Transplant
Iowa Liberal will be picking up and moving over to it’s own root domain. Things will look a little wonky until I get the SQL server migrated over so that we don’t lose all those golden oldies.
-mg
Brian is so weird.
Brian notes my link to the slaughter of dolphins in Japan and says, paraphrasing, “So what? Why aren’t people complaining about all the crabs people catch, huh? Just ’cause dolphins are smart, you squirt some tears?”
Um, well, first of all there is a name for those who are opposed to all forms of slaughtering animals: vegetarians. Like my fiancee and I (mission mostly accomplished, meat gives me a stomach-ache nowadays). Though Brian thinks we’re all hippies, because he doesn’t get out much. I eat regularly at Sipz, a veggie restaurant here in San Diego, and maybe ten percent of the people there could vaguely be described as hippie-esque.
Second of all, hippies are usually very nice people, and much more interesting to hang out with than unemployed Sinatra cover singers. Same goes for dolphins.
Third of all, Brian says, “If they’re so smart, why can’t they avoid the net?” Maybe we could ask soldiers in Iraq why they can’t avoid getting blown up by Iraqis, or rape victims why they’re not smart enough to keep that rapist’s dick from staying in their vagina, or why Brian isn’t smart enough to keep from sounding like an impotent fat bastard with mother issues.
Fourthly, Brian claims he knows exactly what I’ll post in response. It’s actually we who always know what Brian will post: the next lower rung on the ladder of stupidity from the last thing he wrote. That’s easy. On the other hand, Brian has no idea what I’ll post in response, just like he knows nothing else in life.
On that note, hum this, he who is called Brian:
So long and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this
We tried to warn you all but oh dear?
You may not share our intellect
Which might explain your disrespect
For all the natural wonders that
grow around you
So long, so long and thanks
for all the fish
The world’s about to be destroyed
There’s no point getting all annoyed
Lie back and let the planet dissolve
Despite those nets of tuna fleets
We thought that most of you were sweet
Especially tiny tots and your
pregnant women
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long and thanks
for all the fish
-jb
Update: It must be nice to edit reality. Brian plainly ignores paragraph two and claims I still haven’t addressed the killing of other animals. It’s funny when he declares, “I knew he’d call me an idiot!” Well, Brian, that’s called accountability. It’s a particularly conservative principle of mine: do something stupid, get called stupid. Now I always offer redemption, and Brian is free to stop being an idiot anytime he wants.
Bill O’Reilly’s mouth and brain have never met.
I usually just ignore or laugh at Bill O’Reilly, but it’s interesting to see how he can be an idiot on virtually any subject. That crazy mofo went and tried slandering ultimate fighting! Offering his usual stupidly simplistic take on the matter, to him the UFC boiled down to “selling brutality.” He asks Rich Franklin “So you’re doin’ it for the money, right?” And then concludes by repeating “So you wanna end up like Muhammed Ali?” Hey, dumbass, it’s not the same sport!
The UFC has always had the appeal of violence, but it’s also got the appeal of the world’s most skilled and professional fighters. It’s one of the safest sports, far safer than football or NASCAR racing. Let’s see Bill get Danica Patrick on there bellering at her “Hey, you wanna end up like Dale Earnhardt?” The majority of the fighters in the sport are dedicated athletes who train day in and day out to be the best at what they do: mixed martial arts. And the referees don’t just play it safe nowadays, they play it TOO goddamn safe. Nowadays any guy that gets a little rocked and falls on his ass has the referee calling the match.
It’s good to see people like Bill O’Reilly leaving the murky world of politics and proving that he can get any subject wrong. The funny thing is that 95% of Fox News watchers undoubtedly understand the UFC better than he does. Who sounds like a latte-drinkin’ whiny wussypants now?
-jb
Jon Stewart vs. idiot at Washington Post.
The negative effects of watching Jon Stewart are dutifully reported:
Participants also expressed less trust in the electoral system and more cynical views of the news media, according to the researchers’ article, in the latest issue of American Politics Research.
Let’s see the effects of listening to Rush Limbaugh now.
Oops, for that see what has become of the Republican party.
-jb
Not that they deserve our trust, but…
I read about the Treasury Department’s tapping of bank records today but didn’t find much to be overly concerned about, at least yet. Can the Bush administration be trusted? Of course not. Could “hundreds of thousands” of searches be targeted? Possibly. Who are the “auditors” overseeing these searches? We’re not told. But I’ll need to hear a little more before I get worked up about it. If somebody said “Bet you $20 that we find out in less than three months it’s worse,” I’d say “Can we just make it $2?”
Still, that is no excuse for Brian, upon reading about the foiled terrorist plot, to spout this fucking idiocy:
So….does anyone STILL think the NSA taps, the current “Bank Spying”, or the Patriot Act are huge mistakes?
