If Fred Thompson’s slow-motion entrance onto the ’08 scene was meant to create suspense and/or keep him out of the political crossfire, it isn’t working out too well.
The suspense is long gone, and the anticipation is beginning to look like impatience as negative stories about his past, his changing staff, his lagging fund-raising and his wife’s undue influence just keeping coming.
Whether spontaneous or spurred by rival candidates, reports about Thompson’s lobbying career are beginning to chip away at the actor-Senator’s down-home can-do resume.
After the revelation that he worked briefly for a pro-abortion group comes the story now of his hefty earnings and campaign contributions from two corporations for pushing what turned out to be a taxpayer-financed $1.7 billion “hole in the ground” for a proposed nuclear breeder reactor in Tennessee.
The Presidential image is being tarnished by what looks like greedy opportunism.
While Giuliani and Romney keep dueling over who can save us from terrorists and illegal immigrants, the competence issue is beginning to bypass Thompson and, when he finally steps out to do his Reagan impersonation, it may be too little and too late.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Gingrich "Sickened" by Killings
The former Speaker of the House wants to stop the war.
"Why,” he asks, “are the August vacations for the president and the Congress more precious than the lives of young Americans who are being killed because of government incompetence and inaction."
Gingrich is talking about Newark, N.J., where three college students were killed by recent immigrants, some of whom may have been in the country illegally.
Gingrich said that the "war here at home" against illegal immigrants is "even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."
So far this month, 41 “lives of young Americans” have been lost in Iraq while the President and Congress are on vacation. As always, Gingrich has it slightly wrong
"Why,” he asks, “are the August vacations for the president and the Congress more precious than the lives of young Americans who are being killed because of government incompetence and inaction."
Gingrich is talking about Newark, N.J., where three college students were killed by recent immigrants, some of whom may have been in the country illegally.
Gingrich said that the "war here at home" against illegal immigrants is "even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."
So far this month, 41 “lives of young Americans” have been lost in Iraq while the President and Congress are on vacation. As always, Gingrich has it slightly wrong
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Behind the Obama-Bashing
On the Drudge Report this afternoon, in three successive links, Barack Obama is taken to task by Mitt Romney, Elizabeth Edwards and a New Hampshire voter.
At a campaign stop in Nashua, Obama had said about Afghanistan, "We've got to get the job done there. And that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there."
A Romney spokesman jumped on this as being “emblematic of Senator Obama's lack of experience for the job of commander-in-chief.”
In a magazine interview, Mrs. Edwards accused him of lifting speech material from her husband.
“Obama,” she said, “seems to be using a lot of John's 2004 language, which is maybe not surprising since one of his speechwriters was one of our speechwriters, his media guy was our media guy. These people know John's mantra as well as anybody could know it."
The woman in Hanover, N.H. at a restaurant gathering of eight people told Obama, “You can be it. But you've got to stop--excuse me for being blunt--you've got to stop getting involved in the way people are fighting each other, chewing you up a little more."
Aside from the fact that Drudgers are likely to enjoy Obama-bashing, there may be something else here. Obama’s remark about Afghanistan, aside from being to the point, is not remarkable, and the idea that he needs to steal John Edwards’ “mantra” is ludicrous.
But his New Hampshire admirer, Maggie North, may have a point. What bothers Romney, Edwards, Clinton and the other candidates is the appeal of Obama’s freshness to voters like Ms. North. They are under pressure to turn that against him as inexperience.
If he is to run this campaign gauntlet, he is will have to find ways to stop reacting defensively and take the initiative in making the case that experience got us into this mess and that what he will bring to the table is good sense and judgment.
At a campaign stop in Nashua, Obama had said about Afghanistan, "We've got to get the job done there. And that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there."
A Romney spokesman jumped on this as being “emblematic of Senator Obama's lack of experience for the job of commander-in-chief.”
In a magazine interview, Mrs. Edwards accused him of lifting speech material from her husband.
“Obama,” she said, “seems to be using a lot of John's 2004 language, which is maybe not surprising since one of his speechwriters was one of our speechwriters, his media guy was our media guy. These people know John's mantra as well as anybody could know it."
The woman in Hanover, N.H. at a restaurant gathering of eight people told Obama, “You can be it. But you've got to stop--excuse me for being blunt--you've got to stop getting involved in the way people are fighting each other, chewing you up a little more."
Aside from the fact that Drudgers are likely to enjoy Obama-bashing, there may be something else here. Obama’s remark about Afghanistan, aside from being to the point, is not remarkable, and the idea that he needs to steal John Edwards’ “mantra” is ludicrous.
But his New Hampshire admirer, Maggie North, may have a point. What bothers Romney, Edwards, Clinton and the other candidates is the appeal of Obama’s freshness to voters like Ms. North. They are under pressure to turn that against him as inexperience.
