Saturday, October 30, 2004
A Question
Visit this site to view the pic. The pic is large enough to fill your screen.
The young lady in question who wrote this got a visit from the Secret Service. You'll hear the story right here.
Here's my question. There have been many times I've wished a horrible case of rectal cancer on the person who created pop-ups. Should someone be reporting me to the proper authorities, or should I just turn myself in right now?
posted by Green Voicemail 10/30/2004 05:00:00 PM
O'Reilly Settles Suit
Rumor has it was settled for $35 million and a falafel
Right here.
I guess we finally figured out who he's really looking out for.
posted by Green Voicemail 10/30/2004 04:43:00 PM
Meet the Candidates
I already have a slogan: "It's Guiliani Time!!"
One of my favorite sites on the Internets, Tradesports, has already began planning for the long haul of the post-Election. No one knows who the 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate will be. Will it be President Kerry, looking for a second term? Or one of a cast of dozens of prominent Democrats who are working on their resumes in case Kerry can't come through next Tuesday.
However, we work under the impression that, barring a Bush coup d'etat, 2008 marks the end of Boy George, hopefully sooner than later. So Tradesports already has a list of prospective 2008 Republican Presidential candidates you can start betting on.
The list:
John McCain: (Even Money): He's the candidate a lot of Republicans secretly (and these days, not-so-secretly) wish would have won the 2000 primaries instead of Boy George. He had a lot of crossover appeal to Reagan Democrats and self-styled independents. However, he committed the ultimate sin: to have the nerve to run for President when the party bosses had already designated someone else.
Most people's impression of McCain is that he's a secret conservative Democrat, and McCain seems to be the most bipartisan of Republicans. (In 2004, for "bipartisan", read, "not frothing at the mouth like a complete idiot".) He can always point to the McCain-Feingold act and party financing. He has the war wounds of Bob Dole without the dourness and grumpiness. He has military experience. He also has the reputation of being a "straight talker", and the media fawn over him.
However, he's also one of the infamous "Keating Five" (go to the cached document here, you have to sign in otherwise) which as the article says is the asterisk in his political career that no one's turned into a period. Furthermore, McCain can be brought down with relentless negative campaign, as Boy George successfully went into the gutter in South Carolina and brought down McCain's challenge. McCain is seen as too pro-choice to make many Republicans comfortable. Furthermore, the way that McCain has shamelessly drank the Boy George Kool-Aid, helping out a man that in any just world, he should have no respect for makes one wonder how far McCain will whore himself out to get the 2008 nomination.
Rudy Giuliani (3 to 2): He's another Republican "dream candidate". His big draw is that he's anti-crime, as a United States attorney, corruption fighter, and mayor of New York. The popular perception is that New York cleaned up its crime problem when Rudy (note the one-name name, like 'Cher' or 'Madonna') came on the scene. When 911 happened, the first politician to take control was not Boy George, it was Rudy Giuliani. He was the one to reassure New Yorkers. He was the one in command. Very popular in New York, a moderate Republican, most Republicans assume he'll be popular elsewhere. People see him as a "leader" (he even wrote a book about it) and he speaks in the high language of hopes and dreams and makes it sound quite plausible.
However, there are two sides to the story. Most of those in New York who had the misfortune to work under him see Giuliani as a media-hog, who wanted credit for every good thing that happened in New York and took all the credit of the work of Police Chief William Bratton, who he later jettisoned because Bratton got good press. Guiliani was, frankly, a real asshole to anyone who didn't completely, 100 percent agree with him and those stories will begin to come out. His (multiple) marital infidelities and messy divorce will further paint the picture of 'Rudy"as whale feces in human clothing, and his bout with prostate cancer will bring up speculations about Guiliani's health.
Bill Frist (3 to 1): Frist become Senate Majority Leader when Trent Lott had his little "accident". As a result, he can claim that any Republican successes must be his successes, since after all, he's part of the Republican leadership. He's smart, probably one of the smartest politicians around. He's not only an MD, but a heart surgeon and a policy wonk on health care. His public persona is warm and personable and he is probably one of the wealthiest men in the US Senate -- you can't go anywhere in Nashville without bumping into something named "Frist".
However, Dr. Frist has some baggage to carry. Rumor has it that as a surgeon, Frist wasn't the most pleasant man to work for, a man essentially full of himself -- then again, most doctors are that way. However, in a book he wrote about his medical career, he stated that for medical research, he would adopt cats from animal shelters, telling the operators he was adopting them when instead he planned to do experimental surgery on them. Frist calls his actions heinous, but you'd hear a lot about "Cat-Killer Frist" and if you'd really want to give such an individual that kind of power. Recently he co-wrote a book called "Good People Beget Good People" -- a history of his own family!! I suppose "humility" is not one of Dr. Frist's virtues. You'll also get to hear about the fraud allegation surrounding HCA (the cornerstone of the Frist Millions) which was defrauding both Medicare and Medicaid, and how the investigation into HCA was stopped by the Bush Administration.
