Key Sign of the Day
Today's key sign of the day (from the Note):
Nearly every political reporter in America is having the same experience — they keep finding Republicans who say they will never vote again for President Bush (over the the war and the deficit, usually) but they have a heck of a time finding anyone who voted for Gore in 2000 who are now certain that they will vote for Bush (and Gore apparently won the popular vote).
This is a key sign of two things:
1. We are going to Win!
2. Reporters cannot bring themselves to report an objective fact that favors the Democrats. If a large number of Republicans are going to switch and Dems are not, report that! Reporter always feel the need for "balance" with one quote from a former Gore voter and one from a former Bush voter. There are no former Democrates this cycle. Dems are pissed and are coming home.
June 30, 2004
My New Book
I have a new book I'm writing. It's a Sci-Fi/Action/Romance but I'm thinking of calling it "Republicans are Pricks" with a sub-title of "Sean Hanity and the Fox News team can kiss my ass." Someone then should sue my ass or try and block the book from coming out, or go on Crossfire and denounce me. The ensuing publicity will rocket me to stardom al la Moore and Franken. If I don't get controversy, I'll just come up with a better title.
I have a new book I'm writing. It's a Sci-Fi/Action/Romance but I'm thinking of calling it "Republicans are Pricks" with a sub-title of "Sean Hanity and the Fox News team can kiss my ass." Someone then should sue my ass or try and block the book from coming out, or go on Crossfire and denounce me. The ensuing publicity will rocket me to stardom al la Moore and Franken. If I don't get controversy, I'll just come up with a better title.
June 29, 2004
Moore Fights Unfair!
I am a strange duck in that I watch Cable News shout shows to relax. This unfortunate habit has lead me to be exposed to a lot of critiquing of Michael Moore. The leading one is "cheap Shot!" What exactly is the difference between a cheap shot and a "good" shot never gets spelled out. The next is "Moore has failed to muster enough logic to prove that Bush is, in fact Satan." So I'm on Political Animal and I read:
Take the first half hour of the film, in which Moore exposes the close relationship between the Bush family and the House of Saudi. Sure, it relies mostly on innuendo and imagery, but then again, he never really makes the case anyway. He never flat out says that the Bush family is on the Saudi payroll. Rather, he simply includes "9/11," "Bush," and "Saudi Arabia" in as many sentences as possible, thus leaving the distinct impression that George Bush is a bought and paid for subsidiary of the Saudi royal family.
Which is all remarkably similar to the tactic Bush himself used to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11. He never flat out blamed Saddam, but rather made sure to include the words "9/11," "Saddam Hussein," and "al-Qaeda" in as many sentences as possible, thus leaving the distinct impression that Saddam had something to do with it.
So now I wonder:
Is there a greater link between Bush and the House of Saud or Between Saddam and Al-Queda? Or is asking this question a cheap shot?
Take the first half hour of the film, in which Moore exposes the close relationship between the Bush family and the House of Saudi. Sure, it relies mostly on innuendo and imagery, but then again, he never really makes the case anyway. He never flat out says that the Bush family is on the Saudi payroll. Rather, he simply includes "9/11," "Bush," and "Saudi Arabia" in as many sentences as possible, thus leaving the distinct impression that George Bush is a bought and paid for subsidiary of the Saudi royal family.
Which is all remarkably similar to the tactic Bush himself used to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11. He never flat out blamed Saddam, but rather made sure to include the words "9/11," "Saddam Hussein," and "al-Qaeda" in as many sentences as possible, thus leaving the distinct impression that Saddam had something to do with it.
So now I wonder:
Is there a greater link between Bush and the House of Saud or Between Saddam and Al-Queda? Or is asking this question a cheap shot?
June 28, 2004
Everything is just cool in Iraq part 77
So we just handed over "power" a couple of days early. I'm sure it's because everthing was going so well we were ahead of scedual. Of maybe not. Maybe this is just a deperate ploy to avoid the images I was talking about: Bremer speech/bombs going off. Pandagon makes a good point about the PR hit they are going to take:
But even I didn't expect this. Not only did the Bush Administration sacrifice the political benefit of the transfer, they did themselves harm. Pushing it up two days and conducting it in a tiny room with few watching leaves the media with no relevant spin save "they were afraid of insurgent attacks". Stunningly, they essentially admitted that they can't protect the country and they've no control over the events.
