Late Night

My Lady Joss Stone does Under Pressure:

Left Out

Look at how petty Kristol and Krauthammer get over Gore's Nobel peace prize. I think they are just feeling left out. There is no "war prize" No one celebrates people who work long and hard start wars. Because wars are bad. Kristol and Krauthammer forgot that a long time ago. Wars bad, peace good. 100 hundred times on the chalkboard, both of you.

Rock On

No really.

David Eessex - Rock On

Congratulations

Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace prize for his work on Climate Change. Just to review, the man has won an Oscar, an Emmy and a Nobel and they have all been consolation prizes.

Let us first take in the spectacle of hundreds of conservative head exploding as one.

Let us not forget as Josh Marshall says that "he greatest step for world peace would simply have been for Gore not to have had the presidency stolen from him in November 2000"

Al Gore fights for future of us all. A worthy prize for a worthy man and worthy work.

Congratulations

Let Us Praise:

Elmore Leonard, who turns 82 today. Leonard is master of the Extra-Cool crime novel. The kinds of novels that make great movies. Christopher Orr has a round-up. I leave you with this choice piece from Out of Sight:

"Buddy, is that his given name?"

"Its the name I gave him, yeah."

IRS V Pimps

Isaac Chotiner finds GOP Dark Horse Mike Huckabee wanting to unleash the IRS on pimps and hos. Interestingly, this is the second time I've seen this policy proposal. There is an element of the GOP that thinks one of the two things certain in life is going to end the worlds oldest profession.

Bold

Sure, the clerk might have taken a 100,000 dollar bill, but a million dollar bill is pushing it, don't you think?

Oh and fun fact: there hasn't been anything larger than a Benjamen in circulation since 1969. Good to know.

Please Don't Help

For the love of GOD (Just for an aside, what do Buddhist say when then want take The Lord's name in vane? How do Buddhist curse, anyway?) Keep Bill Kristol away from Burma. He wants to bomb. Or invade. I'm not sure exactly what, but under no circumstances should the leading intellectual light of our current disaster in Iraq be allowed anywhere near Burma. Even if in my darker liberal hawk moments I've indulged fantasies of having the 101st Airborne giving Aung San Suu Kyi her country back. But with this crew in power, we would be lucky if the nation didn't break off from the rest of Asia and sink into the sea.

Even when we get some competent leadership back in charge in this Country, the damage to American power, prestige, and standing in the world we have suffered over the last seven years means that we are less able to do good on a whole range of issues, not the least would be to get the government of Burma to stop murdering large numbers of its own people. Mahablog has a good example how the massive debt we've run up under Republican governance weakens us vis-a-vie Burma's friend China.

Worthless Libertarian

Libertarian are never people I would want in charge of things, but I find useful to have around. I wouldn't want to live in world with no public schools, no roads but toll roads and having to take Ayn Rand seriously. But I do check in with Reason's Hit and Run. Libertarians have valid critics of the drug war, militarization of the police, and generally keeping government out of our bedrooms. Plus, they have an excellent nose for really stupid government regulations, which I welcome if only to help clear the air for the regulations that we do need. Nothing hurts good laws and social programs like bad laws and social programs which undermine government.

Which brings us to Ron Paul, "Libertarian" dark horse running in the GOP Primary, who is getting attention for being the only anti-Iraq War Republican and raising a fair respectable chunk of change. But Paul is pretty worthless as a Libertarian. He's pro-life, and against gays in the military, and seems rather ok with government in the bedroom. I'm not giving up public schools and Social Security for this. While his anti-war stance makes him notable for a Republican, that stance is tied to a plum crazy view of the world.

I want my idiots to be useful, and Ron Paul is not useful.

Health

From Sunday Morning Chats, Speaker Pelosi v Fox edition:

Wallace: When you pray for President Bush, what do you pray for?

Pelosi: I pray that -- well, at the same as I pray for him, I pray for America's children and that there can be some compatibility in their thinking. But I pray for his health, his well being. I pray that he makes the right decisions for the American people. But when I . . .

Think of Vice President Cheney and pray for President Bush's health.

Rock It

Maroon 5 - Wake Up Call



Sex and Violence. Fun Times.

Saturday Afternoon Live to Tape

Torture Nation

Man we just suck.

