Republican Family Values

Sex pros get ready for party

With thousands of Republicans set to invade the city this summer, high-priced escorts and strippers are preparing for one grand old party.
Agencies are flying in extra call girls from around the globe to meet the expected demand during the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 gathering at Madison Square Garden.

Making light of the hypocrisy of many conservatives maybe a rather old game to play, but it still is fun.

Is The Kerry Campaign Underperforming?

Poll: White House Race Tightens Up
Despite concerns about his handling of Iraq, and an overall approval rating of 42%, George W. Bush is still running neck and neck with Democrat John Kerry as the choice of registered voters. Growing public optimism about the nation’s economy has helped lift support for the President.

This is an often repeated by (one made in the lastest American Prospect editorial, actually*, but the outcome of the election depends on Kerry's ability to woo voters. Re-elections campaings are in large part a referendum on the tenure to the incumbent, but not entirely. Even if voters are dissatisifed with the way things are going, they maybe unwilling to rally around an unappealing challenger. Kerry has yet to really strike a cord with many voters who are ant-Bush, but necessairly planning to vote for the Democrats. Mainly this is because the campaign hasn't dominated the public's attention like it will in a few months and therefore the electorate has not really been exposed to Kerry. The Conventions will start to change this dynamic. The Democratic Convention is Boston will be the first time most Americans see Kerry in something more than a 30 second campaign ad or television news sound bite. The direction of the race and Kerry's future will become much clearer after shortly afterwards, as undecideds come to feel that they "know" John Kerry as a presidential candidate and not just as an abstraction.

*The fact that I got the latest issue of the Prospect yesterday has nothing to do with mentioning this, I swear. I never steal other people's arguments, ideas or INFORMATION.

On The Golden Road to Unlimited Depravity

A choice bit of work by the infamous freewayblogger.

Happy Iraqi Sovereignty Day!

U.S. occupation chief Bremer heads home

Bremer broke the surprise news to his staff at his 8 a.m. meeting with senior advisers from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA. He told them the transfer of sovereignty would happen in two hours. Only six of the 25 present had any idea the handover had been moved ahead, the U.S. official said.

Several officials said the deception was meant to undercut the ability of Iraqi insurgents to spoil the handover with a hail of car bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.

Nader Recieves a Hoof to the Junk

Greens Reject Nader
The Green Party "nominated Texas attorney David Cobb as its candidate for president Saturday, rejecting Ralph Nader's efforts to secure the party's formal endorsement and likely access to the ballot in key states like Wisconsin and California," the AP reports.

Ralph Nader's campaign is now more than ever one man's ego trip. Right now he is polling at about 6%, but I think that will taper off as the election approaches. In June of 2000 Nader the polls (at least this one) predicted that Nader woul also get about 6% of the vote. By November, Nader's poll numbers had dropped and only 2.74% of voters cast their ballots for the Crusader. I suspect that without the Green Party's support Nader will do even worse this time around.

The Age of Civility

Hitler image used in Bush-Cheney re-election campaign Web spot
The image of Adolf Hitler has emerged again in the battle for the White House as Democrats and Republicans both have tried to liken their opponents to the Nazi dictator.

A new Bush-Cheney re-election video features clips of Hitler - the same ones the campaign criticized when they were used in a Web spot that appeared on the Internet site of the liberal activist group MoveOn.org as part of a contest in January.

The 77-second Republican ad splices together video of Democrats Al Gore, Howard Dean and others, calling them John Kerry's "Coalition of the Wild-eyed." Interspersed among the clips are images of Hitler.


In related news, Dick Cheney has said, "I expressed myself rather forcefully. I felt better after I had done it," with regards to a recent obscene outburst of his, in which the Vice President of the United States instructed a Senator to fuck himself.


When will the guardians of our precious national discourse, the Ms. Mannerses of American Politics, David Brooks, etc. give these brutes a serious dressing down for their ungentlemanly conduct?

Note: The Bush Ad in question can be viewed here.

George W. Bush is KARAZY!

"First of all, most of Europe supported the decision in Iraq. Really what you're talking about is France, isn't it? And they didn't agree with my decision. They did vote for the U.N. Security (news - web sites) Council resolution. ... We just had a difference of opinion about whether, when you say something, you mean it."-George W. Bush, from the AP.

Why so few posts?

I am going to see 'Fahrenheit 9/11' and so should you.

Spoiler

From &c.

The Very Best of Ben Shapiro

The devastatingly handsome and startling brilliant Ben Shapiro smolders in this photo.
(much to the delight of all his lady fans)

You might be curious as to who is Ben Shapiro. According to Ben's Bio, Ben is "a staunch conservative on the modern politically correct campus" who was "[b]rought up in the home of two Reagan Republicans, where intelligent conversation about politics and philosophy was encouraged, Shapiro quickly developed into a reasoned political thinker and a powerful writer." Here has authored many essays in his short but prolific writing career. Here is a sampling of some of his more unique works.

