Pew Poll Puts Bush At 36%

Ken AshfordBush & Co., Iraq, PlamegateLeave a Comment

2622

I like this graph.  Especially the dropoff among independents.

Additional info from The Left Coaster:

A new Pew Center poll out this afternoon shows that Bush’s approval rating has fallen to a new low of 36%, and he’s losing the support of moderate and liberal Republicans, and is seeing a steep decline in support amongst independents. The poll also shows that a higher number of Americans think the Scooter Libby indictment is important to the nation than Clinton’s impeachment was. And 6 in 10 do not feel that the media is giving too much coverage to the story.

But here’s the kicker in this poll: for the first time ever, more respondents felt the Administration lied about Iraq’s WMDs (43%) than those who feel the Administration was misinformed by bad intelligence (41%).

Irony, Thy Name Is Cheney

Ken AshfordBush & Co.Leave a Comment

Hmmmm:

With Vice President Dick Cheney under mounting fire, his office together with the White House and the Republican Party responded with a coordinated counter-attack on Tuesday, accusing Sen. Harry Reid of malicious conduct "unbecoming" his role as Democratic leader.

Cheney’s idea of "becoming" conduct from a leader:

On Tuesday, Cheney, serving in his role as president of the Senate, appeared in the chamber for a photo session. A chance meeting with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, became an argument about Cheney’s ties to Halliburton Co., an international energy services corporation, and President Bush’s judicial nominees. The exchange ended when Cheney offered some crass advice.

"Fuck yourself," said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency.

Election Night 2005

Ken AshfordElection 2006, Sex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

First of all, am I prescient or what?

Second of all, what The Talent Show says:

This is a really weird election night. I’ve got this strange feeling that I can’t put my finger on. It’s not like envy, or even hungry. It sort of like funny, that’s not it because I never feel that way on election nights. For lack of a better term, let’s call it "happiness".

Third of all, count me among those who say the results overall show bad news for Bush, as well as Republicans in 2006.

Fourth of all, Fox News needs to grow up.

Fifth of all, the only serious dark spot in the landscape of elections last night was in Texas, where they passed a ban on same-sex marriage. ("And me with a warehouse full of white leather chaps…" bemoans Tbogg).  I guess that the threat to heterosexual marriage in Texas has been neutralized.  Unlike the gay-marriage anti-family state Massachusetts.

What’s that you say?

The state with the lowest divorce rate in the nation is Massachusetts. At latest count it had a divorce rate of 2.4 per 1,000 population, while the rate for Texas was 4.1.

Oh.

UPDATE:  On the other hand, yea Maine for not being bigots!!  The right wing haters lost by a 10 point margin of 55%- 45%:

"After 28 years, it’s over, you guys. We won," Pat Peard, a longtime champion of gay rights, told supporters in Portland at 11 p.m. She was referring to the initial introduction of a gay rights bill in the Legislature in the 1970s, launching a struggle that has continued ever since.

The vote reversed a trend that dates back to 1998, when voters narrowly rejected a gay rights law in a special election. Voters again opposed a gay rights law in a follow-up referendum two years later.

Tuesday’s referendum was held because opponents of the law used the so-called "people’s veto" provision in the state Constitution to give voters a chance to repeal the law.

Bush’s War On People Of Faith

Ken AshfordBush & Co., GodstuffLeave a Comment

Amy Sullivan:

Today we learn that Bush’s IRS is investigating a prominent liberal Episcopal church because of a sermon last fall in which the minister condemned Bush’s policy in Iraq. (No word on whether the agency is also going after the Baptist church that kicked out members who voted for John Kerry. Or the churches that helped out the Bush/Cheney campaign last year by sending in their membership directories. Or the Catholic priests who told parishioners it would be a sin to vote for Kerry.)

Don’t cry for the Episcopalians, though. They had an out. The IRS offered them a sweet deal: Admit that you violated the law, never do it again, and we’ll drop the investigation.

That kind of "deal" is usually called "intimidation."

If a Democratic administration went after a conservative church and threatened its tax-exempt status over statements made during a sermon, it’s safe to assume all hell would break loose. You wouldn’t be able to turn on a cable channel without hearing some host intoning, "Is there a Democratic war on faith?" Conservatives would fill the airwaves, newsprint, and blog pages with condemnations of "liberal bigots who hate religion." Can we expect a similar response from the left now?