Craigs Don't Quit

Larry Craig: not resigning.

Pen of Death

President Bush veto of an SCHIP expansion is only the fourth of his Presidency. The other three are two vetoes of Stem Cell research funding and a measure that would bring the Iraq war to an end. Thats less health care for kids, less medical research, and more war. So basically, every time Bush gets out that veto pen, people are going to die.

Obama On War

Obama's speech on eve of the Iraq War. Tape is incomplete, so they have campaign volunteers finish. Nice touch.



From TheGarance. Adding a "The" in front of your name, very trendy.

Death Machine Halts

The One-State killing rampage that is the Texas Justice system comes to a brief halt.

Clunk

I don't think I've blogged a bit about Fred Thompson's late-breaking run for the GOP Presidential nomination, mainly because I can't muster up anything more than "The Law and Order guy? Really? Why?" But it appears that the man has gotten to a fairly respectable place in the polls based on nothing more than have a deep and commanding voice. He apparently knows nothing about the world. Steven Benen has a great round-up of all the thing he hasn't know already in his short campaign. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that more flat out ignorance is not what we need in the White House right now.

Oh Damn

V for Vendetta:

Dominic: What do you think will happen?
Finch: What usually happens when people without guns stand up to people *with* guns.

Burma

Banned!

Lord Emperor Craig is issuing the following proclamation. Henceforth, the following persons, terms and talking points shall be banned from the public discourse:

Item the First: No more casually tossing around "Nazis" and "Hitler" insults. Its cheap, its easy and no one on ether side deserves it. Except maybe Cheney. No, no, not even Cheney. Hitler is dead. Move on.

Item the Second: No more calling Hillary Clinton "ambitious" like its an insult or disqualifies her. Everybody running for President is ambitious. In fact, everyone calling Hillary ambitious is ambitious themselves. Everyone is ambitious. Its just some of us lack the talent to rise up in the world and thus become political pundits. Ambitious is just code for "uppity women"

Item the Third: When every we talk about Iran everyone must first say "war with Iran is a terrible idea." You then may then go on to discuss Iran in a not-insane manner. Anyone calling for war with Iran shall be sent to the Emperor Craig political reeducation camp forthwith.

Item the Fourth: Bill Kristol is banned from our public discourse. Just go away. Begone.

Let the word go forth into the land. The Emperor has spoken.

What a Waste

Newt decides that he's not going to run. After all I the time I put into pimping his run. I feel so used. I was totally going to pledge money. I swear.

New dream: Giuliani get the nomination and triggers a third party effort from conservatives.

Weekending

Cake - Short Skirt/Long Jacket

World Still not Right

Crackdown in Burma ongoing. Protesters shot, beaten, arrested. The Internet has been cut off in the Country. All the old crimes in all the newest ways.

Terrible

If you have a player named Hope Solo then you play her. They benched Solo and now they lost the game. Very simple.

No Fuel for the Fire

Richard Just in The Plank:

Of course there are people who want the United States to go to war with Iran, and who therefore had their own set of reasons for giving Ahmadinejad a rude reception this week. I am, emphatically, not one of those people. But does opposing war with Iran really require liberals to act politely towards an illiberal monster like Ahmadinejad--to overlook his repression of dissidents, his sponsorship of terrorism, his fanatical anti-semitism?

I'm sorry but the answer is to this rhetorical question is YES. There is a powerful faction of the United States Government that is intent on starting a war with Iran. If you don't want this war, and Just doesn't, you have to not spend your days saying how horrible Iran is. Because that will only build the case for war. I would love to spend my days denouncing Ahmadinejad. But to do so these days in to invite catastrophe. Denounce Burma. They deserve it too and they're in no danger of triggering a misguided war in the process.