Heh…we caught some terrorists! See how right it was to torch the Constitution!!!
Yes, Brian, you idiot, the NSA taps and the parts of the Patriot act that erased the 4th amendment are still huge mistakes. Not all of us are thumbsucking whiny pastebags who so fear for our flabby asses and value our Constitution so little that we surrender our rights at the first hint of a threat on our soil. And as of yet, nobody has explained how this plot was only foiled because we didn’t need warrants.
Ah, to hell with it. Brian’s right. And you know what else would really help us catch some terrorists? ALL of it. Let’s give our government ALL the information it NEEDS, because let’s face it, if we don’t, we’re toast. Let’s get some monitored GPS trackers on all vehicles, chips in our bodies, and some of those two-way TV screens I read about in a cool book once.
All this freedom will be the death of us.
-jb
Holy smokes, Jonah Goldberg smokes crack.
Can I get paid to be this stupid too? Honestly, I could try…
Al Gore refuses to endorse Joe Lieberman — his former running mate — in Lieberman’s re-election fight. (Nod to Ezra Klein ). I guess Lieberman would have been good enough to run the government if something bad happened to Gore. But he’s not obviously the best qualified to be the junior senator from Connecticut, even though he had the same job when Gore tapped him in 2000. Posted at 3:11 PM
Do I really need to say anything? I guess Jonah is still in a pre-9/11 mentality…
I suppose Jonah just can’t imagine that Ned Lamont is simply better qualified? Or that Gore realized Lieberman was a rotten choice in 2000? Or that the job is to represent Connecticut?
This is the GOP method. It matters not to be wise or correct, but to keep one’s lips flapping.
-jb
Turning the corner, except when we’re not.
The Independent published today a leaked cable from the US embassy in Iraq to Condoleezza Rice which illustrates rather vividly how the country is falling apart and ruled by militias. It also demonstrates just how aggresively the White House is promoting a view of Iraq (and insisting that those who hold contrary views are unforgivable misanthropes) and a reality that is obvious to anyone who isn’t feverishly devoted to promoting the Bush Party line regardless of evidence. Here are a few favorite passages:
13. We cannot call employees in on weekends or holidays without blowing their “cover”. A Sunni Arab female employee tells us family pressures and the inability to share details of her employment is very tough; she told her family she was in Jordon when we sent her on training to the US. Mounting criticism of the US at home among family members also makes her life difficult. She told us in mid-June that most of her family believes the US - which is widely perceived as fully controlling the country and tolerating the malaise - is punishing the population as Saddam did (but with Sunnis and very poor Shia now at the bottom of the list). Otherwise, she says, the allocation of power and security would not be so arbitrary.
14. Some of our staff do not take home their American cell phones, as it makes them a target. They use code names for friends and colleagues and contacts entered into Iraq cell phones. For at least six months, we have not been able to use any local staff for translation at on-camera press events.
15. We have begun shredding documents that show local staff surnames. In March, a few members approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate.
Mission accomplished!!
Iowa Liberal update:
Not only is Iowa Liberal suffering from technical errors the problems are starting to spread to web sites that I host that are completely unrelated. Woot! Posting will continue to be light until things get sorted out around here.
Ignatius has no shame.
I really don’t know how David Ignatius’ head works, and like Eric Boehlert says, I really don’t have to care either. All I know is that he’s utterly irresponsible and half-mad.
Ignatius’ latest masterpiece of inanity tells us that since the Republicans’ latest effort at gay-bashing failed, and since the NRA’s latest symbolic maneuver flopped, the extremists on the left have been defeated by the center!
David Brooks of the New York Times has argued that we’re seeing a reanimation of the political center, and I think he’s right. The middle is getting tired of the tyranny of the extremes…the film of American politics has actually been running in reverse in recent years — producing the illusion that you can govern America from the wings of each party.
Glenn Greenwald nails it, as usual:
Hello? Which “extreme wing” of any left-wing party has been calling any shots? Show me the raving Marxists or anarchists whose voices are heard in mass media, who have won elected office, or who have any bleeping power at all in Washington or anywhere else in America?
I don’t mean to endorse or denigrate raving Marxism and anarchism; I’m just saying that we liberals and most Democrats are “extreme” only in contrast to the extremism of the Right. Genuine left-wing extremism is marginalized even by most of the American Left. In truth, that part of the Left that has any political influence in America are moderates with feet firmly planted in historically mainstream political traditions. Ignatius sees a conflict between opposing political extremes. But the reality is that an aggressive right-wing extremism has appropriated media to slander, discredit and eliminate the moderate liberalism that used to be the center in saner times.
Coulter’s face is plastered on every media outlet possible, Chomsky is invisible. That’s reality. The question is, what the hell universe is Ignatius living in?
-jb
What the hell?
