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October 31, 2003
In Perspective
WindowManager Mitch has put the economic news into its proper perspective.
Posted by bubba138 at 02:49 PM | Comments (0) |
Leagalize Drugs
This article is for those of you who think its a good idea to legalize drug use:
Legalizing drugs will only increase this type of incident. I don't care what the libertarians may say, drug use is never a victimless crime.
A woman whose baby overdosed on the drug speed, which was possibly contained in the mother's breast milk, has been jailed for life. Amy Leanne Prien, 31, was convicted of murdering three-month-old Jacob Wesley Smith, who was found dead in her home in Riverside, California.
Prosecutors said the baby ingested methamphetamine either from breast milk or tainted baby bottle liners used to package the drug in Prien's home.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:47 AM | Comments (0) |
Someboday Call a WWAAAMMBULANCE
Iraqi prisoners are complaining about the conditions at detention camps:
In Iraq's American detention camps, forbidden talk can earn a prisoner hours bound and stretched out in the sun, and detainees swinging tent poles rise up regularly against their jailers, according to recently released Iraqis.
In these secretive islands in a scorched landscape, "they don't respect anyone, old or young," Rahad Naif said of his U.S. Army guards. He and others told of detainees in wheelchairs, and of a man carried into a stifling hot tent in his sickbed. "They humiliate everybody.''
Humiliation? The cruelty of it all. But it gets worse:
Water was the first concern for internees everywhere, especially as summer temperatures topped 120 degrees. There was never enough to drink and wash with, they said. "They'd give us hot water while we'd see them drinking cold water," said Ra'id Mohammed Hassan, 41, freed from Bucca on Oct. 15 after two months' detention for having a weapon in his car.
Rahad Naif said 1,000 men in his section at Bucca had to share just 10 water taps. "They would come, especially the Kuwaiti translators, and throw ice into the sand just to make us suffer psychologically," Naif said.
That is pretty cruel. But look at what the prisoners get away with:
"Sometimes we'd fight the Americans with tent poles. The Americans would come at us behind riot shields, firing plastic bullets and electric pistols (stun guns). We can't fight against that. We knew they'd win. We'd never manage to get out.''
Plastic bullets and stun guns are nothing compared to Saddam's techniques:
The punishments include fingers being chopped or shot off, tips of tongues being cut off, wrists being broken by sharp blows from a wooden rod, lashes by whip or cane, a bound man being tossed off a building, a beheading involving a sword and a knife and a man being humiliated by riding a donkey backwards.
J. Grant Swank, Jr. is right:
All nations presently doing nothing to enhance democracy in New Iraq should be ordered to sit through the video showing. Just perchance that might goad their consciences into doing something to further the present-tense Iraqi freedoms. All protesting Iraq’s liberty advance who live presently in the fresh breezes of the United States should have to do the same. That includes Congresspersons as well as grassroots citizens, particularly the political leftists.
Now simple logic then unfolds why daily murder schemes succeed in plaguing the new democracy. Scores of those who were tutored to maim and kill are still there in Iraq. They have the devil in their bones. They know only one lifestyle — to inflict pain and finally death upon human beings, to cheer such agonizing torture, and instruct the young in how to carry on the "cause."
Posted by bubba138 at 08:27 AM | Comments (0) |
Good Enough for TV?
A scandal always makes for great television. So it it was only a matter of time before the "Jayson Blair Story" hit the small screen:
I wonder if they'll address the part that the blogosphere played in this drama?
The Showtime production, labeled a "dark comedy" in a press release and tentatively titled "The Jayson Blair Project," is being written by Jon Maas, who served as writer/producer of the Showtime film The Last Debate, which dealt with the power of the media and journalism ethics, according to Robert Greenblatt, president of entertainment for Showtime Networks Inc. Maas will also serve as executive producer, Greenblatt said.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:11 AM | Comments (0) |
Freedom of the Press Denied
Hampton University is paying the price for denying the right of the freedom of the press to its students:
Ouch.
At least two grant sources to Hampton University's journalism school are questioning whether to give money to the school in the future, some media officials said Thursday. The doubts come after a decision by the university's administration to confiscate the latest edition of the student newspaper because stories didn't run the way HU's acting president wanted.
Acting President and Provost JoAnn Haysbert wanted a letter she wrote about cafeteria health code violations at the university to run on the front page in this week's homecoming issue, students said. When student staff members of the Hampton Script ran a story of their own about the cafeteria on the front instead, the administration confiscated the newspaper.
"We are gravely concerned about the acting president's decision," said Jeff Cohen, editor of the Houston Chronicle and chairman of the high school journalism committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, a group that has given money to the journalism school.
"We believe that ASNE projects should go to institutions that respect the First Amendment," Cohen said. "If you don't believe in it, you certainly can't teach it."
Posted by bubba138 at 07:30 AM | Comments (0) |
Bloggers Gain Respect
The 2004 Presidential election will be a milestone in campaign coverage. It will be the first Presidential election to be widely covered by bloggers across the nation. Not just as an aside, but as a primary source of information:
Although newspaper sites — most recently The Sacramento Bee’s SacBee.com — have come under fire from the public for requiring columnists’ blogs to be edited and reviewed before posting, most of the editors Digital Edge talked with agreed a) blogs are hot right now and b) they have no plans to relinquish their prerogative to edit their staffers. Having uttered these disclaimers, every editor we talked with plans to offer some sort of political insider’s blog-like column as part of their 2004 campaign coverage. A daily online journal from a New York Times political correspondent on the campaign trail is among the elements The New York Times intends to add for Election 2004, says New York Times Digital spokeswoman Christine Mohan.
At Knight Ridder Digital, Executive News Editor Bruce Koon points to eJournal, columnist Dan Gillmor’s blog, as the kind of online complement to traditional reporting that the company is considering for the 2004 elections. AOL News plans to highlight guest commentators, celebrity bloggers and political pundits throughout the election season. Slate and MSNBC.com have gained distinction for their bloggers and outspoken columnists in past election seasons and will continue to offer these features through the elections.
Posted by bubba138 at 06:19 AM | Comments (0) |
BFL Round Up
Boi From Troy's got this week's Bear Flag Review.
Actually he calls it the Flaming Bear Flag Review.
Flaming?
You know he's workin' the double-entendre.Posted by bubba138 at 05:39 AM | Comments (0) |
October 30, 2003
What? No Hosted Bar?
Looks like good ol' Teddy is finding the intricacies of the job a bit too hard to fathom:
Edward's been a Senator since 1962 -- two years before I was born. I think that's plenty of time to have figured out the "confusing language used in the legislative process."
Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy appeared to be so confused on the Senate floor last week that he prompted "audible gasps" from his colleagues by mistakenly voting for two pieces of legislation he was known to oppose - only to have his votes corrected later. "The Senate chamber was filled with audible gasps last Tuesday when Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the pro-choice champion, clearly voted 'yes' on final passage of the bill to ban partial-birth abortion," columnist Robert Novak reported Sunday.
Kennedy also botched his vote on a Democratic-backed amendment to require partial Iraqi repayment of U.S. reconstruction aid by inadvertently siding with the White House.
The fumble required the intervention of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, who had to explain what happened to Kennedy and get him to change his vote.
Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., blamed Kennedy's stumbling on the sometimes confusing language used in the legislative process.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:03 AM | Comments (0) |
Why the U.N. Can't Handle Iraq
Dean, Kerry, Kucinich, Sharpton, you name 'em they want the U.S. out of Iraq and the U.N. to take over.
Of course, that will be very difficult to do if the U.N. doesn't have the guts, manpower or will to stick it out. Which they haven't:
Oh. It's not a retreat, it's an organized advance to the rear.
The United Nations is pulling out its international staff from Baghdad while it re-evaluates the security situation, a spokeswoman for the organization said today. [...] She [Marie Okabe] said it was not an evacuation from Iraq, and that staff would remain in the northern part of the country.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) |
Hillary Still Top Dog?
If given a choice, Democrats would scrap all nine of the Nazgûl for Hillary Clinton. Quinnipiac University released poll results yesterday showing she's favored by 43% of Democrats, far outstripping any of the other candidates.
My question is why is anyone even actually polling this question? Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly stated that she's not running in the 2004 race, and it is now too late for her to make a decent start. Further, the very fact she's not in the race invalidates the question. Each of the declared candidates has been out on the trail exposing their positions and themselves to the scrutiny of the people, the press, and the other players. Hillary is a fantasy candidate whose positions haven't been on the table for discussion. The 43% support reflects nothing more than a cult of personality. Such cults dwindle when the light of exposure shines upon a candidate's performance and positions on the campaign trail.
We saw something similar to that in the recent gubernatorial recall here in California. Of all the candidates, Tom McClintock showed the highest approval rating of all the candidates. Yet he only garnered 13.4% of the vote. This happened simply because the Democrats viewed him as an asset not a liability. Every vote for McClintock was a vote against the most probable Republican, governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger. Therefore, the Dems never turned their guns upon Tom McClintock the way they did against Arnold. Had they done so, McClintock's approval ratings would have plummeted.
The same applies to Mrs. Clinton. She looks good to Democrats now, but face it no one really knows where she stands in the most touchy issues. Simply looking good in photo ops doesn't translate into real votes. Stumping on the trail does. She's done the one, but not the other.
P.S. This is all also moot in that Bush beats each of the Democrat contenders, including the mythical Hillary, 50% to 42%.Posted by bubba138 at 08:20 AM | Comments (0) |
Over the Top?
Dean is set to take his nomination over the top next week when the Service Employees International Union announces its endorsement of his candidacy.
This, along with gaining endorsements from Jesse Jackson Jr., the California Teacher's Association, and the International Union of Painters, all but seals Dean's rise as the Democrat's top man for the Presidential race.
Look for labor to now begin lining up behind Dean in droves. None of them want to back a loser, regardless of where their hearts lie:
"My heart is with Gephardt," said Jerry Messer, president of the Quad-City Federation of Labor, the local unit of the AFL-CIO. Even so, rivals see labor as ripe territory.
The AFL-CIO hasn't endorsed Gephardt. And key Iowa unions, such as the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees and the United Auto Workers, are sitting on the fence waiting for the national headquarters to give them their marching orders. Dean and Kerry in particular are trying to eat away at Gephardt's labor support.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:00 AM | Comments (0) |
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The bells are once again tolling the death knell for the Democrats as their biggest stick is being forcefully yanked from their hands:
The economy grew at a scorching 7.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter in the strongest pace in nearly two decades. Consumers spent with abandon and businesses ramped up investment, compelling new evidence of an economic resurgence. [...] In other encouraging economic news from the Labor Department, new claims for unemployment benefits last week dropped by 5,000 to 386,000, a sign that layoffs are slowing. U.S. workers' wages and benefits went up by 1 percent in the third quarter, up slightly from a 0.9 percent increase in the previous quarter. [...]
Especially encouraging was the 15.4 percent growth rate in spending by businesses on equipment and software in the third quarter. That marked the largest increase since the first quarter of 2000 and was up from a 8.3 percent growth rate in the second quarter.
The Dems have tried their best to convince the American people that the tax cuts wouldn't help the economy. However, Americans from coast to coast have been out spending the very same tax refunds the Democrats told us we weren't getting.
People don't buy big-ticket items like cars unless they have confidence in the economy. Polls say one thing but the bang is behind the buck.
Consumers in the third quarter spent lavishly on big-ticket items, such as cars, boosting such spending by a whopping 26.9 percent rate. And, they also spent briskly on "nondurables" such as food and clothes, which grew at a 7.9 percent pace, the strongest showing since the first quarter of 1976.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:47 AM | Comments (0) |
Jihad Watch
I've just added a new link to the blogroll that I think deserves special mention. Robert Spencer, author of Islam Unveiled, has started Jihad Watch. It's well worth a visit or three.
Also worth a visit is his companion journal, Dhimmi Watch.Posted by bubba138 at 07:25 AM | Comments (0) |
October 29, 2003
Californian Meditations
Mary Beth has some thoughts for us Californians. We'd do well to take them to heart.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:22 PM | Comments (0) |
More Media Bias
The AP reports that the Saudi Arabians are shelling out the cash to improve their image in the U.S. Shocking? Not really. But one thing of interest is this little bit:
The Saudis have hired three well-connected Washington lobbying and law firms to advance their case in the capital. One firm, paid $420,000 so far this year, is headed by former Rep. Thomas Loeffler, a top contributor to President Bush when Bush was governor of Texas and a major fund-raiser in Bush's presidential campaigns.
Fair enough, how about the other two firms? Who heads those and to whom have they contributed?
We're waiting...
Well, since the AP report doesn't want to tell you, I will.
Lobbying firm Patton Boggs received $465k from the Saudis and their Chairman, Thomas Hale Boggs Jr. is the son of Hale Boggs and Corinne Claiborne Boggs, both former Democratic Congress members from Louisiana . He has contributed to Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Doyle, California Congressman Robert Matsui, and Texas Congressman Martin Frost -- all Democrats. Nancy Dutton of Dutton & Dutton contributed to Maryland's Chris Van Hollen and Michigan's John D. Dingell, also both Democrats.
So two out of three of the lobbying firms lean heavy to the Democrats but the author of this article finds it notable that the head of one contributed money to Bush. One must assume that if Joe Carey looked up the giving records of one firm he looked them up for all three. That being the case it only follows that he deliberately chose to not report the giving to Democratic candidates.
Joe Carey reported the facts, but the bias lies in the facts he left out.Posted by bubba138 at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) |
No Drama Here
Da Boi From Troy thinks Davis is putting on the drama:
These fires are bad, but we've been lucky in the since that they are predominantly on the suburban fringes--nothing like Chicago's Great Fire or the one following the 1906 San Francisco quake. Show us some dignity in your final days, Gray Davis, and stop being a drama queen!
I hate to disagree but...I do. Scripps Ranch may be suburban but it is hardly on the fringes. Further the fire actually reached deep into San Diego commercial areas via the Miramar MCAS. The dollar cost may not match that of the quakes to which he refers, but keep in mind the accounting hasn't even yet begun -- and the fires are not yet finished doing their damage.
But I think we need to count the cost in more than just dollars. Busted up freeways and bridges are tremendously costly to a community but on a personal level having to fix them is nothing more than a huge inconvenience. Sixteen hundred families losing their houses and having to rebuild their lives from scratch is a personal, heart-wrenching cost that cannot be measured in dollars.Posted by bubba138 at 08:18 AM | Comments (0) |
Its Not Over
The U.S. postwar combat death toll in Iraq climbed past the number of soldiers killed during the invasion when the U.S. military said Wednesday it had lost two more dead in a roadside bomb north of Baghdad.
This whole idea that we are in a post-war phase in Iraq makes me very angry. Who has said the war is over? It is not. Congress hasn't passed a resolution declaring an end to hostilities. Bush has not said the war is over. To my recollection, no one in his administration has said the war is over. What has been said is this:
Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.
Major combat operations have ended. That's all. A battle has been won but the war goes on. It continues. The deaths we saw last month, this month and the ones we'll see next month are wartime deaths. The risk of serving during this phase of the war is no less than before. Anyone who says any different is either ridiculously foolish or being diabolically political -- perhaps both.
But that's the point, isn't it. If the left-leaning press can paint the picture that the war is over and yet our boys are still in harm's way, then obviously the administration had no plan. But any reasonable person knows that every operation plan leaves room for casualties. Since this operation hasn't concluded, casualties are to be expected. Notice how Reuter's spins it:
Ok, so in the 43 days between March 20th and May 1st we lost 115 good soldiers. This averages out to 2.67 soldiers killed per day. In the 182 days since, we've lost less than two soldiers every three days. I'd call that a striking improvement -- and far short of the dozens per day we lost in Viet Nam.
Their deaths brought to 116 the number of U.S. troops killed in hostilities since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1, surpassing the 115 killed in the war launched on March 20 to topple Saddam Hussein.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:41 AM | Comments (0) |
Careful, the Secret is Getting Out
If you are Howard Dean, this can't be good news. If you are George Bush, this isn't news at all.
The problem for Democrats in all of this is that an increasing number of business economists and finance analysts see something very different. They argue that Bush inherited a recession caused in many respects by the leftward drift of Clinton policies during the last two years of his administration and that because of Bush's change in direction economic statistics already were pointing upward when the United States was attacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. Indeed, they say that Bush's further actions laid the base for another boom. "In 2000, the stock market was down, housing was slowing, manufacturing was slowing, we had declining industrial production, job growth was slowing and you could clearly tell that we were going into a slower-growth period. And yet the media missed it," says Wesbury, who was chief economist for the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, or JEC, in the mid-1990s. "What has happened in this past year is that the economy has been accelerating sharply, and yet story after story after story has been about how somehow there is something wrong with the economy, when in fact it's firing on all cylinders and accelerating sharply. ... What we're seeing here is an incredible turnaround."