If he is to run this campaign gauntlet, he is will have to find ways to stop reacting defensively and take the initiative in making the case that experience got us into this mess and that what he will bring to the table is good sense and judgment.
Rove Legacy: Defining Deviancy Down
Trying to find meaning in Karl Rove’s political career, as so many observers are now doing, is like, to borrow Gen. David Petraeus’ expression about Iraq, “putting lipstick on a pig.”
Today the Washington Post asks: “(A)s Karl Rove resigns from the administration, a question lingers over his legacy: What, exactly, did the architect build?”
The answer is nothing. There is no Rove philosophy, doctrine, strategy. The man is the sum of his ugly tactics, a college dropout who spent a working lifetime winning, buying or stealing votes by all possible means--a porcine rooter in the garbage of American politics. His sole accomplishment has been, in Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s phrase, to “define deviancy down” in the White House.
Ask John Kerry, John McCain and Max Cleland about his legacy.
Rove’s departure, along with that of his creature, George W. Bush, has meaning only in the question of how much of their fake piety and total disdain for political morality will persist in American life.
The answer to that won’t be long in coming. On the Democrats’ part, the jury is still out. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are still staying within the bounds of civilized contention and serious discourse.
The Republicans, who have to climb out of the Bush wreckage, seem confused. Rudy Giuliani is showing symptoms of Rove Disease, but the others are still in doubt. Much will depend of what Thompson and Romney do when push comes to bare knuckles. How far Mike Huckabee gets will be a clue.
For the moment, it would help if the MSM and blogosphere stopped arguing about the biggest bottom feeder of our time and looked ahead to putting back some semblance of decency into American politics.
Today the Washington Post asks: “(A)s Karl Rove resigns from the administration, a question lingers over his legacy: What, exactly, did the architect build?”
The answer is nothing. There is no Rove philosophy, doctrine, strategy. The man is the sum of his ugly tactics, a college dropout who spent a working lifetime winning, buying or stealing votes by all possible means--a porcine rooter in the garbage of American politics. His sole accomplishment has been, in Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s phrase, to “define deviancy down” in the White House.
Ask John Kerry, John McCain and Max Cleland about his legacy.
Rove’s departure, along with that of his creature, George W. Bush, has meaning only in the question of how much of their fake piety and total disdain for political morality will persist in American life.
The answer to that won’t be long in coming. On the Democrats’ part, the jury is still out. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are still staying within the bounds of civilized contention and serious discourse.
The Republicans, who have to climb out of the Bush wreckage, seem confused. Rudy Giuliani is showing symptoms of Rove Disease, but the others are still in doubt. Much will depend of what Thompson and Romney do when push comes to bare knuckles. How far Mike Huckabee gets will be a clue.
For the moment, it would help if the MSM and blogosphere stopped arguing about the biggest bottom feeder of our time and looked ahead to putting back some semblance of decency into American politics.
Giuliani's Base Campaign
America’s Mayor wants to become America’s President in the worst way, and it’s beginning to show.
With Mitt Romney’s money producing results in the Iowa and New Hampshire polls, and Fred Thompson’s footsteps getting louder, Rudy Giuliani is pressing his case to the Republican Right with a prosecutor’s zeal.
Exaggerating his 9/11 presence and then having to apologize for it are only the latest signs that he is feeling the heat.
After saluting the Confederate flag in Alabama, taking on a racist adviser in South Carolina and puckering up to Pat Robertson, Giuliani has now turned to out-Bushing Bush on bellicosity by bringing aboard as foreign policy adviser Norman Podhoretz, who wants to bomb Iran yesterday and, just in case the Base should doubt his conservative conversion, adding to his retinue the rabid Admiral who swift-boated John Kerry in the 2004 elections.
When Fred Thompson announces, it is sure to get uglier as the Senator-actor’s new pal Alfonse D’Amato starts slinging 9/11 mud from his firefighter friends at Giuliani.
Up to now, the former Mayor has had Right Field pretty much to himself, but Mike Huckabee is gaining traction and Thompson is set to drive his pickup-truck appeal onto the scene.
Before long, the Republican rumble may make the Clinton-Obama feuding look like a Sunday picnic.
With Mitt Romney’s money producing results in the Iowa and New Hampshire polls, and Fred Thompson’s footsteps getting louder, Rudy Giuliani is pressing his case to the Republican Right with a prosecutor’s zeal.
Exaggerating his 9/11 presence and then having to apologize for it are only the latest signs that he is feeling the heat.