My First Cause

Let me tell you how I learned that all might not be right with the world. Back in high school for Academic Decathlon our super-quiz subject was called "Documents of Freedom" a collection of letters, speeches, and well documents that had advanced the cause of freedom in the world. We would study the texts, the history behind them and so on. Declaration of Independence, Letters from a Birmingham Jail, something from Gandhi etc, etc. In the collection was a speech from Aung San Suu Kyi a democratic activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner in Burma. She has fought for years against a military dictatorship in her country, which the junta has renamed Myanmar. What shocked me at time was that unlike Lech Wałęsa, the American Revolution and the rest of the people we were studying, Suu Kyi had not won. When you study history in the mid-1990s, the glow still on the end of the Cold War, you get a sense that freedom really was on the march, that dictatorships were doomed to fail and that the good guys pretty much always won in the end. In fact, despite winning an election overwhelmingly and support for her cause worldwide, Suu Kyi remains under house arrest and the generals remain in charge: a situation that has remained unchanged ever since I learned about it some 13 years ago.

So I note today the growing protests in Burma, led by Buddhist monks, the coming crackdown, international pressure, hope and fear. Hope for change and fear of backlash. And nothing to do but watch.

UPDATE: We do call it Burma. James Fallows explains why.

Sweet

I would just like to note that the US Women's National Soccer Team, currently marching inevitably to another World Cup this month, has in goal a person by the name of Hope Solo. This really could be the most awesomely named person ever.

My Case

Oh, you want to know why Newt eh? So many reasons! First of all, he would lose and lose big. Johnson-Goldwater big. A few isolated GOP Congressman still left alive in all the wreckage big. But more importunately, he would lose in a very entertaining manner. Unlike, say, Sam Brownback, who would lose in a grim and humorless dirge of a campaign, Newt would go out like a New Orleans Funeral march. The man is ridiculously grand and foolish. Even his name is high comedy. He wants give homeless people laptops. He wants to unleash the innovative power of government by...defunding the government. He writes alternative history with scenarios like "what if Lee had won at Gettysburg" or "What if we had invaded Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia after 9/11" He was boffing a member of his staff the same time he impeached President Clinton. His destruction (and that of the GOP along with him) will be happy fun time.

UPDATE: AddieStan makes her case for Newt. She's less optimistic than I, but does point out the great list of Newt scandals, some of which I forgot about. Also, she has a great quote from Newt about creationism, chaos theory and, and... just read it.

Strike!

Wow, its been a while sense we've had one of these.

Mmmm Awkward

So the President of Iran is coming to America. This has triggered a whole battalion of controversy (Ground Zero! University Speech! How Do You Say His Name?!) Ahmadinejad puts the the non-insane of this County in an awkward spot. He is a nasty bugger and a figurehead of a nasty regime. But there is a faction of insane people in the world that really really want war between our Countries, despite common sense and all decency. So any recognition of Ahmadinejad's/Iran's nastiness lends credence to a completely insane foreign policy. I have no brief for Ahmadinejad. But there is a large contingent of people in this County who want everyone to believe he's the modern Hitler so they can bring about another disastrous war. So we end up having to defend the nasty but non-Hitler Ahmadinejad, just to ward off disaster. Neat trick.

My Town At War

Took in the first of Ken Burn's The War tonight, excellent work, as is expected from Mr. Burns. Sacramento is featured as one of four communities around which the central narrative is formed. So you will get the story of how Sacramento won the war. Or did its part.

In honor of the event, here's a documentary on the Battle of Hoth from Empire Strikes Back. The style may seem familiar.

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

Put Up

Newt says that he will run if supporters pledge to raise $30 million before November. Put me down for $12.25. That's the entire contents of my wallet at this exact moment.

Nerd Theater

The Guild

All Hat

No Horses.

According to the former President of Mexico Vicente Fox, President Bush is scared of horses.

Revelations

From Jess, head of the Craigorian Chant San Diego Bureau:

The mayor's daughter is GAY!!!!

So the city council recently passed (5-3) a resolution to support the fight in court to try to overturn the evil CA gay marriage ban. SD passed it by more than most in '04, but apparently our city council is much more liberal than our general population. Until recently, he had said he would veto it. Apparently, he determined yesterday that he couldn't look his daughter in the eye if he did that. So, yesterday afternoon, he publicly outed her (I assume with her permission) and changed his stance. A rare socially liberal moment in the city of San Diego. And today, he officially launches his re-election campaign. We'll see how that goes. While he's still not my favorite person in SD politics, he just took a step up in my book.

Mark down another conservative done in by reality.

Darth Indeed

Even Hillary does it.