It's time for American Jews to open their eyes!And today, just as then, it is secularists who pose the most extreme threat to the Jewish people.

The unbearable whiteness of Howard Dean
Howard Dean has a major race problem on his hands. He is from the benevolent white liberal school of thought: Back affirmative action and anti-racism bills, but keep those blacks out of my face.

Put 'Coming Out Week' back in the closet
I'm a very tolerant guy when the gay agenda isn't being forced down my throat. But when I'm sitting in class and I open the UCLA Daily Bruin to read about public gay marriages in Bruin Plaza, I get angry.

Sex too young: Janie's story
This contraceptive-based sex education is the solution proposed by the secular left, which created the problem of sexual libertinism in the first place. James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, feels that "the stakes are simply too high to talk only about abstinence." But the question remains: Even if venereal disease and teen pregnancy are eradicated, will America's young people be able to recover from the loss of their innocence?

Rachel Carson's deadly Summer
But in the case of West Nile Virus, there is a single source that should be blamed. She's a heroine to leftists around the world, but it' s her fault that the dangerous virus is slowly reaching across the United States, leaving death in its wake.

The person who should be blamed is Rachel Carson.

Eradicate the State Department
Talk, talk and more talk. And all of it supporting terror-states. The State Department is standing with terrorists, so let's do to it what we do to other terror-supporting organizations: Eradicate it

Militant gay English The March
If you pay tuition, you're sponsoring the militant homosexual agenda. If you pay taxes, you're sponsoring the militant homosexual agenda. If your child majors in English, you're sponsoring the militant homosexual agenda. Tell Billy to major in math.

Herbert Hoover's daughter Hillary
Hillary can try to link President Bush to President Hoover by pointing to the fact that both are Republicans, but the truth is that Hoover was an ardent Keynesian, and it was his insistence on federal solutions to the Depression that drove the economy into the ground.

Hulkchild In the Promised Land

Superboy discovered

A genetic mutation made a Berlin boy extra strong, but the German doctor who has been studying the child since just after his birth nearly five years ago says he's just a regular kid...

The boy doesn't stand out among his peers on the playground, but when he puts his mind to it, can perform feats of strength, said Dr Markus Schuelke...

The boy, whose name Schuelke has promised not to divulge, has muscles twice the size of other kids his age and half their body fat.

Perhaps the authorities should dispatch Superboy to apprehend the White Ninja.

Found

Awhile a gone, some blogs were terminated by their owners. However, Google, in its greatness, has preserved one of them for posterity. It is available here .

The "W" Economy

If George W. Bush views the "haves" and the "have mores" as his base, then I can understand why he, the Republican party and conservative press is declaring that he has overseeing the "best economy in twenty years". Just take a loot at this graph:

(From the weblog of Berkley economist Brad Delong)

The above graph shows the the share of the National Economy that is devoted to corporate profits and labor compensation (wages and benefits). Funny how the two lines move closer and closer together by the end of Clinton's second term and then suddenly set off in opposite directions sometime in early 2001. Correlation isn't of course causation, but there is more than coincidence at work here.

Run, Jack, Run!

Ryan Considers Abandoning Senate Bid
Illinois Republican senatorial candidate Jack Ryan, his candidacy in turmoil over sex club allegations, is considering quitting the race, a knowledgeable GOP official said Thursday.
If Ryan drops out of the Illinois senate race, the sex scandal that erupted after the release of his divorce records will have backfired. The Democratic Candidate, Barack Obama, already had a considerable lead in many polls even before news of the scandal broke and these recent event surely would have strengthened his posistion. If Jack Ryan drops out, then the Republicans would have a chance to run a more electable candidate in his place.

So that's what those robes were meant to hide...

Material for those with a adolescent sense of humor abounds here.

Via Atrios

Vice President Dick Cheney, true major league ass hole that he is, has told Democratic Senator Pat Leahy to go fuck himself. Changing the tone, indeed!

Ed. Note: A guarantee that at least two dozen other left wing commentators have already made light of Bush's "changing the tone" rhetoric with regards to this incident and in the coming days hundreds of others will use it as well.

More on the VP Race

The other day I pointed to a piece by Matt Drudge as a sign that conservatives had taken the advice of Mickey Kaus, who said that Republican operative interested in causing trouble for John Kerry would write that Edwards is Kerry's choice for VP. Today I noticed that Susan Estrich, former Dukakis campaign manager and now a Zell Miller Democrat (she contributes to NewsMax) has written a column titled "It Has to Be Edwards". As Druge would say, developing...