After saluting the Confederate flag in Alabama, taking on a racist adviser in South Carolina and puckering up to Pat Robertson, Giuliani has now turned to out-Bushing Bush on bellicosity by bringing aboard as foreign policy adviser Norman Podhoretz, who wants to bomb Iran yesterday and, just in case the Base should doubt his conservative conversion, adding to his retinue the rabid Admiral who swift-boated John Kerry in the 2004 elections.
When Fred Thompson announces, it is sure to get uglier as the Senator-actor’s new pal Alfonse D’Amato starts slinging 9/11 mud from his firefighter friends at Giuliani.
Up to now, the former Mayor has had Right Field pretty much to himself, but Mike Huckabee is gaining traction and Thompson is set to drive his pickup-truck appeal onto the scene.
Before long, the Republican rumble may make the Clinton-Obama feuding look like a Sunday picnic.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Fred Thompson's Name Value
Political name recognition has gone Nutsy Fagin. This weekend the Washington Post has a disquisition on the power of the name “Fred.”
Anticipating the entry of Thompson into the Presidential race, an onomastician (scholar of the linguistics of names) tells us "The name Fred is basic and homey. It should give people a reassuring image."
Thompson augurs well, too, “a name with natural trochaic rhythm, which replicates a heartbeat and thus starts building appeal in the womb."
In 2004, we learn, there was a book titled "The Fred Factor" to extol the pleasures of hard work, and more promising still, further research reveals that “Fred” is derived from the German, meaning “Peace Ruler.”
In an earlier day, the candidate-to-be would have had to present his full appellation, Frederick Dalton Thompson. But Harry Truman started it all going downhill. Before him, Presidents had stately, sonorous names--Franklin, Herbert, Grover, Woodrow--but Truman was a not a Henry turned folksy, Harry was on his birth certificate.
After that, Dwight David Eisenhower was shortened to “Ike” by headline writers and the floodgates were open to Jimmy and Bill. Now every Tom, Dick or Harry can run for President, although two recent Georges have stemmed the tide temporarily.
Fred should do well against Hillary, which sounds like the name of the victim in an Agatha Christie mystery, but his chances against Barack, which means “blessed,” are etymologically uncertain.
Anticipating the entry of Thompson into the Presidential race, an onomastician (scholar of the linguistics of names) tells us "The name Fred is basic and homey. It should give people a reassuring image."
Thompson augurs well, too, “a name with natural trochaic rhythm, which replicates a heartbeat and thus starts building appeal in the womb."
In 2004, we learn, there was a book titled "The Fred Factor" to extol the pleasures of hard work, and more promising still, further research reveals that “Fred” is derived from the German, meaning “Peace Ruler.”
In an earlier day, the candidate-to-be would have had to present his full appellation, Frederick Dalton Thompson. But Harry Truman started it all going downhill. Before him, Presidents had stately, sonorous names--Franklin, Herbert, Grover, Woodrow--but Truman was a not a Henry turned folksy, Harry was on his birth certificate.
After that, Dwight David Eisenhower was shortened to “Ike” by headline writers and the floodgates were open to Jimmy and Bill. Now every Tom, Dick or Harry can run for President, although two recent Georges have stemmed the tide temporarily.
Fred should do well against Hillary, which sounds like the name of the victim in an Agatha Christie mystery, but his chances against Barack, which means “blessed,” are etymologically uncertain.
Murdoch Retirement Plan for Rove
If Newt Gingrich got $4.5 million and Clarence Thomas $1 million, what will Rupert Murdoch pay for Karl Rove’s memoirs?
In announcing his departure exclusively to Murdoch’s soon-to-be Wall Street Journal, Rove disclosed “no specific job plans, save to write a book on the Bush years, which ‘the boss,’ as in Mr. Bush, ‘has encouraged me to do.’"
To keep his wholly owned franchise, the other boss, Rupert Murdoch, will undoubtedly be the overbidder, even if no other publishing house is holding its nose and competing.
Should the umpteen-million advance not be enough to keep Rove living in high style retirement, there will undoubtedly be a part-time job as a commentator for Fox News.
In announcing his departure exclusively to Murdoch’s soon-to-be Wall Street Journal, Rove disclosed “no specific job plans, save to write a book on the Bush years, which ‘the boss,’ as in Mr. Bush, ‘has encouraged me to do.’"
To keep his wholly owned franchise, the other boss, Rupert Murdoch, will undoubtedly be the overbidder, even if no other publishing house is holding its nose and competing.
Should the umpteen-million advance not be enough to keep Rove living in high style retirement, there will undoubtedly be a part-time job as a commentator for Fox News.
Bush's Brain is Going
They can start disinfecting the White House now. Karl Rove is leaving “for the sake of my family.”
It will take reams of obloquy to write his political obituary, but it’s not too soon to start.