“Bring It On”

Ken AshfordCongress, Republicans, War on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

sez Matt, and I think he’s right:

This effort to launch a probe, not of Bush’s secret torture prisons but if who spilled the beans on the secret torture prisons is, of course, absurd and shameful. So I agree with Lindsey Graham:

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said: "Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees. The real story is those jails."

But I also agree with the next graf:

More generally, Republicans suggested it is unwise to pick a fight with the media over an issue that exposes so many political vulnerabilities for their party.

It’ll be a real shame if Dana Priest — one of the best reporters out there — winds up needing to do hard time over this. But with my partisan hat on, the reality is that the gambit in question is bound to backfire. The political subtext of the Plame Case was that it shed light on the broader issue of manipulation of intelligence. The only broader issue illuminated by this proposed investigation is the existence of a network of illegal, secret torture facilities.

Murderblogging

Ken AshfordCrime1 Comment

I don’t know why, but I always like reading the blogs of criminals.

James Keown was a radio talk show host in Missouri.  As the Boston Globe reports:

James P. Keown talked regularly about killings and court cases. Every Tuesday, the radio talk show host would interview the local prosecutor about mid-Missouri’s most high profile crimes.

But he was arrested Monday (during a commercial break in his radio show — awwwwkward!) and extradicted to Massachusetts.  Why?  According to prosecutors, he murdered his wife last year.  She slipped into a coma and died.  Prosecutors now believe her death was caused by anti-freeze that got into her Gatorade.  (The actual spiking of the Gatorade took place over a period of eight months).

Anyway, James Keown had a blog, which Blogger has removed.  Fortunately, it is available on Google cache.  A telling post (in light of what happened) from last Thursday:

More Murder Mystery Pics!

Yes, more evidence from this week’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party (see ‘Guys and Dolls’ post below). What a fun night. If you have never participated in one of these parties, I highly recommend doing so. We’re talking about doing one based around a high school class reunion and one that is a backyard barbecue mystery. Monica – the one with the classic black-hair starlet wig – took most of these shots.  Enjoy!!

Looks like the murder mystery has been solved, James.

Well, That Backfired!

Ken AshfordIraq, RepublicansLeave a Comment

Blogs For Bush this morning, about the Washington Post article revealing that the U.S. is keeping detainees in super secret "black sites":

According to Drudge, Republican leaders are going to launch an investigation into the leak:

Sources tell Drudge that early this afternoon House Speaker Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Frist will announce a bicameral investigation into the leak of classified information to the WASHINGTON POST regarding the “black sites” where high value al Qaeda terrorists are being held and interrogated.

Careful, lefties; you’ve asked for this, and now you might just get it. It is good to keep in mind that when you make up a scandal and then using Big Lie tactics push it for all its worth, it might come back to haunt you…and we are a little curious as to just whom leaked this information to the press, as well as leaked other classified information over the past few years.

Another Republican blogger, on the same story, adds:

Drudge claims GOP congressional leaders are going to investigate the leak that resulted in story by The Washington Post’s Dana Priest alleging a network of secret U.S. prisons for holding terrorists around the world.

Sounds like Bush and the GOPers have finally decided to fight back against the "Bush Lied/Kids Died" attack meme of the Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media. This could mean a viciously partisan rhetorical and political war the likes of which has not been seen in this country since the pre-Civil War era.

And lastly, from the boys at Powerline:

Now it’s up to the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation of the leaking CIA official or officials, and perhaps other government employees, as the Post’s story suggested that multiple agencies were involved. It would be a great thing if the steady stream of illegal anti-administration leaks out of the CIA and the State Department could be shut down, and some of the Democrat leakers imprisoned.

"Democratic leakers"?

Um, not so much:

Too funny. Hastert and Frist make a big show of calling for an investigation into a leak allegedly affecting national security — the locations of secret "black site" torture prisons. And then — BOOM!!! Lott just said, Tuesday afternoon, that he thinks it was a GOP Senator who leaked the info to the Washington Post last week. He says the details had been discussed at a GOP Senators-only meeting last week, and that many of those details made it into the WaPo story.

Money quote from Lott; "We can not remain silent. We have met the enemy, and it is us."

All just reported on CNN. We are, folks, witnessing the full-on implosion of the national Republican Party. And not a second too soon.

Chemical Weapons Used On Iraqi Civilians During The Iraq War

Ken AshfordIraqLeave a Comment

Unfortunately, we used them, not Saddam.