No speeches, no brass band, no flags, No two week "bounce" in the way people view the war.
So we just handed over "power" a couple of days early. I'm sure it's because everthing was going so well we were ahead of scedual. Of maybe not. Maybe this is just a deperate ploy to avoid the images I was talking about: Bremer speech/bombs going off. Pandagon makes a good point about the PR hit they are going to take:
But even I didn't expect this. Not only did the Bush Administration sacrifice the political benefit of the transfer, they did themselves harm. Pushing it up two days and conducting it in a tiny room with few watching leaves the media with no relevant spin save "they were afraid of insurgent attacks". Stunningly, they essentially admitted that they can't protect the country and they've no control over the events.
No speeches, no brass band, no flags, No two week "bounce" in the way people view the war.
June 26, 2004
Little Bits of Everything
TAP has Green Party convention here. This convention, unlike the two "major" party convention may make a difference.
The Vice President "Fuck Yourself" on the floor of the U.S. Senate. What will we tell the children?
Man is driven from U.S. Senate race for wanting to have sex with his wife. The world is mad. By the way lets take a look at that wife.
TAP has Green Party convention here. This convention, unlike the two "major" party convention may make a difference.
The Vice President "Fuck Yourself" on the floor of the U.S. Senate. What will we tell the children?
Man is driven from U.S. Senate race for wanting to have sex with his wife. The world is mad. By the way lets take a look at that wife.
June 24, 2004
Everything is fine in Iraq part 45
So a series of attacks in Iraq today kill 89 people, including 3 U.S. soldiers. It is now 6 days till the "handover" of "power" to the Iraqi "Government." If this thing keeps up, do you think the Bushies will go ahead with the pomp and circumstance, brass bands, ceremonially flag raising and all that on the handover date while hundreds continue to die on the streets of Baghdad? But could they afford to postpone the handover in light of massive civilian casualties? Just think of a CNN split-screen. Paul Bremer given his handover speech with the new Iraqi PM on one side of the screen, with a burning Iraqi police station and wreaked U.S. Humvee on the other.
So a series of attacks in Iraq today kill 89 people, including 3 U.S. soldiers. It is now 6 days till the "handover" of "power" to the Iraqi "Government." If this thing keeps up, do you think the Bushies will go ahead with the pomp and circumstance, brass bands, ceremonially flag raising and all that on the handover date while hundreds continue to die on the streets of Baghdad? But could they afford to postpone the handover in light of massive civilian casualties? Just think of a CNN split-screen. Paul Bremer given his handover speech with the new Iraqi PM on one side of the screen, with a burning Iraqi police station and wreaked U.S. Humvee on the other.
Craig: Movie Pundit
Michael Moore's 9/11 is going to break huge tomorrow. I think it has a real chance to be the #1 movie in box office sales this weekend. The amount of publicity that the movie has received is massive and the movie is not going have much compitition. I checked the other movies coming out and I don't think White Chicks is going to be a real money-maker. I think that we could safely say that a movie deticaded completely to the attacking of George W Bush being the #1 movie in America will be taken by the conventional wisdom as a bad sign for Bush. CW is more important than people think, especially for the way reporters cover the campaigns. If polls and other indicators show a guy is up in a race, look for stories about big crowds, exciting speeches and so on. If CW says that a guys is losing, look for stories on "campaign in chaos" or "struggling to find a message." If reporters think that Kerry is doing well and Bush is in trouble, then the reporting will reflect that.
Michael Moore's 9/11 is going to break huge tomorrow. I think it has a real chance to be the #1 movie in box office sales this weekend. The amount of publicity that the movie has received is massive and the movie is not going have much compitition. I checked the other movies coming out and I don't think White Chicks is going to be a real money-maker. I think that we could safely say that a movie deticaded completely to the attacking of George W Bush being the #1 movie in America will be taken by the conventional wisdom as a bad sign for Bush. CW is more important than people think, especially for the way reporters cover the campaigns. If polls and other indicators show a guy is up in a race, look for stories about big crowds, exciting speeches and so on. If CW says that a guys is losing, look for stories on "campaign in chaos" or "struggling to find a message." If reporters think that Kerry is doing well and Bush is in trouble, then the reporting will reflect that.
June 23, 2004
A Simple President is not a Good Thing
"You can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror." - President George W. Bush, September 2002
Bush cannot tell the difference between al Qaeda and Saddam. It is too complicated for him to wrap his mind around the difference. Let us have no more talk of how "simple and direct" the man is. Simple is not good.