Mission Accomplished

The Onion:
"As the Coalition's rule draws to a close, the numbers show that we have an awful lot to be proud of," Bremer said Tuesday. "As anyone who's taken a minute and actually looked at the figures can tell you, the vast majority of Iraqis are still alive—as many as 99 percent. While 10,000 or so Iraqi civilians have been killed, pretty much everyone is not dead

Your Hard Working Press Corps

From ABC's The Note:
All sources in all quarters agree: the presidential race seems sort of slow and leadless lately.

Maybe it's Reagan, or Clinton, or June ennui.

Maybe it's the struggle to understand what the 2005 policy agendas of the candidates would be (just kidding).

I've seen winos that were more industrious.

Rumors Galore

Matt Drudge, infamous right wing partisan and ringleader for the modern yellow press is now reporting: DNC CHAIRMAN FAVORS EDWARDS FOR KERRY MATE.

Drudge seems to be determined to fullfill the prophecies of Slate's Micky Kaus:

If you were a mischievous Bush person and wanted to make some trouble for John Kerry, what would you do? A.: Start a rumor that Kerry has picked John Edwards as his running mate. That will ratchet up the current press buzz that Edwards is the inevitable, obvious choice, due to his charismatic brilliance as a campaigner. Then, if Kerry doesn't want to choose Edwards, he will a) be faced with annoying unwanted pressure and b) look like a vain man who doesn't want to be upstaged. If Edwards is the pick, then a) the pre-emptive rumor will blow the big surprise of Kerry's announcement and b) Kerry will look like he's been stampeded. It's win win! And it won't be a hard rumor to start.

A Boot Stamping On A Human Face

From the Seatle PI:
In a Nov. 27, 2002, memo to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Pentagon's chief lawyer, William J. Haynes II, recommended that he approve the use of 14 interrogation techniques on detainees at Guantanamo Bay, such as yelling at a detainee during questioning and the use of "stress positions," like standing, for a maximum of four hours. Haynes also recommended approval of one technique among four harsher methods requested by U.S. military authorities at Guantanamo Bay: use of "mild, non-injurious physical contact such as grabbing, poking in the chest with the finger and light pushing."

Among the techniques that Rumsfeld approved on Dec. 2, 2002, in addition to yelling and stress positions:

-Use of 20-hour interrogations.

-Removal of all comfort items, including religious items.

-Removal of clothing.

-Using detainees' "individual phobias such as fear of dogs to induce stress."

It would have been fitting if the example for the last torture method was "fear of rats" rather than fear of dogs.

Trent Lott

Shorter Trent Lott: I like it when bad things happen to brown people.

Source: The NY Times Magazine's interview with Senator Lott.

Beware of the White Ninja

German 'Samurai' on the Loose in Woods Near Berlin
A camouflage-clad German man wielding a samurai sword attacked at least seven hikers in forests west of Berlin, performing sword tricks before ordering them to leave the woods, police said Friday.

The Berlin Metro Police Department has found it difficult to apprehend the stealthy samurai due to his camouflage outfit and are about confronting a man with a masterly command of the art of swordplay.

Correction: In the post above I wrote that Police feared the ninja's swordplay, that spelling is incorrect. The correct spelling is shwordplay. I regret the terror.

They want INFORMATION

Court: No Right to Keep Names From Police
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that people do not have a constitutional right to refuse to tell police their names.

The 5-4 decision frees the government to arrest and punish people who won't cooperate by revealing their identity.

The decision, reached by a divided court, was a defeat for privacy rights advocates who argued that the government could use this power to force people who have done nothing wrong to submit to fingerprinting or divulge more personal information.

In the words of one Free Republic poster: "Scalia never met an unenumerated right he could not subjugate to the whims of police."

Bush Flip-Flops On North Korea

U.S. prepares offer of aid to North Korea
With Secretary of State Colin Powell promising a "spirit of flexibility," the United States and its negotiating partners are working on a plan to offer economic aid jointly to North Korea if it agrees to end its nuclear weapons program.

I thought we were going to git tough with those communisses, I thought the President loathed Kim Jong Il, I thought we would never reward the North Koreans' nuklar blackmail. Now we're going to give 'em my hard earned money. What happened?

Honestly though, this is close to the approach we should have taken from the start. The US and South Korea had a weak hand from the start and appeasement was really the best option. It is just irritating that it has taken the administration this long to realize that the Communist government of North Korean is going anywhere, no matter how stern the scolding it receives from Bush and Pentagon officials and we have to negotiate is the only sensible way of dealing with it.

A Republican Sex Scandal?

Racy Allegations Vs. Ill. Senate Hopeful The former wife of Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan claimed in divorce documents released Monday that he pressured her to perform sex acts in clubs while others watched...

She said that after going to dinner with Ryan in New York, he demanded she go to a club with him.