Snooze Bar Abuse

Right about the same time I stagger out of bed, my neighbor's alarm clock goes off. During the summer when both our windows are open I can hear it. Not loud enough to wake me up but I can hear it. As I go about my morning prep, shower, blog and so on I can keep hearing this alarm go off every eight minuets or however long their snooze bar allows them. This goes on for at least a full hour before I leave for the day job. My neighbor is lying in bed, hitting the snooze bar for over an hour! That can not be healthy. Just set your alarm a little later. You're not fooling anyone. You're not even fooling me and have no idea where you are.

Anti-Democracy Twofer

By some weird kink of our Constitution, Washington DC has no representatives in the Federal Government. Also, due to outdated parliamentary procedure known as a filibuster, it takes 60 votes and not a simple majority to pass laws in the Senate.

Well an attempt to rectify the first problem was just foiled by the second. We have a few kinks to work out in this system.

Blackwater Down

This weeks major development in Iraq is the banning of controversial security firm Blackwater by the Iraqi government following a shoot-out that left eight civilians dead. Private security firms have been running wild in Iraq from the start of the occupation. So the US is now left with either loses a major part of its security apparatus or overriding the Iraqi government and showing them up as a US puppet.

Bush thinks his play for time gives us a chance for a lucky break in Iraq, but really, more time in Iraq just gives the Demon Murphy more time to work his magic.

OJ

Let me get this straight. He going to go down over a Sport Memorabilia Deal gone bad. Drugs or smuggled diamonds or Incan matrimonial headmasks I could understand but old sports junk?

Then again he is OJ Simpson and thus completely immune to prosecution. Why not bring guns to a sport memorabilia deal?

Wait and See

Ok, Bush is putting up a former judge named Michael Mukasey to replace the late great Alberto "I do not recall, Senator" Gonzales. Initial reaction see to be that he's not a total tool:

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin called Mukasey "an extraordinary difference from John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales," President Bush's first two attorney generals, both considered very conservative.

"Mukasey comes out of a New York moderate tradition that goes back to Thomas Dewey; Lawrence Walsh, Iran-Contra prosecutor; Robert Fisk, first independent counsel in the Whitewater case," Toobin said. "These are all sort of moderate Republicans, not especially political people."

Also see Glenn Greewald on signs of independence from Mukasey.

If Mukasey turns out to be the least bit independent that means some pretty embarrassing subpoenas are going to get approved. Its only been the complete toolishnish of Gonzales that has kept a number of Bush administration out of jail for contempt of Congress.

Coming Soon

Oh good cause I was spending way too much time outdoors, anyway.



What all are you looking forward to seeing?

Stay Mellow

Damien Rice - Volcano

Check

So now we have Shaheen running in New Hampshire and Warner running in Virgina so its looking like 2008 will be another very good year in the Senate for the Donkeys. People think the Democrats are going to do well - people give more money to Dems - The top Dem candidates jump into key races - People think the Democrats are going to do well. I love a positive feedback loop, don't

President of La La Land

Ludicrous!

Hope.

John Judis, political analysis par excellence, raises the yummy possibility of a tie among the GOP candidates for President and that holy grail of political junkies everywhere the brokered convention. Now this possibility is raised every four years but this time there's real hope. There are no less than 4 major candidates on the GOP side, each with support in the polls and each with fatal flaws that keep them from running the table. Unlike the Dems, where the likely outcome is either Hillary unstoppable or Obama/Edwards (one, not both) stopping her Kerry-Dean style, I could easily see Giuliani-Thompson-Romney-McCain trading off wins in a lot of different states and splitting up the Country regionally, Thompson takes the South, Romney the Northeast, Giuliani Mid-Atlantic and so on. No one gets enough delegates to win the nomination and the GOP goes to the convention having to cut a deal. This result would be both 1. super entertaining, and 2. a complete disaster for the party.

Fingers crossed.

Lies!

Oh man, I know you are a spy master and live in a world cloaked in shadow and deception, but don't lie to Congress about major policies and their effectiveness. My God, you just can't run a government like this.

Bush's Iraq Policy is a Joke

An old Jewish Joke, as it turns out.

Hmmmm

So let me get this strait. The surge is working so great we have to end it? Of course not. We have run out of troops. The choices are either break the army, end the surge or start a draft. Now if Iraq really was the critical battle in the War on Terror and the surge really was making a critical difference in that battle the Bush Administration would either risk breaking the army or take the political risk of implementing a draft. But Iraq isn't critical in the War on Terror. And the surge isn't making a difference. So despite all the rhetoric, the surge is coming to an end.