Never the master strategist or shrewd tactician of Bush folklore, he was the greasy mechanic of the White House sleaze machine.
His first significant sighting came on Election Night 2000 just after the networks called Florida for Al Gore. With a knowing smile, Rove told a network reporter to wait for the absentee ballots, which we later learned had been rigged by the Bush people.
Fittingly enough, Rove started his career by stealing letterheads from an opponent’s office to send out fake messages and going on to perfect his craft under the tutelage of Nixon’s dirty trickster Donald Segretti.
Nixon brought shady operators into the fringes of his White House. Bush took it further, putting the man he called “the architect” into the heart of the Oval Office.
From the sliming of John McCain in the 2000 primaries to the outing of Valerie Plame and the firing of the U.S. Attorneys for not being political enough, Rove’s fingerprints have been all over every unethical, immoral and illegal move of the Bush Administration.
He may be leaving the White House, but Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Judiciary Committee will do everything possible to keep him in Washington. The capital wouldn’t be the same without him.
It will take reams of obloquy to write his political obituary, but it’s not too soon to start.
Never the master strategist or shrewd tactician of Bush folklore, he was the greasy mechanic of the White House sleaze machine.
His first significant sighting came on Election Night 2000 just after the networks called Florida for Al Gore. With a knowing smile, Rove told a network reporter to wait for the absentee ballots, which we later learned had been rigged by the Bush people.
Fittingly enough, Rove started his career by stealing letterheads from an opponent’s office to send out fake messages and going on to perfect his craft under the tutelage of Nixon’s dirty trickster Donald Segretti.
Nixon brought shady operators into the fringes of his White House. Bush took it further, putting the man he called “the architect” into the heart of the Oval Office.
From the sliming of John McCain in the 2000 primaries to the outing of Valerie Plame and the firing of the U.S. Attorneys for not being political enough, Rove’s fingerprints have been all over every unethical, immoral and illegal move of the Bush Administration.
He may be leaving the White House, but Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Judiciary Committee will do everything possible to keep him in Washington. The capital wouldn’t be the same without him.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Huckabee: Move Over, Paris and Britney
Two months ago, the former Arkansas Governor, suffering from media neglect, was musing about “accompanying Paris Hilton to jail” to get some attention.
"One of the frustrations,” he said, “is that there is more attention on Britney Spears getting out of a car without underwear than there is about who is going to be the next president."
He can stop complaining. After his surprise second-place showing in Ames yesterday, Huckabee is going to be the flavor of the month. The fellow townsman of Bill Clinton from Hope, Ark. will be the talk of MSM and bloggers.
USA Today is reporting that Huckabee spent only $58 a vote in the Iowa straw poll against Brownback’s $148 and Romney’s who-knows, possibly over $1000. The Washington Post calls his showing “a win.” The preacher-musician is on his way to becoming the Republican rock star.
Fred Thompson may want to think twice about waiting for Labor Day to announce
"One of the frustrations,” he said, “is that there is more attention on Britney Spears getting out of a car without underwear than there is about who is going to be the next president."
He can stop complaining. After his surprise second-place showing in Ames yesterday, Huckabee is going to be the flavor of the month. The fellow townsman of Bill Clinton from Hope, Ark. will be the talk of MSM and bloggers.
USA Today is reporting that Huckabee spent only $58 a vote in the Iowa straw poll against Brownback’s $148 and Romney’s who-knows, possibly over $1000. The Washington Post calls his showing “a win.” The preacher-musician is on his way to becoming the Republican rock star.
Fred Thompson may want to think twice about waiting for Labor Day to announce
A Diet Book You Have to Hide
Trying to be politically correct can be a bitch.
Just as the New York City Council is debating a citywide ban on the use of the word (19 of 54 members have signed on), a diet book titled “Skinny Bitch” has moved up to No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list.
Based on a vegan philosophy, the book encourages women to eat whole grains, fruits and vegetables and urges them to give up dairy products, eggs, meat and fish. The authors also attack meat eaters, calling those who choose to eat meat while attempting to lose weight "morons," which may or may not be coincidental to a new study finding vegans sexually repulsed by meat-eating men.
Sales of “Skinny Bitch” took off when Victoria Beckham, also known as the pop star Posh Spice and wife of soccer star David Beckham, was photographed carrying a copy in a Los Angeles boutique in May.
Will New York book lovers have to conceal their copies in a plain brown wrapper when they carry them on city streets or curl up with a copy at the beach?
Just as the New York City Council is debating a citywide ban on the use of the word (19 of 54 members have signed on), a diet book titled “Skinny Bitch” has moved up to No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list.