Posted by bubba138 at 07:01 AM | Comments (0) |
Molly Noticed Too
Molly's got a new name for the strikers: Dorks
Exactly. It took my wife over ten years and a Masters degree before she was making what these guys are -- and she still pays over three hundred dollars a month for health insurance. Pity comes hard -- if it comes at all.
Obviously if you get free healthcare and you have two brain cells you could give a rat's ass about standing out in toxic air and putting your life at risk. But then again it just goes to show you just how much these union thugs care about their devoted little lemmings. Sorry, but I can't conjure up any tears when some beauty school drop out draws a salary of $40,000 and pays no health insurance to run cans across a screen when I busted my butt to go through four years of college and kick in dough when I want to see my doctor.
Posted by bubba138 at 06:47 AM | Comments (0) |
October 28, 2003
Bear Flag Plug
By the way, Hugh Hewitt had R.B. from the Infinite Monkeys on today. Hugh was lamenting the light blogging over the past couple of days and blaming it on the fires. R.B.'s response was that Hugh should check out the Bear Flag League blogs, and specifically mentioned XRLQ of damnum absque injuria.
Thanks for the plug, R.B.!Posted by bubba138 at 07:37 PM | Comments (0) |
A Closer Call
Ben at Infinite Monkeys had a closer call than we did:
The wind shifted. Hard. I kept looking out my front window every ten minutes or so. The smoke was getting thicker. Was it getting hotter? My neighbor across the street thought so. About 10 minutes to 3:00, I went into my next door neighbor's backyard. Their wall is adjacent to the main boulevard that runs to our neighborhood, across from which a 20-foot-high wall of flame, driven by extremely hard Santana winds, moved quickly through the open, brush-filled field. The fire was maybe 15 feet from the road. I had the cat, but I didn't have my bags, or my laptop. My wife went to close the front door. "Wait, no!" I said. "I gotta get my stuff." She went back. "No!" I hollered. "Take the cat, take the boy, get out of here!"
"Ben..."
"GET OUT OF HERE!" She got of there.
I grabbed my things. At least I had the presence of mind to lock the front door. All I knew as I sped away was that our house wasn't burning. But I fully expected to return to smoldering ruins.
Posted by bubba138 at 06:53 PM | Comments (0) |
Clark Support Dropping
As confirmation that Clark's tasty poll numbers a couple of weeks ago were nothing more than a blip on the radar screen, the newest CNN/USA Today/Gallop poll shows Dean has retaken the lead.
Let's face it. The only thing the tired, uh...I mean retired...General has going for him is that he's not Dean. Dean has the established Democrats rightfully scared because they know he's too angry to gain anything but the votes of a sliver of the American public but angry enough to gain the nomination in the special interest controlled Democratic party.
Dean is up in New Hampshire, as well, showing a double-digit lead over Kerry.
The same poll portrays poor portents for Lieberman:
Lieberman suffered one of the greatest popularity drops: Twenty-eight percent reported having a favorable opinion of the former vice-presidential candidate. But 42 percent said they regarded him unfavorably. That marked a dramatic shift from six weeks earlier, when 46 percent viewed Lieberman favorably and 25 percent did not.
In response, Lieberman is hitting New Hampshire airwaves with television ads:
Lieberman's chances have dropped over the last couple of weeks from zero to absolute nil.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Lieberman will hit the TV airwaves this week for the first time in his campaign, using two ads in New Hampshire to highlight his tax plan and criticize President Bush's policies in Iraq. The ad rollout is part of a strategic shift that has the Connecticut senator focusing his efforts -- and his money -- on New Hampshire and other early voting states in place of Iowa, which he abandoned just over a week ago.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) |
Lt. Smash Has Been Relieved
...and Boots on the Ground has taken up the blogging slack:
How pathetic, I find it funny how they want to show how great their religion is by blowing up as many Iraqi civilians as they can on their holiday. All this is just making me really sick. You know all the democrats running for office are going to use this situation for political leverage. Funny how none of them cowards have been bold enough to come and see Iraq for themselves, maybe then, they would have a different opinion about Iraq.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:07 AM | Comments (0) |
I'm Back
Quick update: Everyone is fine and everything is OK. More to come later...
Let me bring you up to speed.
Sunday Night 8:30pm
I took a quick ride around the corner to check a friend's house. He had been evacuated (not forced but heavily suggested). When I got there, the fire had come within a dozen yards of his back yard and the fire fighters were busy pushing it away from people's properties -- and they were doing a superb job. They had a bulldozer scraping fire breaks between fences and the fire. They were doing this on incredible slopes lit only by headlights and glow of the flames. They weren't even attempting to put the blaze out, just push it away. The strategy worked beautifully.
Sunday Night 9:00pm
On my way back home everything went dark. All of Santee and Lakeside lost power. I walked in the door and my wife and two kids were anxious to "GET OUT NOW". I calmed them down, we lit some candles and put the kids to bed. The fire on the north ridge was still visible but not very active.
Sunday Night 9:30pm
The ridge to the north of us flared up and raced around to the west of us consuming the face of the hill that is closest to us. It came right down to the fence line of the houses that are against the hillside -- these houses are about a quarter of a mile away from us. Then, the fire stopped. Burned itself out. Not a single house or structure burned. Everyone was very lucky, it seemed.
It was quite a show.
Monday morning
We woke up Monday morning to a vanilla sky. It was an odd color -- it reminded me of a fashionable clothing ad in pale yellow patina. Everything had taken on a new tinge. Ash was still falling visibly and everything is covered in it. The wife lamented that she just had her car washed on Friday and now it was covered in grey and black specks. I fought the urge to sweep up the front yard and driveway because I knew in a short time I'd just have to do it again.
The wife and I went to check out the fire line. It was plain that the reason the fire stopped was because a break had been bulldozed behind the properties that back against the hillside. This, and the fact that all those homes have tile roofs, is what saved any structures from catching fire. All yesterday the media kept telling us how stretched the fire departments were, but one thing I know: every fire fighter out there did a bang-up job. They put their lives on the line and for most of the county it paid off.
Monday 11:00am
I went on an ice run because we had been without power since 9:00pm the previous night. Word is it won't be on for another 1 to 3 days. Looks like I'm going to miss the Chargers on Monday Night Football.
Just for kicks I head over to the local Abertsons. I know they'll be closed because they don't have power either, but I'm wondering something. Yep. True to form the Union Brothers are out there picketing a store that's closed. Fire? What fire?
Once I finally got to a part of town that had power, my mission had just begun. The challenge now became finding a store that had ice. It took four stops before I found one that hadn't been cleaned out.
On the way back a stream of fire engines swarmed by. It seems that some neighborhood kids found an unburned area of brush and decided that the job wasn't complete. Can you believe the stupidity? After all that the community had experienced over the last 24 hours these kids lit another fire. Dumb.
Monday Noon
My parents just called. They've been evacuated again. On Sunday the fires threatened but didn't quite get to their part of Lakeside so the fire gods decided to give it another try. Luckily they were already packed and just hopped into the motorhome and boogied. Dad went back around 4pm and everything was still there but also still at risk.
Tuesday 5:00am
We've got power! I'm dressed and ready to resume normal life. The wife is staying home with the kids today because the schools are still closed -- they were expecting to be without power and the districts don't want the kids out breathing the still quite foul air.
Posted by bubba138 at 05:45 AM | Comments (0) |
October 26, 2003
West Ridge
The Fire crested the west ridge and stopped. It has now retreated back over the far side. That's the good news. The fire on the north ridge, however, isn't going very fast but it is continuing in our direction.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:43 PM | Comments (0) |
Power is Erratic
Power keeps blinking on and off. A neighbor just told me that a huge block of Santee is without power. I'll keep blogging as long as I can...
Posted by bubba138 at 07:32 PM | Comments (0) |
What's Next
The fire on the north ridge has slowed down considerably but is still coming toward us. However, there is a closer ridge to the west of us and the fire is now starting to come over the top of it.
Santee law enforcement has just told local businesses to close down.
The mayor of San Diego has advised all businesses to not have their employees come into work tomorrow, and mine called about an hour ago to let me know not to come in.
We're packing up the cars now, just in case we've got to get out of here in a hurry.Posted by bubba138 at 06:52 PM | Comments (0) |
There It Is
Well...
Just as we were beginning to feel safe my cousin calls and asks if I can see it. I look out the window and yep, there it is. about two miles to the north the fire has crested the hill and is headed our way.Posted by bubba138 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0) |
Monday Night Football
It has just been reported that tomorrow's game may be moved from Qualcomm Stadium, which is currently being used as a refuge for people who have been evacuated from their neighborhood, to Oakland, Phoenix or San Francisco.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:48 PM | Comments (0) |
100 Things To Do
Allow me to add one to the list.
101. Clear dry brush from around your house.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:35 PM | Comments (0) |
San Diego Fire Update
I'm wiping ashes off my screen as I type this. I usually leave the window to the home office open, so until around noon today the finer ashes were blowing through the window screen into the room. Even though we've now had the house entirely closed off for several hours, the smell of the smoke is thick, and it is difficult to take deep breaths.
From the beginning: Our day started off quite early. We were awakened at 5:30 by the phone. My parents, who live about five minutes to the east of us, had just been ordered out of their house. Looking out my window I could see the flames burning bright against the night sky on the hillside over my parent's house. Our first priority was to get their two horses, Ami and Misty, trailered and down the hill to a safe place. The first place to which we were sent was the Lakeside Rodeo grounds. When we arrived there before 6:00am, and the fires were a short couple of miles off, and the grounds were full so they turned us away. The next place they sent us was a ranch near Joan Embry's (of San Diego Zoo fame) house. Unfortunately the fire had already swept into that area so that was not an alternative. Finally we were sent to Santana High School, which you may remember was in the news a short two and a half years ago.
After getting Misty and Ami out, my Dad and I went back up to get some neighbor's horses. Those weren't the last either, as there are many horse owners in the area without trailers for transporting their equine friends.
The fires are so out of control that they have spread throughout the entire county. Around noon, we learned a friend that lives in the same neighborhood as me had been ordered out, so the wife and I left the "horse rescue" to make sure our own things were in order. My house is actually pretty safe, there are several rows of houses between it and the brush. Even so, the later the day became the more plain it was that the fires were totally unpredictable and that there was no safe area.
The local news is now reporting at least eleven dead and over a hundred houses destroyed. I know one individual died in my parent's neighborhood because he ran his truck into a telephone pole trying to escape the flames.
I simply cannot overstate how huge this fire is. It stretches from one end of the county to the other. I've lived in San Diego county my entire life and I've never seen anything like this. I know people that live 5, 10, and 30 miles from me that have been evacuated from their neighborhoods. San Diego is bisected by the Miramar Marine Corp Air Station which is largely unmaintained brush. This gave the fire a nice highway to travel from the backcountry into very urban areas of San Diego.
Right now we're learning about new hot spots including those in very north (Escondido) and very south (East Lake / Chula Vista) portions of the county.Posted by bubba138 at 03:55 PM | Comments (0) |
October 23, 2003
U.N.der Prepared; U.N.der Equiped With U.N.derstanding
Here's why it has always been a bad idea to let the U.N. run things in Iraq:
U.N. operations in Baghdad: It's a quagmire.
In its indictment of the U.N. security operations, the panel said that the organization failed to thoroughly assess the security situation in Iraq or respond to security warnings, including intelligence reports that said the headquarters could be the target of an attack. U.N. officials, the panel said, also dismissed offers of protection from the U.S. coalition in Baghdad.
The panel, sounding an alarm throughout the worldwide network of U.N. missions, declared that the organization's security management system was "dysfunctional" and "provides little guarantee of security to U.N. staff in Iraq or other high-risk environments and needs to be reformed."
Posted by bubba138 at 09:27 PM | Comments (0) |
He's On a Mission From God
Well, I'm glad someone has such a straight line to God that he clearly knows when God is telling him to go against God's own revealed word.
[Confirmed Episcopalian Bishop Robinson] has "agonised over the pain and disruption this is causing many people in the Anglican community". Mr Robinson - whose appointment has sparked a worldwide crisis among Anglicans - said: "I don't want anyone to leave over this.
But he said he had no intention of backing down and his consecration would go ahead next month as planned.
"I have agonised over this, but God really seems to be asking me to move forward. I think it would break God's heart to come apart over this."
Posted by bubba138 at 09:15 PM | Comments (0) |
Give Him Da Boot!
British MP got booted out of the Labor party today.
Galloway, you may recall, is the pro-Saddam Brit who was on the Baathist payroll. Of course, ousting Saddam meant the paychecks would stop coming from Iraq, so good 'ol Georgey was totally against the war. He and his compatriots fancy themselves "anti-war" but the reality of it is that he and his friends are cohorts to sadistic criminals.
What is most interesting about Galloway's sacking from the Labor party is this, almost glossed over, tidbit:
The Labour decision was not related to The Telegraph reports in April based on documents purporting to show that Mr Galloway received money from Saddam Hussein. Mr Galloway denies the claims and is suing the Telegraph for libel.
The Telegraph has never rescinded it's claim that GG was on Saddam's payroll. Galloway's last words on the subject were:
It's been four months and he still isn't in a position to say they are forgeries. Since the Labor party didn't use this information in kicking GG out, one must wonder if we'll soon be seeing this brought up again in an arena with more weight than a Labor party panel...something like perhaps a government treason trial?
"I don't have to prove anything. The Daily Telegraph has to prove that the allegations they published about me are true. I am not yet in a position to say they are forgeries but I am in a position to say they are false and that the information in them is false."
Posted by bubba138 at 08:10 PM | Comments (0) |
He's Learning Fast!
Wesley Clark may have just become a Democrat but he's a quick learner:
I expect he'll be a quick loser, as well.
Democratic contender Wesley Clark yesterday said he wants to hike taxes on anyone earning over $200,000 to the tune of $1.1 trillion because President Bush busted the budget.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:03 PM | Comments (0) |
October 22, 2003
Gephardt up In Iowa
According to a new Zogby poll, Dick Gephardt (22%) has taken an ever-so slim lead over Howard Dean (21%) in Iowa. It's a statistical tie, but it does show that the race isn't over yet (contrary to my earlier loud-mouthed bloviations).
Posted by bubba138 at 10:32 AM | Comments (0) |
Best Players On Our Team
CK Rairden identifies the two best people to promote the conservative cause -- and they're not who you'd think:
Howard Dean has done a fine job of firing up the anti-Bush bandwagon, and getting it started. Add to that Al Franken’s group of malcontents and you are getting enough far left-wingers to challenge the independent thinking moderate Democrats. With Howard Dean driving the bandwagon and Al Franken on board and navigating and with just a little luck, these two may take back the Democrat Party for the far left. The winners will be the American conservatives, as this has the possibility to take the Democrat Party off the far left cliff.
And into obscurity.
I only hope he's right, but...
Somehow I think there are plenty of liberals out there ready to buy into Franken and Dean's blather. It will be interesting to see what happens when Franken heads up the new 'all-liberal, all the time' radio station.Posted by bubba138 at 10:19 AM | Comments (0) |
October 21, 2003
Bear Flag League
The BFL keeps growing. Make sure you visit each of these fine blogs in the next couple of days:
Aaron's Rantblog (L.A.)
Absinthe & Cookies(Monterey)
The Accidental Jedi (Fresno)
Angry Clam (L.A.)
Baldilocks New!
BlogoSFERICS (Expatriate)
BoifromTroy (L.A.)
CalBlog (L.A.)
California Republic (Statewide)
Citizen Smash(San Diego) New!
Cobb (L.A.) New!
Daily Pundit (San Francisco)
e-Claire(Northern CA)
Fresh Potatoes(Orange County)
Infinite Monkeys
The Interocitor (L.A.)
The Irish Lass (Sacramento)
Left Coast Conservative (San Joaquin) New!
Lex Communis (Fresno)
Master of None (L.A.)
Miller's Time(Sacramento)
Molly's Musings (San Diego)
Mulatto Boy(L.A.) New!
Howard Owens (Ventura)
Pathetic Earthlings (Contra Costa)
Patterico's Pontifications (L.A.)
PrestoPundit (Orange County)
Right on the Left Beach (Orange County),
Shark Blog (Expatriate)
So. Cal Law Blog (L.A.)
Tone Cluster
Xrlq (Orange)
Posted by bubba138 at 09:55 PM | Comments (0) |
One Can Only Dream
...of the world being a better place.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:46 PM | Comments (0) |
Wanted: Creativity
Michael Williams is hosting another round of the Short Story Symposium. Get those fingers warmed up and juices flowing!
