Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Fratricide
Atrios has hit the nail on the head:

And, once enough people decided accusing anti-war folk of being commies, or appeasers, or Saddam lovers, or dictator supporters, or America-haters, or whatever it is this week, was the way to make the case, it was pretty clear to me that there was no case to be made, or at least none that was being made. Saddam bad. Gassed his own people. Aluminum tubes. Weapons of Mass Destruction. Protesters giving Saddam what he wants. Peace folk "objectively pro-Saddam." Saddam is Hitler, anti-war folk Chamberlain. What horseshit - nothing but fearmongering and McCarthyism redux.

I'm a hawk, but the utter idiocy of many of my fellow hawks is appalling. A lot of these folks seem to be willfully stupid, sacficing all intellectual integrity with their wild and brainless rhetoric. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, cuddle up with a copy of the NY Post or if you consider yourself a high brow, the Weekly Standard or National Review. You'll see the same kind of garbage on many of the pages. Garbage like what appeared in Michael Kelly's most recent column:

To march against the war is not to give peace a chance. It is to give tyranny a chance. It is to give the Iraqi nuke a chance. It is to give the next terrorist mass murder a chance. It is to march for the furtherance of evil instead of the vanquishing of evil.

This is just away of avoiding the debate, of dodging the hard questions about Iraq and a sign of a very lazy mind. Such foolish isn't justified no matter where you stand on Iraq.



Under Peter Beinart, a New New Republic
Ah, the Great Howard Kurtz has dished out a nice little non-story. The article acts as if there are radical changes a foot down at the New Republic , but it seems to me he's making a moutain out of less than a mole hill. All of Kurtz's nonsense peddling about the New Republic ideology changing under Peter Beinart is completely off the mark. The article points to the fact that the magazine attacked Gore for the speech he made in San Fransisco against war with Iraq as a sign of a drift to the right, but this misses the point entirely. The New Republic bashed Gore for the same reasons that it endorsed him in 2000, because of their DLC-style, New Democrat, Centrist views and these views haven't really changed. The New Repubic endorsed Gore because it blieves that the United States ought to be involved with the world and that it American Power ought to be put to good use overseas. In the 2000 campaign, Al Gore was the more hawkish, less isolationist candidate (and a friend of Martin Peretz, the publisher) and so it was only logical that the magazine endorse him. The reason why it attacked Gore was because the remarks he made in San Fransisco went against the consistently hawkish magazine's grain.

Of course, such subtlies are lost on our friend Howie Kurtz...

Monday, February 24, 2003

Death of a Journalist
I believe that David Brooks has just become a hack. This is a shame, because for a long time I respected him, a thought he was a pretty good writer and especially perceptive for a conservative. However, a recent article by him in the Weekly Standard has greatly lowered my opinion of the man. First of all the article basically rips off an earlier one by Lawrence Kaplan on anti-semitism, but as with most Knock offs, Brook's work is of a lower quality than the original. While Kaplan does a brief survey of anti-semitism in relation to the coming war with Iraq, taking a look at jew baiting in America's left, right and center. Brooks on the other hand just uses it to bash usual suspects, those darnedlong haired protestors and their shadowy commmunist and terrorist friends in ANSWER. In fact in Brook's article he ignores the bigotry of the "Buchananite right" entirely (something Kaplan's article spend a fair amount of time on), saying that most anti-semitism these days comes from the Left (naturally). All and all Brook's article is really just shabby and appears to be driven almost entirely by his vendenta against the peace movement. Congrads Dave, you are now a terminal fool. May you and Nicholas D. Kristoff have a great time patting each other on the back while you sink deeper and deeper into your own disgusting and stagnant mental marsh.

I'd like to quickly recommend
www.murderize.com
My friend said it is as good as the Onion. I'm not so sure, but anyway, its funny.
Check out the map of Europe.

Saturday, February 22, 2003

Top Scotch

The following advisory for American travelers heading for France was compiled from information provided by the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S.Chamber of Commerce, the Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Disease Control and some very expensive spy satellites that the French don't know about. It is intended as a guide for American travelers only and no guarantee of accuracy is ensured or intended.

General Overview
****************
France is a medium-sized foreign country situated on the continent of Europe, and is for all intensive purposes fucking useless. It is an important member of the world community, although not nearly as important as it thinks.It is bounded by Germany, Spain, Switzerland and some smaller nations of no particular consequence or shopping opportunities.France is a very old country with many treasures such as the Louvre and EuroDisney. Among its contributions to Western civilization are champagne, Camembert cheese, the guillotine, and body odor. Although France likes to think of itself as a modern nation, air conditioning is little used and it is next
to impossible to get decent Mexican food. One continuing exasperation for American visitors is that the people willfully persist in speaking French, although many will
speak English if shouted at repeatedly.

