Chief Craigorian Chant Media Analysis Roy sends in this review of the first 100 days through the eyes of Fox News.
There's no better way to understand what Fox News is and what they do when you see it this way. The amazing thing is, this is just the beginning. Obama has a lot more to do. Where is Fox going to go with its rhetoric in the months, ney years to come?
April 30, 2009
April 29, 2009
April 28, 2009
The GOP Get's Smaller
The big news of the day is Arlen Specter switching parties. With him goes the slightest claim of the GOP to power, as the Dems now stand ready to take their 60th vote in the Senate (Fee Al Franken!)
It really should be noted that Specter does not do this out of any great prinipal or ideology, but fairly naked ambition. Specter is due to lose in the GOP primary, really likes being Senator, and this is what he has to do to stay Senator. Its not like he has to throw his mother under a bus, just his party.
We'll take the vote, but really, the man is still a hack.
It really should be noted that Specter does not do this out of any great prinipal or ideology, but fairly naked ambition. Specter is due to lose in the GOP primary, really likes being Senator, and this is what he has to do to stay Senator. Its not like he has to throw his mother under a bus, just his party.
We'll take the vote, but really, the man is still a hack.
There Will Be More
My favorite little Jerry Seinfeld stand-up bit was him talking about how his mother always told him not to snack, because his would "ruin his appetite" But when he grew up he realized that he could ruin his appetite, but a new appetite would always replace it. Jerry's ruined hundreds of appetites, but it always comes back.
That's what I though of when I read the rash of Obama's first hundred days. Yep, the first hundred days is done. But there's another hundred after that. And another after that. In fact, Obama has 14 or so hundred days, and if he's good and we all do our part, 14 more after that.
Which is to say, I'm not making a big deal out of this hundred days. There are a lot more coming.
That's what I though of when I read the rash of Obama's first hundred days. Yep, the first hundred days is done. But there's another hundred after that. And another after that. In fact, Obama has 14 or so hundred days, and if he's good and we all do our part, 14 more after that.
Which is to say, I'm not making a big deal out of this hundred days. There are a lot more coming.
April 27, 2009
Be Prepared
This is so ironic it just might kill us all. Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine made a great big deal of cutting preparedness for a pandemic flu from the stimulus package. Because we would never to be prepared for a pandemic flue outbreak, would we?
April 26, 2009
April 25, 2009
April 24, 2009
April 23, 2009
Worstest
I read somewhere that the best swordsman in the world doesn't fear the second-best. What he fears is the worse swordsman in the world, cause you just don't know what that idiot will do.
I was thinking of that when I took a look at Rep. Joe Barton (R, of course - Texas) "stumping" Energy Secretary and Nobel frackin Prize winner Steven Chu with incredibly stupid questions. A gifted grad student or a even a fellow top scientist isn't going to stump the Nobel Prize winner. But a really stupid Congressman, asking really stupid questions, could, for a moment, give the man pause.
I was thinking of that when I took a look at Rep. Joe Barton (R, of course - Texas) "stumping" Energy Secretary and Nobel frackin Prize winner Steven Chu with incredibly stupid questions. A gifted grad student or a even a fellow top scientist isn't going to stump the Nobel Prize winner. But a really stupid Congressman, asking really stupid questions, could, for a moment, give the man pause.
Legacy of Ashes
This struck me from TPM:
Yes, Republicans have tried to distance themselves from President Bush's fiscal profligacy. But on the core value issues of militarism and human rights violations and keeping faith with the war criminals of the previous regime they really couldn't be more unified or on message. If you were plopped down on earth today in front of a TV set in the United States, on the testimony of the party members themselves, you might easily get the idea that state-sanctioned torture was the main policy legacy of the outgoing administration. Sort of like Democrats looked back on late 90s budget surpluses with a proud defiance in the aftermath of the Clinton years.
Of all the issues that conservatives could defend Bush on, they chose to die on hill torture. He's a amazingly unpopular figure, who led his party to election disaster. There are lots of places to break with him on. But why chose spending and not torture? Spending is debaitable. Torture isn't. A hundred years from now, we will still be fighting over how much the government should spend and on what. But in a hundred years, the only fight over torture will be who can denounce it more.
Yes, Republicans have tried to distance themselves from President Bush's fiscal profligacy. But on the core value issues of militarism and human rights violations and keeping faith with the war criminals of the previous regime they really couldn't be more unified or on message. If you were plopped down on earth today in front of a TV set in the United States, on the testimony of the party members themselves, you might easily get the idea that state-sanctioned torture was the main policy legacy of the outgoing administration. Sort of like Democrats looked back on late 90s budget surpluses with a proud defiance in the aftermath of the Clinton years.
Of all the issues that conservatives could defend Bush on, they chose to die on hill torture. He's a amazingly unpopular figure, who led his party to election disaster. There are lots of places to break with him on. But why chose spending and not torture? Spending is debaitable. Torture isn't. A hundred years from now, we will still be fighting over how much the government should spend and on what. But in a hundred years, the only fight over torture will be who can denounce it more.
April 22, 2009
Notes on the Pagent
Strangely, I find myself having opinions on the Miss California gay marriage question row. A few notes:
1. Perez Hilton is just a gross human being, the worse kind of star-fucker in a world that has a lot. We do not want him to be the leading advocate for gay marriage.
2. Since when do real political questions get asked at these things? I always though it was "How do we bring about world peace?" and "Puppies, pro or con"
3. No seriously, when did the content of the answers start to matter? I always thought the question portion of the competition was a test of pose and being able to think on your feet. There's a forum for asking political questions and judging people on their answers. Its called candidates night.
4. Why are we still having beauty pageants? Does anybody actually watch these any more?
5. Maybe that's why they had political questions and freak show judges: to gin up some attention. Mission accomplished!
April 21, 2009
Bring Me My Pitchfork!
Read this story on bankers feeling oppressed and you will feel the overwhelming urge to start burning something down.
April 20, 2009
Woh
Intrigue extreme:
Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.
Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.
In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.
Snip
And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for “lack of evidence,” it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush’s top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.
Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.
Forget the movies, this is the real deal.
Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.
Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.
In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.
Snip
And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for “lack of evidence,” it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush’s top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.
Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.
Forget the movies, this is the real deal.
April 19, 2009
April 18, 2009
April 17, 2009
Work Around
The real horror is that this Country, for a time was run by people who treated the Geneva Convention like Enron treated accounting rules. Not as a law to be followed, but as guidelines to be evaded. To read the laws against torture and try and think of ways to lawyer your way around is particularly banality of evil.
April 16, 2009
Answered Prayers
Voltaire said that he had only one prayer: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous."
I give you Tom Delay's magic scheme to have Texas exit the Union.
Thanks God.
I give you Tom Delay's magic scheme to have Texas exit the Union.
Thanks God.
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