"It was a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling," she said. She said she refused when Ryan asked her to perform a sexual act while others watched...

In recent days, Ryan has tried to shore up support from Republican leaders, but one GOP member of the Illinois congressional delegation, Rep. Ray LaHood, called Monday for Ryan to withdraw as a candidate.


"There's no way the people of Illinois are going to countenance this behavior from a Senate candidate from the Republican Party," LaHood said.


I wonder how much traction this story will gain with media. These divorce court documents were unsealed by a judge in response to a lawsuit filed by the Chicago Tribune and the WLS TV station, so it seems there is at least some intense press interest. Then again, the media has not shown that much interest in similar cases, such as the sleazy behavior of Newt Gingrich or Henry Hyde.

End of the Reagan Bounce?

The newest poll by ABC News reports that in a two man race, Kerry leads Bush 53% to 45%. There is another interesting trend in this poll that has been less widely noted on other political sites. George W. Bush's advantage on the issue of Terrorism has been eliminated by John Kerry. In an a poll from April on Iraq and the Election, ABC found that voters trusted Bush over Kerry when it came to terrorism by a 52% margin (74 to 22). In the latest poll, Kerry now enjoys a percent lead. This change is especially important, since a key component of the President's strategy was to knock Kerry on national security. It seems now that this strategy has failed completely, despite the best efforts of the Bush Campaign.

New To The Blog Roll

Iggy, the Nattering Nabob.

Read Over Bush's Shoulder

Bob Harris has posted George W. Bush's cabinet meeting notes on This Modern World.

Hey, Big Spender

Kerry Outraises, Outspends Bush in May
John Kerry raised more campaign cash than President Bush last month and spent more too, but the Democratic challenger started June with millions less on hand than the Republican incumbent as a summer of campaigning began.

Bush still has a major fundraising advantage over Kerry (as the quote mentions, the Republican Convention is in late August so he can recieve donations for a longer period of time and he has more money on hand than his rival), but it is nice to see that the Democrats can come out ahead in the money game once and awhile.

Rowland Goes Down

From The Washington Times:
Connecticut Gov. John Rowland [R, CT] under fire for alleged ethical improprieties, reportedly intends to resign during a live television address.

A former member of the House, Rowland is currently the subject of an investigation into whether he accepted gifts from friends, employees and from contractors who received major no-bid contracts from the state.

Hmmm, this reminds me of another Republican who "coordinated" a multi-billion dollar no-bid contract between his former employer and the federal government.

When The Future Arrived

Private craft to head for spaceA man will try today to reach space for the first time in a trip not organized by a government.
If the winds are calm, a jet will take off here at 6:30 a.m. PT with a torpedo-shaped vehicle called SpaceShipOne hanging from its belly. At 47,000 feet, the privately-financed SpaceShipOne will disengage from the jet, fire a rocket and head toward space.

SpaceShipOne will not try to go high enough to orbit the Earth, as the space shuttle does. Instead it will make a suborbital flight that will give the pilot roughly three minutes of weightlessness and a superb view of Earth.


It is pretty exciting to think that the age of private space flight may begin in just a few hours. If outer space proves to be profitable than we could be on the threshold of a golden age of space exploitation. As a big-government liberal determined to crush the entrepreneurial spirit I am heartened to read that the federal government claims and exercises a right to regulate private space firms and that in fact SpaceShipOne has won the approval of the hardworking bureaucrats at the federal Aviation Administration.

Update: SpaceShipOne's first flight has been a success (link here).

The Next Vice-President of the United States

Noam Scheiber has engaged in Highly Irresponsible Veep Speculation over at his Daily Journal of Politics. Scheiber concludes that because Kerry is seeking a VP who he has a good relationship with, who lacks ambition and has the "gravitas" to be President should the need arise, John Kerry is likely to nominate former House Minority Leader Dick A. Gephardt. Scheiber maybe right about Kerry's inclinations, but if Senator Kerry is considering Gephardt, he shouldn't. Matthew Yglesias' piece for the American Prospect, makes a strong case against Gephardt, who Yglesias argues is both an opportunist with very poor judgement. I'm inclined to agree with Yglesias about this. Gephardt has shown himself to be a poor politician. He oversaw a humiliating defeat his party in 2002, has launched numerous failed presidential bids and has never won a state-wide office. It is hard to see how adding such a man would contribute to the Democratic ticket in any meaningful way.

Night of the Long Knives

PAT JOINS BUSH WHACKERS
The Thomas Dunne imprint of St. Martin's Press has agreed to pay around $500,000 to Pat Buchanan for an anti-Dubya book to be called "Where the Right Went Wrong."

The proto-conservative will blast the Bush Administration for behaviors both domestic and foreign. He is particularly scornful of the U.S. foreign policy that has "ignited a war of civilizations" with the Islamic world.