Looks like Wordpress is properly fucked. The sidebar is now inconveniently located at the bottom of the page and God knows what’s going on with the database. Don’t be surprised if the look of things around here changes a bit over the next couple of days.
-the management
Over the hump.
Al Gore was on Larry King Live and talked a little about peak oil. It was at the very end of the program so it wasn’t in depth:
KING: Gas prices — we’ve only got a minute left.
GORE: Yes.
KING: Gas prices going to go down?
GORE: Well, I’ve seen a number of — over the last several decades I’ve seen this happen several times, where they spike and then they do come back down.
But each time they go to a higher plateau. We almost certainly are at or near what they call peak oil, defined as having recovered a majority of the oil reserves at a certain price, affordability range. And so with the new pressure on the consumption side from China and India, if they come back down, they won’t stay down long.
KING: What do you drive?
GORE: I drive a hybrid. Tipper and I got a Lexus hybrid. And we have a couple of Priuses in the family with our children. And I encourage people to make environmentally-conscious choices because we all have to solve this climate crisis.
KING: Thank you, Al.
GORE: Thank you, Larry.
Good to see that the man is at least making an effort, however futile. They may give the Establishment Liberal college crowd around here something else to pat themselves on the back for but hybrid cars really aren’t going to solve a lot of problems (don’t Toyota Corollas already get 40 mpg?) beyond the immediate concern of carbon dioxide emissions. Though a majority of it is used in the making of gasoline, liquid hydrocarbons comprise a gigantic portion of the economy not directly related to transportation. Most notably the agricultural sector which relies heavily upon fertilizers, pesticides and plastics that are made directly from liquid petroleum. Not to mention the diesel fuel it takes to ship heads of lettuce in refrigerated trailers from California to Wisconsin or corn from Iowa down to Plano, Texas to ensure that the crucial soda pop and Frito supply chain isn’t disrupted. Like my fellow blogger Jeromy said; I’ll feel a lot better when I see an electric tractor!
-mg
Superfund Fishin’
I received a letter in the mail the other day from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources promoting their “take me fishing” campaign. One the recommended areas to take your kid fishing in the eastern Iowa area was Cedar Lake near north of downtown Cedar Rapids. You may have heard of it before. Cedar Lake is a Superfund site. It was found to have elevated levels of chromic acid. The polutant leaked from concrete storage tanks located on the property of Electro-Coatings, a local metal working business located directly on the lake. So how safe is Cedar Lake? To find out I sent an email to our local fisheries biologist Paul Sleeper (he listed his email address on the mailer) in hopes that he had some updated information. That was last week and I’m still waiting for a reply. Lets hope that the Iowa DNR isn’t encouraging kids to fish from potentially dangerous waters.
-mg
FDL gives us some things to contemplate.
Word on the street is that Rove has struck a deal with Fitzgerald for immunity in exchange for cooperation in the ongoing Valerie Plame case. It’s gotta be hell being a Republican and knowing that Dear Leader and his ilk are involved in a criminal conspiracy case. No matter how you try to hobble together the few minor victories you’ve gained you’ve always got the looming possibility of Dick Cheney going to the pokey, a political shit-storm not even Chris Matthews could ignore. Republicans do have one thing going for them right now and that’s the relative laziness with which the press are treating this issue. That’s not all good news, though, because while this keeps the public disinterested it also deprives the right winger bloggers of their favorite activity of crying like little girls with skinned knees anytime things don’t go their way.
-mg
update: The word around the media block is that Karl Rove not getting incarcerated is, of course, a stellar victory for the Republican party. This isn’t surprising since anything less than the sun rising in the east is considered a victory for conservatives these days. Tim Russert was just on the Daily Show (6/14) proclaiming Republican conquest explaining that the administration is now taking Iraq “head-on” in light of the recent death of al-Zarqawi, a dunder-headed goon whose importance was inflated by gentlemen like, well, Tim Russert.
Is it controversial? Good, I’ll watch it.
There are certain walking zombies out there who think that they “vote with mah pocketbook” by declining to watch movies or read books that stir controversy, especially works that question their beliefs. Well, we’re all weak in our own ways, the unfortunate part of that is that such people simply can’t bring themselves to say “I’m too weak-minded and may be influenced by what I encounter, so I avoid it.” Note that this precisely mirrors radical Christian attitudes about turning one’s face away from the devil. Even if he looks like Al Gore, spouting his venomous lies against the pure and holy oil industry…
I say, I don’t give a damn what you think, if there’s a dispute over something, check it out and get your opinion ON! Upon reading this blurb about the most controversial films, I immediately noted any I hadn’t seen yet and vowed to see them. Well, except Deep Throat. Something tells me that it wasn’t astounding political declarations that propelled it into the heights of the public mind, but rather the newness of seeing sausage-sports, and trust me, folks, that ain’t new for me nowadays.
