July 2004 Archives

Kerry's acceptance speech was pretty damn good (except for the sermony "help is on the way part" - not his best mode). I'm going to put it on DVD and send it to my mom and dad. They'll love it. He struck the perfect chord on just about every issue without giving one red inch to GW and his merry band of Jackals.

The opening line was killer and is definitely going to be the sound bite:

I'm John Kerry. . . And I'm reporting for duty.

Take that, GW. Sit on that and twirl, Rove. Bush in flight gear is going to be remembered as the Dukakis moment of the GW's campaign.

It's going to be real fun to see the smear campaign against Kerry. It's going to contrast pretty darn well with tremendously upbeat note that the Kerry campaign is striking (and has struck so far).

Going to be hard to run as someone who may - or may not - have shown up for duty, ain't it George? And what was GW doing while Kerry was off serving his country? Getting drunk, doing cocaine and being bailed out of his business deals by daddy's rich friends. After finding the lord, he forswore those reckless ways of youth to pay back the wealthy friends of his by running the nation's politics "their way".

Can't wait for the Republican convention. What's Bush going to do? Get on stage with a flight suit? How in the hell are they going to make Cheney appear human? How in the name of "Bob" are they going to prevent John Ashcroft from flying off the handle and calling a homeland security Red alert in the middle of the convention?

Politics of fear and division are a seriously bad idea because no matter what tactical function it serves for the moment, if it's you're only trick it eventually eats you alive.

Edwards vs. Cheney - geez. Does anything really need to be said about this comparison? And you've got to love the image of a debate between these two guys. Presidential? Cheney looks like a fat Mr. Burns. He's going to be talking out of the side of his mouth and looking like a crypt keeper - especially since he's been sequestered away in an "undisclosed location" for the past three years. A location without a hell of a lot of sun, obviously.

So, bring it on Republicans. Yea, I'm sure y'all are threatened by Theresa Heinz-Kerry. Girlie boys, each and everyone of you. Why in the name of all you hold holy would you not want the life mate of the person who holds the executive power of the entire united states to be the moral equivalent of Babylon 5's Delenn? Just what in the name of Mike makes you think that this is a bad trait in a first lady?

An amazing line of attack.

Going to be hilarious to see serious people promulgate these various memes. Going to be scary to see the John Ashcroft's Legion Of The Dead^tm and the rest of the Stepford Republicans.

Going to be truly surreal to hear George Bush actually run on no weapons of mass destruction and the Tiffin phantasms of Saddam as Bloefeld. No head of Osama (yet, there's still time I suppose). Doctors without borders has left Afghanistan (after 26 years) - not because it's getting any safer or their aid is no longer needed. The Iraq tune still continues unchanged.

And it's going to be just ducky to hear them try to make us scared. Because it's pretty much the only tool they have left at their disposal. And it's going to make people feel particularly safe after we've just learned our intelligence agencies can't connect dots and in response to 9/11 creates scary pictures from dots that simply were not there. Not even if you squint hard enough like Dapper Don Rumsfeld always seems to be doing.

Confidence. Kerry inspires it. Bush has done absolutely nothing to earn it.

Yea, I know. A wimpy post, but what the heck. It's a great song.

Been coding up a frickin storm on a project that allow me and Pinky to soon rule the world. Well, at least it will be the software equivalent of kudzo, which is what I'm shooting for. I'm hoping for a good five year run with the architecture, but Entropy rules and the best laid plans of mice and Enron. . .

Via Paul "my main man" Simon

Many's the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I'm alright, I'm alright
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far a-way from home, so far away from home

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
but it's alright, it's alright
for we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what has gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the a-ge's most uncertain hours
and sing an American tune
Oh, and it's alright, it's alright, it's alright
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest

Day of violence as Iraqi leader spells out security plan

I think the US should move up its presidential elections, to trip up any al Qaeda plans. Like - how about in August....

Via The Who

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals when they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the foe, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they'd all flown in the last war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left Azaelf alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do ya?