Publishing insiders say Buchanan's thoughts on the 43rd president are surprisingly out of character...

"Where the Right Went Wrong" is scheduled to go on sale in early August, to coincide with the start of the Republican National Convention ? at which Buchanan will be a commentator for MSNBC.

Pat Buchanan's anti-Bush book has been billed as a bit of surprise, but they do not come as a shock to those that have been paying attention to Buchanan. His American Conservative magazine has highly critical of Bush's foreign policy from the start (sample of this can be found here, here and here. Pat Buchanan has also been a maverick within the Republican Party for even longer. In 1992 he challenged President Bush Sr. for the the Republican Party's nomination, in 1996 he defeated the GOP establishment's candidate (and eventually, Republicans' nominee), Bob Dole, in New Hampshire and in 2000 he ran as a third party candidate for President.

For a long time now there has been speculation about conservative dissatisfaction with Geoge W. Bush. Sales of Buchanan's new book could indicate how widespread and how strong anti-Bush sentiments are on the Right.

A Long Slide

Talk Radio Host Rush Limbaugh and some Russian guy.
(from RushLimbaugh.com)

Brooks Watch

Regular readers of the Board of Pomposity may be familiar with my long standing antipathy towards New York Times Op-Ed writer David Brooks. At long last my bitter, shrill and unbalanced attacks are now paying off. Slate.com's David Plotz writes that "the liberal's conservative" has been turned on by his fellow pundits, speculating that the low quality of Brook's columns have brought this turn of events about. As if on cue, Mr. Brooks provided an sterling example of exactly what Plotz was talking about on Tuesday. In his latest opinion piece, "Bitter at the Top" Brooks describes how upper-income Americans are divided politically by education and culture. "Bitter at the Top" basically recycles the ideas of political analysts Ruy Teixeira and John Judis (whe's work he does cite) and the neoconservative theory of class conflict between a "new class" of professionals and the business elite. This column, like most of Brooks writing, is more or less just a long string of clichés that contributes nothing new or worthwhile*.


*The same could be said of the B of P, but this is a blog read by a handful of people, not a nationally published newspaper column.

That Was Then, This Is Now

William Kristol, founder of the Weekly Standard seems to have reversed himself in the wake of Reagan's death (and Bush's declining political fortunes, judging by this excerpt from LiberalOasis :

KRISTOL: I think [Ronald Reagan] could have an impact if the Bush campaign has the nerve to make it have an impact.

John Kerry said at the 1988 Democratic convention, speaking on behalf of his fellow Massachusetts liberal Democrat Michael Dukakis,…that the Reagan presidency was a period of "moral darkness".

Now…no one wants to politicize the death of a recent president.

But you know what? The Bush campaign should.

And they should, in my view, they should go up with an ad next week…a very respectful ad about President Reagan and say:

"We have a disagreement. George W. Bush was a Reaganite. John Kerry thought that the Reagan presidency was a period of 'moral darkness'."

And here's Kristol on the 10/30/02 edition of Fox News' On The Record With Greta Van Susteren, debating The Nation's David Corn:

KRISTOL: Look, Paul Wellstone was a very political guy, and I suspect he would have liked his own memorial service, if I can put it that way.

And the fact it was a little over the top, and some of us maybe found it a little distasteful and a little too partisan.

Paul Wellstone was a tough, partisan politician, a man of the left, a proud man of the left.

There's a big tradition on the left of turning funeral services into political rallies.

If you go back and look at the early days of the, you know, Socialist Party here, and of course, abroad, as well…

…It was a somewhat -- I mean, I say this in a nice way, I think, but it was a -- it was a Wellstone-like memorial service.

CORN: But you know…if anything had happened to Jesse Helms in the last week, there'd be a service in North Carolina.

And people would be calling for Elizabeth Dole, who's running for his seat, to carry forward the Jesse Helms legacy.

There was nothing surprising about that service.

KRISTOL: No, no, no! Wait, wait!…When Rick Kahn said, "We can redeem the sacrifice of Paul Wellstone's life if you help win this election with Walter Mondale," that's a little crazy.

I mean, you can't redeem the sacrifice of Paul Wellstone's life by electing Walter Mondale.

So there's a kind of…politicization of things like death, which is a little weird.

…

For the left, the personal is political. And I think you did see that in this memorial service.

There He Goes Again

Cheney: Iraq Tied to al-Qaida

ORLANDO -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Saddam Hussein had "long-established ties" with al-Qaida, an assertion that has been repeatedly challenged by some policy experts and lawmakers.

"He was a patron of terrorism," Cheney said of Hussein during a speech before The James Madison Institute, a conservative think-tank based in Florida. "He had long-established ties with al-Qaida."