Forget

Let's not remember this day. Let's just go on about our day. No flags, no video tape. 9/11 doesn't make us any better as a nation. It makes us scared and stupid. It lets foolish leaders do foolish things. It destroys our rights. It destroys nations. It has become a gimmick, a brand name to sell the American people wiretaps and occupations. Let us bury this day forever before it buries us.

The Petraeus Show

The circus has come to town, but we are not learning very much. Well, we are learning just how much FoxNews is in the bag for this administration, but that's really not new. GOP support is dripping away, much too slowly, while the casualties continue to pile up, much too fast.

Fight, Fight

The fight over withdrawal from Iraq is not just going on out here in political realm, but inside the military as well:

For two hours, President Bush listened to contrasting visions of the U.S. future in Iraq. Gen. David H. Petraeus dominated the conversation by video link from Baghdad, making the case to keep as many troops as long as possible to cement any security progress. Adm. William J. Fallon, his superior, argued instead for accepting more risks in Iraq, officials said, in order to have enough forces available to confront other potential threats in the region.

The polite discussion in the White House Situation Room a week ago masked a sharper clash over the U.S. venture in Iraq, one that has been building since Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations, sent a rear admiral to Baghdad this summer to gather information. Soon afterward, officials said, Fallon began developing plans to redefine the U.S. mission and radically draw down troops.

One of those plans, according to a Centcom officer, involved slashing U.S. combat forces in Iraq by three-quarters by 2010. In an interview, Fallon disputed that description but declined to offer details. Nonetheless, his efforts offended Petraeus's team, which saw them as unwelcome intrusion on their own long-term planning. The profoundly different views of the U.S. role in Iraq only exacerbated the schism between the two men.

Bush wants to stay and will "listen" to Petraeus and not Fallon. But those of us who wish to withdrawal from Iraq do have allies in to Pentagon and President Hil-bama-wards will find it very easy to finds generals willing to implement a draw down of US forces once they take office.

Rock On

U2 - With or Without You

So Where You Bin?

New Osama Tape. My points:

1. What the hell is he doing still out there in the world, making videos!

2. The actual contents of the tape are a rambling political rant that draws on a whole bunch of different ideologies. Josh Patashnik called it a combination of "Noam Chomsky , Huey Long, and Dinesh D'Souza." The result is a political ink blot in which you can see your political opponents and use OBL to smear them. Case in point. Hitler was a vegetarian! Communists confiscate guns! Osama wants tax cuts!

3. Just for Men

4. What the hell is he doing still out there in the world, making videos!

And Now the Economy

Mortgages and Jobs reports and Stocks and thing are not looking so good. The last thing we all need.

Look at all that Metaphorical Blood in the Metaporical Water

From Kos, a GOP firm has released a poll showing John Doolittle losing to Charles Brow 51% to 31%. Kos speculates that the firm works for one of the Republicans looking to challenge Doolittle in the Primary, but regardless, this poll show Doolittle looking critically weak.

The investigation continues. Its really only a matter of who gets him first, the Feds or the voters.

Encore

It appears that Senator Larry Craig hasn't had enough yet and is reconsidering the whole resign in disgrace thing. It seem pretty futile to me. He's already plead guilty, so there's no legal case to beat and its not like the GOP is going to become cool with gay people based on their close personal friendship with Larry Whats-his-Name from Idaho.

But hey, much like I would like to see Paris Hilton tossed in jail once a month for the good of the Republic, maybe we could have a US Senator resign in disgrace every month. That could really warm the hearts of lots of people.

Not True

Lies stacked on lies. Bush sneaks into Iraq, goes to Al Anbar province instead of Baghdad for an exciting change of pace. Actually, he goes to Anbar to highlight "successes" in that province and to take the spotlight away from lack of any political progress in the Capital. "Success" in Iraq must always be put into quote-marks. Because as Juan Cole points out, the "success" in Anbar includes 20 American troops killed in July, 80% unemployment, death squads and car bombs.

