June 30, 2004

Deserter
Via Atrios: This guy takes a hard, critical look at Bush's military records and draws the logical conclusion.

VPottymouth Booed at Baseball Game

Via ESPN we find that the following happened at yesterday's Yankees/Red Sox game in NYC:

Cheney, who visited both clubhouses after batting practice, watched part of the game from the box of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and part from a first-row seat next to the Yankees dugout, where he sat between New York Gov. George Pataki and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Cheney was booed when he was shown on the right-field videoboard during the seventh-inning stretch.

Should be an interesting convention...

ps. This gets *even* better. According to Air America, everyone in the crowd was singing "God Bless America" during the 7th inning stretch. The jumbotron flashed to Cheney and the crowd STOPPED SINGING AND STARTED BOOING.

Kristof Continues the Pundit Party Line

Y'know this article about how Democrats shouldn't use words which hurt is particurlary rich coming after VPottymouth tells the ranking Democrat on the Judiary committee to 'eff himiself' on the floor of the Senate and then boasts about how he 'felt better afterwards'.

And Kristof's argument just makes no sense:

I'm against the "liar" label for two reasons. First, it further polarizes the political cesspool, and this polarization is making America increasingly difficult to govern. Second, insults and rage impede understanding.

Translation: Democrats should be docile sheep and maybe medicated.

Bob Woodward's latest book underscores that Mr. Bush actually believed that Saddam did have W.M.D. After one briefing, Mr. Bush turned to George Tenet and protested, "I've been told all this intelligence about having W.M.D., and this is the best we've got?" The same book also reports that Mr. Bush told Mr. Tenet several times, "Make sure no one stretches to make our case."

Translation: You should believe everything Woodward writes.

In fact, of course, Mr. Bush did stretch the truth. The run-up to Iraq was all about exaggerations, but not flat-out lies. Indeed, there's some evidence that Mr. Bush carefully avoids the most blatant lies — witness his meticulous descriptions of the periods in which he did not use illegal drugs.

Translation: Bush lies by omission and exaggeration.
Shorter version: Bush lies.

True, Mr. Bush boasted that he doesn't normally read newspaper articles, when his wife said he does. And Mr. Bush wrongly claimed that he was watching on television on the morning of 9/11 as the first airplane hit the World Trade Center. But considering the odd things the president often says ("I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family"), Mr. Bush always has available a prima facie defense of confusion.

Translation: He doesn't tell the truth because he's as dumb as a box of rocks.
Shorter version: Bush lies.

Mr. Bush's central problem is not that he was lying about Iraq, but that he was overzealous and self-deluded. He surrounded himself with like-minded ideologues, and they all told one another that Saddam was a mortal threat to us. They deceived themselves along with the public — a more common problem in government than flat-out lying.

Translation: People told Bush lies which he repeated.
Shorter version: Bush lies.

If you have a different take on this let me know. This is the same media who raked Bill Clinton over the coals about "it depends on what the meaning of is is". I guess if you lie about sex it's an impeachable offense but if it's something that has caused thousands of deaths you should cut that guy a break. Because he's only the most powerful person on the planet.

Email Kristof at nicholas@nytimes.com and let him know how much you appreciate him outlining the double standard for you.

June 29, 2004

I Guess the Truth is Out

From sources as diverse as the Times of India, which has the lead
Bush Gone Crazy to Dubya's own blog. Who knew he could write?


Fahrenheit 911

I'm totally psyched it's the number one movie in the country!! I haven't seen it *yet* but most people I know either plan to see it or have already seen it.

June 25, 2004

What's So Great About Many Languages?

I was reading about how there was a push to make Irish an official European language. One thing I found refreshing about this post was that the writer was saying how the motives behind this were mainly driven by job opportunities (more translators, people who speak Irish get to count it on job applications).

In reading the comments to this, people were commenting on how society had come to the *subjective* conclusion that many languages were good and that society lost something important when a language died. One guy wrote that he didn't see why it was so great to have many languages -- that he'd rather everyone in the world spoke one language.

And I agree. I haven't observed that people who can speak more than one language are inherently more peaceful. Right now we have a situation where the elites speak a couple of languages and use that skill to get fancy jobs while the proletariat are really limited to one, usually the language of their immediate community. Imagine how great it would be if every person in the world could speak the language of the elites.