Posted by bubba138 at 08:45 PM | Comments (0) |
Dean Up In New Hampshire
Dr. Dean, the former Vermont governor, had the support of 33 percent to Mr. Kerry's 19 percent in the Franklin Pierce College poll, conducted Oct. 13-15. The two were essentially tied in the last Franklin Pierce survey, in July.
According to the Franklin Pierce College poll Dean's looking real good and Wesley (at 7%) is not. Given Dean's huge financial lead and fund raising momentum, unless something drastic changes the Democratic nomination is already in his pocket.
As far as Clark being a threat, even the Kos is dismissing him:
It's all over but the shouting.
Clark may be able to raise a great deal of money compared to everyone not named Dean, but he only has 4-5 months to raise it. While the other candidates have already spent tens of millions building ground organization in the early primary states, Clark has to start from zero and build from scratch. Remember, the other candidates have spent over a year now working on their ground game. These things don't sprout up out of nowhere. It takes real effort, a lot of hard work. And experienced staff, most of which have already committed to other candidates.
Clark has ridden his media splash to good national poll numbers, but he doesn't have the ground operation to support it. Not yet. And the campaign knows it...
By starting so late, the Clark campaign has to prioritize its targets, focus its energies on a handful of states. It has lost the ability to run the type of national campaign that Dean is running. It lacks operational flexibility (which must grate on the general).
Posted by bubba138 at 08:10 PM | Comments (0) |
No Cause For War?
Amid the din of Democratic voices screeching that Iraq is not a part of the war on terrorism, Deroy Murdoch diligently connects the dots.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:52 PM | Comments (0) |
Arafat's Leg/Bucket Aerobics
Israel is preparing for the day Yassir leaves Palestine...permanently:
The prospect of Arafat dying of old age is known as Yom Sagrir (bad weather day) in Israeli contingency planning, and assumes that massed mobs of Palestinians will advance on Jerusalem "in a human tidal wave" determined to bury Arafat at the al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount -- which could only be prevented by dreadful bloodshed. The war game also concluded that the West Bank and Gaza would fall into total anarchy as armed factions battled for the succession, while others launched all-out assaults on Jewish settlements.
Every scenario explored in the war game led to the same unpalatable conclusion -- that Israel would be driven to launch a massive re-occupation of the territories under draconian military rule. In other words -- keep the old man alive at all costs.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:22 PM | Comments (0) |
Now For Some Good News
The culture of marriage in America is actually getting stronger:
The changes during the 1990s are insignificant compared with family trends in the 1970s and 1980s, when divorces, separations and the number of never-married people rose rapidly and, in some age groups, doubled.
"The big news" in the 2000 report "is that there has been a strong slowing down of most marriage-weakening trends," said David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, a nonpartisan think tank in New York City.
Trends such as divorce, unwed childbearing, teen pregnancy and teen sexual activity have either "stopped getting worse or actually started getting better," he said.
It is hard to say what is causing this stabilization in marriage trends, but I think it probably has something to do with the fact that today's adults are the ones who experienced first hand growing up during the increasing rates of divorce and single-parent homes of the 1970's and 1980's.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:09 PM | Comments (0) |
The NY Times Does It Again
The Gray Lady, apparently forgetting any lessons it learned in the Jayson Blair scandal, has stepped in it again:
Now, there seems to be no doubt at all that the book really is awful (just read Amazon.com's reviews), but the NY Times should have at least disclosed their reviewer's relationship to the Clinton administration.
The Gray Lady's review trashing "Bill Clinton: An American Journey. Great Expectations" was written by Todd S. Purdum, the husband of Clinton's first White House press secretary, Dee Dee Myers - though Times readers weren't informed of his connction to Clinton. "It is the equivalent of allowing the wife of Ari Fleischer to review an anti-Bush book," said one observer.
Posted by bubba138 at 06:58 PM | Comments (0) |
Democratic Ammunition
Looking forward to the presidential election next year can't be anything but painful for most Democrats. After all, every hardball they've thrown Bush's way has been hit out of the park. Take a look at:
All of these have become or are quickly becoming non-issues. Worse still many of the pitches have made the Democrats look silly because they were so obviously without merit and motivated not out of the interests of Americans but by blatant politics.
This, however, does not leave Bush invulnerable in 2004. True, I believe this is his race to lose, but if the Democrats are smart I think they do have a chance. But they must switch strategies. Instead of trying to tear Bush down on manufactured issues they should open their eyes to see real issues of concern to the American voter. One of these issues is the growing Federal budget deficit.
Bush ran against Gore on a small government platform. His performance in this area has been exactly the opposite of his campaign rhetoric. If I was a Democratic operative, I'd be getting hold campaign video in which Bush derides the Clinton-Gore administration for growing the size of the government so I could splice it into my candidate's campaign commercials.
The federal deficit soared to $374.2 billion in 2003, the White House said Monday, a record total that more than doubled last year's red ink and looked like a prelude to even gloomier numbers.
Posted by bubba138 at 06:08 PM | Comments (0) |
Michael Moore: The Definition of Clueless
If you still need any evidence as to how far off center Michael Moore's bubble is, just read this quote:
According to the report, Moore sees a silver lining in the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as California governor. "For the last 20 or so years, Democrats have had to keep moving to the right in order to get elected ... guys like Gray Davis, a Republican pretending he's a Democrat," the paper quotes him as saying. "And Arnold, for the first time'' demonstrates "that the Republicans have got to become more liberal to get elected.''
Only an out-and-out communist would think that California Democrats have had to move to the right in order to get elected.
Oh.
So that explains it.Posted by bubba138 at 06:05 PM | Comments (0) |
The Romantic Niagra Falls
A man who survived a plunge over Niagara Falls with only the clothes on his back will be charged with illegally performing a stunt, Niagara Parks Police said Tuesday. Kirk Jones, 40, of Canton, Michigan, is the first person known to have gone over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls without safety devices and lived. He could be fined $10,000.
Stunned tourists described seeing Jones float by on his back Monday in the swift Niagara River, go headfirst over the churning 180-foot waterfall and then pull himself out of the water onto the rocks below.
Dude! That's just plain nuts!
Lynda Satelmajer, of Brampton, Ontario, said she and her family watched the man as he entered the river and then went over the falls. "He seemed a bit edgy, kind of jumping around," she said. "He walked over to where we were standing and he jumped and slid down on his backside and went over the brink.
"It was really freaky, actually. He was smiling."
Needless to say:
I would think so. It's going to cost this guy $10,000. If any ride is worth that amount of money, that would be the one.
"We're investigating it as an intentional act," Niagara Parks Police Inspector Paul Fortier said. He said psychological tests were being conducted at the hospital.
Posted by bubba138 at 12:00 PM | Comments (0) |
The Whole World Is Against Us
Except, of course, for the parts that aren't:
Shrugging off missile testing by North Korea, Asia-Pacific leaders endorsed U.S. President George W. Bush's plans to counter terror and his new initiative to resolve the Korean nuclear crisis on Tuesday. Closing a summit in Bangkok, the other 20 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum fully backed the U.S. stand of providing some security guarantees for North Korea in exchange for it abandoning its nuclear ambitions.
You may recall that North Korea was one of the clubs the Democrats used to argue against the war in Iraq. Why go into Iraq when North Korea is a much bigger and more dangerous threat, they whined.
They were against "unilateral" aggressive negotiations with Iraq, but for it when North Korea was concerned. They pushed for multilateral passive negotiations with Iraq but were steadfastly against involving other Asian nations in dealing with North Korea.
Fortunately for the world, Bush and company heard the carping for exactly what it was: political posturing.Posted by bubba138 at 07:32 AM | Comments (0) |
October 20, 2003
Fundraising Results
The final numbers for third quarter fundraising are in. Here's where the Democratic contenders stand:
Candidate Q1 Q2 Q3 Total Rank Howard Dean (D) $2.639 $7.908 $14.753 $25.301 Up from 3 John Kerry (D) $7.010 $9.018 $3.861 $19.889 Down from 1 John Edwards (D) $7.418 $4.517 $2.465 $14.401 Down from 2 Dick Gephardt (D) $5.951 $$3.799 $3.829 $13.580 Unchanged Joe Lieberman (D) $3.013 $5.137 $3.538 $11.690 Unchanged Lyndon H. Larouche Jr (D) $.821 $3.934 $.647 $5.402 Unchanged Wesley Clark (D) - - $3.491 $3.491 Up from 11 Dennis Kucinich (D) $.178 $1.560 $1.634 $3.373 Unchanged Bob Graham (D) $1.124 $2.012 - $3.136 Down from 7 Carol Moseley Braun (D) $.72 $.144 $.125 $.342 Down from 9 Al Sharpton (D) $.82 $.101 $.88 $.272 Down from 10 Dollar Amounts expressed in millions
Howard Dean still has the momentum, raising 71% more money in the third quarter than in the previous quarters combined. Kerry, Gephardt, Lieberman and Clark all raised cash in the mid to high 3 millions. General Clark might be getting write ups in the press and bubbles in the polls but he's not getting tangible support in the pocketbook.
Of course, the Bush team has raised more than all the Democrats combined, bringing his war-chest total to more than $84 million.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0) |
Clean Power
A brand new method for generating clean electricity has been discovered:
It doesn't sound very productive on the outset, but I wonder what would happen if we placed these sieves in every dam in America.
The physical basis for the discovery of the "electrokinetic effect," by Larry Kostiuk and Daniel Kwok of the University of Alberta's engineering department, is simplicity itself. Water is squeezed through tiny holes in a non-metallic solid such as glass. As the water passes through, it interacts with the surface of the sieve and creates a thin layer of positively and negatively charged electrons.
One location where large amounts of water are now filtered daily is a water-purification plant. Therefore, if the mechanics of electrokinetic electricity can be improved, municipal waterworks might advertise themselves some day as the source of both clean water and clean electricity.
Posted by bubba138 at 12:52 PM | Comments (0) |
DC Sniper Defends Self
In a stroke of evil genius, the prosecution has maneuvered John Allen Muhammad into defending hisself.
His tenuous grasp of grammar may hurt him. A man his age should know to say "We be looking for the facts, we be looking for evidence."
"I say to these people, we know something happened," he said. "They wasn't there. I was. I know what happened." "They are saying the entire case is based on a theory,'' he said of the prosecutors. He said he looked up the word in a dictionary. "It ends up with a guess," he said. "A guess. Opinion."
He continued: "We looking for facts, we looking for evidence, and the evidence will show I had nothing to do with these crimes."
Posted by bubba138 at 12:40 PM | Comments (0) |
Losing the Victory
A post-war opinion piece from a major magazine:
The troops returning home are worried. “We’ve lost the peace,” men tell you. “We can’t make it stick.” A tour of the beaten-up cities...six months after victory is a mighty sobering experience for anyone. ...Friend and foe alike, look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they are disappointed in you as an American.
Never has American prestige...been lower. People never tire of telling you of the ignorance and rowdy-ism of American troops, of out misunderstanding of...conditions.
When the British and American came the [occupied population] felt that at last they were in the hands of civilized people. But instead of coming in with a bold plan of relief and reconstruction we came in full of evasions and apologies.
We have swept away [the old regime], but a great many...feel that the cure has been worse than the disease.
The taste of victory had gone sour in the mouth of every thoughtful American I met.
I wonder if this guy was a mentor to Robert Fisk?
Hat Tip: The Lt. Citizen Indepundit Smash guy.Posted by bubba138 at 12:05 PM | Comments (0) |
Short of the Death Sentence
Two cousins have been jailed for life for the "honour killing" of a 21-year-old Muslim bride-to-be who was stabbed to death on her wedding day.Rafaqat Hussain and Tafarak Hussain, who were angry that their relative Sahjda Bibi was marrying a divorcee and non-blood relative, showed no emotion as they were led away from the dock at Birmingham Crown Court.
Posted by bubba138 at 11:28 AM | Comments (0) |
The Grocery Strike
San Diego Union Tribune reports that the strike is beginning to hurt -- not the stores, but the workers. Of course, the article begins with a generous tug on the heart strings:
On the first day of the grocery strike, Maria Vazquez canceled her 9-year-old daughter's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. On the second day, Vazquez checked the balance on her checking account: $120.
On the third day, after 12 hours of standing in the parking lot of a Ralphs on Oceanside Boulevard, where she has worked for the past four years, she went home, shut her bedroom door, and broke down in tears.
That's terrible, isn't it? But the problems only start there. It looks like the strike isn't quite getting the public sympathy the unions would like:
All day, co-workers talk about their fears about meeting mortgage and rent payments. Vazquez feels buoyed by the truckers pulling off Interstate 5 who honk their horns to show their support, but exhausted by customers who yell: "Get back to work!" "Stop being lazy!" "You're spoiled brats!"
Ouch. Last August my wife's health insurance premiums went up $150 a month. Let me spell that out: one hundred fifty dollars. Not $5. Not $15. The increase was above and beyond the $300ish we were already paying for family coverage.
Last Saturday the family went to Target to get some birthday presents. After asking the cashier for permission, my 10 year-old daughter scanned all the items we were buying. Believe it or not, she didn't make a single mistake.
It is hard to generate empathy for entry level workers who get paid double, triple and quadruple the minimum wage to do what my daughter was so able to do without training because they're facing paying an insurance premium that is one tenth the increase I've recently had to absorb.
Update: California may be seeing a new set of strikes in the hotel industry next year:
Hotel workers in San Francisco have also done reasonably well in recent years. In 1999 they won a contract that pays room cleaners $15 an hour. The contract expires next summer. "We anticipate the kind of war Southern California grocery workers are facing now," said union head Mike Casey.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:41 AM | Comments (0) |
Freedom of Screech
One Aussie paper has discovered blogs. Here's what they have to say about them:
They even list out some blogs of interest, including our beloved California Republic, and a shrill Recall Arnold blog. Why they didn't mention Slings and Arrows is beyond me. The funny thing is that in an article on blogging they haven't figured out how to use links in blog fashion.
The Economist, which claims that more than 750,000 people now blog each day, suggests that the phenomenon of blogging is about to go commercial. Just as e-mail and instant messaging have become Internet mainstays, blogging is on the blocks to emerge into the mainstream with assistance from the big Internet companies. [...]
Like the Sunday soapbox speakers at London's Hyde Park Corner, blogs are platforms for self-anointed pundits, providing online journals that can be updated throughout the day.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:31 AM | Comments (0) |
October 17, 2003
Primate Promotion Project
In doing my part to help some of the less...uh...developed denizens of the blogosphere I present the Primate Promotion Project. The goal of this project is to generate links for the ecosystem's lower rated blogs, and thereby promote them to a higher rung on the evolutionary scale.
Here are my criteria for eligible blogs.
Now that the game rules are out of the way, let's hit it...
Insignificant Microbes
Dan at Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics says Bill Saphire is stupid.Sam Minter (aka Abulsme Noibatno Itramne) laments the fate of the Reform party. Sam could learn to use permanent links for his posts.
The Post Modern Pilgrim tells what he'd like to see more of in the Blogosphere -- and what blogging has meant to him.
Be careful not to step in the Kennedy Stuff where Carole is hopelessly liberal -- but from time to time she's brave enough to explore the other side.
Multicellular Microorganisms
Richard over at theConnexion.net wonders about the validity of studies on prayer for the chronically ill.
Jack O'Toole is finding a new reason to not like Chirac. As if he needed another one. Special mention: I really like what Jack is doing. Definitely visit his blog.
Crunchy Crustaceans
Somehow Chris Metcalf found the only lefty around who is not bashing Rush -- and he wants none of Ellen Goodman's lefty sympathy.
Thomas is taking moments in-between writing for Jive mag to grab sand and blog about the profit motive of prophet writers.
Lowly Insects
Mary Beth's heart is breaking over at Switched at Birth. Special mention: Beth can just plain write.
Crawly Amphibians
To be continued...Res Ipsa Loquitur is fully of conservative bloggy goodness.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:12 PM | Comments (0) |
Only the Best
Director Mitch exhibits discriminating taste. I also love his depiction of a possible McAullife strategy session:
On a serious note Bush does remain vulnerable. The economy is improving and jobs are coming back, but if the recovery doesn't accelerate measurably by August things will be dicey. Further even though a war is on and Bush and company are focused on eliminating terrorism, the Federal budget deficit is HUGE and only getting bigger. Bush ran on the classic Republican "small government" mantra but under his administration the bureaucracy has done nothing but grow. GW needs to get a handle on the spending and growth ASAP.
McAuliffe : Damn! The economy is improving! What are we going to run on now?!
