Noted

3:01 pm EST January 27th, 2006 | Uncategorized | 12 Comments

The supposedly nonpartisan and nonconservative Glenn Reynolds has made an endorsement for Republican majority leader in the House, which we all know is the sort of thing nonpartisan folks do all the time.

See here and here

Topic: Conservative

Ann Coulter Should Be Run Over By A Tank!

2:01 pm EST January 27th, 2006 | Politics | 42 Comments

But that’s a joke for the media. Anyone else with suggestions of what should be done to Ann Coulter, you know, as a joke for the media?

The Failure of the Modern Democratic Party

10:01 am EST January 27th, 2006 | Politics | 34 Comments

During much of Bill Clinton’s presidency, he was a popular president. Even when he had personal failings, the support for him was pretty consistent. Yet, the Republican congress never thought twice about acting as an opposition party, fighting against an agenda they disagreed with. Certainly they regularly went over the line in the sort of tone-deaf politics that Republicans regularly engage in, but you never thought of Newt Gingrich as someone – no matter how odious – who was afraid of taking Bill Clinton on.

Compare this to the work of the modern Democratic party, who has allowed a President who wasn’t even voted for by the majority in his first term and who was re-elected with a thin margin for his second term, to walk all over them like he’s some kind of king.

Even more amazing, lacking a spine from the opposition party and subject to a lapdog media that often appears to just want a good bellyrub than to practice actual journalism, the American people consistently are ahead of the Democrats in their opposition to Bush. Even the polls of our 21st century Pravda, the Fox News Channel, show only 41% support for the president – a number consistent with other numbers from other polling organizations.

But the Democrats, tone deaf as usual, seem more interested in pleasing the whims of the inside-the-beltway set and those ever astute conservative media figures. They must be brain dead, stupid, or both.

Bush is gearing up a state of the union that apparently is going to focus on health care. His social security plan went down in flames, his medicare plan is an unmitigated disaster both from a public relations standpoint and more importantly from a public health p.o.v., but the press will dutifully tut-tut those Democrats who will point out the man’s incredibly bad record on these issues.

Stop listening to these people. They have been wrong on everything.

The president spied on Americans in America without a warrant he could have easily obtained. Investigate it.

Republican lobbyists bought and sold Republican politicians. They’re criminals – clean it up and tell America to demand honest leadership and kick the bums out.

The president has no plan for Iraq and no credibility on military issues. Demand a true plan for getting the hell out of their and don’t allow him to ever again put American lives in danger for his ego.

The president’s economic program is great for the well-heeled but has done diddly for working Americans. In an era where the markets just haven’t moved in five years and employers are laying off thousands of people and getting corporate welfare, it would be ludicrous for Democrats to roll over and play dead for more tax cuts for the top.

Those are just a few of the issues facing us. The majority of American people do not support George W. Bush, and it would be nice if they had a political party that supported their view. The spew that comes out of the Washington Post, Democratic “consultants” (who never want to put a name with their dumb whining to newspaper writers, wonder why) and the conservative media (“So you made Glenn Reynolds happy, awesome.”) is just so much hot air that America isn’t listening to. It’s rare that you can do the right thing and also have it be the popular thing, but that’s the chance the Democrats have now – just don’t start putting things off the table.

Gastrologica

10:01 pm EST January 26th, 2006 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

In concert with Gastrologica, the food blog, my old friend Steve has launched a new podcast. Do check it out.

Topic: Oliver's World

Murtha Was Right, No Sh** Remix

7:01 pm EST January 26th, 2006 | News | 2 Comments

Why do our military commanders insist on giving aid and comfort to our enemies (based on the Republican definition of such things)?

The top U.S. commander in
Iraq acknowledged on Thursday that the U.S. Army was stretched but insisted forces here were capable of accomplishing their mission and any recommendation to reduce troops further would be dictated by the situation on the battlefield.

Topic: George W. Bush

President Bush’s Old Friend To Stand Trial

7:01 pm EST January 26th, 2006 | Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Oh, “Kenny Boy”, how long its been!

The judge overseeing the fraud and conspiracy trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling on Thursday rejected their last-minute bid to halt the trial, saying they couldn’t credibly argue the jury pool is too biased when the panel hasn’t been chosen.

Just like good Republicans, they’re claiming nonexistent bias.

Topic: Crime

Abramoff Matters

1:01 pm EST January 26th, 2006 | Democrats | 37 Comments

Montana isn’t exactly inside the beltway

Just one day later, however, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., seemed to be reading off a different script. More than nine months before Election Day, Burns, one of the GOP’s most vulnerable incumbents, launched his ’06 media campaign with a 60-second, candidate-to-camera TV ad in which he not only mentions GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff by name, but tacitly acknowledges that the scandal has evolved from a Beltway hoo-hah into something his constituents think matters to them.

Shorter Bush

11:01 am EST January 26th, 2006 | Politics | 19 Comments

“You know I didn’t break the law, because, well, I keep saying so. Soy el rey. Viva Bush”

Anyone notice the jocularity from his post-election-I’m-gonna-privatize-social-security press conferences is gone? Yep, I did too.

You can’t convince me that this camera malfunction wasn’t God’s way of saying he doesn’t like ugly.

I Bow To The Right Wing’s Ability To Make Crazy Arguments

1:01 am EST January 26th, 2006 | Politics | 27 Comments

Take a step back in time with me. When we were rushing into war with Iraq for no good reason on shoddy evidence and poor justification, the Bush administration not only lacked international support for the intervention, but the domestic zeal for invading and occupying Iraq was significantly below the 50% threshold (it never got solidly above 50% until our soldiers were engaged, and has steadily decreased ever since). But the administration was determined to have its war, and they didn’t want to go the UN or even Congress to do it. So an insane argument was floated.

The Republicans began saying that the authorization to use force against Saddam Hussein in 1991, in order to liberate Kuwait, was all the authorization they needed in order invade Iraq. Unlike a lot of their other crazy and dumb ideas, it never went anywhere, and soon the Democrats in the congress (led by Dick Gephardt, Tom Daschle) gave Bush what he wanted on the domestic front. They got as far as resolution 1441 in the U.N. but when faced with the diplomatic might that is France (yes, I also think it’s pathetic that we allowed France to out maneuver us diplomatically) we never got the promised whip count (“No matter what the whip count is, we’re calling for the vote.”) that would authorize military action in the U.N.

I remember this little bit of farce because I now see a similarly crazy-sounding argument making the rounds. Alberto Gonzalez:

We do not have to decide whether, when we are at war and there is a vital need for the terrorist surveillance program, FISA unconstitutionally encroaches or places an unconstitutional constraint upon the President s Article II powers. We can avoid that tough question because Congress gave the President the Force Resolution, and that statute removes any possible tension between what Congress said in 1978 in FISA and the President s constitutional authority today.

So, much like how a 12 year old authorization to use force against Iraq for the specific purpose of liberating Kuwait somehow went through the transmogrifier and became a green light for the invasion and occupation of Kuwait, so too has the authorization to use force against the Al Qaeda network been exposed to some of Master Splinter‘s mutating goo and become a blank check for the President to spy on American citizens in America without getting an easily obtainable warrant in a probable violation of the law.

It’s like having a man in a straight jacket tell you he’s the President, and you feel crazy, because he really is.

Flip Floppin’ George

1:01 am EST January 26th, 2006 | Politics | 10 Comments

1.25.06

“When he [Bin Laden] says he’s going to hurt the American people again or try to, he means it. I take it seriously and the people of NSA take it seriously and most of the American people take it seriously as well”

3.13.02