The truth is we have lost control of events in Iraq. We cannot change conditions on the ground. The US Army is left pretending that this or that little section of the Country is doing better, while the rest of the Country falls apart.

Rock On

Roy Orbison - I Drove All Night



Hope I'm being ironic posting this.

Agenda

Hillary 's Top Ten Campaign Promises

One Less Craig

Taking up valuable media time that could be better spent on me.

Senator Craig resigns.

The lesson here being, that gay people really aren't allowed in today's Republican Party.

Science Friday

Study Hard.

No Do Overs

Too Late, too late, much too late.

Punking Karl

Well, you do what you can:

White House pranksters wrapped Rove's Jaguar in plastic wrap on the private driveway next to the West Wing. Rove's car is easily recognizable because of its "I love Barack Obama" bumper sticker and the twin stuffed-animal eagles on the trunk. Oh, and there's a stuffed-animal elephant on the hood.

Its not being lead away in handcuffs, but at this point I'll take what I can get.

Is Bourne Anti-American?

Bill O'Reilly and Mickey Kaus say yes, Christopher Orr says no.

I with Orr on this. Bourne is basically about good and bad elements within US government and the good guys win. The problem is that Kaus and O'Reilly identify with what the bad guys want to do and it disturbs them that these movies show those tactics being used by the black hats. They want to "take the gloves off" which means torture, which means murder. That's what the bad guys do.

O'Reilly:

Damon does work for the far-left MoveOn organization and is on record as requesting the Bush daughters serve in Iraq.

The actor also told the Idaho Statesman that the CIA's use of water boarding is an erosion of our American values.

Guess what? There's a water boarding scene in the flick. What a coincidence!

Why yes there is a water boarding scene in the movie. "Water Boarding" is euphemism for torturing someone by drowning them. O'Reilly hates that movie shows us what water boarding is. He doesn't want you to see what he is advocating. Torture is a tool of bad people both in movies and real life. But O'Reilly and Kaus wants us to torture. Not in movies, but as the official policy of the United States government.

Again

So, another conservative caught with his hand in the gay cookie jar. This time it's an Idaho Senator whose was otherwise notable only for having the tasteful name of Larry Craig.

Look, there's a reason why this kind of thing keeps happening. The GOP and the conservative movement at this point are built around hating gay people. But there are a number of gay people in the country who really like church, tax cuts, or invading countries for no good reason. So we end up with quite of few closeted Republicans. Who are still gay, despite all efforts to the contrary. So we keep getting these ludicrous scandals as ideology loses out to nature.

Man of Vision

Go check out this write-up in our home town paper of Chris C-B, occasional contributor to this blog and, apparently, a paradigm shattering changer of worlds.

I particularly like the photo included with the story. Chris is peering into distance -no- the future and pointing to humanity's great destiny on the horizon, a destiny only he can see.

They are going to turn that photo in a bronze statue, just you wait.

Nice job, Chris.

Hey, Hey, Heyyy...

Goodbye.

Alberto Gonzales is resigning. And with one voice the nation crys out "What took so long?"

This is a comforting resignation to me. It restores order to the universe. That someone that bad could hold on to that job for so long is like fire not being hot or gravity repelling objects. It was a defiance of all the known laws of politics.

Order has been restored.

Do You Remember?

Still out there. And wasn't this the whole point?

Newsweek has the story.

Weekending

Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up To Dry

Bit by Bit

So senior GOP Senator Mark Warner, The Joint Chiefs and GOP Voters in the State of Iowa all want to see the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Now these these are not full withdrawals Warner and the Joint Chiefs are talking about, but it is moving in the right direction. It could just be a stall tactic, withdrawal a little, so we don't have to withdraw a lot, but I think withdrawal will have a momentum of its own once it gets started. Which is why Bush will do anything to keep a drawdown from beginning.

The Iowa poll number is more interesting. If actual GOP voters check out on Iraq then the politicians will fallow. After all they keep backing massive subsidies for corn ethanol in order to keep Iowa happy, and that is far more stupid policy than withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Oooooooo

Carnivore Heaven.

Dumber Nation

The President, more than any other individual, sets the national debate. So when the President makes a mind boggling dumb speech invoking Vietnam in support of his Iraq adventure, he renders the entire nation dumber.