Lackey: We still have the unilateral Iraq issue...
(from offstage): Boss, UN resolution on Iraq was unanimously approved!"
McAuliffe : Damn! Okay, what about that Plame issue?
Lackey: The story totally lost momentum after questions arose of whether she was actually under cover and other gaps in our attack story.
McAuliffe : Afghanistan?
Lackey: Non-starter
McAuliffe : Is there any way we can pin the Cubs loss on Bush? Maybe that guy who blocked that catch was a Republican...go check into that.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:25 PM | Comments (0) |
Jews Rule the World
The Malaysian prime minister who made the asinine statement that the "Jews rule the world by proxy" has refused to apologize for his remarks. His reasoning:
On Friday, Mahathir said Westerners such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell receive little fallout for labeling the Prophet a "terrorist," while statements about Israel's actions against Palestinians draw immediate charges of anti-Semitism.
This shows how hopeless the situation is with people like Mahathir Mohamad. What's scariest is that Mahathir Mohamad isn't a Muslim cleric but a recognized leader of an entire nation.
First, Falwell had more than just a "little fallout" from his comments. The size of the fallout was such that it forced an apology from him of which the entire Muslim world is aware. But that fallout apparently wasn't enough for Mahathir. Considering that blaspheming "the Prophet" is severely punished (sometimes by death) in countries like Malaysia I guess his measure of the fallout would be different than mine.
What Mahathir refuses to admit is that his statements regarding Jews was untrue and completely without evidence, and Falwell's statement has accurate basis in history -- history written not by Western hands but by Islamic. From the begining Muhammed was a military leader who cut his teeth leading terrorist raids on trading caravans, killing innocent people and taking their goods. The history of Islamic expansion has always been military in nature.
Other than the direction of bias, how are the European leaders any different from Mahathir and his kind? Mahathir is in absolutely no position to accuse any of being biased. Can Christians publish their opinion freely in his country the way Muslims can here? They'll say that's the case but persecution of non-Muslims is happening there.
In his news conference, Mahathir accused "most" European leaders -- by which he also generally means Americans and Australians -- of being biased. "The fact is that they are biased," Mahathir said. "Most of them are biased. Not all; most of them. And they feel that while it is proper to criticize Muslims and Arabs, it is not proper to criticize Europeans and Jews. Apparently, they think they are privileged people."
Posted by bubba138 at 10:47 AM | Comments (0) |
Things I Never Thought I'd See
The front page of Yahoo is displaying this:
Sometimes you see something and think, "Wow, that's odd." This is one of those times. I would have never thought Dole and Stephani would be associates in anything. But this goes to show you that some causes are at once so important and common that differences in walks of life have no bearing.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:46 AM | Comments (0) |
October 16, 2003
The good News Just Keeps Coming
The U.S. economic recovery is picking up steam, according to government reports on Thursday that indicated the troubled factory sector has turned around and the lagging job market is starting to improve. [...] The Labor Department said first-time filings for state unemployment aid fell 4,000 last week to 384,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department said.
"The jobless numbers were certainly encouraging. We got a decline and it suggests that the labor market is recovering," said Parul Jain, Nomura Securities International.
It was the second week in a row that claims came in under 400,000. Economists say a number above that level suggests a deteriorating jobs market. The drop also brought a decline in the closely watched four-week moving average of initial filings, seen as more reliable because it irons out weekly fluctuations.
Without the economy to harp about, and jobs coming back, what are the Nazgûl to do?
Posted by bubba138 at 03:11 PM | Comments (0) |
Read It and Weep Bush Bashers: 15-0
All kidding aside this is interesting as the news just three days ago was that the whole world (read: Russia and France) stood against us on this resolution. I wonder if U.S.'s veto of a pair of resolutions condemning Israel had anything to do with this?
(2003-10-17) -- In a move that critics are calling "another act of cowboy unilateralism" the Bush administration has persuaded the United Nations Security Council to approve a resolution calling for international cooperation to rebuild Iraq. Democrats in Congress immediately slammed the President for "this new go-it-alone gambit" which resulted in a 15-0 vote of the Security Council.
Posted by bubba138 at 02:34 PM | Comments (0) |
Anglicans, Gay Bishops, and Primates
The Anglicans have met and they're not pleased with the Episcopalian Church for approving the Bishophoric of gay priest Gene Robinson:
In a unanimous statement at the end of a two-day crisis meeting on their deep divisions over homosexuality, leaders of 37 national churches called on members not to react precipitately. But they appeared to concede that some parts of the church would shun the New Hampshire diocese or the whole Episcopal Church, which has become more accepting of gay relationships.
The statement reads in part:
We also re-affirm the resolutions made by the bishops of the Anglican
Communion gathered at the Lambeth Conference in 1998 on issues of human sexuality as having moral force and commanding the respect of the Communion as its present position on these issues. [...]Therefore, as a body we deeply regret the actions of the Diocese of New Westminster and the Episcopal Church (USA) which appear to a number of provinces to have short-circuited that process, and could be perceived to alter unilaterally the teaching of the Anglican Communion on this issue. They do not. [...]
If his consecration proceeds, we recognise that we have reached a crucial and critical point in the life of the Anglican Communion and we have had to conclude that the future of the Communion itself will be put in jeopardy. In this case, the ministry of this one bishop will not be recognised by most of the Anglican world, and many provinces are likely to consider themselves to be out of Communion with the Episcopal Church (USA). This will tear the fabric of our Communion at its deepest level, and may lead to further division on this and further issues as provinces have to decide in consequence whether they can remain in communion with provinces that choose not to break communion with the Episcopal Church (USA).
Although the statement indicates compassion for the matter, it makes very plain that consecrating Robinson risks a split in the communion. Robinson's ever so humble reaction to this is refusal to back down from the November 2nd ceremony.
In the book of Mark, James and John -- commonly known as the sons of thunder -- asked Jesus to place them at His left hand and His right when He came into His kingdom. Jesus' response was that he who wanted to be the greatest in the kingdom had to make himself the servant of all. By insisting on his consecration at the cost of severing ties with the Anglican and large portions of the Episcopalian Churches, Robinson is lifting himself up in direct opposition to Jesus' teaching on servant-hood.Posted by bubba138 at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) |
Killers Nabbed
Five Palestinians have been arrested in connection with the murder of three American members of a U.S. diplomatic convoy. The murderers are members of the Popular Resistance Committee:
The group was formed at the end of 2000, three months after the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. It consists of dozens of armed men, mostly Fatah breakaways or former members of the security forces. Other factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are also represented. The group does not have a political ideology, but believes the use of force is the only way to end Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the past three years of fighting, the group has blown up three Israeli Merkava tanks with powerful remote-controlled bombs - the same method used in Wednesday's attack.
The murderers were arrested by Palestinian police. It will be interesting to see how long it is before they are released without being charged. Either that or they'll be convicted of the heinous crime of dispatching the evil kaafir (unbelievers) and then released on their own recognizance.
After all, we Americans, yea all the nations of world are ruled by the kaafir Jew:
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told the summit that "Jews rule the world by proxy" and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims should unite to overcome such domination. His speech received a standing ovation
Sidenote: It's a good thing I don't live in Australia where Muslims can read out loud from the Q'ran but Christians cannot:
The complainants charge that Scot and Nalliah engaged in conduct that incited "hatred against, serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule" of the Islamic faith, citing a number of specific statements they found offensive. Among others, these related to jihad, suicide bombing, the treatment of non-Muslims in Islamic countries, and the legitimacy of lying for Muslims under certain conditions.
In their 57-page response to the EOC, the pastors said, "Many of the complaints were about statements that are in fact part of the foundations of Islam, some taken straight from the Quran."
Posted by bubba138 at 09:45 AM | Comments (0) |
Grocery Strike
WindowManager Mitch hits it straight on:
Here, it's a "career" with the average wage around $18/hour. This is a pretty high level of pay to scan bar codes (pretty damn simple) and make change (I'll give that there is some intelligence required here). [Still not so hard as the computer tells you what the change should be. -- Bry] [...] The issue of the strike is that the stores want the checkers to start paying $5-$10 a week towards their health insurance. This is an attempt to get ready for the eminent entry of Walmart grocery stores, which are going to eat these guys lunch if SoCal shopping patterns follow the rest of the country. Grocery store margins are on the order of 3%... Walmart coming into the area with non-union checkers making, let's say $9/hour, are going to have a significant price advantage while keeping the same margin.
Never mind paying healthcare. These people are likely to see stores shut down and permanently lose their jobs (would you rather make $18/hour and pay $40/month for insurance or lose your job, then having to go work at Walmart for $9/hour with no insurance). In typical union fashion they are bargaining away their members long-term interests in order to get a short-term benefit.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:09 AM | Comments (0) |
Patrick is following the Shiavo
Patrick is following the Shiavo situation pretty closely:
Xrlq asks: "Couldn't the Legislature convene tomorrow and vote to prohibit the intentional starvation of anyone who hasn't executed a living will?" Good question. They could even call it the "The Bitch Isn't Going to Die Yet, Mr. Schiavo" law.
And this:
Keep scrolling (up and down) for additional insightful commentary.
Kenneth Goodman, director of the Bioethics Program at the University of Miami, as saying: "Very often, people in persistent vegetative states have reflexive actions that mimic for all the world an ordinary human action. I can see this. For example, a director of bioethics may speak in apparent complete sentences, yet an expert like myself can tell that he is actually in a persistent vegetative state.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:42 AM | Comments (0) |
Mueharbugh Wah Grebnesh
In case you're wondering, the title is Ozzy-speak. Don't worry if you can't figure out what it means, there's not a living soul that can understand a single garbled utterance that spews forth from his mouth.
This is your body. This is your body after years of drug and alcohol abuse. Got the picture?
The patriarch of MTV's "The Osbournes" has shed his blue johnny and is back home in Los Angeles, resting comfortably after spending three discreet weeks as a patient at a Boston hospital. Ozzy Osbourne was here to consult with his physician, Dr. Allan Ropper, about the singer's incessant trembling. Ropper, chief of neurology at Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton, would not comment, but in a statement issued yesterday, Osbourne revealed that his doctor has diagnosed the problem and is treating it. "I was at the point where it felt as if this problem was practically destroying my life along with my self-esteem," Ozzy said.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:30 AM | Comments (0) |
October 15, 2003
Spilling Over
Syria keeps coming up in the war on terrorism. The latest news is that U.S. troops faced an armed band trying to enter Iraq over Syrian border:
The clash began about midnight Tuesday (5 p.m. EDT), when ground observers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division noticed a group of people trying to enter Iraq without going through an official crossing. U.S. troops backed by Bradley fighting vehicles and an M-1 tank attempted to contact the group, but were shot at with a rocket-propelled grenade, the coalition officials said.
U.S. troops returned fire, killing some of the attackers and capturing a small number of others. Coalition officials said that those detained did not have the proper paperwork to cross the border.
No proper paperwork? Now that's a surprise.
Of course, Syria denies it even happened (from the Syrian Arab News Agency):
A spokesman of the Syrian delegation to the Islamic Summit in Kuala Lumpur denied today the news that alleged of some Syrian individuals’ infiltration to Iraq . The spokesman said that these allegations are fabricated and it is not the first time such allegations are circulated .
Meanwhile, the Saudis seem to be doing their part in keeping insurgents out of Iraq:
Security forces on Monday detained four armed suspects who were heading for the northern town of Arar near the Iraqi border, Interior Minister Prince Naif has said. “They had weapons, and we believe they are among those wanted by authorities because they were trying to escape,” he said, adding it was possible they were trying to cross into Iraq.
But here's the interesting part:
He said Riyadh had handed over to the United States at least three Americans suspected of terror links. “We have handed over to the US American citizens involved in matters which concern Washington, and they are more than three,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying. The prince did not say when they were arrested and handed over or if they were linked to the Riyadh bombings or the Sept. 11 attacks.
Did you catch that? The terrorists that the Saudis have handed over to the U.S. were American citizens. Fox News adds this:
Hmmm...
Asked if the extradited Americans were wanted in terror cases, Nayef replied: "So it was said."
Posted by bubba138 at 12:30 PM | Comments (0) |
Gutless
Ruby Red sums up the bombing in Palestine:
Yep. They've always been tough fighters -- especially when facing unarmed people.
A Palestinian was quoted as saying, "In the land of Palestine, it's not proper to target Americans nor any other nations." Coming from the very people who pack themselves with nail laden explosives and walk into delis, markets, and cafes where they know Americans will be, this rings pretty hollow. Immediately Hamas and Islamic Jihad denied any involvement, so much for courageous "jihad against the infidels".
Posted by bubba138 at 12:26 PM | Comments (0) |
Da Blues
Aimless Forest shares a Blues primer. Excerpt:
17. Some Blues names for women: a. Sadie b. Big Mama c. Bessie d. Fat River Dumpling
18. Some Blues names for men: a. Joe b. Willie c. Little Willie d. Big Willie
19. Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Jennifer, Debbie, and Heather can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.
Posted by bubba138 at 11:52 AM | Comments (0) |
Bush and Nixon?
Robert J. Samuelson wonders if Bush can pull a Nixon in 2004:
George W. Bush's quest to overcome a weak economy and win a second term offers some interesting parallels with previous presidents. The most obvious is with his father, who lost reelection in 1992 because he seemed indifferent to a stumbling economy. The son resolved to avoid that fate, raising a more intriguing presidential parallel: Richard Nixon [...] Over Nixon's objections, the Democratic Congress passed legislation authorizing controls. Once he used it, the reaction was giddy. A poll six weeks later found the public supported Nixon by 53 percent to 23 percent.
Bush's immediate political prospects depend on two questions. Will the economy improve? Will people think it's improving? On the first, recent indicators favor Bush. Unemployment insurance claims are down; the stock market is up; GDP growth is increasing. On the second, the evidence is mixed. Bush's approval ratings have dropped. In the National Journal, William Schneider notes that the largest decline (17 percentage points since August) has occurred among men, who may be worried about jobs. Still, Bush's approval ratings equal Reagan's and are higher than Clinton's at comparable stages.
Posted by bubba138 at 12:30 AM | Comments (0) |
October 14, 2003
The Great Train Robbery?
Whoa, pardner! That thar's a stampede.
Posted by bubba138 at 11:50 PM | Comments (0) |
A New Peace Plan
A new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan has been unveiled, with an interesting wrinkle:
The Palestinian Authority has yet to respond officially to the Geneva Accord peace plan unveiled on Sunday in Jordan. Well-placed Palestinian sources who were asked last night about the silence explained that the PA is reluctant to respond to a draft peace plan that basically endorses Palestinian relinquishment of a right of refugee return.
I don't know why, but there's a feeling growing in the back of my head that this plan's dead already.
Update: Here are the main points of the plan, and it seems to be receiving popular Palestinian support.
Update: Yep. It's dead before it's born.Posted by bubba138 at 11:45 PM | Comments (0) |
Cellular Discrimination
I don't know exactly what to make of this, but it is interesting:
Read more...
The Senate has moved unanimously to ensure that breaking down the human genetic code will bring health benefits without exposing people to job and health care discrimination.
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act that cleared the Senate Tuesday on a 95-0 vote would bar employers from using people's genetic information or family histories in hiring, firing or assigning workers. Insurance companies could not use genetic records to deny medical coverage or set premiums.
Posted by bubba138 at 11:24 PM | Comments (0) |
Isn't It Rich, Being Rich?
Neil Cavuto isn't at all impressed with Lieberman's newest ideas:
I wonder if Cavuto always pulls his punches like this?
On Monday, Joe Lieberman (search) unveiled a plan to make the rich pay "their fair share" in taxes. He leads a platoon of Democrats who want to roll back tax cuts for the wealthy. Believe me, the well-to-do need no lobby. But they do need a fair shake.
I think politicians need to wake up to the people who are paying up. I mean, when is giving 35 percent of your income to the government not doing enough?
When is a group's forking over more in taxes than all other groups combined not helping enough?
What politician can honestly look at the top one percent in this country, paying more than a third of the taxes in this country, and say they are not being taxed enough? I'll tell you what politicians: the clueless and ungrateful ones! [...]
So, let me be clear: They're the people paying up. So first, why don't you shut up.
If you haven't the simple decency to say "thank you," then for once in your smarmy, disingenuous, photo-opportunity lives, refrain from saying "screw you."
Posted by bubba138 at 11:05 PM | Comments (0) |
Bear Flag League Update
Fellow San Diegan Citizen Smash (formerly LT. Smash, formerly Indepundit) will be joining the Bear Flag League.
I knew that had to happen sometime soon.Posted by bubba138 at 10:50 PM | Comments (0) |
Look Who's Back
That must have been some fishing trip.