June 24, 2004

Vice President Pottymouth

W O W

Cheney Utters 'F-Word' in Senate - Aides
(2004-06-24)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney blurted out the "F word" at Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont during a heated exchange on the Senate floor, congressional aides said on Thursday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday in a terse discussion between the two that touched on politics, religion and money, with Cheney finally telling Leahy to "f--- off" or "go f--- yourself," the aides said.

"I think he was just having a bad day," Leahy was quoted as saying on CNN, which first reported the incident. "I was kind of shocked to hear that kind of language on the floor."

"That doesn't sound like language the vice president would use but there was a frank exchange of views," said Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems.

According to congressional aides, Leahy said hello to Cheney following the taking of the Senate group photo on the floor of the chamber.

Cheney, who is president of the Senate, then ripped into Leahy for the Democratic senator's criticism this week of alleged war profiteering in Iraq by Halliburton, the oil services company that Cheney once ran.

Leahy and other Democrats have called for congressional hearings into whether the vice president helped the firm win lucrative contracts in Iraq after the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

During their exchange, Leahy noted that Republicans had accused Democrats of being anti-Catholic because they are opposed to some of President Bush's anti-abortion judges, the aides said.

That's when Cheney unloaded with the "F-bomb," aides said.

According to Senate rules, profanity is not permitted in the chamber. But when the exchange occurred between Leahy and Cheney, the Senate was not in session so there was technically no foul.
© Copyright 2004, Reuters

June 22, 2004

Clinton Interview with Franken

Our last elected president will be interviewed on Al Franken's show on Air America on Thursday. Please be sure to listen and send Al you questions.

Of course I know this information is superfluous because everyone reading this already knows because they are already listening but in case you don't here's a link to Air America Radio

Happy People Are Mean People
Check it out (NY Times -- registration required).

June 18, 2004

My Life

As the title of an autobiography it works, whether you were Head of the Red Army or Elected Leader of the Free World. I think it takes a certain audacious personality to pick such a simple title. Someone who would think "Of course people will know who *I* am". Good for them for being honest -- they're right.

June 17, 2004

Rummy: War Criminal

It's not okay to hide prisoners from the Red Cross. Even if George Tenet says it is.

Glass Houses

This antiwar dude really takes down Hitchens for drinking, liking Trotsky, having the wrong ideas about the war and basically associating with the wrong people. I thought "wow" he must be an Extreme Green or one very angry pacifist. But it turns out he's just a Pat Buchanan wingnut. Give me Trotsky anyday.

June 15, 2004

But Every Mom Wants to Stay Home

I am less than thrilled by this review which (once again) pits feminists vs. moms who love their children against each other. And I'm surprised that the author is Ann Crittenden, whose work I admire.

Apparantly people who "practice intensive parenting" are the world's best parents because they tell you they are. We'll see. Remember feminism was about liberating women *and* men from rigid sexual stereotypes. Lets not forget that.

No More Reagan 24/7

Phew! Last week, my poor neighbor just wanted to go home and maybe see some Seinfeld or Simsons re-runs. She was out of luck with over-the-air TV.

Anyone interested in what the 80's were really like under Reagan should definitely check out this piece by Alexander Coburn about the recently deceased weirdo-in-chief , who was a man who Nixon said was "strange" (Haldeman concurred).

Abu Ghraib

And although he no longer writes for the Nation and has moved too far to the right for my liking, Christopher Hitchens still opposes torturing other humans even in times of war.

June 10, 2004

What is it with this whole "mourning in America"? I despised Reagan when he was alive (Ketchup is a vegetable, get rid of the Education Department, James Watts, war in Central America, social security tax hikes, taking credit for the tight money policies of the Fed, anti-choice stance, pro-South Africa, ignored AIDS epidemic, nearly everyone in our current administration, Iran-contra). While I am sorry that he (or really anyone) was struck by a devastating illness, he was an old man who had lived a full life.

In some places, people are buried the same day they die without a a grieving process, a viewing, a funeral or even a memorial. And that's not because they are loved any less, it's just that many people think that dead is dead and life is for the living.

And it's okay to remember good things and bad things about a person. The memories of the living are the best testament to the dead and really what keeps them alive. But don't make every single person who dies super-human. Because pretty soon, we'd be living in Imperial Rome, where every emperor became an actual god after he died.

All this Reagan-love kind of makes me feel bad for Nixon!! Nixon, who gave us the EPA, the Clean Air and Water Act, the CAFE standards and Food Stamps. Poor guy. No accolades.

June 9, 2004

Today is my daughter's birthday (happy birthday, honey!!). It's also the birthday of my blog. I'm hoping to write about politics, the family and societal trends.