Anyway, my last post talked about stalemated wars. As I mentioned, I've been listening to Ice T's "Colors", imagining Crips and Bloods trying like beasts to get at each other, grasping through prison bars. That's what our country's come to. I live in the East Village of New York City. Everyone around me is liberal, and we demonize the people living in the South. To us, the other side is completely alien: we don't know anyone with views different than our own. The situation in the South ...
According to Yahoo News, CIA Director George Tenet is history . According to the article, Tenet resigned, predictably for "personal reasons". I'm sure he's suddenly decided he wants to spend a hell of a lot more time with his family. Of course it has nothing to do with totally botching the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) stuff in Iraq: "The truth about Iraq: A Play in Two Sentences." Tenet: Iraq has WMDs. Reality: Um, no it doesn't. Of course, the real truth is that Tene...
Ronald Reagan, president 1981-1989, has died at the age of 93. He succumbed to Alzheimer's disease after a ten year battle. Let me start with some good memories of Ronald Reagan: - He said one of my favorite presidential lines: "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Really, it's a great line, and he said it against the advice of his aides, who were concerned it was too belligerent. - He once joked at a press conference that the bombs were going to start dropping in five minutes. ...
How funny is that? Okay, I can't take credit for that headline; it's the unofficial slogan of a leading candidate for Congress, Vernon Robinson. He has a hilarious web site: VernonRobinson.com and some awesome radio spots: "The aliens are here, but they didn't come in a spaceship," an announcer says over the theme to "The Twilight Zone." "They've filled our criminal courtrooms and clogged our schools ... They sponge off the American taxpayer ... they've even taken over the DMV. The...
I'm rarely topical, since I realize many people are doing a better job of covering current events than I would. That said, my degree is in political science, and I come from a politically active family. My mom was even interviewed on CNN, during Persian Gulf War I. She was protesting in front of San Francisco's City Hall. I find it hard to be funny when I talk about politics, especially the current ones. In fact, if in 2000 I had been ironically overstating how bad politics could get, t...
Today, I get to be a contrarian for both the Left and the Right! To paraphrase Salon's War Room, there's a chart that's seemingly bounced from one end of the Internet to the other this morning, which maps Bush's popularity against terror alerts. The chart is compiled by "Julius Civitatus", and is displayed and discussed at his blog . Julius has this to say: There are few things that are quite evident from the chart: - Whenever his ratings dip, there's a new terror alert....
Earlier today, I picked up the New York Times, and saw this bit : Bush said he is fighting ``a lot of entrenched interests'' in Washington, but said he would pursue the effort until it is accomplished. ``It's not enough to advocate reform; you've got to get the job done,'' the president told cheering supporters at a picnic. Now, I know that successful politicians are made of a cloth printed with "I'm a Washington outsider", but I'm amazed that people persist in seeing Dubya as ...
This is a snippet from a debate I had with Someone-On-The-Internet (tm) regarding whether New York City should let people protest in Central Park. SOTI wrote: ] Bloomberg usually sucks, but regarding the convention, ] he has acted with integrity. His primary duty is to take care ] of New Yorkers interests first (including protecting their ] beloved park from overburden), the welcome visitors second, ] and then the rights of a few terrorist sympathizers and ] democrats last. Sounds l...
Hello Joeusers, This is a another post of a message-and-response regarding the big anti-Republican Convention march yesterday, in New York City. The original message comes from a Kerry supporter who's concerned about possible violence at these events. Many of us who believe in these political rallies are worried about how they'll be portrayed in the media. We want people to understand that we are simply unhappy that Bush has occupied our Democratic city with 50,000 of his most partisan ...
When the Democrats held their convention in Boston, Mr. Kerry's advisers made a point of saying they were instructing speakers to refrain from going after Mr. Bush, a strategy that some Democrats questioned as the memory of Mr. Kerry's convention faded and polls showed Mr. Bush back on the rise. By contrast, Mr. Bush's aides said they were determined to use this week tearing down Mr. Kerry, in the calculation that Mr. Bush almost certainly cannot win unless voters are convinced that they can...
Today in my blog: Republican leaders' scattershot slandering. Republicans deserve better leaders than these. First, the who's who: Chris Wallace is a Fox News anchor, Dennis Hastert is the Republican Speaker of the House, and George Soros is a major funder of Democratically aligned interest groups. This is from Fox News Sunday : HASTERT: I don't know where George Soros gets his money. I don't know where — if it comes overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from. And I... WALLA...
New Group to Launch Anti-Kerry Ads Move over, MoveOn.org . The liberal-leaning group that has raised millions of dollars to run negative ads attacking President Bush now has a competitor on the right with a somewhat similar name. The conservative MoveOnForAmerica.org plans to blast battleground states with anti-John Kerry ads until Election Day. You know, I have no problem with "527" group attack ads, although I do wish the media would more prominently evaluate the truth of the ads, i...
From MSNBC : After gauging the harsh reaction from Democrats and Republicans alike to Sen. Zell Miller’s keynote address at the Republican National Convention, the Bush campaign — led by the first lady — backed away Thursday from Miller’s savage attack on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, insisting that the estranged Democrat was speaking only for himself. Zell Miller was the featured keynote speaker at the convention, but now we're supposed to believe he was only speaking for hi...
Some Republicans Predict Upheaval Within the Party (Washington Post): Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a man known for frank talk, offered a blunt description of the state of his party, which broke camp here Friday after nominating President Bush for a second term. "The Republican Party," he said, "has come loose of its moorings." Hagel was not referring to Bush's leadership or his prospects for reelection but instead to the impact of a presidency that has seen the party embrace the largest ...
This is from Andrew Sullivan 's blog: People need leaders who level with them about failures and difficulties in wartime - not gauzy North Korean-style biopics about the invincibility of the Great Leader. But then this war, vital as it is, has been exploited by the Bushies for political purposes since it began. How else to explain the "Mission Accomplished" photo-op or the bare-knuckled 2002 Congressional campaign? Some on the left would have politicized this war under any circumstances. But...