Welcome back, Bill.Posted by bubba138 at 09:24 PM | Comments (0) |
What the Liberals Are Lacking
Yesterday I linked to Matthew Hoy's analysis of Tony Snow's interview of Sen. Rockefeller. Today, Instapundit points out the BuzzMachine's dissection of Andy Rooney's latest rant. Put the two together and we see a pattern emerging.
First, let's look at Rockefeller's words:
Snow dug up an Oct. 10, 2002 speech by Rockefeller himself. There has also been some debate over how "imminent" a threat Iraq poses. I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat, but I also believe that after September 11, the question is increasingly outdated. It is in the nature of these weapons, and the way they are targeted against civilian populations, that documented capability and demonstrated intent may be the only warning we get. To insist on further evidence could put some of our fellow Americans at risk. Can we afford to take that chance? We cannot!Back to Snow: What made you change your mind?
Rockefeller: That's correct. And that's what I felt at the time I cast that vote based upon the intelligence community's analysis of the situation. Particularly weapons of mass destruction. And what the president said in his speech. But the situation turns out not to have been quite like either the intelligence community or the president indicated. And that would be a vote that I would probably not make today based upon the revelations that there don't appear, at least to this point, to be any weapons of mass destruction. I've heard David Kay a number of times now. He has not indicated that. He's talking about perhaps they were all burned up or gotten rid of.
Point one: Rockefeller voted for the resolution based upon the information he had at the time of the vote.
Point two: Rockefeller now says he would not have voted for the resolution because of the information he now has.
Now, Rooney:
I was opposed to going into Iraq without the approval of the U.N. Things went well at first and I decided I was wrong and apologized.
Now I want to apologize again. I want to apologize for apologizing.
Point one: He was wrong.
Point two: He was wrong about being wrong.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:00 AM | Comments (0) |
October 13, 2003
Tell Me He's Not Serious
Good ol' Ed was joking, right?
"Mr. Asner, I do have a question – unrelated to the film...But if you had the chance to play the biographical story of a historical figure you respected most over your lifetime, who would it be?" [...] "I think Joe Stalin was a guy that was hugely misunderstood," said Asner. "And to this day, I don't think I have ever seen an adequate job done of telling the story of Joe Stalin, so I guess my answer would have to be Joe Stalin."
Suddenly the time had run out, and for the third time in less than 18 hours, Ed Asner had puzzled the room he was in, into a stunned and disbelieving silence.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:15 PM | Comments (0) |
More Good News
It's a good news/bad news thing. Good news for Bush, bad news for the Nazgul.
Bush's increasing approval rating comes along with a reminder that although economic conditions may not be in great shape, the public is not as pessimistic about the economy as they were in 1991, when Bush's father was gearing up for his unsuccessful re-election bid.
Today, 44 percent say the economy is in good shape -- up seven points since March -- and nearly two-thirds say that the economy will be in good shape a year from now.
Posted by bubba138 at 03:06 PM | Comments (0) |
Not Rocket Science
It might have looked like a circus to the rest of the nation, but here is the simple explanation of why Gray Davis was recalled:
What you see here is the State tax burden on the average Californian. The burden ranks 49th in the nation, making the state wholly unfriendly to businesses.
Posted by bubba138 at 02:37 PM | Comments (0) |
A Left, and a Right, and Another Left
Matthew Hoy gives Sen. Rockefeller a decent workover:
Snow is much too nice. Rockefeller is either a liar or an idiot. I'd bet on liar. Seriously, what else can be said about this man's statements? There are issues here that can be debated, and then there are simple truths. The simple truth is that Iraq's WMD capabilities were there and were hidden -- and that David Kay reported just that. The simple truth is that Iraq was working on UAVs and missiles that could threaten his neighbors and U.S. forces in the region -- and David Kay reported just that.
To deny these facts and to attack the president based on that willful deceit is outrageous. Sen. Rockefeller is placing partisan politics above the security of the United States and the troops on the ground in Iraq.
Posted by bubba138 at 02:23 PM | Comments (0) |
Kucinich Formally Announces Whitehouse Bid
Dennis Kucinich is quickly proving himself the stupidest politician in America:
Kucinich, who has been campaigning for months, made the announcement in his hometown of Cleveland, the first stop of a 12-state tour that will include Michigan, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Iowa. "I'm running for president of the United States to enable the armies of peace," Kucinich told some 300 supporters in the chambers of the Cleveland city council, largely quiet on the Columbus Day holiday.
300 supporters.
300.
Puh-leeze.
Three hundred people hardly constitutes an army. One would think after running for eight months and gaining absolutely no measurable traction Dennis would have the good sense to hang it up. For crying out loud, even clown candidates Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton command five times the support that Kucinich does. But no, instead he throws a "gala event" to formally announce his candidacy -- changing his campaign from a slightly humorous asterisk into a sad, painful to watch tragedy.Posted by bubba138 at 02:01 PM | Comments (0) |
My Wife Who, Like Marshall Faulk, Graduated from SDSU
Mark Steyn on the media's loyalty to His Grayness:
Ouch.
On the CNN Web site, even after Gray Davis had conceded, they were sticking to the loser's talking-points: ''Schwarzenegger, who, like Hitler, is a native of Austria . . .''
CNN? Oh, that's that network with Larry King, who, like the Son of Sam, is a native of Brooklyn. Used to be owned by Ted Turner, who, like the Cincinnati Strangler, is a native of Cincinnati. Now part of Time Warner, founded by the Warner Brothers, the oldest of whom, Harry Warner, like many Auschwitz guards, was a native of Poland.
Posted by bubba138 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0) |
Ya Think?
Lieberman, a Democrat, proposes to raise taxes on the wealthy.
That's news?Posted by bubba138 at 01:03 PM | Comments (0) |
Get 'Em Zim
ESPN's Jim Caple scores an exclusive "interview" with Don "Get Me In the Ring" Zimmer:
I said I'm sorry, but the only thing I'm sorry about is that I didn't knock that skinny little SOB's butt clear into the Charles River. And I would have done it, too, if he hadn't caught me off guard and tripped me. I was expecting him to put up his dukes and fight like a real man would do in that situation and instead he pulls some shifty little move you wouldn't expect from a 10-year-old girl or even Bill Lee.
Posted by bubba138 at 11:28 AM | Comments (0) |
The Transformation Is Nearly Complete
Max Jacobs has changed:
Every youngster is a idealistic pacifist, Max. Only the smartest outgrow it.
It seems to me that the State Department starts messes and the Defense Department has to clean up after them. So why not just have Defense in charge the whole time? Boy, it really is amazing how hawkish I have become. I remember when I was a big believer in the "all war is murder" line. Blah blah blah.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:33 AM | Comments (0) |
Say What?
A snipet from an actual court case:
From U.S. Judge Jerry Buchmeyer's very humorous blog.
Prosecutor: I believe that the law is commonsensical and I believe this case can be based on common sense. Def. Counsel: Your Honor, I'm going to object to that; I believe the court will instruct the jury what the law is and common sense is nowhere in the law.
The Court: Objection sustained.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:35 AM | Comments (0) |
What Liberal Media?
The San Fran Chronicle headline reads (in big bold letters):
The text of the article says:
1) Bias isn't only found in what is and isn't reported, but how it's presented.
Meanwhile, U.N. officials said Israel's three-day military operation in a Gaza Strip refugee camp left 1,240 Palestinians homeless... The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which cares for refugees, initially said that about 1,500 Palestinians were left homeless in the raid, the largest-scale demolition of houses in a single operation in Gaza in the past three years of fighting. After further checks, the agency revised the number to 1,240.
2) U.N. Relief and Works Agency had to revise its numbers once [they were only off by 17%]. Who is to say they won't need to do it again? One wonders if they're using the same counting procedures they used in the "Jenin Massacre."
Posted by bubba138 at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) |
Bear Flag Round Up
This week's round up is at Miller's Time.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:10 AM | Comments (0) |
"We Want War To Come"
Full story.
Sitting next to me was an older man who carefully began to sound me out. Apparently feeling the freedom to talk in the midst of the mingling crowd he suddenly turned to me and said `There is something you should know.` `What` I asked surprised at the sudden comment.
`We didn’t want to be here tonight`. he continued. `When the Priest asked us to gather for a Peace Service we said we didn’t want to come`. He said.
`What do you mean` I inquired, confused. `We didn’t want to come because we don’t want peace` he replied.
`What in the world do you mean?` I asked. `How could you not want peace?` `We don’t want peace. We want the war to come` he continued.
What in the world are you talking about? I blurted back.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:59 AM | Comments (0) |
What Are They Teaching Our Children?
UNC-Wilmington: A hotbed of terrorist activity?
But when their ox gets gored, they run for the nearest attorney or college administrator. It appears that UNCW history professor Lisa Pollard is now employing this tactic. And things aren’t working out the way she planned. It all started about two weeks ago when a student came by my office to complain about remarks he claimed Pollard had made during a recent university-sponsored forum on the war in Iraq... the student claimed that Pollard publicly admitted to having friends in terrorist networks.
Pollard is suing the student newspaper because it printed an editorial about her remarks.
Update: Link fixed.Posted by bubba138 at 07:34 AM | Comments (0) |
Who Voted to Keep Davis?
The rich, of course:
Now, if only the poor would understand that the rich know what's best for them.
In San Mateo County, where the average home costs more than half a million dollars and the environmentalists reign supreme, keeping the vast majority of the land off-limits to building, 63 percent of the voters wanted Gray Davis to remain in office. In even more upscale Marin County, 68 percent of the voters were for Gray Davis. [...] The time is long overdue to get rid of the outdated notion that liberal Democrats represent ordinary people. They represent such special interests as trial lawyers who keep our courts clogged with frivolous lawsuits, busybody environmentalists who think the government should force other people to live the way the greens want them to live, and of course the teachers' unions who think schools exist to provide their members with jobs.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:25 AM | Comments (0) |
Move On Already
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay turned the tables on MoveOn.Org last week:
The Internet-based group is instructing members to flood the lawmakers' offices with phone calls urging them to allow a House vote on a bill to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's decision to make it easier to allow mergers between media organizations. DeLay's aides retaliated, showing they can give as good as they get. While they dutifully registered the callers, they then forwarded the calls to the cell phone of MoveOn.org's campaign director, Eli Pariser.
MoveOn.org, of course, complained about the tactic. It's just like a liberal organization to complain when they get as good as they give.
Update: Nick at Duck Season objects strongly:
Bryon! You could not be more wrong! The last time I checked it was still legal in this country to petition your government. ...It might suck to have to answer the phone nonstop and listen to a bunch of unwashed liberals scream about media ownership, but that's the job off a congressional staff, to register the complains of the citizens of the United States and pass this information along to their superiors.
First off, don't sell me short. You have no idea how wrong I am capable of being.
As far as petitioning our government, you are absolutely correct. But the article does tell us that DeLay's aides "dutifully registered the callers", then transfered the calls. MoveOn should be happy about that, since they now know exactly how many of their minions actually called DeLay's office.
The problem here, Nick, is that this isn't just concerned voters voicing their opinions. This is a concentrated effort to disrupt the office of someone with whom they do not agree. This disruption is a common tactic with the MoveOn folks and has nothing to do with "free speech."Posted by bubba138 at 07:04 AM | Comments (0) |
October 10, 2003
Fedral Matching Funds
Last July, Howard Dean became the only Democratic candidate to qualify for Federal Matching Campaign funds.
You'll never guess who else qualified two days ago.Posted by bubba138 at 05:00 PM | Comments (0) |
Taking Out the Trash
I guess we won't be needing this anymore.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:00 PM | Comments (0) |
Newest Bear Flagger
Pop over and say "Hi" to Deb, the Bear Flag League's newest member
Posted by bubba138 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0) |
Beast and the Beauty
The DNC is experiencing interesting times...interesting times indeed. On the one hand, DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe's obviously false polyanna blustering isn't ammusing anyone any more -- especially his fellow Democrats:
McAuliffe appeared on cable news channels and gave print interviews citing DNC internal polling data that showed the recall election too close to call. He also claimed that he had numbers indicating Democrats would emerge unscathed from the election. [...] "I don't know where the hell McAuliffe got his info, but he was treating it like sacred writ, and it was just trash," says a California Democratic Party official in Los Angeles. "I know he likes to blow a lot of sunshine up peoples' behinds, but this was just embarrassing for us."
McAuliffe has attempted to beautify his party's electoral performance before. He willfully misled his faithful followers during the 2002 midterm elections, claiming his party would at least hold their seats in Congress, and instead saw the Democrats lose ground in both houses.
"We're getting tired of his shtick," says a DNC donor in New York. "He's been telling us how we're doing great in raising money for the convention in Boston, but there are more than a few of us who don't believe it. On the ground, we're hearing that we aren't raising much of anything to pay for the convention."
On the other hand (scroll down in the same article) Clinton's dream team is fully behind Clark's primary run for the Presidency, and getting stronger:
More hard-core Clintonistas are joining the Wesley Clark campaign, after the son of former DNC chairman Don Fowler, Donnie Fowler, stepped down as campaign manager. "This is now a total Clinton operation," says a Clark volunteer in Little Rock, Ark.
What had the appearance of a grassroots groundswell for an American military hero now has the whiff of a Washington operation.
Posted by bubba138 at 01:16 PM | Comments (0) |
The Rundown
Bill Whalen does a rundown of Arnold's transition team.
It's not just what you know . . .Posted by bubba138 at 12:55 PM | Comments (0) |
Schwarzenegger Transition Team
It's weird. It's eclectic. It's here.
Posted by bubba138 at 09:55 AM | Comments (0) |
Energy Deregulation
Rough and Tumble links to a Wall Street Journal article (paid subscription required) that says:
California, the first state to pull the plug on electricity deregulation, may now be the first to hop back on the deregulation bandwagon under new Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Aides to Mr. Schwarzenegger and the governor-elect's own position papers say the new Republican administration will take California back in the direction of open electricity markets, most notably by giving big energy consumers the right to choose among suppliers. Big users were stripped of that right after Gov. Gray Davis signed $43 billion of long-term energy supply contracts in 2001.
This may or may not be the right move fiscally, but one thing that's for sure after Californians were burned by "deregulation" once they're not going to be pleased about trying it a second time. The Democrats will be able to use this as potent political "I told you so" fodder.
Arnold and his staff must accomplish two things in order to make deregulation successful. First is to ensure that the structure of this deregulation is completely different from the previous attempt. Along with opening the consumers to multiple marketers, deregulation must seek to increase the supply of energy to the market. This includes opening new power plants as well as allowing as many companies as are willing to become power producers. One of the mistakes of the first "deregulation" is that it regulated the number of power producers in the state, which was one of the primary reasons we were short on power and gave the out-of-state companies the opening they needed to game the system.
While task one is pragmatic, task two is marketing. Therefore, in the second and perhaps the more difficult of the tasks, Arnold's administration must convince the public that this plan is not only different, but more effective, efficient, and fair. In this age of spin and political posturing, the gulf between perception and reality is often huge (see Iraq War: realities of). If Arnold cannot sell this idea to the public, it doesn't matter whether or not it is a workable idea. Public perception and rejection of the idea could be enough to stop the idea before it gets off the ground -- and you can bet the Democrats will do everything they can to make it look like a bad idea (again see Ira War: success of), regardless of its viability.Posted by bubba138 at 08:15 AM | Comments (0) |
Network Problems
I'm having network problems today, our router and gateway are pitching fits. So If posting is light, that's why.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:11 AM | Comments (0) |
October 09, 2003
Willie Brown?
According to Weintraub, Arnold has named Willie Brown as part of his transition team. (Learned via The Angry Clam.) Okay, Arnold Supporters. You have shown a remarkable ability to defend this guy on every issue. Defend that.
O.K. I will:
Ummmm....
Well....
Uhhh...
<scratching head>Posted by bubba138 at 09:51 PM | Comments (0) |
Israel Moves In
Full story.
Israel sent dozens of tanks into a Gaza refugee camp early Friday to destroy tunnels allegedly used by Palestinians to smuggle weapons. Military officials said they acted on warnings that militants were trying to acquire anti-aircraft missiles. [...] In Gaza, witnesses said tanks and other armored vehicles entered the Rafah refugee camp from two directions. They were joined by special forces, including engineering units with dogs trained to uncover tunnels. A gun battle erupted between soldiers and Palestinian gunmen, but there was no report of casualties.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:45 PM | Comments (0) |
Arafat
Is the Palestinian terrorist sick, or worse? Regardless if he's already dead or if it is days away it's plain that Arafat's time on Earth can't be much longer than the Pope's. So when he's gone, what happens then?