Bill Owens (3 to 1): Governor of Colorado. A quintessential Right Wing Republican, one of those that the major think tanks are supporting in a presidential run. His big act in Colorado was to remove the automatic deduction from paychecks for union membership. This forced the unions to collect their own dues, and union membership fell by about 70 percent in Colorado (remember: unions bad, business good, ipso facto). He's one of those "Iraq is a noble cause" sort of fellows, too, one of those guys who meets with David Horowitz to ensure "academic freedom", to keep evil demonic liberal professors from persecuting innocent student conservatives. He would be the favorite of the Radical Right if they found any of the top three above unpalatable. His term ends in 2007, however, and some expect him to serve in a hypothetical Bush cabinet for 2004-2008.
Despirte his popularity among ultra-conservatives, he has one problem -- his separation and future divorce from his wife of 28 years. Undoubtedly, it would become a factor, not among normal people but a factor among insane religious wackadoos that make up his support.
Jeb Bush (5 to 1): Governor of Florida. Boy George's Brother. He's considered to be the smart one of the Bush family and twenty years ago, they would have told you that Jeb was much more likely to be president than Bush ever was. Florida has a lot of electoral votes, and JEB! has a Hispanic wife and speaks Spanish. He has the power of the Bush machine behind him.
Bush's big problem is the year 2000 and it might also be a problem in the year 2004 -- there are strong accusations (which have hardened into definite beliefs) that JEB! played a major role in disenfranchising African-Americans to throw the election into his brother's hands. There's also the fact that regardless of whether or not Boy George wins or loses, Americans might be getting a bit tired of a Bush Dynasty. We do have a presidency, not a throne. If Bush loses in 2004, Jeb's capital diminishes significantly -- the argument will be "why choose another one-term Bush"? We also mention that JEB! is something of a hypocrite, calling for hard time for drug offenders while his daughter Noelle gets an easy ride through Florida's criminal "justice" system.
JEB! says he won't run for President in 2008. We'll see.
Tom Ridge (6 to 1): Ex-governor of Pennsylvania and current Secretary of Homeland Security. Pro-choice. Catholic. A liberal Republican, essentially. Undoubtedly, the reason he's even on this list is that he comes from Pennsylvania and he's very popular there.
However, all Democrats have to say is "Department of Homeland Security" and be reminded of its color coded, confusing and some say, politically motivated terror warnings. I mean, really, what HAS Tom Ridge done for Homeland Security? The fact that he's strongly pro-choice along will make Ridge a hard sell to Republicans.
George Allen (7 to 1): Senator from Virginia. Son of the Hall of Fame Football Coach George Allen, so he has name recognition among sports fans. Very ambitious. Defeated a very popular Democratic Virginia senator, so he has good karma behind him as well. He's already started a run against Hillary Clinton, raising money against her in 2003. As for his opinion of Democrats, he told his fellow GOP candidates, "Let's knock their soft teeth down their whiny throats!" Someone said it's hard to find a position in politics that Allen ISN'T to the right of. Favorite movie: Braveheart. Favorite Supreme Court Justice: Clarence Thomas.
However, he's also chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. If the Republicans lose in 2004 and if Allen loses Senate seats, that will knock down his stock a little.
George Pataki (9 to 1): Three-term governor of New York. New York has a lot of electoral votes and Pataki has a lot of wealthy New York Republican fundraisers, despite the fact that New York is solidly Democratic. He's also been spending a lot of time in Iowa.
However, he's probably not only a moderate Republican, but a liberal Republican -- you can't win the governor's office in New York as a Radical Right Republican. Those positions would be hard to sell to the blood-and-guts Republicans out there. He's not the most motivating speaker in the world, and he hasn't left much of an impression on the Republican Party after a decade of service. He's the George Bush Sr. of the potential candidates.
Mitt Romney (9 to 1): Governor of Massachusetts. Ran against Senator Ted Kennedy once, pulling 41 percent of the vote. Son of a Michigan governor. Helped turn around the Salt Lake City Olympics when he was CEO of Bain Capital. Also slashed the deficit in Massachusetts, and he didn't do it by raising taxes.
Romney's problem is that after the attempt to paint John Kerry as a son of the rich and affected, Romney is...a son of the rich and affected. His net worth is about $500-600 million. He's a Mormon, which would probably translate as "The Antichrist" to Southern Republicans. And no one read the book that Romney wrote, unlike the books by Guiliani and McCain.
Tommy Thompson (13 to 1): Secretary of Health and Human Services. Ex-governor of Wisconsin. Undoubtedly will run as the "education" president, and point to his voucher program in Wisconsin as the cornerstone of his campaign. His brother is a Libertarian and there could be some crossover appeal.