This kind of makes it hard for the U.S. to take the moral high ground, yes?  Of course, we lost that high ground when we started engaging in Saddam-like torture.

Jedmunds at Pandagon:

What’s left to say about this administration? My final straw was snapped long ago. And it’s hard to confront this news without becoming seriously unhinged. But in a steady stream of trusts abused, incompetencies, and really, to speak plainly, flat out malevolencies; this is some kind of new, profound disappointment, quite outside the weekly outrages and the ridiculous wrongs one can take with some healthy humor or a sense of reasonable anger.

I take no joy that the administration will be hurt politically by this news. No prideful pang that I was proved right about some essential evilness inherent to the other. No, I just feel resignation. Resignation and shame. Shamed to be an American about right now. That we committed an act as gruesome as this on civilians in Iraq. I can’t even stomach to point the righteous finger right now. To say that people in this administration should be awaiting trial before The Hague. I’m not looking score points, partisan or otherwise. And I hate having to ascend some high-minded vantage, like an ego-stroking scold, and express what can only be described as bitterness. I had thought I was cynical before, jaded to whatever this administration could do. But this is the final indictment. The point at which no person of clean conscience and basic human dignity can continue to provide apology. And I know such debasement will continue. But what’s left to say to the apologists? Spitting their humiliation into a soft poisonous wind that I can feel whizzing past my neck as I walk away.

Michelle Hurt By Hurtful Thongs

Ken AshfordRight Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

Michelle Malkin has her knickers in a twist about Plamegate-related material which you can purchase at CafePress.com (an online service which makes custom-made merchandise based on whatever design you give them).

Yes, I agree that thongs bearing the image of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald are a little odd.

But Michelle — being, you know, Michelle — predictably uses such items as evidence that liberals are indeed (as her book suggests) "unhinged".

So I thought I would visit Cafepress myself, and see what merchandise conservatives have generated for sale.

Do conservative goodies demonstrate thought-provoking, humorous, reasonable statements of political satire and wit?  Or do they merely offer mean-spirited, ghoulish, and petulant knick-knacks? 

You be the judge: a small cherry-picked sampling of T-shirts, throw pillows, bumper stickers, and posters, which take up considerable disk space, in a Typepad photo album entitled "Unhinged Right".

Election 2005 Predictions

Ken AshfordElection 2006Leave a Comment

I haven’t been following this much, but I think today will be a good day for Democrats.  I suspect that Kaine (D) will beat Kilgore (R) for Virginia governor (despite — or perhaps because of — Bush’s last minute joint appearance with Kilgore)

Corzine (D) will defeat Forrester (R) for New Jersey mayor. 

And while Bloomberg (R) will remain mayor of New York, Detroit Democrat Hendrix will oust incumbant Republican Kilpartick.  San Diego and Buffalo will have Democratic mayors as well.

In California, most of Ahnold’s props will get beaten.  Prop 74 (extending probationary period for teachers so that it will be easier to fire them) will not pass.  Prop 75 (barring public employee unions from contributing to political campaigns unless members approve) will not pass.  Prop 76 (giving governor power to unilaterally cut spending in certain "fiscal situations") will not pass.  Prop 77 (redistricting) will not pass.  The only one with a chance of passing is Prop 73 (48 hour physician notification of parents when a minor seeks abortion).

And Mainesters will vote to keep a law which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.

All in all, a good harbinger for Election 2006.

NEXT DAY UPDATE: Can I call them or what??

Punditry Gone Amok

Ken AshfordPlamegate, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

This is an incredible piece of wishful thinking, spin, and rationalization from conservative blogger Tom McGuire at Just One Minute.

McGuire starts his story by quoting from the "always interesting, sometimes accurate" (McGuire’s words) WorldNetDaily.  You know you are in for a treat when the basis for a wingnut post starts out with WorldNetDaily (heck, even McGuire acknowledges that the online "news" service has questionable accuracy).

Anyway, the thrust of the post relates to a retired Army General named Paul Vallely, who came out yesterday and claimed that, back in spring 2002, Joseph Wilson told him that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent.  This conversation supposedly took place in a Fox News green room.

McGuire notes one problem with Vallely’s story: Wilson and Vallely couldn’t have met in the spring of 2002, since neither appeared on Fox on the same day.  Not until September 2002.