As Kevin Drum says:

Another longtime conservative fantasy makes its way out of the fever swamps and into the public discourse, where we'll all be expected to stroke our chins and pretend to take it seriously for the next week or so.

We can't ignore these lunatic ravings, because they aren't coming from that guy with crazy eyes down on the corner. They are coming from the President of the United States. These ideas gain credence just because the President has said them. Add making us dumber to the long list of damages that Bush has inflicted on the Country.

Maniacs

This man was our U.N. ambassador. I hope we make it to 2009

Harmful

To children and other living things.

But I do think this kind of thing is happening because of, no despite, Bush's poor approval ratings. When you are down to 30% approval you can afford to do unpopular things, cause you ain't going any lower. When 55% of people approve of you, things need to be done to keep that number up.

But the 30% are going to stick with Bush even if he implements a Federally funded puppy kicking program.

Counterintuitive!

Ah, Victor Davis Hanson, the right-wing's favorite historian. Deservedly thumped both at this blog and many, many others.

But I shall surprise my audience and win myself New Republic style counter intuitive points by agreeing with something his has written. Read his call to study military history. I agree. There should be more study of military. So we can put the interpretation of military matters out of the hands of people like Victor Davis Hanson. Liberals need to study military history.

Hanson is right that military history is out of fashion on campus. During my undergraduate years I took courses on both the American Revolution and The Civil War, and both professors took extreme care in avoiding any discussion of military matters. We dealt with economics, sociology, government, everything except the battle, tactics, and strategy. Not say this stuff isn't interesting, or important, but it leaves one unequipped to deal with the Hansons of the world.

Look, you know about things you like and don't spend time on things you don't. Conservatives love war so they study war. Which mean when the time comes to debate this war or the next war, conservatives can invoke Thucydides or Germany 1944 and liberals come back with who?, when? You've got to know that their interpretation of Thucydides is complete crap and that Germany 1944 has nothing to do with the current situation.

And to know that, you must study military history. So Professor Hanson is right. About that one thing. Nothing else.

Can't Dance

Sadly True

Isn't It Ironic

Amy Winehouse is, in fact, going to rehab.



It really is a great song.

Tragedy On Tragedy

3 rescue workers have died and six have been injured in an attempt to rescue six trapped miners in Utah.

He Is. And he Is.

Some folks are born
made to wave the flag,
Ooh, they're red, whit and blue.
And when the band plays "Hail to the chief",
they point the cannon right at you.
It ain't me,
it ain't me.
I ain't no senator's son.

John Fogerty - Fortunate Son

From the news today -

The son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is preparing for deployment to Iraq next year.

Capt. Beau Biden, a Judge Advocate General in the Delaware National Guard and the state's attorney general, is part of the 261st Signal Brigade that has been told to prepare for duty in Iraq in 2008. They have not been given a date of deployment yet.

"I don't want him going," Delaware Sen. Joe Biden said from the campaign trail Wednesday, according to a report on Radio Iowa. "But I tell you what, I don't want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference."

Oh no

Not to alarm anybody but it appears that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is about to designated a terrorist group by the US government. The Revolutionary Guard is a unit of the Iranian army. And as we all know, we are engaged in a great "War on Terror" Which leads one to believe the next step is to go to war with Iran. Which I'm sure will go just fine.

Everwhere is Texas Now

One of the things that makes California different from Texas (Its a long list) is how we administer the death penalty. Both States hand it out very frequently but in California appeals take a long, long time, while Texas has itself a express lane of death. I'm on record as wanting my death penalty to take as long as possible.

Bush now wants everyone to apply the same "kill em fast" standard as his home state. New rules give the Attorny General the power to speed up death penalty appeals in Federal Court. Yes, that would Attorny General "I don't recall" Gonzales power of life and death. Comforting thought, isn't it?

Fine, Do It

Micky Kaus, who has been calling, loudly, for a enforcement only approach to immigration now is now facing the possibility that enforcement might be a political nightmare. As if removing millions of people from the labor pool and millions of people from the Country was going to be an easy, pain-free process. So he blames the Bush administration for moving to enforcement only in order to undermine enforcement only. But Kaus has been claiming that enforcement only is not only good policy, but good politics. Oh the "idea" is just great. But in the real world it means families broken up, businesses shut down, crops rotting in the fields, and so on. Kaus thinks this could be avoided if only the policy is better implemented. Call it the immigration version of the "The Incompetence Dodge." Stupid idea actually put into play, turns disastrous. Blame execution. Can work for wars, firing prosecutors, and so on.

