WASHINGTON — A week after Senator John F. Kerry heralded his wartime experience by surrounding himself at the Democratic convention with his Vietnam ”Band of Brothers," a separate group of veterans has launched a television ad campaign and a book that questions the basis for some of Kerry’s combat medals. But yesterday, a key figure in the anti-Kerry campaign, Kerry’s … Read More
Bush Administration Officially Goes ‘Round The Bend
The better title for this post is "Trust But Verify", but that was already taken. But seriously, what is up with this? In a significant shift in U.S. policy, the Bush administration announced this week that it will oppose provisions for inspections and verification as part of an international treaty that would ban production of nuclear weapons materials. For several … Read More
Skanks
Back here, I posted about an article in the New Republic, the gist of which was this: A White House aide asked the Pakistani government (specifically, their intelligence agency) to find or kill a high-level al Qaeda operative, adding "it would be best if the arrest or killing . . . were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July" — … Read More
How Money Hurts Politics
I’ve been swooning rather out-of-character for Barack Obama all day, which is why I find this from Matt Yglesius to be particularly disturbing: If the [Democratic] party leaders had had their way, not only would Obama not have been delivering the keynote address at the convention, he wouldn’t be the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate at all. Plan A was … Read More
Stupid Media Question of the Day
CNN Daryn Kagan interviewing Democrat Congressional candidate Steve Brozak: "I have to say, when I was reading about you my first thought, and maybe this is a stereotype, but why isn’t a former, and just recently retired Marine, why are you not a Republican?" MAYBE this is a stereotype? Hat tip to Eric Alterman.
DNC Day Two – A Perspective
Boy, was last night a night of contrasts. It started off with what I thought was a very bad, and somewhat bizarre, speech by Ted Kennedy. As recognized by Ezra Klein and others, this was one of Kennedy’s major faux pas: "In the depths of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt inspired the nation when he said, ‘The only thing we have … Read More
DNC Day One – A Perspective
Don’t kid yourself. Democrats are pissed. They really really really don’t like Bush. As many on the right have said, Dems dislike Bush more than they like Kerry. How true. Last night’s festival in Boston was clearly an attempt to take that Bush negativity and channel it into Kerry positivity. This was most apparent in Al Gore’s speech, who reminded … Read More
USA Today Rejects Ann Coulter’s Writing
Ann Coulter, the witty, vivacious HUMAN EVENTS columnist and best-selling author, was hired by USA Today to offer commentary about this week’s Democratic National Convention, but her first column was summarily rejected late last night. You can read all about it here, including the text of Ann’s column which was rejected (and USA Today’s editorial notes). But the most embarrassing … Read More
Pentagon Releases Bush’s National Guard Records That Were, um, Destroyed
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon on Friday released payroll records from President Bush’s 1972 service in the Alabama National Guard, saying its earlier contention the records were destroyed was an "inadvertent oversight." (Source) WTF?!? Let’s recap. Bush promised (in his interview with Tom Russert) that he would release all his military records, which he didn’t . . . and when everybody … Read More
Final Report of the 9/11 Commission
I’ve only read (quickly) the Executive Summary (available here in PDF format). The media is saying that the report is critical of the Clinton and Bush administrations, but I don’t quite get that from the Executive Summary. Certainly, the summary has pretty harsh criticism for certain instututions (the CIA, FBI, etc.) across both administrations, but as for the administrations themselves, … Read More
The Current Probability of a Kerry Win is 98 percent
So says this Princeton professor (a biologist). I’m not gloating. I think news like that, if widely circulated, will UNenergize the people who actually need to get out their and vote for Kerry. I know a little about statistics, but I’m not sharp enough to find flaws in methodology. Is there anything anyone can find that is flawed? It just … Read More
Write Your Own Punchline
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) "plans to endorse John Kerry for president today, ending his long-shot bid for the nation’s highest office only days before the start of the Democratic National Convention," the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. (Source)
The Impact of Fahrenheit 9/11
I was among the many who thought that, once you get past all the controversy and noise, "Fahrenheit 9/11" would simply be a movie that preached to the choir. It wasn’t going to sway many on the right (who wouldn’t see it because they were on the right). Nor was it going to sway many in the center (on the … Read More
“Amish In the City”
In the right hands, this new reality show could be an interesting and educational social experiment about what happens when cultures collide. But it’s on UPN, so what are the chances of that? The show takes 5 young Amish people and places them in a Hollywood Hills mansion with six-non Amish roommates. Now, the Amish people taking part in this … Read More