Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006

Idiot or Asshole?
When the president calls for a press conference and only gives two hours notices, what’s the message sent to the press? Bush’s rating are down, thanks to the war, and pissing off the press is not going to help him send a message to the people that will raise those ratings. In recent weeks other Republicans, seeing the writing on the wall, have been distancing themselves from George and his war; whereas throughout history the support of the sitting president was a huge boost to one on the campaign trail, now it is deemed a detriment. And as long as Bush keeps holding the press at arm’s length, that’s not going to change.

And when the president refers to the opposition as "the democrat party," is he just too stupid to use the correct word, democratic, or is he purposefully trying to get under everyone’s skin? Is our children learning? You tell me, Mr. President, since you’re supposed to be our leader, and you certainly don’t seem to be leading by example.

And when el presidente lies: "No one said Saddam had anything to do with 9/11" (except Cheney), is it because he forgot, didn’t understand the question, or really thinks he’ll be fooling everyone? When asked in that press conference Monday if they way Americans vote this November will send a message to terrorists (since Dick Cheney said Lamont’s victory would encourage Al-Qaeda types), el prez said nothing about voters, and the only "message" he talked about would be the one sent if we pulled out of Iraq. Obliquely, perhaps he’s saying that if Democrats win, they’ll pull us out, and that’s when the message will get sent... but the people aren’t voting for president this year, they’re voting for congresspersons.

I get one vote this November. But what they’re depending on is not my one vote, but the millions of votes from people who are either not equipped or do not care to discover if the president is an idiot or an asshole. They are depending on the stupidity of Americans. I think they message that voters will send to the world this November is just how smart we are.

Clinton Opponent Getting No Love
Hillary Clinton's erstwhile opponent in the New York primary is doing his best to Lamontify his message, to little or no avail. Jonathan Tasini is hoping to use the same tactic as Lamont used against Lieberman, calling Clinton a pro-war Bush supporter. But analysts point that Tasini has a tougher row to how, since Lamont spent 4 million of his own money to campaign, and had the backing of significant (thus so-called) "grassroots" groups and networks of webloggers, whereas is Tasini only has a tenacity and about 200,00 bucks. Clinton has some 44 million. Also, the senator has refused, so far, to openly debate Tasini, reducing his exposure even more. Altogether this means that essentially Hillary is running unopposed, since New York is almost always a sure-thing for a Democratic win. For the punditary spinsters this allows for a kind of synecdoche, as New York is as much a symbol for liberal chicanery as the wife of the ex BJ president is. And no, that doesn't depend on what your definition of "is" is. So look for Rush et al to talk even more about New York like it's Sodom and Gomorrah this elections season.

Iran Won't Give Up Modernity
The UN is trying it's best, but Iran is refusing to roll over play good doggie with resolutions that would restrict uranium enrichment in their country. Of course, Iran has not come out and said they'd never use the enrichment for weapons manufacture, but then again, they have not ensured the world it's for power-plants only. And so the UN's big five, minus the US, plus Germany, a kind of proto Permanent Security Council, is drafting new language again, hoping to get Iran to allow inspectors and overseers to watch their plants as they are being constructed. And if not? No more gasoline for Iran, a nice irony since they've got plenty of oil but no refineries of their own. Now, what if all this goes through, Iran becomes one of the first large nations to adopt a gasoline-free society, reduce their emissions to essentially zero, start breeding super-healthy citizens in a pollution-free area, jack the price of their oil up through the moon, since they're the only ones left with any, not having needed it for 20 years? Nah… we'll elect a non-idiot into office way before the, assuring Iran does get trade agreements to obtain the best WMD available: fleets of SUVs.

Minimum Wage Up in California
Arnold S. has signed legislation passed by California's progressive congress to raise the state's minimum wage to ocho dineros, over the next two years. That's all well and good. What I want to comment on is a comment made by Alan Reynolds at the conservative Cato Institute, who says that raising the minimum wage results in more people working for less than the minimum wage. I defy you to explain to my how this is not an incredibly stupid reason to not raise the minimum wage. If that's really the conservative rational, how can they not agree to legalizing drug use? Afterall, when they made LSD illegal, it resulted in more people breaking the law. Asinine. Seems to me breaking the law, and forcing laborers to except less than the minimum wage is something that only money-hungry pro-conservative exploitationist would perpetrate. Look you here, Reynolds: higher wages = more tax revenue = more funding for law enforcement = increased crackdowns on slave-keeping. Simple. So bite me. Elitist ass.

Conflict of Interest: Wiretapping?
Oh, the pundits went nutso, and I'm sure they're going nutso all over again. A cruise by the websites of our nation's blowhardinistas in the wake of Judge Taylor's decision that the warrantless wiretapping was unconstitutional had everyone of them making the point that Taylor was a Carter appointed judge. Because, you know, Carter packed the benches with judges for the sole purpose of using that dirty, nasty constitution to thwart the honest, god-fearing efforts of shiny republican presidents to revoke American freedoms. And now, it's been revealed that Taylor is on the board of a group that has given money to the ACLU, who brought the suit against the wiretapping in the first place. This is the dog who worried the cat who killed the rat who ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built. It's also been revealed that the moneys that went to the ACLU from this group had nothing to do with the present suit, but where for other studies, such as for gay marriage, education, and racial profiling. But I'll give you odds that the pundits leave those facts out.

The I Hate Book
Another preach to the choir book, to be sure, but what the heck. The I Hate Ann Coulter, Bill O'reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity Reader: The Hideous Truth About America's Ugliest Conservatives, edited by Clint Willis, is a collection of essays and columns for various progressive newspapers and magazines and websites, seeking to point out that most of what the blowhardinistas is flawed, not only conceptually, but simply factually. There's discussion of their rise to fame and influence, the inability of any of them to engage in a two-sided debate, the various lies told, the statistics warped and misrepresented, the rampant hypocrisy, and so forth. Stylistically, being a collection of various writers, the book moves between the merely sardonic to the intellectually dense, so there's probably something in there that will strike home with any progressive thinker. Only three stars because, like I said, it's not a tome that anyone who doesn't already agree with the left would bother reading, so no points for universal appeal.