And just to note, I saw Passion of the Christ on opening day. I don’t give a rat’s ass if the New Confederates praised its box office as proof of their ascendancy, I went to see it because I like Jesus movies (hey, it wouldn’t have so much power if it weren’t a great f’ing story!) and I don’t shy away from controversy.
Let’s see how many rightwingers can steel themselves to go see An Inconvenient Truth.
-jb
Can I dip my balls in it?
Which is more prevalent…seeing penises everywhere, or putting them everywhere? And do those who put ever see without assistance? Is this divided by the sexes, or a combination of sex and sexual preference?
Mysteries abound, but one thing’s for sure: Des Moines has a humongous wang.
-jb
Be nice to Ann Coulter!
Brian is about ready to faint over all the harsh invective directed at delicate flower Ann Coulter. She says 9/11 widows are “enjoying” their husbands’ deaths, but if David Letterman calls her a “bitch,” LIBERALS AREN’T ALLOWING CONSERVATIVES TO CRITICIZE THEM!!!No, cowardly idiot Brian, you’re allowed to criticize and disagree with the 9/11 widows, or anybody you like. But if you’re a maniacally shrill cynic manipulator like Coulter who speaks only in insults without any substance or connection to facts, you should expect to get an insult or two thrown back your way. The difference is that Coulter’s insults are lies, whereas the insults directed at her are truthful.
One need not be liberal to realize Ann Coulter is a flaky bitch. Any conservative of integrity would realize much the same, but such a label applies not to Brian. And anybody but a pathetic mewling GOP robot would realize not to whine when she gets called a bitch, twat, whore, or pretty much anything one feels like calling her; unfortunately that description does apply to Brian, who reveals new heights of pathetic shamelessness every day.
-jb
Republicans are against Net Neutrality
The bought-and-paid-for party is, predictably, utterly at the service of their corporate daddies.
Look no further than a Texas Republican to see the lobotomized monkey chatter that will be recycled and spread throughout media reports:
“I want a vibrant Internet just like they do,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican. “Our disagreement is about how to achieve that. They say let the government dictate it…I urge my colleagues to reject government regulation of the Internet.”
No, Lamar, you don’t want a vibrant Internet, you’re destroying it and spouting dishonest talking point fodder in order to paint a cute face on it. The government isn’t “dictating it,” whatever the hell he is talking about. The government is keeping telcos from “dictating it,” and letting the people make the Internet they want.
The Internet and Net Neutrality have been saviors of democracy in a land where it is rapidly fading. Sure, the Internet gives us hordes of tools like Brian who beg to be told what to say, but in the long run the truth is painful and dangerous to those who peddle lies, and it is always easier for them to shut it up than continue propaganda campaigns.
The Republican Party has proven that they will gladly sell our country out for the price of their re-election campaigns and that the Constitution is a technicality. If they are rewarded for it like they were in San Diego by people who wouldn’t vote for Jesus if he ran as a Democrat, we will be shortly completing our arc as a failed state.
-jb
Zarqawi = Zerg
Zarqawi is dead! Zarqawi is dead! Everybody get out your hats and streamers, Zarqawi is dead! All will be better now! The deaths will stop, we’ve turned the last corner, the war is ov…
Whoops. Nevermind.
If this puts a little pep in the step of a troop who’s on his third tour, good. If being turned on by locals signals to other radicals to be a little less blatantly brutal, good. But Zarqawi has been out of the public eye and low in influence for a long time already. The daily pile of bodies in Iraq will not slow down because of his death. It’s a pleasant symbolic victory, and the death of a vile and evil psycho, but this problem has always been bigger than a few showboaters. Even Osama bin Laden’s death at this point would provide a minor victory.
What the Iraq war did was transform Al Queda from a group into a thought virus. Zarqawi is dead, and yet tomorrow will bring more pain.
-jb
On to November.
Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver won last nights primary with 39% of the vote followed by Mike Blouin with 34% and Ed Fallon with 26%. Next November Culver will be facing down the corrupt Jim Nussle. Another Iowa blog, No Nussle, has been doing a terrific job of keeping up with the many contemtible hijinks undertaken by Jim Nussle’s campaign. His warchest may be hefty, but as the No Nussle blog points out with this post (and others), while it may be financially beneficial to align yourself with George W. Bush it certainly wont help in the long run when taking into account the absolutely dismal public opinion of the current administration.
-mg
Cut that mic!
I just got done watching that old drunk Bill Bennett get his ass handed to him on the Daily Show. Deprived of an easily muted microphone these talk show conservatives don’t fare very well. Their internet counterparts share an equaly heavy burden considering the dedication it takes to constanty scour their comments section for dissenting viewpoints. Whether you’re fastidiously deleting the viewpoints of people that challenge your viewpoint or pulling the plug on a microphone it all adds up to the same thing; being a fascist may take a helluva lot of work but not nearly as much work as having to defend your opinions using logical argument.