Based on a vegan philosophy, the book encourages women to eat whole grains, fruits and vegetables and urges them to give up dairy products, eggs, meat and fish. The authors also attack meat eaters, calling those who choose to eat meat while attempting to lose weight "morons," which may or may not be coincidental to a new study finding vegans sexually repulsed by meat-eating men.
Sales of “Skinny Bitch” took off when Victoria Beckham, also known as the pop star Posh Spice and wife of soccer star David Beckham, was photographed carrying a copy in a Los Angeles boutique in May.
Will New York book lovers have to conceal their copies in a plain brown wrapper when they carry them on city streets or curl up with a copy at the beach?
Obama's New Politics and Old Friends
In all the to-do about Barack Obama as “new,” it’s easy to lose sight of his connections to the Kennedy era that transformed American politics half a century ago.
A lengthy Washington Post profile today is headed, “A Series of Fortunate Events” and summarized: “Barack Obama needed more than talent and ambition to rocket from obscure state senator to presidential contender in three years. He needed serious luck.”
True enough, but what strikes an older reader is the part played in his political ascent by two important figures associated with the Democratic idealism of the 1960s and 1970s.
Before he decided to run for President, Obama consulted those two mentors, Newton Minow and Abner Mikva.
“Shortly before Christmas 2006,” the Post reports, “he met with Minow and Mikva to discuss whether to run. ‘He was very worried about what this was going to do to his family,’ says Minow. ‘I think Michelle at that point was very dubious, not at all enthusiastic about his running.’ The two men, who have six adult daughters between them, said they thought it made more sense to run when Obama's children were young and relatively insulated.”
Obama, who barely knew his own father, was turning for advice to two men who had nurtured his career to that point.
At Harvard Law School in 1988, he had impressed one of his professors, Martha Minow, who recommended him for a summer internship with the Chicago law firm headed by her father, Newton Minow, who had been chairman of the FCC under JFK and is still remembered for his speech describing TV as “a vast wasteland” and helping launch the public television network that is now PBS.
"He was at the firm for only one summer,” Minow recalls, “and when we offered him a job to come back, he came in to see me and told me he was going to go into politics. I think he had that in mind very early."
Minow became a friend and adviser to the young man with "the combination of a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament."
In 1990, he came to the attention of Abner Mikva, then a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who offered him a clerkship, but Obama turned it down. A Chicago lawyer, Mikva had been a liberal Congressman who opposed the Daley machine, fought with the National Rifle Association over gun control and against racial discrimination. Later, he served briefly as chief counsel to Bill Clinton in the White House.
Mikva encouraged Obama in 2000 after he lost a primary and considered quitting politics. Four years later, when he was running for the Senate, Mikva “gave him more money than I've ever given anyone in my life."
Now Barack Obama is campaigning for a “new politics” in American life, but what he is offering clearly has roots in the best of the old.
A lengthy Washington Post profile today is headed, “A Series of Fortunate Events” and summarized: “Barack Obama needed more than talent and ambition to rocket from obscure state senator to presidential contender in three years. He needed serious luck.”
True enough, but what strikes an older reader is the part played in his political ascent by two important figures associated with the Democratic idealism of the 1960s and 1970s.
Before he decided to run for President, Obama consulted those two mentors, Newton Minow and Abner Mikva.
“Shortly before Christmas 2006,” the Post reports, “he met with Minow and Mikva to discuss whether to run. ‘He was very worried about what this was going to do to his family,’ says Minow. ‘I think Michelle at that point was very dubious, not at all enthusiastic about his running.’ The two men, who have six adult daughters between them, said they thought it made more sense to run when Obama's children were young and relatively insulated.”
Obama, who barely knew his own father, was turning for advice to two men who had nurtured his career to that point.
At Harvard Law School in 1988, he had impressed one of his professors, Martha Minow, who recommended him for a summer internship with the Chicago law firm headed by her father, Newton Minow, who had been chairman of the FCC under JFK and is still remembered for his speech describing TV as “a vast wasteland” and helping launch the public television network that is now PBS.
"He was at the firm for only one summer,” Minow recalls, “and when we offered him a job to come back, he came in to see me and told me he was going to go into politics. I think he had that in mind very early."
Minow became a friend and adviser to the young man with "the combination of a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament."
In 1990, he came to the attention of Abner Mikva, then a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who offered him a clerkship, but Obama turned it down. A Chicago lawyer, Mikva had been a liberal Congressman who opposed the Daley machine, fought with the National Rifle Association over gun control and against racial discrimination. Later, he served briefly as chief counsel to Bill Clinton in the White House.
Mikva encouraged Obama in 2000 after he lost a primary and considered quitting politics. Four years later, when he was running for the Senate, Mikva “gave him more money than I've ever given anyone in my life."