When Arafat dies "the PLO will die with him," says PLO expert Dr. Shmuel Bar of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya. "Then we can take our pick of Balkanization, Lebanonization, or Afghanistanization."
One thing's for sure, what ever happens it won't be without blood. The Palestinian factions all have their favorites so when Arafat dies they'll be busy killing each other to get their man in the top spot. One thing is for sure, Palestine's new Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, doesn't want to be around when the bullets start flying. He's resigned after only a few days in his post.
Their fighting won't keep them from hating Israel, however. They're already setting their Jewish neighbors up to take the fall for Arafat's death:
Israel will also likely be blamed for Arafat's death. Rumors of his poisoning, leading to a reportedly nasty "stomach virus," swirled through Ramallah. The chairman regularly reminds his aides that Israel is slowly trying to poison him to death.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:27 PM | Comments (0) |
Recall Arnold?
Glenn Reynolds addresses the hysterical (as in mentally unstable, not fabulously funny) Democratic call for a "Recall Arnold" campaign. Though not a Californian, he displays a unique grasp of the situation:
Amen, bro. Amen
The recall process has hit the California political community like a thunderbolt. It's the voters' way of signaling that they're mad as hell, and don't want to take it anymore. And it's a way for them to shake up a political apparatus that (as California voters certainly seemed to think) has been serving its own needs, not theirs. And it's better than a war!
So I'd say leave the recall provision on the books, and even go farther by addressing the gerrymandered legislative districts that make “democracy” largely meaningless where the California legislature is concerned. Turnover there is good, too.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:39 PM | Comments (0) |
New discovery Debeye Stratigacos earns
New discovery Debeye Stratigacos earns a blogroll entry with this top notch, right on analysis of the media's part in the recall election. Here's a snippet:
To me, it's an unavoidable conclusion that the media thinks they have authority, influence and power. They lack historical perspective, remember? They've probably all seen the classic movie Citizen Kane yet don't realize that it applies to them: yellow journalism is a constant in American news media and always will be. Reporters chase police cars and fire trucks and jostle for elbow room with attorneys. You can call yourselves journalists but we aren't fooled. You can call yourselves crusaders, but your pay check is commensurate with the amount of dirt you spread so your motives are hardly noble.
Ouch! Here's more:
There's a bunch more. Go read it all.
Arnold's father was a Nazi and Arnold likes Hitler! After nearly a year of being told that Pres. Bush is the same as Hitler, that barely registered a yawn. Besides, exactly who was trying to stop a recall vote that was legally and constitutionally achieved? None other than the same forces who claim that Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft will tear the Constitution to shreds. What's wrong with that picture?
Posted by bubba138 at 04:30 PM | Comments (0) |
Bestseller?
Yesterday's Best of the Web was full of great stuff, but this one in particular deserves speacial attention:
I wonder how well Part II is doing.
The Barnes & Noble Web site has its own list of "Year-to-Date Bestseller"--the "top 100 bestselling books for Barnes & Noble stores and Barnes & Noble.com, for January-September, 2003." Atop the list sits "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," followed by "The Da Vinci Code" and "The South Beach Diet." The list does include political books, including Ann Coulter's "Treason" (No. 41) and Al Franken's "Lies" (No. 42). But Hillary's book is nowhere to be found. The list only goes to No. 100, so there's no telling where she ranks, but it is below the No. 95 book, which is called--we kid you not--"Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1."
Posted by bubba138 at 01:01 PM | Comments (0) |
Kiss Me!
Michael Williams has a poignant photo essay on the Republican's most powerful campaign weapon.
SSSHHH, Mike. He's the best player on our team. We don't want that secret getting out.Posted by bubba138 at 12:52 PM | Comments (0) |
Incuments Beware
Dion Nissenbaum of Mercury News says there's a message behind the recall election:
"This election should put Sacramento on notice," said Bill Whalen, a Republican who is a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. "The question is, how many incumbents see this is a wake-up call? The public will notice what you're doing, and you will be held accountable for your behavior." The governor's finance director, Steve Peace, put it more succinctly as: "the revolt of the normal people."
But instead of doing real reporting and seeking out State level legislators who are up for re-election in 2004, Nissenbaum takes the easy way out and serves up the most popular Northern Californian dish, Bush on a spike:
But when the money dried up, they took a second look at the governor who appeared to have no idea how to turn things around besides raising their taxes. Stern said the recall clearly showed that the economy will be the prime political battleground -- a fact that has to be a concern for Bush.
I've been seeing this logic [can we call it logic?] floated by Democrat mouthpieces over the last couple of days and I'm amazed at how they just don't get it.
This recall election, and the reasons for it, were and still are state issues. The Democrats, ever the advocates of the "victim mentality," are viscerally opposed to self examination and therefore seek someone or something to blame for this misfortune. Somehow, in their convoluted minds they see Bush, a Federal figure, as the reason for the voter's dissatisfaction with the state's government.
Why are there no reporters going the distance and asking the next logical question? Here are some I'd like to see:
Posted by bubba138 at 08:40 AM | Comments (0) |
Call the WWWWAMbulance
California Democratic legislators are overloading the 1-800--BOO-HOOO support lines:
Overwhelming voter mandate or not, some of the Democratic lawmakers who are key to a success-ful Schwarzenegger administration said Wednesday the outcome of the recall disgusted them -- so much that at least one may quit. Aides to Sen. John Vasconcellos confirmed the liberal San Jose Democrat called Republican Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger "a boob," said voters "made a mistake," and announced that when the Legislature reconvenes in January, "I'm not sure I'll go back."
He says this like it's a bad thing.
Other liberal legislators, from the Bay Area and elsewhere, apparently are thinking about skipping Schwarzenegger's January State of the State address -- his blueprint for working with the Legislature to tackle California's deficit and other woes -- because they believe he will have nothing to tell them.
Daniel Weintraub also heard this yesterday. The obstructionism has already begun.
They say they'll try to work with Schwarzenegger but they're already working on road blocks. The only reason I'm not aghast right now is because I'm accustomed to the fact that talking out of the both sides of their mouths has never been a problem for California Democrats.
But even while saying they would try to work with Schwarzenegger, liberals among the Democrats who dominate the Legislature wound up talking about potential deadlocks with the moderate Republican.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:49 AM | Comments (0) |
October 08, 2003
Did the Dems Get the Message?
Daniel Weintraub doesn't think so:
If he's right, it's going to be a long, hard year for them -- and 2004/2005 won't be any better.
I understand the bitterness, but I'm disturbed by its depth. Several of the Democrats I spoke to were in strong denial about the message sent by the voters, the message being that they, and Davis, have been poor stewards of state government. They see this is an isolated event, a venting, that will quickly pass while they fight to maintain everything they have done the past five years. My gut tells me they are wrong, that there is something deeper here, a desire for fundamental change in the way the state does business and in the way politics works, or doesn't work, in California.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:07 PM | Comments (0) |
Did the Republicans Steal the Governor's Seat?
The whining from the Democrat side is shrill as ever. It only took about 0.00023 seconds after Davis' concession speech began before the crowd started chanting "Recall! Recall! Recall!" California's top Democrat even blatantly threatened a second recall:
"The people will give (Schwarzenegger) 100 days," Bob Mulholland, a consultant for the state Democratic Party, said, only half joking. "If he doesn't fix all of California's problems, he'll find that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."
I hate to mention it [actually, that's a lie, I'm loving this], but a quick look at the unfinished tally shows that Arnold got more votes in the recall than did Davis in last year's election. By way of comparison, here are the top four vote-getters in the last two elections:
2003 Arnold Schwarzenegger Rep 3,624,154 48.3% 2002 Gray Davis Dem 3,469,025 47.4% 2002 Bill Simon Rep 3,105,477 42.4% 2003 Cruz M. Bustamante Dem 2,400,264 32.0%
Had there been a primary, Arnold would have most assuredly beat out Tom McClintock and his almost one million votes would have given Arnold a full 60% of the vote. Combine this with the fact that Cruz wouldn't even have beat Bill Simon in 2002, and the unavoidable conclusion must be that California voters are fed up with what the Democratic party has been serving up. This election was more than recalling a bad governor, it was a wake-up call to the Democrats that they're horribly out of touch with their constituency.
Now the Democrats (especially the Democratically dominated State Senate and Assembly) are faced with two choices. They can cling to their failed ideology, place the party-line in priority above all else, and be obstinate obstructionists to positive fiscal change in California. Because of their numbers in the legislature and their ownership of every other statewide office in California, they have the power to achieve this end. They might even be able to spin their obstructionist behavior upon Arnold, casting him as ineffective, impotent, and inexperienced. This scenario however would expose to Californians one glaring, cold fact: that the Democratic party believes their reason for existence is for nothing more than to gain and hold power.
Or they can work with the new governor for the benefit of Californians. Arnold has been elected, not in weak fashion but with great strength, and that translates into a mandate from the voters. Californians recognize that there is a problem with how our state's government has been run and they've placed in the top seat someone they believe can get the job done. By aligning with Arnold, the Democrats can save face, blame it all on Davis, and move on. What Californians would see from this scenario is that the Democratic party's reason for existence is to serve their fellow Californians in the best way possible, putting the people's needs first -- even before revenge.
A wise woman once told me that what happens to you isn't half as important as but how you react to it. The Democrats have suffered a blow. If they react without thinking, if they lash out without doing some self-examination, they're bound to suffer more.Posted by bubba138 at 09:13 AM | Comments (0) |
Where Is The Turnout
The press is reporting a huge turnout for the vote last night (also here, and here, and here, and a bunch more here):
Unofficial projections were that more than 60 percent of the state's 15.4 million registered voters cast ballots Tuesday -- 10 percentage points higher than the 2002 gubernatorial election in which Gov. Gray Davis was re-elected, and in sheer numbers the most Californians ever to vote in a gubernatorial election.
Yet the State's official site says the turnout was less than 55% (scroll to the bottom to get the State-wide total).
What is the deal? Can it be that all the professional reporters have done is listen to Shelley's and other's estimates of the turnout and neglected to verify opinions with cold, hard facts? That really couldn't be the case, could it?
Update: Well, at least MSNBC got it right and while they were at it they caught Dean in a tin-foil-hat moment:
Dean said he was “absolutely” convinced that President Bush and his strategist Karl Rove were playing a covert role in the recall.
Watch out for those black helicopters, Howard!
Hat Tip: Kevin DrumPosted by bubba138 at 09:02 AM | Comments (0) |
October 07, 2003
Tomorrow's Headlines
Here are some expected headlines for tomorrow:
Posted by bubba138 at 10:39 PM | Comments (0) |
Team Posting on CalBlog
Justene has several Bear Flaggers guest posting on CalBlog during the election. There are a bunch of posts you must read.
Posted by bubba138 at 02:15 PM | Comments (0) |
California Dreamin?
Tim Berglund is having dreams about the recall. He doesn't even live in California.
Now that's sick.
Posted by bubba138 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0) |
The Paperwork Has Been Filed
Presented by the Federal Election Commission
| CLINTON, HILLARY RODHAM | ID: P00003392 |
| Office Sought: | President |
| Election Year: | 2004 |
| State: | Presidential Candidate |
| District: | 03 |
| Party: | DEM (Democratic Party) |
NOTE:
Candidate listings may appear here as a result of Draft committees or independent expenditure committees
registering with the FEC. If no documents appear below, the individual identified here has taken no action
to become a candidate.
Click the Display Image column to quickly view a report page by page.
Click the Display PDF column to receive and view/print entire reports in PDF format.
TRY A: NEW SEARCH NEW ADVANCED SEARCH
RETURN TO: FEC HOME PAGE
Posted by bubba138 at 01:24 PM | Comments (0) |
Give Them Licenses and Let Them Vote
A caller on a local radio show (Rick Roberts, AM 760 San Diego) related a peculiar incident at an Escondido polling place.
Apparently, as this caller was voting a non-English speaking individual was insisting on voting even though his name did not appear on any of the poll worker's rolls. He had no I.D. and his English was very limited. Yet, despite not even having a sample ballot, the poll workers allowed this man to vote.
Go figure.Posted by bubba138 at 12:56 PM | Comments (0) |
Liberal Dictatorship, and Talk Radio Doom Gray Davis
Go. Now. Read.
The public perception that papers like the L.A. Times are blatantly biased is now well established. Not even the Times can hide it, when on Sunday it reported that 1,000 customers had called to cancel their subscriptions after the Times' hit pieces on the “groping” accusations and allegations of Nazi links against Arnold. [...] It was talk radio that placed Davis on the permanent defensive, on the outside looking in. Helpless to control an environment he disdained but nonetheless feared, because it threatened to expose his illusory world.
How did this happen?
Posted by bubba138 at 12:20 PM | Comments (0) |
Are You Voting Democrat In 2004?
It is a good news / bad news situation.
The good news is that the United Auto Workers has negotiated a $3000.00 bonus for its workers.
The bad news is that, just like everyone else in this country, their bonus will be taxed:
To hear the unions tell it, taxes are good and Bush's tax cuts are bad. Yet when the United Auto Workers union gives out bonuses their own members complain about the taxes. I wonder, are they capable of putting two and two together or will they continue to vote Democrat as advised by their union brothers?
No matter where workers choose to spend their checks, the only sure-fire winner in the next few weeks will be Uncle Sam. Nearly $1,000 of each bonus payment will go to the government in taxes, aggravating a large number of workers who think the $3,000 figure they voted for should be an after-tax amount. "Spend it? There won't be anything left to spend after they take taxes out," said Gary Wheeler, 54, a GM worker from Holly. "My whole normal paycheck will be eaten up next week by deductions."
Posted by bubba138 at 11:37 AM | Comments (0) |
Guns, Bad -- Porn, Good
Google is all about free speech, as long as it doesn't include advertising for firearms:
A federally licensed firearms dealer in Connecticut is upset the Google search engine will accept ads for pornographic websites that illegally show their materials to underage children but will not accept ads from licensed gun dealers selling a legal product to adults. A spokesman for Google said Monday that the policy is "part of our terms and conditions."
Here's the deal: Rick Millo, the owner of Valley Firearms in Shelton, Connecticut saw the benefits of the Google AdWords service and signed up to promote his business. For a few weeks everything was going ok. Then he received this notice:
At this time, Google policy does not permit the advertisement of websites that contain 'firearms and ammunition.' As noted in our advertising terms and conditions, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site," the message stated. "This content is not permitted as ad text or keywords
The irony is that the keywords that Milli used in the ad were suggested by Google's own software. Yet, while Millo's totally legal and above board business is refused advertising on Google, they have no problem advertising for very shady pornographic websites:
"You can go do a porn search, and you get all kinds of crap on there that minors can't [legally] view, but yet, Google does nothing to keep a minor from clicking on it and seeing pornography," Millo complained. "They'll let porn sites advertise but not gun sites?"
Given, Google is a private business and has every right in the world to set their own standards. But even businesses have to bend to public pressure. If they are going to stand for free speech, they should be consistent. It makes no sense to allow free speech from border-line legal outfits and refuse it from legal businesses.
Google acquired Blogger.com a few months ago. It would be sweet irony if Google had to change their policy because the very blogosphere in which they own a fair share was to rise up and make their voice heard.
Update: The Brits just don't get it. I don't think they ever will.Posted by bubba138 at 11:16 AM | Comments (0) |
The Lawsuits Will Come
Look for lawsuits in the next couple of days. But they won't be about punch cards:
While punch-card voting will be heavily scrutinized, some computer scientists believe the touch-screen voting machines that are replacing them deserve just as much scrutiny. Nearly one in 10 California voters will be using touch-screen machines, which don't produce printouts voters can see. And no paper printouts, the scientists say, would make a legitimate recount impossible.
``You can't do a meaningful recount if the question is about the integrity of the voting machines themselves,'' David Dill, a computer science professor at Stanford University, told the Associated Press. He urged voters in the four counties using touch-screen terminals to vote with absentee ballots.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:28 AM | Comments (0) |
Recall Election News
Special Edition coverage of the recall:
Posted by bubba138 at 09:48 AM | Comments (0) |
Today Is The Day
California gets a new governor today and the lawsuits will begin tomorrow. The newest SurvyUSA poll indicates that Californians will remove Davis by a 14 point margin, 57% to 43%.
Shedding the dirty baggage laid upon him by the Left Angeles Times, Arnold Schwarzenegger, at 46%, has again opened up a double digit lead over Cruz Bustamante who is polling at 34%. My prediction is that in the final tally Arnold will make up the extra 4% and win the election with a majority.