The People
**********
France has a population of 54 million people, most of whom drink and smoke a great deal, drive like lunatics, are dangerously over sexed and have no concept of standing patiently in a line. The French people are generally gloomy, temperamental, proud, arrogant, aloof and undisciplined; those are their good points. Most French citizens are Roman Catholic, although you'd hardly guess it from their behavior. Many people are Communists and topless sunbathing is common. Men sometimes have girls' names like Marie and Michel and they kiss each other when they hand out medals. American travelers are advised to travel in groups and to wear baseball caps and
colorful pants for easier mutual recognition. All French women have small tits, and don't shave their armpits or their legs.

Safety
******
In general, France is a safe destination, although travelers are advised that France is occasionally invaded by Germany. By tradition, the French surrender more or less at once and, apart from a temporary shortage of Scotch whisky and increased difficulty in getting baseball scores and stock market prices, life for the visitors generally goes on much as before. A tunnel connecting France to Britain beneath the English Channel has been opened in recent years to make it easier for the French government to flee to London.

History
*******
France was discovered by Charlemagne in the Dark Ages. Other important historical figures are Louis XIV, the Huguenots, Joan of Arc, Jacques Cousteau and Charles de Gaulle, who was President for many years and is now an airport. The French armies of the past have had their asses kicked by just about every other country in the world.

Government
**********
The French form of government is democratic but noisy. Elections are held more or less continuously and always result in a runoff. For administrative purposes, the country is divided into regions, departments, districts, municipalities, cantons, communes, villages, cafes, booths and floor tiles. Parliament consists of two chambers, the Upper and Lower (although, confusingly, they are both on the ground
floor), whose members are either Gaullists or communists, neither of whom can be trusted. Parliament's principal pre occupations are setting off atomic bombs in the South Pacific and acting indignant when anyone complains. According to the most current State Department intelligence, the current President is someone named Jacques. Further information is not available at this time.

Culture
*******
The French pride themselves on their culture, although it is not easy to see why. All of their songs sound the same and they have hardly ever made a movie that you want to watch for anything except the nude scenes. Nothing, of course, is more boring than a French novel (except perhaps an evening with a French family.)

Cuisine
*******
Let's face it, no matter how much garlic you put on it, a snail is just a slug with a shell on its back. Croissants, on the other hand, are excellent although it is impossible for most Americans to pronounce this word. American travelers are therefore advised to stick to cheeseburgers at McDonald's or the restaurants at the leading hotels such as Sheraton or Holiday Inn. Bring your own beer, as the domestic varieties are nothing but a poor excuse for such.

Economy
*******
France has a large and diversified economy, second only to Germany's economy in Europe, which is surprising since people hardly ever work at all. If they are not spending four hours dawdling over lunch, they are on strike and blocking the roads with their trucks and tractors. France's principal exports, in order of importance to the economy, are wine, nuclear weapons, perfume, guided missiles, champagne, high-caliber weaponry, grenade launchers, land mines, tanks, attack aircraft, miscellaneous armaments and cheese.

Conclusion
**********
France enjoys a rich history, a picturesque and varied landscape and a temperate climate. In short, it would be a very nice country if French people didn't inhabit it, and it weren't still radioactive from all the nuclear tests they run. The best thing that can be said for it is that it is not Spain. Remember no one ordered you to go abroad. Personally, we always take our vacation in Miami Beach and you are advised to do
the same.

Regards,
George W. Bush
President, United States of America


This One is for you, Alex
Schroeder Doesn't Speak for All Germans

Angela Merkel, the chairman of the Christian Democrats takes Schroeder and the governing coalition for hurting Germany's Alliance with US and talks about the importance of co-operation between Europe and America. The article is well reasoned, its good writing for a politician, it makes a lot more sense than the nonsense being peddled by Schroeder. I hope the CDU knocks the stuffing out of the SDP.

Mmmmm Nostalgia
Al Gore 2000 - Al Gore for President - Gore Lieberman Election 2000
Its the first Gore for president site, it was created in 1996.

The George W. Diet
Lose unsightly pounds by eating like a pig.