So, one might conclude that Vallely is either (1) lying about the whole thing, or (to be more generous) (2) his recollection is faulty.  After all, if Vallely doesn’t know the date, perhaps he doesn’t recall his casual conversation with Wilson accurately either.

Does McGuire reach that conclusion?  Nope.  He engages in the most amazing spin in mankind — to wit, the fact that Vallely got the date wrong actually supports the truthfulness of Vallely’s claim.  Read this:

However (here comes the spin!), like a flaw in fine leather, this sort of glitch in a minor detail actually increases the plausibility of the General’s story.  Yes it does!  Had the General been cutting this story from whole cloth, he surely would have taken the trouble to check his dates and do a bit of oppo research on Wilson, in which case, he would have said that they met in the late summer or early fall of 2002.

Yup.  According to McGuire logic, nobody can ever be caught in a lie, because all liars are good liars, and all lies successfully dupe their listeners. 

Very bizarre.

[Yes, McGuire’s meta-point is also bizarre.  His argument is that if some people know about Plame’s classified CIA status, then she was not a "covert agent".  This is not only silly, but contrary to what the laws and statutes say.  In other words, things do not become "declassified" simply because some people know — or think they know — about it.]

Women Don’t Like Three Stooges*

Ken AshfordWomen's IssuesLeave a Comment

Laughterscience On the other hand, "women seem more likely than men to enjoy a good joke, mainly because they don’t always expect it to be funny."

CNN reports on studies showing the scientific differences between men and women in the area of humor perception.

Money quote:

While there is a lot of overlap between how men and women process humor, the differences can help account for the fact that men gravitate more to one-liners and slapstick while women tend to use humor more in narrative form and stories, Reiss said.

"It doesn’t take a lot of analytical machinery to think someone getting poked in the eye is funny," he commented when asked about humor like the Three Stooges.

[*NOTE: For what it’s worth, neither do I]

Woman Sells Herself With House

Ken AshfordWeb RecommendationsLeave a Comment

I guess this is real.

Deborah is 48 (although you wouldn’t know to look at her) and she has a house in Denver that she wants to sell for $600,000.  To sweeten the deal, she is selling herself with the house.  According to her website:

I had not met that special someone to share this house with. My attempts included dating services, blind dates and connections through friends, but I still had not met the man to build a life with.

Finally I decided to give my best effort towards something whereby that special man could “find me”. eBay offered an opportunity for a “non-binding” transaction, which provides a means to advertise my house (and myself), with neither party being obligated to complete the transaction.

You might be wondering why I have my listing at $600,000.00 plus myself for bid as “priceless”. First, I estimate the value of the house with furnishings at approximately $600,000.00. When I asked my girlfriends their advice on what I (the “bride”) was worth, most responded that I was “priceless”.

Pictures below the fold.

Read More

Why They Call It “Fantasy Football”

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

I’m not sure if this has become a nationwide story, but it certainly is the topic du jour here in North Carolina.  It’s got it all: sex, violence, and a mystery.

A weekend bar brawl involving a cheerleader for the Carolina Panthers has sparked charges and questions over an apparent mistaken identity.

Panther cheerleader Angela Keathley, 26, and another woman whose identity remains a mystery to police face charges for a bar brawl at Banana Joe’s in Tampa, Fla., early Sunday. Police arrested Keathley and another woman who identified herself as fellow cheerleader Kristen Owen after authorities said they got into an argument in the bathroom at the bar.

***

The events that led to the arrests began when bar patrons complained that two women were engaging in sex and tying up a bathroom stall. Police said "Owen" punched Keathley in the face and was charged with battery. Keathly was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Great Moments In Cinema History

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

ScaredgirlI think somebody is going to lose their job:

A Times Square movie theater laid an egg at a showing of "Chicken Little" last night.

Adults and kids expecting to watch Disney’s G-rated animated flick at the AMC Empire 25 theater on 42nd St. were instead presented with a foreign film that opened with a young man committing suicide.

"It’s pandemonium," Joshua Gallo, 30, told the Daily News as he rushed out of the theater with his 5-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. "The kids are crying. The mothers are screaming for the managers to stop the film."

Terrified children didn’t know what to do as they watched a young boy hang himself from a tree at the 8:45 p.m. screening.

After five minutes, "Andrea," a Spanish drama opening today, was turned off and "Chicken Little" was played.