Wingers are simply unable to defend themselves when challenged on equal terms. Robbed of his bully pulpit and his token amen corner, Bill fell apart like a cheap suit. Equally humiliating is the ability of Jon Stewart to utilize humor. If he were the least bit snide he would be immediately dismissed for the exact same reasons that Nazis like O’Reilly are applauded for (he’s taking a stand!).
The inability to use bluster and intimidation to browbeat or bulldoze puts guys like Bennett on such a shaky footing that they fall to pieces in a matter of minutes. This may sound like gloating but in all honesty it gives me hope. When you insulate yourself from the entirety of the discussion you are in immediate danger of losing the plot but if you can face the debate head-on and with a good heart you are going to grow as a person even if you’re dead wrong. Not only is that a more fulfilling position it’s also the mindset of an adult. The point I’m trying to make with this post is that a lot of right-wingers need to grow the fuck up.
-mg
Johnson County Election Excitement! Catch It!
I know the hotly contested race for the coveted Johnson County Supervisor seat is forefront in the minds of most of you and amid such blistering excitement it’s easy to forget that it’s also the primary for the Democratic candidate for the upcoming Iowa governors race. Visitors to this site have likely found it hard not to notice that the Iowa Liberal editorial staff endorses Ed Fallon. Of course, you’re free to go waste your vote on any of the other candidates (whoever they are), but we recommend pulling the lever for the feller who makes the most sense for Iowa (ie-Ed Fallon). Be sure to visit this page if you need help finding your local polling locations. You may also want to show up early. I got a glimpse of the new electronic voting stations and they look damned intimidating.
-mg
Brian, it’s easy to fight imaginary Democrats when you run from real ones.
Utterly deranged, Brian is taking shots at William Jefferson as if Jefferson were a Democrat sweetheart:
But of course, he’s not guilty of anything. Even though he was caught on tape taking bribes and the Feds, you know, found nearly all the cash wrapped in tinfoil in his freezer, he can explain it all.
Let’s keep hearing from the Left, though, all about that “culture of corruption” in the run-up to November.
Um, Brian? If anybody on the left besides the CBC has stood up for Jefferson, I don’t know about it. The left is overwhelmingly in favor of sending Jefferson out of Washington in cuffs.
The culture of corruption in Washington is about Brian and the GOP looking the other way, covering up, dismissing, or even legalizing Republican sleaziness, portraying Tom DeLay and others as tragic heroes.
Ah, but one Democrat screws up, the Democrat party runs from him like he’s got the plague, and Brian declares things even.
The culture of corruption is ingrained into the Republican party, and is exemplified precisely by Brian’s slime-covered lying.
-jb
Hypocrites.
I’ve stated many times that I think it is axiomatic that the mainstream press consistently ignores our own transgressions while the crimes of state identified enemies are meticulously attended to. The most well known example that springs immediately to mind is the case study used in Edward Hermann and Noam Chomsky’s book Manufacturing Consent comparing the press attention towards the concurrent Laos and East Timor massacres. Another sterling example is the media’s complete avoidance of the topic regarding the 1991 massacre of the Shiite rebels taking part in the uprising following the Coalition victory over Saddam’s forces.
What happened here is not only a macabre marker in the history of Iraq under Mr. Hussein, but a harrowing footnote in American politics. The victims here, American and Iraqi officials say, died in Mr. Hussein’s suppression of the Shiite uprising across southern Iraq in early 1991. It was a rebellion that survivors — and American critics of the President George H. W. Bush — say that the president encouraged after halting American troops at Iraq’s southern border with Kuwait at the end of the Persian Gulf war.
For years, Middle East experts have debated Mr. Bush’s role in encouraging Iraq’s Shiites and Kurds to mount a challenge to Mr. Hussein after the war over Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait ended, before ruling out American military action to halt the mass killings of Shiites that Mr. Hussein initiated to crush the uprising. Mr. Bush himself has said that what happened to the Shiites was one of the deepest regrets of his presidency.
It’s debatable whether Mr. Bush directly encouraged the uprising but what is uncontroversial is the fact that the US led coalition forces, which at the time had control over land and air, allowed Saddam access to the helicopter gunships, tanks and other weapons used to commit this atrocity. It’s a step in the right direction to mention our involvement since for years the story has been used as a propaganda tool to solidify proof of Saddam’s heinous crimes. Note that the Fox story I link to makes no mention of our involvement. But fifteen years on it’s also disingenuous to suggest that there are any deep regrets. In Bush’s own memoirs he concludes that he made the right decision as he insists that it was a required action to preserve “the long-term balance of power at the head of the Gulf”.