In this argument Michael Kinsley trashes the arugments made by conservatives that deficits are good, that they somehow lead to fiscal responsibility. Honestly, I think that that thinking is the new intellectual bullshit, the new Laffer Curve, the new supply side economics. Deficits don't encourage fiscal responsibility, they do the exact opposite, by allowing politicians to offer everything for nothing. Deficits allow politicians to promise the voter tax cuts and new spending, its a way of avoiding hard decisions and setting priorities. What's even more irritating is that some Republicans are claiming that big deficits will discourage future spending increases. It is completely absurd! There is no gaurentee that will happen, in fact recklessness now will probably lead to more recklessness later. This strategy is like playing with fire, deficits can be a drag on the economy by crowding private investments and to use that as a political weapon is mind blowingly negligent. I really hope Bush gets tossed out of White House before he can cause even more harm.

Josh Marhsall Interviews Kevin Pollack
Josh Marshall is one of my favorite bloggers and a writer for a number of public affairs magazines and Kevin Pollack wrote The Threatening Storm and was an advisor to Clinton in the 1990's on Iraq and the Middle East. Anyhow, its an interesting interview about the approaching war with Iraq.

Pollack says that:

"I've always felt that we had to go to war against Iraq sooner rather than later. But I didn't necessarily think it had to be this year. And there were always a whole bunch of things that I wanted to do to make sure that we were ready to go when we did go. But the problem that I face now is that I think we are so deep into this - we are so far down this road - that it is now or never. I think that if we don't go to war this time around I don't think we will ever go to war with Saddam Hussein until he's acquired nuclear weapons. And then he picks the time and place of going to war ... if given my preference I would prefer not to be in the position we're in. But I can't turn back time. And we're in the position we're in. And at this point in time, as messy as it may be, I think that it is now or never. And now is a much better option than never."

Which is about the same as my view on Iraq. The Bush administration could have done things more smoothly, but now that we are where we are we may as well go to war. We're about as close as we are ever going to get to a coalition and to a willing public, the troops are already in the desert, so it would seriously damage our credibility if we didn't fight now.

Friday, February 21, 2003

Saddam's shields
Peace activists are flocking to Iraq to put their bodies in the way of American bombs, with no training for what they'll face in a war zone. Are they heroes or dupes?
I'll give you a hint. They aren't heroes...

Censorship on Free Republic

For the past couple of days I have been posting on the Free Republic website. For those who don't know, Free Republic is a conservative group with a website and discussion boards. Anyhow, the FReepers seem a tad sensitive. While I was (very briefly) a member of the Free Republic this week, I posted an article that said that President Clinton is not a murderer. I recieved about 20 posts in response, all of them extremely negative. However, the looniness didn't stop there, I had my Free Republic privelleges revoked and my account was deleted. It seems that these folks really can't stand the least bit of disagreement, even, or perhaps, especially when their most absurd opinions (Clinton is a murderer, the Democrats are allied with Al Qeada or the Communist Party, etc.) are challenged. Oh, well. I don't really have anything else to say except that I hope these kinds of poeple are never in charge of this country. Oh wait..... they already are.

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Gettin' Lazy
A nasty snow storm (and the lucrative shovelling opportunities that come along with it) and an english assignment have prevented me from doing the blogging I planned for this weekend.

Anyhow, I observed the New York City anti-war protest. Very big crowds, very impressive. I'll post more on it later (I'm writing an article on it, so thtat'll be up here in the near future), but for now here are my notes on the demonstration:

-Bitter cold
-Large police presence, protesters herded by cops, not allowed to leave march route.
-People from all over came to march, including a Frenchman, an Iraqi and a Texan. Signs in English, Spanish and Hebrew.
-Amusing sings: FRODO HAS FAILED, BUSH HAS THE RING
GIVE UP WAR FOR LENT
CHOKE ON ANOTHER PRETZEL, ASSHOLE!
-Most prominent groups: United for Justice and Peace and ANSWER
-Union participation, hospital and home workers sang protest songs.
-People with different perspectives marched, from Trotskyites to Howard Dean campaigners.
-Dean seemed to be the only Democrat supported by the marchers.
-Unity of message, only a few signs that weren’t about Iraq; including one claiming that Israel was fascist and another complaining about NYC putting down thousands of animals each year.
-Trains in and out of the city packed.
-Most not pacifists, though some (such as the Iraqi woman and the Frenchmen) were.
-Most spectators supported the marches
-Many students at march.
-Many people from Westchester County.
PERSONAL NOTES
-Brian waves sign-less stick around, declaring death to awnings.
-North refused to run
-Had lunch at Mexican restaurant run by Chinese people.
-North yells every slogan he can think of, is afraid that Cops will pull a Chicago.
-Not enough room to take notes.
-Brian and North informed that they looked seedy, dangerous, like terrorists or agitators; because North had a funny hat and Brian didn’t have a hat at all.
-Brian and North break unwieldy peace sign.