Now Barack Obama is campaigning for a “new politics” in American life, but what he is offering clearly has roots in the best of the old.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Huckabee, Harry Potter Hound Romney
Mitt Romney won the most votes in Ames today, but he may have come in second in popularity behind Harry Potter carved in butter, who drew long lines waiting to see his refrigerated image.
After spending millions on TV ads, chartering buses and saturating the state with relatives, Romney only managed to draw 31 percent of the vote against former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who ran no commercials and reportedly spent only $150,000.
Huckabee with a surprising 18 percent ran second and is positioned to break into the top tier of Republican candidates, if he can translate his showing into campaign cash, or if fails, to become the running mate of any of the top three contenders, who would be helped by his popularity among Evangelical Republicans.
Although the straw vote was practically pointless, it should at least thin out the crowd at future debates. Tommy Thompson is certain to drop out as is Duncan Hunter.
No word about whether Harry Potter is staying in the race.
After spending millions on TV ads, chartering buses and saturating the state with relatives, Romney only managed to draw 31 percent of the vote against former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who ran no commercials and reportedly spent only $150,000.
Huckabee with a surprising 18 percent ran second and is positioned to break into the top tier of Republican candidates, if he can translate his showing into campaign cash, or if fails, to become the running mate of any of the top three contenders, who would be helped by his popularity among Evangelical Republicans.
Although the straw vote was practically pointless, it should at least thin out the crowd at future debates. Tommy Thompson is certain to drop out as is Duncan Hunter.
No word about whether Harry Potter is staying in the race.
A Titanic Step for Mankind
In a moment akin to U.S. moon landing in 1969, the Russians planted their flag in the waters under the North Pole this week. Reuters thrilled viewers around the world with images of Soviet submersibles at the Polar seabed.
A slight glitch came up for the international news agency when a 13-year-old boy told his local newspaper that the scenes looked familiar. He had seen them in the movie, ”Titanic.”
Reuters issued a correction, but the embarrassment could have been avoided if only Leonardo DiCaprio had shown up in one of the frames.
A slight glitch came up for the international news agency when a 13-year-old boy told his local newspaper that the scenes looked familiar. He had seen them in the movie, ”Titanic.”
Reuters issued a correction, but the embarrassment could have been avoided if only Leonardo DiCaprio had shown up in one of the frames.
Another Draft to Dodge? Not Likely
Talk about political non-starters: The President’s “war czar,” Gen. Douglas Lute, asked yesterday on NPR about a return of the draft to ease pressures on the U.S. military, answered, “I think it makes sense to certainly consider it, and I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table.”
Not to worry. According to the AP, the Army is pulling out all the stops to get new volunteers with sign-up rewards that may include up to $45,000 tax-free to help buy a home or build a business as well as money for college and to pay off student loans.
At the same time, recruitment is loosening rules on age and weight limits, education and drug and criminal records.
Before asking today’s privileged young people to emulate George Bush, Dick Cheney and Bill Clinton in finding ways to avoid going to Iraq, the government will try to sign up all the overweight, financially strapped drug users it can find.
Not to worry. According to the AP, the Army is pulling out all the stops to get new volunteers with sign-up rewards that may include up to $45,000 tax-free to help buy a home or build a business as well as money for college and to pay off student loans.
At the same time, recruitment is loosening rules on age and weight limits, education and drug and criminal records.
Before asking today’s privileged young people to emulate George Bush, Dick Cheney and Bill Clinton in finding ways to avoid going to Iraq, the government will try to sign up all the overweight, financially strapped drug users it can find.
Time, the Slow-Motion Terrorist
To get America’s attention, people have to die--in wars, on falling bridges, in coal mine cave-ins. Even then, hearts sink, heads shake and the news moves on to the next disaster.
Now that the catastrophe du jour is infrastructure, some politicians are trying to do something constructive while public emotion is still raw. This week, a Minnesota Congressman proposed a plan to fix the nation's 73,784 bridges rated "structurally deficient" by the Department of Transportation.
Rep. James Oberstar suggested paying for the repairs with a five-cent hike in the gas tax, but the next day President Bush, about to go off on vacation, dismissed the idea of any new taxes, saying Congress should change its priorities when spending highway money.
Bringing the nation's roads and bridges into the 21st century will cost $155.5 billion, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The $75 billion in annual spending by federal, state, and local governments is not even enough to keep their condition from getting worse.
"Maintenance,” says one expert, “is just not sexy.” Politicians like new construction they can brag about to voters while posing for ribbon-cutting pictures.
If a bomb had blown up the Minneapolis bridge, politicians would be scurrying to throw money into something to satisfy their constituents. But time is a slow-motion terrorist, and nobody is eager to pay new taxes or tolls to prevent the disasters waiting to happen.