Cheney offered no details to back up his claim of a link between Hussein and al-Qaida.

Man, when will Dick Cheney learn to stop making such ridiculous statement in public? He tried this nonsense last September when he said that there was no evidence suggesting Saddam Hussein wasn't involved with 9-11 (implying that Saddam might have been responsible), a claim so outlandish that George W. Bush backed away from it. If Cheney really is the brains behind the Bush Administration then there is no wonder why everything is a mess.

Corporate Crime

Music Firm Spared Asbo after Fly-Posting Pledge

Executives at music giant Sony escaped an anti-social behaviour order and a possible five years in jail today by promising not to order illegal fly-posting.

In the first case of its kind, Camden Council in north London went to court to try to issue anti-social behaviour orders, normally reserved for unruly teenagers, against Sony and BMG.

But summonses against Catherine Davies and Jo Headland of Sony were withdrawn at Highbury Magistrates’ Court after they pledged they would not order any illegal fly-posting [Fly posting is the display of information in unauthorised places.] in England and Wales.

No word yet on whether Sony will be facing similar charges for its role as Avril Lavigne record label. Heh, heh. I kill me.

Is Justice Thomas Insane?

Yes, he is.

Is Bush Insane?

Capitol Hill Blue, the National Enquirer of Washington, has run a series of articles accusing the President of mental instability. The first piece relied on anonymous sources "close to the president". According to Capitol Hill Blue, "In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as 'enemies of the state'.” In another article,it is reported by that a Democratic psychoanalyst has written a book (which the paper cites as confirmation of its early story) accusing Bush of being a "paranoid meglomaniac". Maybe it isn't all true, but is sure is interesting, interesting in the slanders-people-I-dislike-way.

The Social Security Non-Crisis

Report: Social Security Shortfall Could Occur a Decade Later Than Previously Thought

Social Security's long-term prospects are better than previously thought, a congressional report said Monday, estimating the program won't become insolvent until 2052, a decade later than projected earlier this year.

Thanks to Atrios

More like Supreme COWARDS

Court: Atheist dad can't sue over God reference in pledge

The court has ruled the man can't sue over the pledge's reference to God. The ruling is a procedural one, and doesn't address whether the words "one nation, under God" blur the line between church and state.
The court said Michael Newdow can't sue to ban the pledge from his daughter's school and others because he doesn't have the legal authority to speak for her.

The supremes have taken the easy way about shooting down the case on procedural grounds rather than wade neck deep into the culture war. Which honestly makes a lot of sense. This is an election year and there is no need to stir things up with a ruling on a hot button issue. Whether or not the US Constitution allows "God" is not particularly important, at least in the short term. The matter can safely be raised and settled at another, calmer time.

Late Breaking News

I saw "Control Room", a new documentary about the Al Jazeera satellite news network, tonight. The movie wasn't all that informative in the sense that didn't include many hard facts about the news organization, though I do think it did a fairly good job of catching the atmosphere of Al Jazeera and the mentality of its staff. "Control Room" also showed the meida operations surrounding the Iraq War, from the PR officers a Coalition Central Command to reporters from mainstream American television stations like CNN and FOX, which was rather interesting. Complaints about the lack of "objectivity" and "professionalism" on the part of Al Jazeera are undermined greatly when you see how the American press handled themselves, epsecially now knowing what we know about the failure of the US Media to do its job.

WMD?

Bird Dog writes that David Kay's theory that Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction may have been shipped out of Iraq before they could be discovered and seized by Coalition forces has been confirmed by a news report in the World Tribune.

This news should be met with a good deal of skepticism, though. The World Tribune is far from a reputable news source. According this article in the New Yorker, the World Tribune is a website published by an assistant editor for the Washington Times (boo, hiss)and "more fairly qualifies as something between a newspaper and a rumor-mongering blog".

Newspeak

The Moscow-based eXile has put together the "Neo-Con Iraq Glossary", a double plus good guide to the euphemisms of the Right.

JC Weighs In

Recently it has been reported that Muqtada Sadr has lent his support to the intermin government set to take over on June 30th. The analysis of Professor Juan Cole (who published the weblog Informed Comment, one of the few K-man approved blogs)basically destroys any basis for optimism that might have been found in this announcement:

The wire services are misinterpreting this statement as an about-face on Muqtada's part. It is not. It is a piece of bargaining. He is saying that he will swing the Sadrist movement around to support the transitional government if it will commit to throwing the Americans out of Iraq on a strict timetable. That is what Muqtada has wanted since the fall of Saddam.... It seems probable that one reason the Americans came after Muqtada in early April, intending to kill him, was fear that he will become powerful enough after June 30 to lobby effectively for the expulsion of the Americans... Paul Bremer's recent attempt to ensure that the major Sadrist leaders are not allowed to run for parliament has the same goal. The civilians in the Department of Defense such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz probably went to war against Iraq in part precisely to get bases there. The realization that they might be tossed out at the instance of a few million Shiite slum dwellers has so infuriated them that they attacked the movement without provocation, killed about a thousand of them, and are now trying to disenfranchise several million Iraqis by disallowing Sadrists from holding office.