If this administraton and it’s sycophantic press were serious about winning hearts and minds then it’s essential that they not only recognize the crimes of others but to also acknowledge their own crimes as well.
-mg
update: Brian was kind enough to correct my spelling. Where ya been, buddy?
Using statistics to justify destruction.
In an earlier post I noted how the claim that Iraq is safer than most U.S. cities is making it’s way around the conservative blogs once again. Commenter Chris elaborates on the faulty statistical methods used by charlatans like Iowa Republican Representative Steve King to promulgate such vulgarities.
-mg
Mandate.
Three thousand troops isn’t a terribly large amount, especially when considering the approximately one hundred and thirty thousand we’ve currently got deployed in Iraq. Still, it’s worthy of note that Italy’s new Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, is heeding the will of the Italian public and is withdrawing troops from Iraq, and regardless of what this Moonie Times article suggests:
Speaking after a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Rome, the newly-elected leader said the decision to withdraw the country’s troops had already been taken, suggesting that international opinion was irrelevant.
When asked whether Blair agreed with the Italian move, Prodi replied: “This is not the issue. Italy’s decision has been taken.”
International opinion was and has always been resoundingly against this war.
Before the start of the war Rome and Milan were the sites of protests numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Public reluctance towards Dick and George’s Excellent Iraqi Adventure was well documented with upwards of eighty percent of the population being against it. Berlusconi, biding his time on the back of a wasted economy and Middle-East foray, was defeated in what one could truly call an authentic mandate of the people. Not the 51-49 kind of “mandate” we had in ‘04 but. Here’s to hoping that 2006 will reflect that same type popular decree. An indictment against the sloppy, shuck-and-jive politics we’ve had to endure since 2001.
Brian says “No thanks, science, I’ve got Kyle Smith at the New York Post!”
Brian, of course, won’t be seeing An Inconvenient Truth, in line with his usual fearlessness in the face of opposing viewpoints. Nah, Al Gore may have all of the scientific community on his side, but Brian needs none of it. After all, if all those scientists were right, there wouldn’t be any MSM hacks disagreeing, would there? Why, as long as Brian can find a movie reviewer to run cover for him, he’s satisfied.
It’s really amazing how the paste-eating wingnuts like Brian can take so much pride in avoiding contrary points of view. The right really does fear this film, and it fears what would happen if people did go see it. Such obedience, all in the name of protecting the profits of oil and auto execs.
Make their worst dreams come true…because you sure don’t want the worst dreams of the scientific community coming true.
-jb
Brian is going to take his ball and bat home so you can’t strike him out!
Brian at Iowa Voice, our village idiot, has apparently been deluged with people who dare to disagree with him, and is about to disable comments. Naturally, being truthy, Brian is complaining about spam, as if he is the most popular blogger in America. Funny, Atrios can handle comments, but Brian can’t. I repeat, FUNNY!
As one of our readers confirms, Brian is still good at one thing in life: blocking dissent in his comments sections. Too bad we’re so good at dodging his weak-ass IP blocking…
-jb
Transformation of a skeptic.
People don’t change their minds very often, because they’re typically stuck with the one they have. If you’re like Brian at Iowa Voice, you can’t suddenly become capable of logical thought. Once a thoughtless boob who cannot tolerate dissent, always one.
Some of us are naturally skeptical and contrarian, and don’t like the feeling of jumping on a bandwagon only to be exposed for excessive haste afterwards. If they see a bunch of people hooting and hollering about something, their first instinct is to say, “Hey, slow down there.”
The danger, of course, is that people get stuck being slow to jump on bandwagons, and one day they get left behind when they should have been running.
Did Michael Shermer play skeptic too long on global warming? I think so, but he has repented, and I forgive him.
Because of the complexity of the problem, environmental skepticism was once tenable. No longer. It is time to flip from skepticism to activism.
Shermer’s just one of those people that needs the evidence to lift them up by the collar and furiously beat them about the head, neck, and torso, too easily goaded by politics to being adversarial.
Well, the evidence is brutal, and it’s going to get meaner. Shermer has the characteristic of being fundamentally reasonable. Keep an eye on the global warming debate, which is over, to see who isn’t.
-jb
I want that goddamn electric car!
70mph? No noise, no emissions, plug it in overnight and it can go 300 miles?
Are you stupid? Of course you want it! Eventually, there won’t be an option. In the meantime, we have the movie, which I already mentioned, and this good article in The Independent I just found. As American hero Al Gore thrusts global warming into the public consciousness, a flood of revolutionaries like Chris Paine will find new ground to stand on, and they must be supported. Lucky guy on the timing though, his story and the making of the film go back a decade.
-jb
Update: Article was free, now costs money…save it and go to the movie’s website.
Whoops.
It appears that House Appropriation Committee Chairmain Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is going to get subpoenaed in the investigation relating to an illegal back-scratching setup between the Chairman and some eager lobbyists.