"You can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror." - President George W. Bush, September 2002
Bush cannot tell the difference between al Qaeda and Saddam. It is too complicated for him to wrap his mind around the difference. Let us have no more talk of how "simple and direct" the man is. Simple is not good.
June 22, 2004
Optimism: It's Worst Than We Thought
There are several things I see in politics than bug me a some level, but not on the level where I can express a real thought. All the talk about Reagan the optimist, and Bush and Kerry with their dueling optimism campaign messages was bugging me, but I wasn't sure why. Michael Kinsley has written why this bugs me. The big finish:
And if forced to choose between a leader whose vision is clouded by optimism and one whose vision is clouded by pessimism, there is a good case that pessimism is the more prudent choice. Another name for pessimism is a tragic sensibility. It is a vivid awareness that things can go wrong, and often have. An optimist thinks he can pop over to Iraq, knock Saddam Hussein off his perch, establish democracy throughout the Middle East and be home in time for dinner. A pessimist knows better.
In other news John Kerry is up 53-45 and is rated higher on the issues of Terrorism(!!) and Taxes(!!!). I am feeling optimistic, how about you?
There are several things I see in politics than bug me a some level, but not on the level where I can express a real thought. All the talk about Reagan the optimist, and Bush and Kerry with their dueling optimism campaign messages was bugging me, but I wasn't sure why. Michael Kinsley has written why this bugs me. The big finish:
And if forced to choose between a leader whose vision is clouded by optimism and one whose vision is clouded by pessimism, there is a good case that pessimism is the more prudent choice. Another name for pessimism is a tragic sensibility. It is a vivid awareness that things can go wrong, and often have. An optimist thinks he can pop over to Iraq, knock Saddam Hussein off his perch, establish democracy throughout the Middle East and be home in time for dinner. A pessimist knows better.
In other news John Kerry is up 53-45 and is rated higher on the issues of Terrorism(!!) and Taxes(!!!). I am feeling optimistic, how about you?
June 21, 2004
Nader Has VP
Nader has picked a running mate and I must say its a pretty good pick. Crap. Peter Camejo is a long-time Green party guy, which should help Nader get the Green party nod and access to a lot more state ballots. Camejo ran for CA governor during the recall and did not embarrass himself in the debates and was pretty effective at outlining a very pure, pie in the sky lefty policy platform. All and all pretty smart move. Crap.
Nader has picked a running mate and I must say its a pretty good pick. Crap. Peter Camejo is a long-time Green party guy, which should help Nader get the Green party nod and access to a lot more state ballots. Camejo ran for CA governor during the recall and did not embarrass himself in the debates and was pretty effective at outlining a very pure, pie in the sky lefty policy platform. All and all pretty smart move. Crap.
June 19, 2004
Beating of Breasts and Wrending of Cloths at TNR
It does my heart good to see some second thinking at The New Republic. I like reading the magazine a lot. It represents the rightward end of my brain on most political issues, see my permalinks for the full spectrum. TNR is the voice of liberal hawks and laid out a good case for war with Iraq based on human rights and changing the status quo in the middle East. That said, Bush did not wage their war and they should righfuly feel screwed. In order to have a liberal hawk war you need a liberal hawk. Clinton became a liberal hawk, Gore would have been and Kerry should be. Bush will never be a liberal hawk and it is good for TNR to realize it. He invaded Iraq for his own reasons not TNR's and did so very badly.
It does my heart good to see some second thinking at The New Republic. I like reading the magazine a lot. It represents the rightward end of my brain on most political issues, see my permalinks for the full spectrum. TNR is the voice of liberal hawks and laid out a good case for war with Iraq based on human rights and changing the status quo in the middle East. That said, Bush did not wage their war and they should righfuly feel screwed. In order to have a liberal hawk war you need a liberal hawk. Clinton became a liberal hawk, Gore would have been and Kerry should be. Bush will never be a liberal hawk and it is good for TNR to realize it. He invaded Iraq for his own reasons not TNR's and did so very badly.
June 18, 2004
Breaking News
This just in to Craigorian Chant. Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th president and beloved statesman is still dead. His condition remains unchanged at this time. Craigorian Chant will continue to update this story as it progresses. We now return you to you regular program.