THINGS TO FIND OUT
-official numbers for the march
-free photos from peace groups
-comments by the speakers

oh yes, it'll be a humdinger of an article....

Friday, February 07, 2003

The DLC's Idea of the Week: A Trade Agenda For The Middle East
The Democratic Leadership Council suggests free trade with cooperative muslim countries as a way of rewarding allies and weakening the hand of anit-Americans that owe their appeal to the despair of the muslim world. I couldn't agree more, but protectionists have been shooting down efforts to promote trade with muslim allies. The Bush administration seems almost entirely indifferent to this problem, because while the Republicans are in theory supporters of free trade, they don't really. The Bush administration has been one of the most protectionist in recent memory. Trade policy is just another case of the GOP being its usual shameless self.

Andrew Sullivan's Idiocy of the week
The Bush budget: Irresponsible at best, deceptive at worst. And certainly not conservative.


This article shows what I have long suspected: a real conservative does not belong in the Republican party. There is not one shred of principle, not an ounce of intellectual honesty, not a drop of dignity in the Republic party. After Barry Goldwater the GOP has been craven and shameless. The Republicans are not about small government (Federal spending grew the fastest under Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan made the national debt blossomed like an ambitious tumor, something George W. Bush seems intent on duplicating), but rather government by and for the wealthy and nothing more. If only the likes of Andrew Sullivan could realize the complete moral bankruptcy of their party.

Kiko Man!
Show Me! Show You! Kiko Man1

Bill O'Reilly crosses the line. The Mason-Dixon Line.

O'REILLY: Oh, I am with you there. You've got to get the high-tech stuff there.

But I'll tell you what. I've talked to the commanders, and they tell me, look, you deploy us down there, we stop the drug traffic dead, we stop it dead, all right. They're not even going to try.

We'd save lives because Mexican wetbacks, whatever you want to call them, the coyotes -- they're not going to do what they're doing now, all right, so people aren't going to die in the desert.

Click here for more.

Interesting Posts about the EU
Luxembourg non sequitur
About representation in the European Union.
Old vs. New Europe
Representation, national soveirgnty and the near inevitablity of further integration.

Kerry Wins Backing Of Labor Leader
Gephardt isn't even getting the support of labor. Rather tragic after all the water he's carried for them with his long record of protectionism and so forth.

Six little candidates with drive
One had no friends
And then there were five!

Perhaps I should stop with this damn children's rhyme.

Democrats Are Persuaded By Powell
Most of the Democrats running for president have applauded Powell's speech. A notable exception is Howard Dean, who is still opposed to the war and thought that Powell's presentation did not justify a war with Iraq. Hmmmm...

Seven little candidates jump into the mix
One painted himself into the corner
And then there were six!

Guess who's the one trapped in a corner?

Thursday, February 06, 2003

Afghani TV Guide
>
> SUNDAY:
> 0800 - My 33 Sons
> 0830 - Osama Knows Best
> 0900 - I Dream of Mohammed
> 0930 - Let's Mecca Deal
> 1000 - The Kabul Hillbillies
>
> MONDAY:
> 0800 - Husseinfeld
> 0900 - Mad About Everything
> 0930 - Monday Night Stoning
> 1000 - Win Bin Laden's Money
> 1030 - Allah McBeal
>
> TUESDAY:
> 0800 - Wheel of Terror
> 0830 - The Price is Right if Osama Says it's Right
> 0900 - Children are Forbidden from Saying the
> Darndest Things
> 0930 - Taliban's Wackiest Public Execution Bloopers
>
> WEDNESDAY:
> 0800 - Beat the Press
> 0830 - When Kurds Attack
> 0900 - Two Guys, a Girl, and Pita Bread
> 0930 - Just Shoot Everyone
> 1000 - Veilwatch
>
> THURSDAY:
> 0800 - Fatima Loves Chachi
> 0830 - M*U*S*T*A*S*H
> 0900 - Veronica's Closet Full of Long, Black, Shapeless
> Dresses and Veils
> 0930 - Married with 139 Children
> 1000 - Eye for an Eye Witness News
>
> FRIDAY:
> 0800 - Spongebob Squareturban
> 0830 - Who's Koran Is It Anyway?
> 0900 - Tele-talibans
> 0930 - Camel 54, Where Are You?
>
> SATURDAY:
> 0800 - Judge Jihad
> 0830 - Suddenly Sanctions
> 0900 - Who Wants to Marry a Terrorist Millionaire?
> 0930 - Cave and Garden Television
> 1000 - No-Witness News

Wednesday, February 05, 2003

Beam Me Out Of This Death Trap, Scotty
A 1980 article by Greg Easterbook that discusses the many problems of the space shuttle.