Of course, the liberal media is still ignoring Harry Reid and the boxing ticket scandal.
-mg
Culture of corruption? Noooooo.
Another Bush palm-greaser gets some time in the pokey for illegally contributing 45,000 into W’s re-election campaign.
That nothing compared to accepting some free boxing tickets, of course!
-mg
Iowa Liberal tackles the questions that keep the 101st awake at night.
The most difficult dilemma facing conservatives come 2008 will be that if a Democrat gets elected president they are going to have to figure out how to distance themselves from a war they spent five years defending. Asking solemnly if protesting President Clinton’s foray into the former Soviet republics was indicitive of being a true patriot was easy enough. After all, the action was under-taken while the cloven-hooved Clinton was in office.
Conservatives also had the added benefit of being able to invoke the UN boogey-men with their black helicopters and their One World Government ambitions. The same cannot be said for our next chief executive. A president from the Democratic party will inherit a war designed by, exclusively voted for, and overseen by a Republican dominated government. How then can Republicans effectively scrutinize what is going on with Iraq? Especially when the good news doesn’t immediately start pouring forth from the news outlets disproving their primary thesis that the media is to blame for all of Bush’s Iraqi ills?
One could hope that the busy batallions of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders would implode for sheer lack of capability to rationalize the situation. Robbed of their primary logic (that George W. Bush is infallible therefore anything he undertakes is inherently virtuous) they face a daunting dilemma, if they had any integrity, that is.
The answer is likely to be fairly simple. You see, success in Iraq, under George Bush, is perpetually six months away. As long as George Bush remains president, we will have peace in six months. However, as soon as Bush is out of office, and six months passes, great consternation will explode. Expect the following phrase by July 2008 or sooner:
“Why, we would have had peace by now!”
Since doing anything other than sitting around and waiting for peace would present deviation from the course Bush has outlined, anything a Democrat president does to hasten peace will be seen as the reason Iraq isn’t Disneyland yet. Of course, if a Democrat president did do something so stupid as to sit and wait like Bush, everyone would be echoing Billy Kristol:
“We’re not fighting hard enough!”
You see, the far right will always keep flapping its jaws. The difference is if any credibility will be afforded their tactics. It will be up to us to deny them.
-mg and jb
Some good news for Ed Fallon
Not that an endorsement by the Iowa City Press Citizen guarantees a lock (they did, after all, endorse the Iraq war citing “obvious evidence” of WMDs and have since failed to print a retraction) against Jim Nussle but it at least shows that people are starting to take notice of a campaign that many said would never gain traction.
craverguy at MyDD has a great post up listing ten reasons why Ed Fallon is the best choice for governor of Iowa. I happen to agree with him whole-heartedly. Ed Fallon is a genuine progressive candidate that deserves your attention so please check out the list.
Also, Sam at the always excellent Blog for Iowa makes his own case for Fallon.
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Bush - .011 Libruls - nil!
Lou Dobbs just called the addition of 1500 troops from Kuwait a “massive turning point” in the occupation of Iraq. That’s a troop increase of .011%!! Ah, the smell of sweet success!
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Sick
Iowa Voice is aping the tired canard that compared to the denizens of cities like Detroit or Atlanta, Iraqi citizens have got it pretty easy over there in Iraq. Of course in doing so you would only be comparing an entire country to specific domestic cities but no hypothetical is too insulting if it’s in defense of Dear Leader. I’m sure the GIs patrolling the streets of Baghdad would be appreciative of such consolations as would the patrons of Walter Reed.
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Don’t blame me! It was his idea!
Those left-wing, liberal fanatics over at the London Financial Times are at it again!
I’m being sarcastic, of course. Only the truest of believers are blind to the writing on the wall. The FT is seen world wide as a reliable source of impeccable business reporting and much like the Economist they’ve been monitoring the deepening cracks spreading along the Bush administration bulk-heads for years. Recently the Economist featured an estranged Bush and Blair on their cover entitled “Axis of Feeble”. Yesterday the FT had an article describing how the neo-con rats are fleeing the sinking ship:
Neo-conservative commentators at the American Enterprise Institute wrote last week what amounted to an obituary of the Bush freedom doctrine.
“Bush killed his own doctrine,” they said, describing the final blow as the resumption of diplomatic relations with Libya. This betrayal of Libyan democracy activists, they said, came after the US watched Egypt abrogate elections, ignored the collapse of the “Cedar Revolution” in Lebanon, abandoned imprisoned Chinese dissidents and started considering a peace treaty with Stalinist North Korea.
The neo-conservatives offered no explanation for desertion of the doctrine, other than a desire to make quick but transitory short-term gains.