Now that the catastrophe du jour is infrastructure, some politicians are trying to do something constructive while public emotion is still raw. This week, a Minnesota Congressman proposed a plan to fix the nation's 73,784 bridges rated "structurally deficient" by the Department of Transportation.
Rep. James Oberstar suggested paying for the repairs with a five-cent hike in the gas tax, but the next day President Bush, about to go off on vacation, dismissed the idea of any new taxes, saying Congress should change its priorities when spending highway money.
Bringing the nation's roads and bridges into the 21st century will cost $155.5 billion, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The $75 billion in annual spending by federal, state, and local governments is not even enough to keep their condition from getting worse.
"Maintenance,” says one expert, “is just not sexy.” Politicians like new construction they can brag about to voters while posing for ribbon-cutting pictures.
If a bomb had blown up the Minneapolis bridge, politicians would be scurrying to throw money into something to satisfy their constituents. But time is a slow-motion terrorist, and nobody is eager to pay new taxes or tolls to prevent the disasters waiting to happen.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Getting Blacker and Funnier
Barack Obama is no Chris Rock, but he’s trying. At the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Las Vegas today, he sauntered in late to make a little joke about “colored people time.”
“You guys keep asking if I'm black enough," Obama said, "so I thought I'd just stroll in."
Until now, the issue has been no joke for the Illinois Senator, who has been running behind Hillary Clinton in polling of African-Americans. Starting in January as a 3-1 underdog, he has only recently caught up into a virtual tie.
“We're still locked into the notion,” he told black journalists today, “that somehow if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong," adding, "There's some of that 'Is he keeping it real because he went to Harvard,' which a lot of you in the audience had to deal with...you'd think that we'd be over that by now."
Because his mother is white and he is not descended from African slaves, Obama has had to overcome both the hurdle of trying to become America’s first black president and carping by some African-Americans that he is “too white.”
Keeping a sense of humor about it all can’t be easy, but Obama is working at it. "If I'm outside your building trying to catch a cab," he told Charlie Rose in an interview, "they're not saying, 'Oh, there's a mixed race guy.'"
“You guys keep asking if I'm black enough," Obama said, "so I thought I'd just stroll in."
Until now, the issue has been no joke for the Illinois Senator, who has been running behind Hillary Clinton in polling of African-Americans. Starting in January as a 3-1 underdog, he has only recently caught up into a virtual tie.
“We're still locked into the notion,” he told black journalists today, “that somehow if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong," adding, "There's some of that 'Is he keeping it real because he went to Harvard,' which a lot of you in the audience had to deal with...you'd think that we'd be over that by now."
Because his mother is white and he is not descended from African slaves, Obama has had to overcome both the hurdle of trying to become America’s first black president and carping by some African-Americans that he is “too white.”
Keeping a sense of humor about it all can’t be easy, but Obama is working at it. "If I'm outside your building trying to catch a cab," he told Charlie Rose in an interview, "they're not saying, 'Oh, there's a mixed race guy.'"
Iraq: High Steaks Back Home
Those who resist the idea of an interconnected world may be shocked to learn that the war has raised prices in some of New York’s most popular restaurants.
To ease our dependence on Middle East oil, government subsidies are encouraging farmers to divert corn to ethanol production, which in turn is raising the price of cattle feed, making prime beef more expensive and even creating shortages, according to a cattle market analyst.
Desperate Manhattan restaurateurs are turning to rib eye and buffalo steak, a hardship their customers are stoically enduring. This should answer those cynics who claim that there are no sacrifices on the home front in this war.
To ease our dependence on Middle East oil, government subsidies are encouraging farmers to divert corn to ethanol production, which in turn is raising the price of cattle feed, making prime beef more expensive and even creating shortages, according to a cattle market analyst.
Desperate Manhattan restaurateurs are turning to rib eye and buffalo steak, a hardship their customers are stoically enduring. This should answer those cynics who claim that there are no sacrifices on the home front in this war.
"Freakonomics" Tumult Over Terrorists
Until the New York Times stops making readers pay for “Select” content, which may happen soon, you will have to take my word for this.
In a new blog on the Times web site, Steven D. Levitt, the quirky economist who co-wrote the best seller, “Freakonomics,” asked: “If You Were a Terrorist, How Would You Attack?”
The post, which cited random sniper shootings as a nifty method, generated almost 600 responses, some with ingenious ideas for mayhem, many with questions and comments about Levitt’s sanity.
Yesterday Levitt responded: “(Y)ou have to believe that terrorists are total idiots if it never occurred to them after the Washington, D.C., sniper shootings that maybe a sniper plot wasn’t a bad idea. The point is this: there is a virtually infinite array of incredibly simple strategies available to terrorists.”