Both props 53 and 54 will be defeated, and for good reason.Posted by bubba138 at 06:47 AM | Comments (0) |
October 06, 2003
Graham Is Out
And then there were nine.
Bob Graham, a political veteran whose low-key style failed to gain traction in the crowded Democratic presidential race, said Monday night he was ending his campaign. "I'm leaving because I have made the judgment that I can not be elected president of the United States," Graham said in announcing his exit from the race on CNN's "Larry King Live."
Posted by bubba138 at 10:49 PM | Comments (0) |
All Growed Up Now
Mary Beth captures what it was to grow up in the 70's and turn out a right leaning conservative:
As a one who was raised cheering the 70's anti-war protesters on, I'm hearin' ya, Mary Beth -- I'm hearin' ya.
Question:
Why would someone who considers herself to be firmly right of center (and who supports our involvement in Iraq) still turn up the radio and sing along when any of these songs come on?Fortunate Son
OHIO
Fixin'-To-Die-Rag
What's Goin' On?
Eve of Destruction
We Gotta Get Out of This PlaceAnswer:
They are the songs I grew up with. I'm also aware enough to realize that it was a different time, a different war, and different circumstances.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:34 PM | Comments (0) |
Bear Flag League
Brendan Smart has this week's Bear Flag League round up. Don't miss it!
Posted by bubba138 at 02:47 PM | Comments (0) |
10 Recall Do's and Dont's
Eric Johnson gives guidelines for defeating the Recall. I'd like to, but I can't let it go unrefuted.
TEN RECALL DO'S AND DON'TS 1. Don't buy into the idea that this is all a big, wacky circus.
This isn't funny. This is a power play that could wrest control of California away from the man we elected, and hand our state to an egomaniac with no political experience. And it is happening during a time of real crisis. This isn't a circus: it's a coup d'etat.
Get out your tin-foil hat. Those evil Republicans are nothing but power hungry, power grabbing, power maniacs. I agree, the recall isn't a big wacky circus. The state of Californian politics and government as it now stands is a wacky circus. Rectifying that situation -- not some power grab -- is what the recall is about.
2. Don't buy into the idea that this is a grassroots revolt. This recall was paid for with $2 million by a right-wing ideologue with a bone to pick. There is no popular uprising against Gray Davis--a mercenary army of paid signature-gatherers fomented this uprising, and their petitions were signed by otherwise-nice, pissed-off people. If this recall was about getting special interests out of politics, we'd be for it. This is a trick to steal an election.
Yes, it is grass-roots. It started as a local movement and spread across the state. Bustamante's campaign received many multiples of that $2 million figure from Indian interests and spent it illegally but that doesn't make him any less a valid candidate in Mr. Johnson's eyes. Darrell Issa's $2 million was spent mostly to get the word out about the recall. Not a single one of the almost 2 million voters who signed the petition got paid to scribble their John Hancock in support.
3. Do think of this as the end of majority-rules democracy. Only egomaniacal hubris allows Schwarzenegger to believe he is capable of running this state. Most people know this. That's why he will be lucky if he gets 38 percent of the vote. But in this deal, that could be enough to send him to Sacramento. That is not the way we usually elect people.
Except the fact of the matter is that Arnold will get a majority (yes that's a Slings and Arrows "out-on-the-limb" prediction) of the vote. The majority will also vote to oust Davis.
4. Don't even bother with the other 133 candidates on the ballot. If Davis gets ousted, it's Arnold or Bustamante. The rest of the people running are goofing around (haha), or kidding themselves (how sad), or taking advantage of the opportunity to get their pet issues in the spotlight (admirable, but not deserving of your vote).
5. Don't vote for Peter Camejo.
Arianna Huffington was the sharpest, wittiest, most knowledgeable, and most charming person on the ballot. Camejo is almost as smart, and very principled. If only one of these two had been a viable candidate, or--even better--if we could have had a Huffington-Camejo ticket. Ahhh--to dream. In such a dream world, a vote for Camejo would be appropriate. In this real world, a vote for Camejo is a vote for Arnold.
6. Don't waste your vote as a "statement."
If you want to make a statement, buy a bumper sticker. Write a letter to the editor. Get involved in local politics. This week, you are being asked to choose a governor, not voice an opinion.
7. Do vote for McClintock, if you're so inclined.
A vote for McClintock is a vote for Bustamante. (See below.)
I agree, don't vote for any of the 133. I'd even expand that to 134. By the way, Johnson's dreams of a Huffington-Camejo ticket has exposed him as an unrepentant socialist/communist.
8. Don't believe Arnold is a reformer. Or a Republican. Arnold is a rogue egomaniac. He is a very rich man with great name recognition, a handful of good ideas, and a lot of half-baked ideas. His reason for running? He thinks he can do a better job than anyone else, even though he has no experience whatsoever to qualify him for the job. In the documentary Pumping Iron, Schwarzenegger said: "I am the perfect man." He really believed it. (Sure, we all said dumb things when we were young, but...c'mon.) He thinks he can fix the state. He is probably wrong, but don't let him learn humility the hard way.
Arnold is a Republican, and has always been a Republican. What this state needs now is a businessman, and that is exactly what Arnold is. We are all too familiar with the kind of damage that is created by "experienced" politicians like Davis and Bustamante. It is time for a new kind of experience to take a hand at the helm.
9. Don't vote yes. This thing is a debacle, and could genuinely hurt California. Besides, for all of his flaws, Davis isn't as bad as his cynical enemies make him out to be. (See below.)
Calling the recall a debacle doesn't make it so. The state budget: that's a debacle. The energy situation in California: that's a debacle. Underhanded contracts (prison worker's union, plumber's union, Oracle, etc): those are debacles. The recall could hurt California but leaving Davis in is guaranteed to hurt California. And by the way, The Chargers could win their next 11 and go to the Super Bowl -- but don't count on it.
As far as Gray not being as bad as his enemies make him out to be, name one thing he hasn't done that he's been accused of. Name one thing he has done that he's been accused of not doing. Show me where his treatment of women has been any better than Arnold's. Davis is terrible, corrupt, and incompetent. To say otherwise is as accurate as stating that California is a business friendly state.
10. Do vote for Bustamante. It's him or Arnold, and he would do much less damage than Schwarzenegger. Besides, he is clearly the most qualified candidate with a chance of winning. (See below.)
According to Mr. Johnson, Davis is also a qualified candidate. If that's what qualified candidate means, I want none of it -- and neither does the rest of California.
In one of the recent debates, Bustamante consistently chanted "education" as the answer to every question. Even when asked how to invigorate the business outlook in California Bustamante said we needed to build universities. Puh-leeze. How is building universities going to make California a vibrant business environment? And without a thriving economy fueled by business, where is the state going to get the cash to build these educational institutions? How are we going to pay the teachers? How are we going to buy the books?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for education. But it is plain to me that someone who thinks building universities is the solution to every problem is far from qualified as a gubernatorial candidate.Posted by bubba138 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0) |
The Hypocrisy of Bush and Blair
US President George W Bush said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon although his country has the right to defend itself against extremists, it must avoid escalating tensions in the region. "I made it very clear to the prime minister, like I have consistently done, that Israel's got a right to defend herself, that Israel must not feel constrained in terms of defending the homeland," said Bush.
"However, I said that it's very important that any action Israel take should avoid escalation, creating higher tensions," in the region, the president said.
In London, an official spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "While of course we understand Israel's right to security, we believe that the action yesterday (Sunday) was unacceptable because we believe it represented an escalation."
The combined U.S.-U.K. action in Iraq was, beyond the stretch of any imagination, an escalation in the region. Why then was that acceptable and yet Israel's response to the suicide bombing considered "unacceptable?"
Bush has consistently said if a country does not support the war on terrorism they will be counted with the terrorists. If the U.S. does not support Israel in its struggle against the death worshipping Islamists that are blatantly supported by Syria it is then accurate for Sharon to say we stand with Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
No, what is not acceptable is not Israel's actions but the lip-service that is paid by U.S. and Britain when Israel's back is up against the wall. It is easy to consider oneself another's greatest friend. But it is when it is difficult to be a friend is when a friendship is truly proved out. Thus far, we are failing.Posted by bubba138 at 12:43 PM | Comments (0) |
Gray "Jefferson" Davis
From the Los Angeles Times:
Gov. Gray Davis, perched stiffly on a TV studio stool like a schoolboy in a spelling bee, recited his lines in a thin, reedy monotone. Illegal immigrants are indispensable to California's economy, he began. But then he seemed to forget his audience.
"We need immigrants to pick our food and put it on our tables," he said as the audience — middle-class Latinos, primarily — shifted uncomfortably. "We need immigrants to clean our hotels and office buildings and take care of the elderly."
And: "That work is important Whether people are janitors or maids or busboys or cooks, it's all part of the experience we enjoy when we're at a restaurant or a hotel."
If any of the Latinos in the studios of the Spanish-language station Univision felt patronized, they didn't say so. But the governor's words landed with a dull thud Monday night, creating one of many awkward moments as he fought for his political life in the final week of the recall campaign.
Does this sound familiar?
And BustaMEChA is no less a culprit in selling his own people out:
Hat Tip: Fresh Potatoes
Bustamante spoke out on behalf of illegal immigrants, saying their children should not be penalized. "The people who take care of your kids, cut your lawn, take care of family members, provide you food, all those folks are immigrants," Bustamante said.
Posted by bubba138 at 11:52 AM | Comments (0) |
Recall Blues
Berkeleyite J. Douglas Allen-Taylor lists the mistakes the Democrats have made in the run-up to the recall:
Mistake #1: Ignoring Angry Democrats Mistake #2: Dithering At The Beginning Mistake #3: Missing (Again…See Mistake #1) What The Recall Was All About Mistake #4: Running The Wrong Candidate
I credit Allen-Taylor for trying to do an accurate analysis for the Democrat's poor performance in this recall, but he misses a couple of key things.
In the early days of the recall, the Democrats looked upon the effort with comical dis-interest. For them, the very notion was a joke. The more the idea picked up steam, the more they laid upon it their derision and satire. Their mistake wasn't only ignoring angry Democrats, it was ignoring angry Californians altogether.
The Democrats tried their best (and continue to try) to convince Californians that the recall was nothing more than a Republican power-grab scheme, but it always was and continues to be about incompetence and corruption in the state house.
Allen-Taylor tries to turn it around once more and blame it on the energy crisis that was created by "Pete Wilson Republicanism." The fact remains, however, that the "deregulation" of the energy market was passed by an overwhelmingly Democratically controlled legislature and signed by a Democratic governor. It failed, not because Texas companies gamed the system, but because the "deregulation" was anything but deregulation. Instead, it was a new form of regulation that created the opportunity for gaming by limiting the amount of power the California generators were allowed to generate. Here in San Diego, our biggest power producer (SDG&E) was restricted from generating any electricity at all.
This recall is only a precursor of things to come. Californians aren't going to be satisfied with only changing out the Governor -- their anger and dissatisfaction will continue to burn and that will translate into votes in 2004. If I was a Democrat in the state legislature I would be very concerned. Very concerned indeed.Posted by bubba138 at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) |
Narrow Race
The media is a-buzz with the "race is narrowing" meme, and the Democrats are charged by the newest polls which show more than 50% still in favor of recalling the Governor yet are within the margin of error. But, they're forgetting something:
Since absentee balloting traditionally leans conservative, I would venture to guess that more than 56% are in favor of the recall.
Reason: Even as polls show the race narrowing, the fact is some 2 million absentee ballots -- possibly 20 percent of the total recall vote -- already have been cast by mail. If the "pre-groping" polling was right, it's likely that up to 56 percent of those absentee votes will be in favor of the recall.
Given the early voting, Democrats will likely need at least a 52 percent "no" on the recall vote at the ballot box -- a significantly higher number that even the most optimistic Democratic polls have shown so far.
Posted by bubba138 at 08:26 AM | Comments (0) |
Quote of the Day
...and other interesting recall wind-down observations:
"When Arnold first mentioned five or so years ago he was thinking of running, I bet there were a lot of quiet chuckles. I bet in the [Kennedy] family pool you could've gotten some real good odds and made some real good money." Bill Dal Col, a Republican strategist remarking on the fact that of all the Kennedy men of Schwarzenegger's generation, by birth and marriage, Schwarzenegger the Republican was the one to make it big.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:44 AM | Comments (0) |
New Look
Thanks for noticing, Ith!
I'm not totally sold on the new design yet, but I'm giving it a try. Originally I was going for a Star Trek:TNG look but it just wasn't coming together. I'll go with this one for a while and see if it grows on me.Posted by bubba138 at 07:08 AM | Comments (0) |
Out of Touch
When Gray campaigned in 2002 his mantra was that the Republican candidates were "out of touch" with Californian voters. But who's out of touch now?
When a Democrat cannot nail down the labor vote, he's in big trouble. This is yet another sign that the democratic party
In both public and private polls, Democrats with less income and education have displayed much higher support for the recall than more affluent and college-educated party members. Even Democrats who belong to labor unions, ordinarily one of the party's most loyal constituencies, have been abandoning the governor in greater numbers than other Democrats, according to the most recent Los Angeles Times poll.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:08 AM | Comments (0) |
October 03, 2003
DUH! Headline of the Week
No! Really?
Speaking of his country's willingness to cooperate with the United States in Iraq President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said, "We are not satisfied with the draft by our American partners, though we see a desire on their side to compromise."
I think he was mis-quoted or something was lost in the translation. I'm sure what he really meant was, "We are not satisfied with the draft by our American partners, though we desire to see more compromise on their side."
Mr. Putin's foreign minister, Igor S. Ivanov, later expanded on the Russian criticism, saying that basic elements in any acceptable resolution had to include the quick transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people, a leading role for the United Nations, a mandate for an international security force, and transparent oversight of the economy of Iraq.
Hmmm. Somehow he left out his country and France forgiving the Iraqi debt. I'm sure that was just an oversight.
The ideal of "a mandate for an international security force" is laughable given the fact that we've constantly asked for military cooperation from the international community and they've constantly refused to give it. Even if their was an international security force, how secure would it be? After all United Nation peace-keeping troops are as known for running away (see Liberia) as France is for surrendering.
Regardless its placement in the context of several demands, the real issue continues to be Russia's and France's desire for "a leading role for the United Nations." The biggest threat to the UN is for Iraq to actually turn into a peace-loving, pro-American country. They've been able to keep Northern Egypt/Trans Jordan (you might have heard it called Palestine, but no such country ever existed) securely in the anti-American, anti-Israel column. It would be too huge a loss for them to have the whole of Iraq gain common sense and join the 20th century. [Yes, I know we're in the 21st century, there's a bit of sarcasm in that last sentence,]
The UN increasingly sees the US as a threat. The more influence we have on the world, the less they do. Therefore, it is in their best interest to limit US influence, regardless of whether or not that is good for the world at large.Posted by bubba138 at 02:57 PM | Comments (0) |
One Foot in the Grave...
and the other on a banana peal. That describes Bob Graham's bid for the presidency:
Cool. With the addition of Clark bringing the number of Dem candidates to ten, it was kind of awkward calling them Nazgûl. It's much better with nine or less.Posted by bubba138 at 02:29 PM | Comments (0) |
Economy
Contrary to the Democrat's rhetoric, the economy continues to show recovery. The one issue the Democratic presidential candidates have been able to bang Bush on has been the job market. Unfortunately for them, it looks like that will soon be a non-issue:
Wall Street extended its gains into a third day Friday after the Labor Department announced that businesses had added new jobs for the first time since January. The Dow Jones industrials climbed more than 110 points. The Labor Department reported Friday that the nation's unemployment rate remained at 6.1 percent in September with businesses adding 57,000 jobs -- the first gain in eight months. Economists had projected an unemployment rate of 6.2 percent with a loss of 25,000 more jobs.
So the economy beat out the estimates by over 75,000 jobs. Given, this is only one month and could be only a blip. But unemployment numbers always follow behind other economic indicators -- whether good or bad -- and for the past year all those indicators have been positive:
This, of course, won't stop the Dems from whining about the economy. Just as they continue to falsely claim that the middle class didn't benefit from the tax cut (I don't know about you but I got my check) they'll continue to claim, even in the face of improvement, that unemployment is getting worse and worse. And also, just as with the tax cuts, this mantra of falsehoods will further marginalize the Democrat's bid for the highest seat in the land.
The economy has improved in recent months, growing at a 3.3 percent rate in the second quarter. Analysts are predicting even more momentum in the current quarter, growing at a rate of 5 percent.
Posted by bubba138 at 01:50 PM | Comments (0) |
Arnold Stars in Sci-Fi "B"-Movie
When it comes to how much the reporting of Arnold's less-than-stellar treatment of women is affecting his chances to win the election, the answer is not much:
Wow. It's like Arnold's one of those cheesy sci-fi monsters that get stronger when attacked.