Exactly. The betrayal of Libyan democracy activists?? Sentiments such as these were never voiced at the time of Bush’s restoration of relations with the tyrant Qadafi. Conservatives everywhere were heralding the move as a clear vindication of the Bush Doctrine. Fukuyama, the first to notice the ship was listing, had this to say:
“It seems to me better to abandon the label and articulate an altogether distinct foreign policy position,” he writes.
Flowers weren’t thrown at the feet of US soldiers in Baghdad so now it’s acceptable to blame Bush for every neo-con prediction that never materialised. Friends like these, eh George?
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EU court scraps US passenger data agreement
Looks like those Euro-sissies are getting all uptight over having to hand all of their travel information over to Big Brother. An EU court has decided in favor of the privacy of it’s airline passengers and is not going to comply with US demands for data access.
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PowerPoint was never this good.
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p.s. Jeromy being the idiot that he is couldn’t get it to work on his computer, so here’s another link.
GM Gets Desperate
GM Hopes $1.99-a-Gallon Gas Offer Moves Its Fuel Guzzlers. They’re so desperate to get rid of these cars that they’re offering fuel rebates to anyone who dares buy one of their lumbering, antiquated gas hogs. General Motors, in it’s current form, is finished. They’re faced with the fact that they’re tooled towards the assembly of an unviable and unrealistic product and turning things around is going to require a financial effort they currently are incapable of making.
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Propaganda
That’s a word typically reserved for use in deriding the acts of others that we find an under-handed and unappealing attempt to win the hearts and minds of man. Used in the context of the belief in our own “free-market” exceptionalism we refer to it as “advertising”. In this day and age the marketing and advertising fields are glorified to such an extent that every Hollywood sitcom features the occupation while an honest and honorable profession like teaching is routinely ridiculed.
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A letter to Andrew Sullivan
Andrew,
Perhaps you need to explain in greater detail why it’s so easy for people to relentlessly denigrate Al Gore for being smart and, like any smart person should, finding George W. Bush’s blatant idiocy to be rather grating on the nerves. Yes, Al Gore sighed once, and huffed. Yet right next to him was George Bush, a complete idiot. A complete idiot that nobody was permitted to directly call an idiot. Somebody nobody would trust to offer a correct or complete answer on any question beyond what his favorite drink was. A dry drunk man of epically tiny mental proportions, expert only in defensive maneuvers to mask his inadequacies. Somebody who doesn’t understand his own policies, who has only ever gained credibility by knowing what backs to slap. Are you really surprised that he assembled such massive early support in his campaign? Name value aside, the corporate interests and the religious right knew he was an idiot, but they knew he was *their* idiot.
Virtually everybody knew George W. Bush was not fit to hold office or steer this country wisely or competently within minutes of his initial wide exposure. Yet time after time, he received deference and a free pass. He’s never done anything in his life without assistance and cover, and it was gladly given to him.
Yet still, after all the proof, after everything I feared six years ago and worse came true, and all of it can be traced to those personal qualities that many of us picked up on instantly, we must not forget today that Al Gore saw this sorry excuse for a man and sighed.
Have you sighed yet, Andrew?
Hasn’t America?
Yes, you grudgingly admit, as hard as it apparently is, that we might be getting a little more interested in serious qualities. As “miserable” as Al Gore made you with his sighing (and huffing!), the very real and tangible misery King George has brought upon this nation has put things in perspective (for those that seemed to lack).
What will it take for us to get all the way there, and knock off this childishness and disrespect regarding a mature and very respectable man? I sincerely hope your column was your way of purging it from your system.
-jb
Drunken Swagger
And you thought it was the lying, wide-spread corruption and the cronyism.
Nope, it’s that Texas twang that Bush feels most sorry about.
Feeling sorry for not coming off well is what is deemed a “mea culpa”. Chris Matthews even described it as a “Lincoln moment”, a common comparison used amongst the “heh, indeed” conservatives. The NYT discovers the obvious:
Mr. Bush’s Texas twang intensifies and recedes depending on the setting. But he has always prided himself on being plain spoken. When it comes to military and national security, he made the heaviest use of Texas talk in the first term, initially after the Sept. 11 attacks and then after the Iraq invasion.
That’s because Bush’s Texas twang is phoney. It’s an inflecton used to convince the amen-corner that he’s a tough-talking, Walking Tall, man of action. Do you think Bush talked like that in Yale? Have you heard him speak in such a way around Tony Blair? Of course not. Bill Bennet wept into his whiskey tumbler:
“One of the attractive things about the president is that he talks Texas,” Mr. Bennett continued. “But what broke my heart is when he said, ‘I need to be more sophisticated.’ What is this, Kerry talk? Is he going to use ‘elan’ the next time he speaks?”
George sets up the joke and the media delivers the punchline. Of course Bush’s “apology” amounts to jack-shit. He’s telling us that it doesn’t matter what he’s saying, it’s how he’s saying it. A type of semantic