Ralph Nader: Campaign Finance Law Breaking Fat Cat?

Nader Office Use May Be Questionable

Since October, Ralph Nader has run his campaign for president out of the same downtown Washington offices that through April housed a public charity [Citizen Works] he created — an overlap that campaign finance specialists said could run afoul of federal laws.

Tax law forbids public charities from aiding political campaigns. Violations can result in a charity losing its tax-exempt status. The law also requires candidates to account for all contributions — including shared office space and resources, down to the use of copying machines, receptionists and telephones...

The shared-space arrangement was vetted by an outside lawyer and is legal, Nader said, because his campaign has paid Citizen Works fair market value to rent office space.

True, this is not a major violation of campaign finance regulations (the Democrats' use of 527 organizations, like MoveOn, is in theory at least far more serious), but me being the mean-spirited nitpicker that I am, I couldn't help but point it out.

Re-writing of History in Full Swing

From FAIR:
The Iran-Contra scandal, which loomed too large to ignore, was often written off by journalists. "As we look back today, it's like just a speck in the eight years of his presidency," explained CNN's Judy Woodruff (6/7/04).

No Credit Where Credit Isn't Due

Survey: Bush Gets Little Credit on Jobs
WASThe U.S. economy has gained about 1.2 million jobs in the last six months, but word hasn't trickled down to most Americans, according to voters in a survey by The Associated Press.

Well, despite recent increases in employment George W. Bush certianly doesn't merit any praise for his job creation performance. He is still the only President since Hoover to oversee negative job growth and his "Jobs & Growth" dividend tax cut has fallen far short of the Administration's claims. This must come as a rather crushing blow to the Bush Campaign, which has been trying to draw public attention away from Iraq and towards the rebounding economy.

Americans Are Objectively Pro-Saddam

Poll: Voters Say Iraq Didn't Merit War
A majority of American registered voters now say conditions in Iraq did not merit war, but most are reluctant to abandon efforts there, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll.

I blame the LIEbrel Media and its treasonous slander of the President. Doesn't the press understand that in times of national crisis it is essential that it tow the official line and not report what's actually happening? The American People are somewhat responsible for this as well and this new anti-war majority clearly shows that Americans have lost all moral seriousness. As disappointing as this news is, it is no surprise, these are the same people that appeased the North Vietnamese, after all.

Jack Chick, Eat Your Heart Out

There is is a new series of Christian fundementalist comics around. This new line of moralizing cartoons, Truth for Youth, is in many ways very similar to the those put out by the more well-established Jack Chick, though they cover fewer topics and fail to address threats to moral order like Free Masonry, Roman Catholicism and board games. To make up for this lack of depth and breadth, the quality of the drawing is higher and they actually resemble real comic books.

What to watch

Not only is the B of P the source for the proper opinions about politics and current events, we also strive to dictate to our readers the correct views on cultural. When it comes to what is known as popular culture, especially with regards to the "television" I suggest watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Allow me to assure you that is hilarious, even more hilarious than the much vaunted than entertainment triple threat Nick Cannon.

John Edwards is still around

And still running for vice-president. I am not very familiar with all the other possible VP candidates, but I still believe that Edwards would be an excellent, if not the best choice for Kerry. I think he can attract voters from swing states, particularly in the South and that the media's apparent affection for him will be an asset to the campaign. Furthermore, Edwards could do as good of job shoring up blue-collar union support as Dick Gephardt without being as dull and dour..

Up Up and Away

State Dept. Understated Terrorism Attacks
The State Department acknowledged Thursday it was wrong in reporting terrorism declined worldwide last year, a finding used to boost one of President Bush's chief foreign policy claims — success in countering terror.

Instead, both the number of incidents and the toll in victims increased sharply, the department said. Statements by senior administration officials claiming success were based "on the facts as we had them at the time. The facts that we had were wrong," department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Glad to see the Administration isn't breaking its predictable pattern of dishonesty and incompetence, otherwise I'd have to think instead of relying on knee-jerk Bush hatred and thinking makes my head hurt.

The Zero Effect

Some Iraq hawks argued that removing Saddam from power would have the added benefit of intimidating other anti-American dictators and scaring them into becoming good international citizens. Muammar Gaddafi's renunciation of WMD was trumpeted as evidence of this claim. Now, I don't think the excitement that surrounded Gaddafi's announcement was unjustified (he had been seeking closer relations with the West before the Iraq war), but this news story makes it seems that Libya is even less of a poster child for bad regimes made good by the magic of Iraq Freedom:

Libya plotted to assassinate the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah, last year, according to an American Muslim activist.