His problem is that some of his decisions as Wisconsin governor make Boy George look smart. Furthermore, when we had the anthrax scare in 2001, America was short of vaccine. Now we have flu season coming up in 2004 and guess what? America is short of vaccine again. A big part of the fault for that falls in Tommy Thompson's lap.
Chuck Hagel (25 to 1): Senator from Nebraska. In favor of bringing back the draft. Social conservative. But there's the big "who dat" factor.
Condoleeza Rice (25 to 1): National Security Advisor to Boy George. Biggest problems for Republicans: 1) female and 2) black. The candidate for Republicans who are absolutely convinced that Hillary will run for president in 2008. Here's what would happen.
1) Big acclaim from the Republicans, with a lot of back-patting about how forward looking and progressive they really are.
2) Every Republican of every stripe, shape, and size would swear eternal fealty to Condi and that they will vote their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to support her.
3) Many rednecks would be interviewed. All would say, "I'm voting for Rice!"
4) Republicans of every stripe, shape, and size would oversleep, have car trouble, etc. etc. and mysteriously fail to show up at polls on Election Day. Democratic candidate in landslide victory.
posted by Green Voicemail 10/30/2004 01:35:00 PM
Friday, October 29, 2004
Left Wing Offense
It was this or those nude Packer women
We can call last week the "Wounded Wing Offense", going a pedestrian 7-7 on picks, no better than random chance. Among the failures:
A 56-10 rout of Atlanta by Kansas City. I had Atlanta, deciding to go against conventional wisdom, and I got snakebit.
A Jacksonville victory over the Colts.
Arizona coming to life and surprising Seattle. Will Dennis Green lead the Cardinals to the promised land?
Detroit beating the Giants. This officially ends the "suicide picks", as this was the pick I bet my life on. Bury me six feet under.
St. Louis taking a dive and letting the Dolphins beat them.
N'Ohleans beating the once-mighty Raiders. That was my "WTF" pick, so I'm not too heartbroken by that one.
Cincinnati suddenly waking up and beating the Broncos Monday night.
Adding this 7-7 -- my worst week -- to the other picks puts me at 35-21 overall. This week, however...sheesh. It's been a long time since I've seen games this tough to pick. But...here we go! (Note: home team is capitalized from now on)
Arizona over BUFFALO
Cincinnati over TENNESSEE
Green Bay over WASHINGTON (every progressive has to make this pick!)
HOUSTON over Jacksonville
DENVER over Atlanta
New England over PITTSBURGH
CHICAGO over San Francisco
PHILADELHIA over Baltimore
Detroit over DALLAS
KANSAS CITY over Indianapolis
NY Giants over MINNESOTA (my "What The F---?" pick)
SEATTLE over Carolina
SAN DIEGO over Oakland
NY JETS over Miami
posted by Green Voicemail 10/29/2004 10:54:00 AM
Monday, October 25, 2004
Good News, Bad News
Lot of good news, lot of bad news
Ya'll need to hop over to Collective Sigh. Sure, the Iraqis have found a to--a metric--a whole SHITLOAD of explosives. But there's some good news among the bad news. Take a peek!
posted by Green Voicemail 10/25/2004 06:41:00 PM
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Fine W(h)ine
Is he a Claret or a Burgundy?
From The Washington Post:
At the end of last year, during 3 1/2 hours of interviews over two days, I asked President Bush hundreds of detailed questions about his actions and decisions during the 16-month run-up to the war in Iraq. His answers were published in my book "Plan of Attack."
...
In August, I was talking with Kerry's scheduler about possible dates. On Sept. 1, Kerry began his intense criticism of Bush's decisions in the Iraq war, saying "I would've done almost everything differently." A few days later, I provided the Kerry campaign with a list of 22 possible questions based entirely on Bush's actions leading up to the war and how Kerry might have responded in the same situations. The senator and his campaign have since decided not to do the interview, though his advisers say Kerry would have strong and compelling answers.
...
Mr. Woodward goes on and lists all 22 questions that he said he was going to ask Kerry.
He must have a new book he's trying to sell. Bye, Bob.
posted by Green Voicemail 10/24/2004 05:59:00 PM
Gravitas
From Harvard to Involuntary Community Service
From Realcities.com:
"I was working full time for an inner-city poverty program known as Project P.U.L.L.," Bush said in his 1999 autobiography, "A Charge to Keep." "My friend John White ... asked me to come help him run the program. ... I was intrigued by John's offer. ... Now I had a chance to help people."