June 17, 2004
More on Target Selection
The logic I outlined in the last post can be applied to WMD as well as 9/11. The Bush administration has managed to pick the one hostile country in the world that did not have a WMD program. Libya and Syria have chemical weapons. Iran is working to get nukes. Pakistan has nukes and is one Islamic revolution away from becoming massively hostile. North Korea has nukes and is already massively hostile. Why do we attack Iraq? Even by the reasons Bush outlined it makes no sense.
The logic I outlined in the last post can be applied to WMD as well as 9/11. The Bush administration has managed to pick the one hostile country in the world that did not have a WMD program. Libya and Syria have chemical weapons. Iran is working to get nukes. Pakistan has nukes and is one Islamic revolution away from becoming massively hostile. North Korea has nukes and is already massively hostile. Why do we attack Iraq? Even by the reasons Bush outlined it makes no sense.
Picking your Targets
So now we have a back and forth between the White House and the 9/11 commission on links to Iraq and 9/11. The fight seems to be between the White House claiming some (small, vague) link between Iraq and Al Qaida and everyone else in the world saying there is no link. I think this is framing the issue the wrong way. Even if some guy with Al Qaida ties met with some guy with Iraqi ties does not justify the Iraq War. If you drew up a list of countries with links to 9/11 will all available evidence Afghanistan would clearly be #1 with Saudi Arabia second and Pakistan a close third, next Egypt and so on. Iraq would rank somewhere below Germany. Why on earth did we pick Iraq as the second country to target as part of a global war on terrorism?
So now we have a back and forth between the White House and the 9/11 commission on links to Iraq and 9/11. The fight seems to be between the White House claiming some (small, vague) link between Iraq and Al Qaida and everyone else in the world saying there is no link. I think this is framing the issue the wrong way. Even if some guy with Al Qaida ties met with some guy with Iraqi ties does not justify the Iraq War. If you drew up a list of countries with links to 9/11 will all available evidence Afghanistan would clearly be #1 with Saudi Arabia second and Pakistan a close third, next Egypt and so on. Iraq would rank somewhere below Germany. Why on earth did we pick Iraq as the second country to target as part of a global war on terrorism?
June 15, 2004
June 14, 2004
Bush Begs Pope for Help
June 8, 2004
Just a little Reagan Bashing
Not to speak ill of the dead, but we here at Craigorian Chant (Now with new, improved Tagline!) we feel in the interest of balance must link to people saying bad things about this Great Man. Here is Christopher Hitchens completely out of his body. Nothing beats a Brit to call someone stupid. Reagan as liberal here. Finally, some of TNR on Reagan here. We do this with great reluctance and merely to balance the current attempt to make the man a saint.
Not to speak ill of the dead, but we here at Craigorian Chant (Now with new, improved Tagline!) we feel in the interest of balance must link to people saying bad things about this Great Man. Here is Christopher Hitchens completely out of his body. Nothing beats a Brit to call someone stupid. Reagan as liberal here. Finally, some of TNR on Reagan here. We do this with great reluctance and merely to balance the current attempt to make the man a saint.
June 5, 2004
Ah gee, That was quick
So I read a headline, post, go to the gym and bam, my prediction comes true. So now it is clear I have magic powers to sense impending death, everyone should take my predictions on political matters seriously. Prepare yourself for the epic figh over WHAT REAGAN MEANS.
So I read a headline, post, go to the gym and bam, my prediction comes true. So now it is clear I have magic powers to sense impending death, everyone should take my predictions on political matters seriously. Prepare yourself for the epic figh over WHAT REAGAN MEANS.
Reagan Children Grathering
Not a good sign. Looks like we might be in for a whole round of "What Reagan Means to history/America/conservative politics/Peggy Nonan" when the old guy finaly lets go. I myself look forward to the (repectfull) takedowns offered in TNR and TAP and the disrespectfull ones offer by The Nation and Atrios.
Not a good sign. Looks like we might be in for a whole round of "What Reagan Means to history/America/conservative politics/Peggy Nonan" when the old guy finaly lets go. I myself look forward to the (repectfull) takedowns offered in TNR and TAP and the disrespectfull ones offer by The Nation and Atrios.
June 3, 2004
June 2, 2004
Why Rummy shouldn't resign
Look, if we start by holding one member of Bush's administration responsible for his actions, where's it all gonna end?"
The Onion
The Onion
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