US officials said last night they were investigating the claims of Abdurahman Alamoudi, who has been held on remand in Virginia since last September.

Both London and Washington have aggressively promoted Col Gaddafi's apparent change of heart as proof that the war on terrorism and firm action in Iraq was having a salutary effect on rogue states.

The B of P Snaps Back Into Action

Now that I have been out of school for a week and more importantly, my computer has been repaired (it apparently was infected with 50 computer viruses), I am finally blog at a normal rate again.

YAY!

Congratulations to the Class of 2004 on your marriage to your future...

Axis of Idiocy

As almost everyone already knows, Ahmed Chalabi told the Iranians that the US had broken their secret codes. Fortunately, the damage of the Infamous Ahmed C's subterfuge appears to have been limited thanks to the incompetence of the Iranians:

According to American officials, the Iranian official in Baghdad, possibly not believing Mr. Chalabi's account, sent a cable to Tehran detailing his conversation with Mr. Chalabi, using the broken code. That encrypted cable, intercepted and read by the United States, tipped off American officials to the fact that Mr. Chalabi had betrayed the code-breaking operation, the American officials said. -via the NY Times

"War President" No More

Bush Campaign Ad Emphasizes Job Growth
President Bush's re-election campaign, seizing on good economic news, unveiled a television commercial Friday that emphasizes job growth and criticizes Democratic rival John Kerry as a pessimist.

Will the solemn conservative hawks of the blogosphere and the press begin to furrow their most weighty brows and wonder aloud about Bush's seriousness when it comes to winning the War on Terror?

Another Theory About Tenet's Resignation

A news report from the far-right NewsMax offers another possible explanation for Tenet's decision to leave the CIA:

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton said Thursday that she suspected a cabal of "pro-Chalabi supporters" inside the Bush administration forced CIA Director George Tenet to resign.

"I was struck by the timing since the whole controversy around Chalabi is heating up and Chalabi blames the CIA for his problems and there are a lot of pro-Chalabi supporters still at the highest levels of the administration," she told reporters.

Tenet's CIA has long feuded with Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress who had worked for more than a decade to oust Saddam Hussein from his exile in London. He was considered a key U.S. ally in post war Iraq until recently.

Clinton has a pretty interesting take on on the whole affair. It might be true, the timing of all of this was a bit suspicious. If it is true I have no clue what it might mean. Did Tenet take out Chalabi on his own and then have his head served to him by the Pentagon hawks? It would be rather unsettling if George W. Bush really did listen to Chalabi's backers and dump George Tenet to punish him for his crimes against the neocon's man in Baghdad and would provide a lot of evidence in support of Matthew Yglesias's grand unified theory about Bush's foreign and domestic policies.

Over and out

From Reuters:

CIA Director George Tenet, who presided over spectacular intelligence lapses involving the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has resigned and will leave in July, the Bush administration announced on Thursday.

The White House said Bush had no prior warning of Tenet's move and denied suggestions he was forced out over erroneous intelligence reports that have prompted the president to create a bipartisan commission to examine the quality of pre-war U.S. intelligence.


"He told me he was resigning for personal reasons. I told him I'm sorry he's leaving," Bush said in a surprise announcement shortly before heading to Italy and France.

I doubt that Tenet really left over "personal reasons." My guess is that in the face of immense pressure to dump the CIA director following the US' failure to uncover large caches of WMD in Iraq, the administration wanted to get rid of Tenet, but as they learned from the yellowcake scandal, admitting your wrong doesn't pay off. Additionally, it is said that George Tenet can be ferocious and has a lot of potentially damaging information at his disposal, so rather than get rid of Tenet right away the White House may have made some sort of deal with him. As part of the bargain, Tenet would get to keep his job for a few months untill the demands for his head died down and in the process save his face, once the coast was relatively clear, he would then live up to his end of the arrangement and step down. That or they might have just pushed him out with out making any kind of deal or hey, he might really have had personal reasons for leaving the CIA. Stranger things have happened.

Liberals' Prejudices Confirmed

Time Magazine has gotten its hands on an internal pentagon memo, which suggests that Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton, was involved in the doling out of federal contracts to his own company. This probably comes as no surprise to avid Bush-haters and once again proves the wisdom of always assuming the worst about this administration, which makes all those that give it the benefit of the doubt look like idiots.

Quote Of The Day

"I tell you, if the Libertarian Party went to high school, even the Greens would beat them up for their lunch money."-The War Liberal

Excardon Me

My home computer is wracked by a number of problems, so I haven't been posting that much lately. This blog will probably not be operating at full capacity for a while.