Qoute of the Day

“George Bush is counting the minutes till he gets out of town. I always felt about George Bush — that he wanted to win desperately, I’m not sure he really wanted to be president and he’s looking enviously at Karl Rove as he heads back to Texas.”

Howard Fineman on Countdown.

Gone, Baby, Gone.

Karl Rove to Resign.

We really can't call this resigning in disgrace, I don't think that Rove is going to get indicted for anything next week. Rove faces a kind of creeping disgrace, as his work to create a Republican majority is buried, dug up, staked, burned and buried again.

Still, the man was able to get worst President in American history both elected and re-elected, so his entry in the history books is secure.

4 Minute Epic

Blues Traveler - Most Precarious

4 Minute Epic

Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag

Right Wing Movie Criticism

Or how to find the political subtext in everything.

A primer.

More To The Asterisk...

...than what you may have thought.

Really interesting stuff.

Sooner

Oh my. South Carolina is moving its primary date up. That means that Iowa and New Hampshire who think they are always entitled to go first in the election season, are going to move up their dates as well. So we could in up with an Iowa Caucus that takes place in Mid-December of 2007. Utterly ridiculous. My only hope is that the system is on the verge of cracking, so we can throw it out and start over.

756*

Hell of a record. Hell of an *.

Bourne!

A couple of things in here are sort of spoilers so read carefully.

More! More! Unlike just about every other summer movie franchise (Pirates! Now even Longer and Making Even Less Sense!) I'm really glad they keep making Jason Bourne movies. The latest is Ultimatum again with Paul Greengrass at the helm. Greengrass has a style all his own. Way too close to the action not-steady-cam. Which puts every fight, every car crash this close to you. Which is riveting. The downside is that, after the movie, you pretty much feel like you were in a car crash and a fight.

They really do know what they are doing making these movies. All the pieces are in place. Put some great A-list talent back at CIA headquarters. Lots of great globe trotting locations. Whip-smart action. All the moving parts fit together. (Kung Fu calls it out -Nested sequels! Sonovabitch!) O hell even Julia Stiles and the movie's use of Julia Stiles gets better with each picture. There's this part where she cuts and dyes her hair and looks just like Marie after she had just cut and dyed her hair...oh man! I could write a whole thing on the perfection of that moment, of how the movie is smart enough just to show it without calling it out, trusting enough in the audience to get it without having someone explain it.

That's the secret of Bourne - it's a smart movie for smart people who watch action movies. A few weeks back, I'm watching Miami Vice with my Dad and during the scene with Tubb's girlfriend rigged with a bomb-collar, my Dad says "Looks like C4." And I say, "First, I think your right and two pretty damn scary how much we can learn just from the movies we take in." Bourne movies are for people who watch and learn, even from summer action flicks. Bourne is smart, but not magic smart. You get to see him think, to see how he gets one step ahead. You learn something.

No Enemies

You know, we don't even need an enemy in Iraq. We seem to be doing a great job shooting ourselves in the foot on our own:

The US has lost about 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces since the 2003 invasion, according to an official report published in Washington.

The weapons include AK-47 machine guns, pistols, body armour and helmets, some of which will have ended up in the hands of insurgents.

The disclosure adds to the picture of the chaotic and clumsy administration of Iraq that has been emerging over the last four years.

So of course these means that we are getting shot we weapons we provided. Of course.

Sounds Like a Personal Problem

Wow. Rudy Giuliani's daughter is supporting Barack Obama. And you thought your family had issues.

Sex and Poltics

Morning eye opener.

Bourne!

Review Coming - Here's Moby off the soundtrack to get you in the mood.

Rock On

Name up in Lights

A page that will produce a custom Hollywood sign for you. Via World O Crap, who got it from some other people, who got it from some other people and so on.

Bridge

The headline is the tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota.

Your understanding the headline link is to Rick Perlstein's The Big Con, which documents how conservatives dedication to cutting government leads directly to our crumbling infrastructure.

Tell

TMP found Cheney's Tell!