscal policies have been similarly designed to provide life support for these aging red-state industries: $190 billion in subsidies for farmers; tariffs for steel; subsidies, tax breaks, and regulatory relief for logging, mining, coal, and natural gas. Even Bush's tax policy shows the same old-economy preference. His dividend tax cut was supported by mainstream, blue-chip companies, which stood to gain, but opposed by high-tech executives, whose company stocks seldom pay dividends.

You really must read the whole thing but the bottom line is that Bush, by not funding education, hampering science, and favoring old extraction industries is killing our chances to have the Next Great Innovation. I'm not sure what it will be (my money's on biotech or blogging) but it will make somebody rich. That somebody won't be the US if this keeps up. Bush policy helps the economy of the Red States, economies based on extraction resources and keeping wages low. But this is a sucker's game because we will run out of resources and there is always somebody willing to work for cheaper in the world. You can't get ahead by propping up old, weak industries. America needs to get ahead by being creative, by innovating, by being smarter than the other guys. Republicans are not helping:

Of all the irresponsible aspects of the 2005 budget bill that the Republican-led Congress just passed, nothing could be more irresponsible than the fact that funding for the National Science Foundation was cut by nearly 2 percent, or $105 million.

Think about this. We are facing a mounting crisis in science and engineering education. The generation of scientists, engineers and mathematicians who were spurred to get advanced degrees by the 1957 Soviet launch of Sputnik and the challenge by President John Kennedy to put a man on the moon is slowly retiring.

But because of the steady erosion of science, math and engineering education in U.S. high schools, our cold war generation of American scientists is not being fully replenished. We traditionally filled the gap with Indian, Chinese and other immigrant brainpower. But post-9/11, many of these foreign engineers are not coming here anymore, and, because the world is now flat and wired, many others can stay home and innovate without having to emigrate.


That's Friedman. Foreign policy is part of this. Everything is part of this. The EU is bigger than we are economically. They are not perfect, but if we leave innovation behind and go with the Wal-Mart economy they are going to eat our lunch.

It's not really about tax and spend anymore. It's what kind of economy do you want? $6.50 an hour or $65,000 a year. Bush policies make the first, not the second.

December 3, 2004

They are Keeping RUMSFELD

There are 15 cabinet members. Nine are gone. Don Rumsfeld is going to stay. I cannot begin to express how profoundly this sucks. This sucks profoundly. I mean, does it even matter what actually has gone on for the last few years? Was I the only one paying attention?

Soviet era government propaganda, or ...



A political public service message brought to you by Clear Channel's outdoor advertising wing.

December 2, 2004

Republicans Lie to Get Sex

I'm sorry that headline is wrong. It should read Republicans Lie to Prevent Sex. Please read about the mind-blowing lies that your government is spending your tax dollars to spread:

Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff analysis has found.
...
President Bush has enthusiastically backed the movement, proposing to spend $270 million on abstinence projects in 2005. Congress reduced that to about $168 million, bringing total abstinence funding to nearly $900 million over five years. It does not appear that the abstinence-only curricula are being taught in the Washington area.


Craigorian Chant reader contest: Free John Kerry bumper sticker (collector's item!) to anyone who comes up with a Bush domestic program that isn't based on lies.

December 1, 2004

Remember

Remember that there are those for whom blogging isn't just a way to waste time at work. They are light in the darkness and we must honor them.

Market Wisdom

Republicans are constantly telling us that the market, in it's everlasting wisdom, should be left to decide everything. Well what does it say that this administration is assumed to lying by the "Market."

The dollar sank to a record low against the euro and fell to its lowest level since March 2000 versus the yen on Thursday
...
The market also took little notice of comments from a senior U.S. Treasury official that Washington was commited in cutting its budget deficit to help the dollar.

Asked, after a meeting with officials at Bank Indonesia, about U.S. policy regarding the weakening dollar, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Randal Quarles told reporters: "I explained the commitment to reduce the fiscal deficit as well as to increase U.S. domestic savings."


The dollar is going down, in part, because of the massive budget deficits we are running up. The dollar would go up if the "Market" thought the administration was telling the truth. All hail the wisdom of the Market.

U2 Beat Eminem

I would just like to take this oppertunity to mock Craigorian Chant SoCal Reporter Tyler with the news that U2's new album has knocked Eminem out of the top spot of the album charts. Ha Ha.