But White's administrative assistant and others associated with P.U.L.L., speaking on the record for the first time, say Bush was not helping to run the program and White had not asked Bush to come aboard. Instead, the associates said, White told them he agreed to take Bush on as a favor to Bush's father, who was honorary co-chairman of the program at the time, and Bush was unpaid. They say White told them Bush had gotten into some kind of trouble but White never gave them specifics.
"We didn't know what kind of trouble he'd been in, only that he'd done something that required him to put in the time," said Althia Turner, White's administrative assistant.
...snort...sniff...uh, excuse me. I was distracted.
Will this story get any play? Probably not. Why?
No documents from Bush's time with P.U.L.L. exist. The agency, which closed in 1989, left most of its records behind when it moved to a new location in 1984. The building's owner, Southern Leather Co., said those were discarded. No one seems to know what happened to any remaining records after 1989. White's widow declined to be interviewed.
At the very least, the entire P. U. L. L. incident could provide some kind of guidance for a timeline so we can figure out exactly when the incident happened that...uh...convinced Mr. Bush to...uh...VOLUNTEER to help the poor. Somewhere, someone knows the truth and I'll be those records WEREN'T thrown away.
posted by Green Voicemail 10/24/2004 03:39:00 PM
Coalition? What Coalition?
But B. D., what about the noble Iraqi forces ?
From The Brad Blog:
During the Vice-Presidential Debate Dick Cheney accused John Edwards of being "dead wrong" when Edwards asserted that "we've taken 90 percent of the coalition casualties." Cheney argued that we've only taken 50 percent because Edwards, apparently, was not counting Iraqis as part of the "Coalition".
To fact-check that, I went to the White House website to see who they counted as part of the "Coalition" and came across a page at the site from a special "RENEWAL IN IRAQ" report they have online. The page was entitled "The Coalition".
The blog entry by Brad continues that when he tried to pull up the page marked "The Coalition" -- to see if the noble Iraqis were listed on the page -- the page link was suddenly dead, as in "File Not Found".
A e-mail to the White House Webmaster was sent asking about the missing link. The page was "fixed" -- by removing the link!!
I suppose that Iraq is in the coalition if there's no document stating that Iraq is NOT in the coalition. That's my problem -- I'm a member of the "reality-based" coalition....
posted by Green Voicemail 10/24/2004 03:16:00 PM
No Reason to Vote for Bush
From this poll of the staff of Reason Magazine:
Peter Bagge: Kerry or Badnarik (Badnarik is the Libertarian candidate for president)
Ronald Bailey: Bush or Badnarik
John Perry Barlow: Kerry
James Bovard: Badnarik
Steward Brand: Kerry
Drew Carey: implied he will not vote
Tim Cavanaugh: Badnarik
Steve Chapman: Kerry or Badnarik
Brian Doherty: nonvoter
Richard Epstein: Badnarik (note: he did not even know Badnarik's name -- "I don't
know who the Libertarian candidate is, but you can put me down as voting for him; anyone but the Big Two.")
Charles Paul Freund: still undecided
Glenn Garvin: essentially, didn't respond -- made joke about living in Florida, therefore, his votes would most likely not be counted
Robert A. George: Badnarik
Nick Gillespie: maybe Badnarik
Mike Godwin: Kerry
Nat Hentoff: no vote for President
Robert Higgs: nonvoter
Penn Jillette: will either not vote, vote for Badnarik, or vote for Bush because he
could earn $100 from a friend after he told his friend that he believed Bush and Kerry were the same -- the friend said if he really believed that, he would give him $100 to vote for Bush
Dave Kopel: Bush
John McClaughry: Bush
Deirdre McCloskey: Kerry
Wendy McElroy: Canadian, ineligible to vote
Charles Murray: Bush
P. J. O'Rourke: Bush
Camille Paglia: Kerry
Steven Pinker: Kerry
John J. Pitney Jr.: Bush
Bob Poole: Bush
Jonathan Rauch: will not disclose
John Rennie: Kerry
Glenn Reynolds: Bush
Louis Rosetto: Bush
Julian Sanchez: unlikely to vote
Jack Shafer: Badnarik ("Who is the Libertarian candidate this year?")
Michael Shermer: Kerry
R. U. Sirius: Kerry
Bradley A. Smith: will not disclose
Vernon Smith: Bush or will not vote
Andrew Sullivan: Canadian
Jacob Sullum: unlikely to vote
Jeff A. Taylor: Bush
Eugene Volokh: Bush
Jesse Walker: unsure
Jude Wanniski: unsure
Matt Welch: Kerry
Robert Anton Wilson: write-in vote for himself
Cathy Young: will not disclose
So among the conservatives and eccentrics who like to think of themselves as "libertarian leaning", it splits this way: Kerry 11, Bush 11, Badnarik 6 (excepting not voters, undecideds, ineligibles and joke answers).
Looks likes the rats have left the ship....
posted by Green Voicemail 10/24/2004 10:03:00 AM