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are out-phased, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And their beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Laura has a bit of comment up about the stinky loaf that Max Boot just squeezed out in an opinion piece in the Jeruselem Post. Myself, I just crack up any time a guy named "Max Boot" spouts the neoconservative line - it's funny on so many levels.

Anyways, Laura is banging her head against the wall because the standard line for a while has been "well, we're not getting out of the imperialism business, so we mine as well get good at it". Which is completely comical because we actually are far better at it than this pack of Jackals occupying the white house would let on. Tristero has also pointed out the obvious in this regard, pointing to actual studies and the knowlege base we already have on what it takes to do an occupation right - or at least so that we aren't guaranteed of failure.

But to those on the Right - or at least those members of the Cult of the Jackal - we are just beginners in this area. We have to actually start figuring it out because we're going to have to be doing it for a while. But of course, anyone who does know about this stuff is shunned, ridiculed and thrust out of the debate. Marginalized and demonized. Truly a brilliant strategy, regardless of how one feels about being imperialist in the first place.

In any event, I just roll on the floor laughing whenever I hear the neocons say

It also requires a greater awareness of nationalist sensitivities in the age of al-Jazeera. Unilateral American imperialism won't work today. More subtle approaches are necessary, whether working through a local ruler (the Afghanistan model) or through a multinational coalition with the United Nations' blessing (Kosovo, Bosnia, East Timor).

In the end, whether you believe that we need to have a military framing for the War on Terror or not, the current group squatting in the White House are completely incompetent at executing on this plan. And no amount of reshuffling of the administration is going to help.

Okay, how to explain this one? I would put up the standard snarky line of "I blame Bush's tax cuts", but clearly it's a bit more complicated than that. I'm open to explanations. . .

Today's Bank Robber Might Look Like a Neighbor

While it may be tempting to view these bank-robbing grandparents as evidence of a moral collapse among older Americans, more likely they say something about the changing nature of bank robbery. Once the pursuit of hardened, shoot-'em-up bandits like Bonnie and Clyde, and later of violent street gangs packing 9-millimeter guns, bank robbery has become a kind of everyman's felony.

While about Azaelf of bank robberies in the United States are still committed by drug addicts desperate for money and a third by veteran bank thieves, law enforcement officials and criminologists say an increasing number are being pulled off by thieves who have a lot more in common with Willy Loman than Willie Sutton. They are teenagers and senior citizens, stay-at-home parents and established career types — in short, anyone with an acute need for cash.

"The word of mouth is that it's easy, it's safe and it's gratifying," said Robert McCrie, a professor of security management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York who has studied bank robbery for 30 years. "So it's not surprising that the octogenarian, or a mother with children at home, or people with all sorts of uncharacteristic backgrounds would be attracted to trying to give it a go. It can be just about anybody."

The number of bank robberies nationwide has fluctuated for 15 years, spiking during tough economic times and falling during good years. Although violent bank robberies are still a problem — banks in Washington D.C., for example, have recently been terrorized by a gang of masked, heavily armed robbers — the majority of the 7,412 robberies last year were so-called "note jobs," heists committed by pen and paper rather than a weapon. Twenty-five years ago, according to the F.B.I., only about a third of robberies were note jobs — the preferred method of the Average Joe and Jane bank robber with no criminal past, experts say.

"Most of these are people who have no record at all. They start off as virgins to crime and they jump into this as a first option," said William J. Rehder, a former bank robbery expert for the F.B.I.

Collect the whole set!

Via the virulently infectious Brad DeLong

Well, this was certainly a different result than I expected.

20 Questions to a Better Personality

You are an SECF--Sober Emotional Constructive Follower. This makes you a hippie. You are passionate about your causes and steadfast in your commitments. Once you've made up your mind, no one can convince you otherwise. Your politics are left-leaning, and your lifestyle choices decidedly temperate and chaste.

You do tremendous work when focused, but usually you operate somewhat distracted. You blow hot and cold, and while you normally endeavor on the side of goodness and truth, you have a massive mean streak which is not to be taken lightly. You don't get mad, you get even.

Apparently not. Another Moore talking point by the RWAP goes down in flame.