In an exclusive 10News, Survey USA poll, 68 percent of Californians accept Schwarzenegger's apology for inappropriate touching of women. Sixty-eight percent said that Schwarzenegger has said enough, while 29 percent said he has more explaining to do.
A majority believes the Los Angeles Times article is an attempt to smear the candidate.
As for changing people's minds, 10 percent said they will switch their vote away from Schwarzenegger, but 12 percent said that they will switch to him.
Posted by bubba138 at 01:07 PM | Comments (0) |
Will Bustamante Get Out?
There has been more than a little talk of Bustamante getting out of the race for governor in an attempt to sway people into voting against the recall. According the California Political Review, sources close to Bustamante's campaign are saying he's "highley likely" to drop out. The Sacramento Bee says that the pressure coming from fellow Democrats is mounting for Cruz to abandon his gubernatorial bid is increasing.
But I wouldn't put much stock in these reports. My take is the same as Richie Ross, Bustamante's chief campaign strategist: "ridiculous." Backing up this feeling is the email I recently received from the DNC, which states:
On Tuesday, October 7, show Republicans that we won't stand for their attacks on democracy. Vote NO on the recall. Vote YES on Bustamante. Vote NO on Proposition 54!
Their instructions are specific, and they include Cruz.
It won't make any difference, but he's staying in.Posted by bubba138 at 12:27 PM | Comments (0) |
Moral Outrage
Neal Boortz has the cure for the moral outrage over Arnold's womanizing behavior:
Wasn't it Bill Clinton who did the breast stroke on one Kathleen Willey when she visited the Oval Office to inquire about a spot in his administration? Willey's husband had committed suicide a short time before her Clinton encounter, so she probably found the attention comforting. Arnold's opponent, Cruz Bustamante, has suggested that Arnold should be prosecuted for sexual crimes for his transgressions. I'm so sure that he was saying the same thing about Clinton several years ago. No matter how bad this smear campaign gets over the next few days, I doubt very seriously that anyone is going to report that Arnold Schwarzenegger invited himself to a woman's hotel room on a false pretence, raped her, and left her bleeding in her own bed.
Today you will hear from several women's groups who are going to demand that Arnold withdraw from the governor's race in California. Unless these groups can document similar statements when Clinton's rape and molestation stories hit the media, their words are based on politics, not concern for women.
Posted by bubba138 at 11:04 AM | Comments (0) |
Schwarzenegger Beats Davis!
In a poll taken by California's left-leaning Field Institute shows Arnold opening up a sizable lead over Bustamante. (Unfortunately, these numbers may be worthless as the study was done from Monday the 29th to Wednesday the 2nd so the results do not reflect public reaction to reports of Arnold's alleged womanizing.)
Respondents approved of the recall by almost a twenty point margin, 57% to 39%, leaving a paltry 4% as undecided.
More telling is the fact that if Davis himself was running as a replacement candidate, Arnold still polls higher, 36% to Davis' 30% (page 8).
Arnold, who was trailing Cruz 30% to 31% last week, has now opened up a ten point lead, polling 36% over Cruz's 26%. It is interesting to note that Arnolds increase is almost identical to Cruz' decrease, perhaps suggesting that -- contrary to my assessment -- the debates did have a hand in switching people's votes.
Further evidence of Arnold's ascendance is his popularity in all areas of the state except the loopiest region in the entire country (page 4):
Schwarzenegger is leading in voter preferences in all regions of the state except the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, where Bustamante is favored over the actor 37% to 23%. This is the first time The Field Poll has found Schwarzenegger ahead of Bustamante in Los Angeles County (37% vs. 28%). In early September he trailed the Lt. Governor 37% to 31%.
However, support for Arnold in the Bay area did increase from 14% in early September to 23% this week, while San Franciscan's support for Bustamante dropped from 45% to 37%.
Where is Arnold picking up support? From the middle-of-the-road voter. Of those who identify themselves as in center, 41% support Schwarzzenegger, up from 27% in early September. That's a crucial 14% increase.
Also of note is this:
There continues to be a gender gap in voter preferences in the replacement election. Currently, women are dividing 31% to 26% in favor of Schwarzenegger, while men favor the actor by a larger 15-point margin (41% to 26%).
Expect this margin to widen as the weekend news shows slime Arnold by replaying the strategically coincidently timed charges of sexual abuse.
Ever increasingly the side note is McClintock, who slid from a high of 19% last week to 16% this week. He's only picking up 30% of the conservative vote compared to Arnold's 46%.
Over the past few days, McClintock has been, well whining really, that he had the highest approval rating of all the candidates yet was behind in the polls. This week's poll shows him retaining his 53% rating, but now it is virtually indistinguishable from Arnold's 52%.
Arnold is trending up, Tom is trending down. There is no reason -- other than pride -- for McClintock to stay in this race.Posted by bubba138 at 09:01 AM | Comments (0) |
California Courts Here I Come -- Part II
I pointed out on Wednesday that the Democrats are already gearing up for post-recall lawsuits. Voting methods will be one of their main targets. Given the accepted wisdom of the inadequacies of punch-card balloting, do you suppose they'll be looking for hanging chads? Perhaps. Then again, perhaps they'll go after them new-fangled computerized voting machines:
California's recall election will be tallied by a mix of voting machines, ranging from punched cards to the latest in high-tech wizardry. Anyone following the comp.risks forum knows of the furor over electronic voting machines. They're junk.
Vendors claim their machines work correctly and are tamper-proof, citing the Federal Election Commission's standards. Well, check those standards out. Any computer jock with the faintest knowledge of building good code will be appalled.
Posted by bubba138 at 07:43 AM | Comments (0) |
The Socialist Agenda
When I hear people like Camejo, Arianna, and Bustamante speak as they did at the debates last week it scares me because it is a vivid reminder that there actually are people who really do hold firmly to highly dangerous socialist principles. Then, after time, I convince myself that I have exaggerated my perception of what they have said -- that, although they are a little more to the left of me, they're really not that far off.
Then I go and read something like this:
Dear Mr. Burton, As a Californian, I am very enthusiastic about your campaign for governor. I would like to ask one question of your platform so that I may totally understand your goals.
If you were elected, you would use the progressive income tax to mold California into a socialist economy, correct?
I believe that if you were elected, in an instance similar to Philadelphia’s “white flight,” the rich of California would take their money, and their means of production, out of the state, rather than lose them. And therefore the state would be without funds.
The only way to prevent this would be to secede from the Union. This would economically isolate the Californian Workers’ State, at its worst cause civil war within the United States, and either way we would follow the route of either the Paris Commune or Russia—crushed, or permanently deformed (although not necessarily with any guns involved).
With revolutionary (or reformist!) tidings,
A comrade in California
I scares the crap out of me that there are those who, with a gleam in their eyes, actually conceive of a Californian Worker's State. They're out there, they're active, and they're making progress. The scariest part is that they're not all in the Socialist party. Michael Moore sums up the socialist agenda in these steps:
The goal of the first step is to hijack single issue voters. The strategy is to identify a single issue -- for example the Green party's concern for the environmental -- and show them how the evils of capitalism are totally detrimental to their ideals and how socialism will give them what they want. This is plainly evident in Camejo's political viewpoints -- as well as plainly spoken in the Earth Liberation Front's own literature :
The ELF realizes the profit motive caused and reinforced by the capitalist society is destroying all life on this planet. [...] The organization is an environmental group but also one that realizes the true cause of murder and destruction of life. Therefore it is not enough to work solely on single, individual environmental issues but in addition the capitalist state and its symbols of propaganda must also be targeted. It may be more realistic to refer to the organization as one which works to protect all life on the planet. (Page 4)
The ELF ideology maintains that it is the very social and political ideology in operation throughout the westernized countries that is creating the various injustices on this planet and ultimately the destruction of life. That ideology is capitalism and the mindset that allows it to exist. (Page 7) [...]
Often in the past few years I have heard the cry that we are limited by our "two party" system -- that it doesn't allow true democracy to exist and people's voices aren't being heard. But since third parties always represent a more extreme ideology than the two main parties the two party system, as flawed as it is, forces politics to remain in the relative center.
The goal of the second step -- to infiltrate the Democratic party -- is to move the center leftward. Because of the two party system there is always a tension in American politics -- a tug-of-war between the mild left and the mild right. The center moves, left or right, according to the dynamic of that tension. By infiltrating the Democratic party, socialists add leftward weight to the tension -- and the center moves accordingly. But what often goes unnoticed and unsaid is that, in an effort to maintain some hold on the center, the right also moves leftward.
Recently, Howard Dean referred to the President as the enemy. People were aghast that one American would call another "the enemy." But the plain fact is that there are some Americans who are enemies -- and they're not the President.Posted by bubba138 at 06:51 AM | Comments (0) |
October 02, 2003
Michael Moore: A Call To Arms
Evan Coyne Maloney caught up with Michael Moore on the street. Go see his video.
Posted by bubba138 at 11:07 AM | Comments (0) |
The Bus Tour Cometh
Arnold's bus tour began today right here in (can't say sunny) San Diego. First off on his list to do was to reconcile with the women of the state:
Face the issue, deal with it, get it out of the way. It was a good move.
"This morning they have begun with the tearing down ... I know, I know the people of California will see through this trash politics. A lot of the stuff in the story is not true ... but I have to say that where there's smoke there's fire." "Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful but now I recognize that I offended people."
"Those people that I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry about that and I apologize because that's not what I'm trying to do."
"When I am governor I want to prove to the women that I will be a champion for the women, a champion of the women. Now let's go from the dirty politics to the future of California."
Posted by bubba138 at 10:20 AM | Comments (0) |
October 01, 2003
Clark -- A Democrat?
Howard Dean says Clark isn't a democrat -- and he's right:
Some may argue that the Democratic party is doing o.k. and is not in trouble. But isn't it telling when a large portion of Democrats believe they cannot get a decent presidential candidate from within their own ranks?
It may come as a surprise to some of his supporters, but Democratic Presidential candidate Wesley K. Clark still hasn't joined the Democratic Party. According to the Pulaski County (Ark.) Voter Registrar's office, the former four-star general remains a registered independent.
Posted by bubba138 at 04:35 PM | Comments (0) |
Best Line
Today's best line comes from Taranto's Best of the Web concerning a CBS recall poll:
With the recall vote on California's Gov. Gray Davis six days away, CBS News reports on a poll that "showed Davis' support ebbing in four key categories: Democrats, women, moderates and liberals." At least he's not losing any support among conservative Republican men.
Posted by bubba138 at 03:11 PM | Comments (0) |
Christmas is Coming
Only 86 more shopping days until Christmas -- and what do you get for that dictator on your list who has everything?
Why not shop where Castro shops.
Posted by bubba138 at 02:39 PM | Comments (0) |
Bustamante's Future
Here's a positive outlook for the state of California:
I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope.
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante may not just lose the race to replace Gov. Gray Davis if he's recalled, as the latest polls indicate, but he could also have killed his political career with his flawed campaign, analysts say.
Posted by bubba138 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0) |
Media Baron Gore
The Democrat's answer to Fox News?
Don't they know that liberal-leaning news networks already exist?
The former vice president is close to striking a $70 million deal to acquire Newsworld International, a tiny cable network owned by French media giant Vivendi Universal, media sources said. Gore and his backers want to turn the digital channel into a liberal-leaning network.
Posted by bubba138 at 11:33 AM | Comments (0) |
California [Courts] Here I Come
The Democrats are already preparing for a legal onslaught on the recall election. Expect suits to be filed early in the morning on October 8th:
Democrats clearly plan to be ready with any post-voting challenges they may feel are needed, including lawsuits. "The answer to that is, absolutely," state party spokesman Bob Mulholland said when asked whether the conduct of the voting may spark yet another legal challenge. "We're going to do everything that's legal to have the votes counted in California, and we're putting the Republicans on notice that we're prepared for their goon tactics this time."
All this is based on the fact that they've bought into the myth of ballot place discrimination in Florida:
Seeking to avoid what they called "another Florida-style fiasco," the state party and a national Democratic group called Democrats for America's Future said they hope to raise $100,000 to place poll watchers around the state Tuesday and to help with post-election legal challenges that may come up.
Of course it doesn't occur to them that the best way to avoid "another Florida-style fiasco" is to keep the election in the elector's hands and out of the courts.
This only underscores the need for Tom McClintock to get out of this race, and now. A Republican must win this walking away without the slightest hint of it being a close. Already the Democrats have figured a way to keep Davis in office for over a month after the election:
The last thing we need is to help them find a way to keep him in longer by tying the election up in the courts.
While voters may assume that if the recall succeeds Davis will be sent packing in a few days, Shelley cautioned that that would be a ``very unlikely scenario.'' By law, Shelley must certify the results within 39 days of the election, or by Nov. 15 at the latest. He added that a study of the 33 statewide elections since 1973 showed that certification takes almost 39 days to complete, and that he didn't expect it to happen any faster for the recall.
``That could go outwards to 39 days,'' Shelley said at a news conference at the Sacramento County Registrar's office. ``Nov. 15 would be that last day.''
Consequently, Davis could hold the reins of power for as long as five weeks after being ousted, allowing him to make a variety of 11th-hour appointments, including powerful judgeships.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:52 AM | Comments (0) |
More Pay for Play
Gray Davis is buying up land for wild life conservation. That's a good thing, right?
Not if the state is paying too much for the land and the sellers are putting large chunks of cash in Davis' back pockets. What's worse, Davis is keeping secret from the public the property's appraisals:
As California Gov. Gray Davis' secrecy in land deals became an election issue Tuesday, a state board approved three massive property purchases from campaign contributors that Davis had rushed to close before next Tuesday's recall election. By a 3-0 vote, California's Wildlife Conservation Board approved the land purchases -- totaling nearly $300 million -- without making public the appraisals that were used to justify the sale prices. The Davis administration has routinely refused to release such information in the past, and Davis' acceptance of $163,000 in contributions from the three landowners has raised questions about whether taxpayers are getting a good deal.
Is it a good deal? Here are the plots that Davis has purchased with our money:
| Purchase | Acres | Price | $ per Acre |
| Ballona Wetlands (Los Angeles) | 483 | $140,000,000 | $289,855.07 |
| Ahmanson Ranch (Ventura) | 2,959 | $135,000,000 | $45,623.52 |
| Grizzly Creek (Humboldt) | 691 | $18,300,000 | $26,483.36 |
| Total | 4,133 | $293,300,000 | $70,965.40 |
Posted by bubba138 at 10:40 AM | Comments (0) |
Why Is McClintock Still in the Race?
Patterico addresses the issue:
LET ME EXPLAIN IT TO YOU VER-Y SLOW-LY . . . IT'S A LITTLE THING CALLED KEEPING YOUR PROMISES...McClintock could not be clearer as to why he's staying in: he promised to. It's a matter of principle. Apparently that is something California Republicans cannot fully understand.
But he also said this way back in June:
That's the problem with making promises you cannot keep. No matter what you do, you look bad.
My intention is to support whatever candidate I believe has both the best chance of winning and the best chance of turning this state around.
Posted by bubba138 at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) |
Campaign Fundraising
The third quarter deadline for fund raising expired at midnight last night. The final numbers won't be in for a couple of days, but the Washington post has made some estimates (all figures in millions):
| Bush | <$50.0 |
| Dean | $12.9 |
| Kerry | $4.75 |
| Lieberman | $4.5 |
| Edwards | $3.0 |
| Clark | $2.5 |
Both Graham and Gephardt camps declined to estimate what they had raised. Kucinich, Sharpton, and Mosley-Braun were (thankfully) unmentioned. [It's about time -- Bry]
Dean's total sets a new record for Democratic fund raising in a single quarter, beating Bill Clinton's September 1995 tally of $9.5 million. Clark has made a good start, but a late one. It is hard to believe he can gain the resources to gain on the Dean camp, who's year-to-date total is now estimated to be ten times as much. If the estimates are accurate, Dean will jump into the number-one spot, overtaking Kerry and Edwards who were one and two at the end of the last quarter. It is obvious which candidate the money is supporting:
Except for Dean, the former Vermont governor, most of the major Democratic presidential candidates reported fundraising declines during the past three months.
The Dean camp raised 30% more in third quarter than he did in both previous quarters combined. His campaign is trending up, everyone else's is trending down (except for Clark, but when you start at zero, up is the only direction available).
FYI: By way of comparison, here is a tally of the 2nd quarter totals. When the final 3rd quarter totals are published I'll update the chart.Posted by bubba138 at 08:29 AM | Comments (0) |