With due respect to Levitt, that’s not the point. It’s one thing to flash your brilliance at a dinner party and quite another to show off in public. The problem is not giving new ideas to terrorists but stirring up the fears we all have to live with since 9/11 for no useful reason.
Levitt’s obtuseness is insignificant compared to that of Michael Chertoff, our Homeland Security honcho, who keeps telling us his gut feelings about imminent attacks while covering his butt and taking bows for the great job he has been doing.
It may be time to amend the old adage, “discretion is the better part of valor” by adding “and vanity as well.”
Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater never was a great idea.
In a new blog on the Times web site, Steven D. Levitt, the quirky economist who co-wrote the best seller, “Freakonomics,” asked: “If You Were a Terrorist, How Would You Attack?”
The post, which cited random sniper shootings as a nifty method, generated almost 600 responses, some with ingenious ideas for mayhem, many with questions and comments about Levitt’s sanity.
Yesterday Levitt responded: “(Y)ou have to believe that terrorists are total idiots if it never occurred to them after the Washington, D.C., sniper shootings that maybe a sniper plot wasn’t a bad idea. The point is this: there is a virtually infinite array of incredibly simple strategies available to terrorists.”
With due respect to Levitt, that’s not the point. It’s one thing to flash your brilliance at a dinner party and quite another to show off in public. The problem is not giving new ideas to terrorists but stirring up the fears we all have to live with since 9/11 for no useful reason.
Levitt’s obtuseness is insignificant compared to that of Michael Chertoff, our Homeland Security honcho, who keeps telling us his gut feelings about imminent attacks while covering his butt and taking bows for the great job he has been doing.
It may be time to amend the old adage, “discretion is the better part of valor” by adding “and vanity as well.”
Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater never was a great idea.
The Souring of America
Solid majorities of the public criticize them for “political bias, inaccuracy and failing to acknowledge mistakes” with the “harshest indictments...from the growing segment that relies on the internet as its main source for national and international news.”
That’s the conclusion of the Pew Research Center, not about the Bush Administration but the nation’s news organizations. Americans are losing faith not only in the politicians who govern them but the people who report what they are doing.
In the last century we believed truth would be found, as Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand put it, in “a multitude of tongues.” Now that so many voices can be heard, the result is not “truth” but distrust.
George W. Bush and Rupert Murdoch share much of the blame, with those who rely on Fox News as their main source of information leading the way in damning the media, with 63 percent saying news stories are often inaccurate as opposed to less than half of those who cite CNN or network news as their main source.
At the other end of the political spectrum, the report says, “People who rely on the internet as their main news source express relatively unfavorable opinions of mainstream news sources and are among the most critical of press performance.”
In the past five years, this bipartisan divide between press and public has grown much worse, and it reflects a larger loss in American life.
In another Pew poll in 2002, 74 percent felt that "As Americans, we can always find a way to solve our problems and get what we want." Five years later, the number is 58 percent. Other polls show erosion of public confidence in the government's ability to respond to terrorist attacks, natural disasters and health crises over that period.
In all the gabble to come over today’s evidence about growing distrust of the mainstream media, it might help to remember that it may also reflect a loss of faith in ourselves.
That’s the conclusion of the Pew Research Center, not about the Bush Administration but the nation’s news organizations. Americans are losing faith not only in the politicians who govern them but the people who report what they are doing.
In the last century we believed truth would be found, as Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand put it, in “a multitude of tongues.” Now that so many voices can be heard, the result is not “truth” but distrust.
George W. Bush and Rupert Murdoch share much of the blame, with those who rely on Fox News as their main source of information leading the way in damning the media, with 63 percent saying news stories are often inaccurate as opposed to less than half of those who cite CNN or network news as their main source.
At the other end of the political spectrum, the report says, “People who rely on the internet as their main news source express relatively unfavorable opinions of mainstream news sources and are among the most critical of press performance.”
In the past five years, this bipartisan divide between press and public has grown much worse, and it reflects a larger loss in American life.
In another Pew poll in 2002, 74 percent felt that "As Americans, we can always find a way to solve our problems and get what we want." Five years later, the number is 58 percent. Other polls show erosion of public confidence in the government's ability to respond to terrorist attacks, natural disasters and health crises over that period.
In all the gabble to come over today’s evidence about growing distrust of the mainstream media, it might help to remember that it may also reflect a loss of faith in ourselves.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
A Test for Jon Stewart
From today’s USA Today: “First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna Bush are writing a children's book about a boy who doesn't like to read. It is based on their experiences as teachers.”
Teachers? The Daily Show writers must be in a tizzy, but only a cad would comment in print.
Teachers? The Daily Show writers must be in a tizzy, but only a cad would comment in print.
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