Big part of 'Fahrenheit 9/11' profit goes to charity

If so, the laughter may be muted. Despite their personal investment, the Weinstein brothers will not be the biggest financial beneficiaries of "Fahrenheit." The real winner: a charity, or charities, as yet unnamed, that will receive about 60 percent of the net profit ultimately generated by the film -- a tally that could be tens of millions of dollars. The Weinsteins, meanwhile, will pocket about 40 percent of the net, according to people familiar with the deal.

And who will pick the charities that get the money? Disney, the company that refused to release the movie, without having to consult either the Weinsteins or Mr. Moore.

Nope, this whole Catholic/Political thing isn't getting out of hand. Apparently, the "most serious scandal to the American public" isn't that there's a genocide happening in the Sudan. It isn't the thousands of children who die or the sea of people living in substance conditions. It isn't the millions of refugees and casualties of the various wars that rage across this planet - both hot and cold.

Nope. It's abortion. And not even abortion, per se. Rather it's John Kerry taking communion while not condemning abortion. Because worrying about the unborn is so much easier than dealing with the 70 years those that survive child birth have to live under genocide, rape, torture, famine, conflict and occupation. Easy to worry about the abstract and potential; the living are "on their own".

A Catholic lawyer has filed heresy charges against Sen. John Kerry with the Archdiocese of Boston, accusing the Democratic presidential candidate of bringing "most serious scandal to the American public" by receiving Holy Communion as a pro-choice Catholic.

The 18-page document was sent to the archdiocese June 14, but released to the public only yesterday by Marc Balestrieri, a Los Angeles-based canon lawyer and an assistant judge with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' tribunal, an ecclesiastical court.

Dean Esmay, this one's for you.

I Should Not Be Allowed To Say The Following Things About America

Is this, then, the appropriate time for me to ask if Operation Iraqi Freedom is an elaborate double-blind, sleight-of-hand misdirection ploy to con us out of inconvenient civil rights through Patriot Acts I and II? Should I wonder whether this war is just a means of distracting the country while its economy bucks and lurches toward the brink of a full-blown depression? No and no.

True patriots know that a price of freedom is periodic submission to the will of our leaders—especially when the liberties granted us by the Constitution are at stake. What good is our right to free speech if our soldiers are too demoralized to defend that right, thanks to disparaging remarks made about their commander-in-chief by the Dixie Chicks?

When the Founding Fathers authored the Constitution that sets forth our nation's guiding principles, they made certain to guarantee us individual rights and freedoms. How dare we selfishly lay claim to those liberties at the very moment when our nation is in crisis, when it needs us to be our most selfless? We shame the memory of Thomas Jefferson by daring to mention President Bush's outright lies about satellite photos that supposedly prove Iraq is developing nuclear weapons.

At this difficult time, President Bush needs my support. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld needs my support. Vice-President Dick Cheney needs my support. It is not my function as a citizen in a participatory democracy to question our leaders. And to exercise my constitutional right—nay, duty—to do so would be un-American.

Via Ruminate This.

Sometimes I wonder at the morals exhibited by our country. Today we learn that there's been a sharp increase in the number of those wandering around the country last year without health insurance - even though they have jobs. Yesterday we learned that, low and behold, drug prices have spiked since the new Medicare law went into effect. Add to this the fact that health care costs are spiraling out of control and one gets the distinct impression that there is only one thing that we can do about this situation, and that is limit the amount of damages that someone can receive in medical malpractice suits. All I can say is thank God the Right Wing managed to kill off health care reform.

I do hear there's a bit of genocide going on over in Sudan - terrible thing, that. Even Kristoff says so. And I see that Powell is taking firm control of the situation by boldly speaking out about it. Pity we don't have any spare troops to send into the area so that we could at least attempt to stop the inevitable. But seeing as how we have 140K troops sitting around baby-sitting a fledgling theocracy of our own creation, Sudan will just have to wait. In any event, I suspect that Sudan is too close to Somalia for our sensitive tastes here in the US. After Blackhawk Down, we don't want to get involved in anything that has the taint of Clinton on it.

Speed of light may have changed recently.

You may now go back to your government assumed positions.