Thursday July 29, 2004
CNN just committed what has to be the greatest faux pas in television history.
After Kerry's amazing speech, CNN just completely undercut the event by allowing the voice of a convention coordinator to appear on the air as he implored and swore at his staffers, trying to get the balloons to launch.
They then proceeded (at around 11:20 pm) to compare the words stated by the coordinator to Dick Cheney's words on the floor of the Senate, and to Theresa Heinz Kerry's "shove it"!
They took their own mismanagement of their coverage, and spun it in a way only the most dishonest could.
UPDATE: And of course, Drudge is all over it.
Someone's gotta give Ben Affleck the definition of 'enervate'. I think we would rather 'energize' the base than 'enervate' them.
The funny thing is that not a pundit seems to know what 'enervate' means (to deprive of vigor or force). He's been on with Chris Matthews, and on Crossfire, and he's used 'enervate' incorrectly both times, and no one has said a word. In fact, David Gergen was "blown away" by Ben's vocabulary.
Monday July 26, 2004
I'm more convinced than ever that the press is going to re-elect Bush. SHOVE IT!?!? SHOVE IT?!?!?!
They can make a controversy over "SHOVE IT"!?!?
Our country is lost.
Nothing but pain: the sight of a convention center full of Democrats mouthing along to "This Land is Your Land", and every last one of 'em getting the words wrong.
Don't blame them. If you can recite the third verse, I'll give you a pat on the back. But it makes for baaaaad TV. Bad Bad Bad.
Friday July 23, 2004
Some more folks to add to the Rightist's blacklist.
Is it just me...
...or has Iraq, which I thought was in really bad shape, taken a turn for the worse?
What Drudge doesn't tell you...
On Drudge's website is the headline, "MEDIA WARNED OF THREAT AT DEM CONVENTION...". What he doesn't tell you is that the threat isn't from Al Quaeda. According to the article he links to,
Feds stressed that the threat comes from a domestic group -- not Al Qaeda or any other foreign terrorist group.
Lovely. Domestic terrorists (anyone have a guess at their political leanings?) are threatening the media covering the Democratic Convention, and nary a peep from the press.
Wednesday July 21, 2004
900
Nine hundred guys dead. 42 just this month. At this rate, it will be 1000 before the Republican Convention.
Here's the "Casualties in Iraq" website.
Monday July 19, 2004
Sharon urges a Jewish exodus from France to Israel, to avoid "anti-Semitic violence." Irony is lost on these idiots.
Friday July 16, 2004
Shorter Martha Stewart, after receiving her prison sentence:
"Buy crap from Martha Stewart Living. I need to be richer when I get out of prison than when I went in."
Whatever you feel about Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11, I agree with this newspaper reporter's assessment that you should see the film:
[...] here's the reason I believe everyone should see it: The pictures of the bombing of Baghdad during the shock and awe campaign. The attack on the Fallujah contractors. The bombing victims in the donkey cart. See the movie, but not to be treated to a work of rhetorical brilliance. See it for the images the U.S. media has self-censored out of its own reports, and most people in our strangely sanitized, generally comfortable country perhaps know exist but never go out of their way to see.
Wednesday July 14, 2004
What are they hiding from us about Abu Ghraib? You don't want to know.
Via Daily Kos, a transcript of Seymour Hersh at an ACLU meeting. Hersh is one of the people who first brought the story of Abu Ghraib to the public. Hersh has this to say:
Some of the worse that happened that you don't know about, ok. Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib which is 30 miles from Baghdad [...]
The women were passing messages saying "Please come and kill me, because of what's happened". Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out.
It's impossible to say to yourself how do we get there? who are we? Who are these people that sent us there?
You can watch the video (RealVideo). His speech starts an hour and 8 minutes in, this comment around an hour and 30 minutes in...
Jon Stewart puts it in perspective
John Cornyn, R-Texas (surprise) on the gay marriage amendment:
"It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. . . . Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife."
Jon Stewart on John Cornyn (paraphrased):
"So we need two-thirds of the Senate and 3/4 of the states to ratify an amendment that tells us that a man and a woman is better than a single man, which is better than two gay men, which is equal to a man screwing a box turtle."
Monday July 12, 2004
Wow. According to a Breaking News headline at CNN.com, the Phillipines agreed to terrorist demands, and will withdraw troops from Iraq "as soon as possible" in order to save the life of a hostage.
This is what we have to look forward to...
Edwards attends church where an ex-con was also in attendance. Nothing more foul than such tarring by proximity. This is just the beginning, folks.
Sunday July 11, 2004
Bomb in Tel Aviv
Now the blowback from Bush's war: a new tactic, perfected by Iraqi insurgents, finds a place in the book of tactics of the Palestinian "Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades".
Got into a conversation with Bush supporters yesterday. If you're looking for an argument as to why not to vote for Bush, here's one that was effective, and another that would be:
1) For me, it's not ideology or policy that's the deciding factor, it's competence. The administration ignored the opinion of its military commanders, and went into Iraq with too few men, saying that was all they needed. When it was obvious that that was not enough, they didn't apologize, they didn't admit error. They continued to say that they didn't need more troops, all the while putting in place stop-loss orders to keep guys from leaving the country. They've also slowly been increasing the numbers, bringing in guys off of the ready reserve.
2) No one has been able to explain an urgency to invade Iraq that threw our soldiers into the country without adequate body armor and armored vehicles. The country was 1) contained and 2) under a inspections regime, which (regardless of inspection quality) would have given us adequate opportunity to at least make sure our soldiers were equipped to do the job. They were not, and I consider that malign negligence.
I also got into a conversation with a Zionist, who insisted on explaining to me Israel's right to exist. I told him that I was the wrong person to talk to about it. Sure, Israel has a right to exist. But the Israelis and the Palestinians have turned what was a "Holy Land" into one of the most horrific places on the planet. Whether it's cultural reasons, religious reasons, racial reasons, I care only about the innocents on both sides. They should wall off the whole area, take out all the civilians, and let the rest fight over the land fight over it until kingdom come. They've turned the Holy Land into a fatal professional wrestling cage match. While both sides continue to "elect" the insane and bellicose, they will remain mired in their nightmarish existence. While both sides resort to violence, violence will continue. The removal of Arafat and Sharon would be a start, but until something clicks in the minds of the people, they will continue to elect people who will continue the cycle of violence. Sometimes, after trying to help, allowing the violence that people inflict on each other to continue is the only answer. At some point, the blood will rise too high, and they will say "Enough!" Or it will drown them. But they can never rinse the stain of the immorality of all this killing of innocents from this land they call "holy". It will forever be a testament to human moral inadequacy.
Friday July 09, 2004
I wonder how that happened?
The payroll records that could prove where Bush was during those three "lost" months in the National Guard were destroyed. But just those three months.
