Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

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Archives for 2003

Dean Announces

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From the NY Times:

Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean sought to redefine and broaden his liberal, anti-war campaign in formally announcing his candidacy Monday, telling disenchanted American voters, “You have the power!” to oust President Bush and rid Washington of special interests.

With at least 2,500 supporters crammed into a brick-lined town square, the steeple of a Unitarian church behind him, the former Vermont governor pledged to speak “for a new American century and a new generation of Americans.”

Dean pledged to fight conservative Republicans, docile Democrats and the rest of the Washington establishment — all of whom he holds responsible for turning Americans away from the political system.

Talk about a bad day to announce your candidacy for President, and it will get little or no attention because of the SCOTUS rulings. Regardless, I thought he had already announced months ago. At any rate, does anyone know how he fared yesterday on Meet the Press? I took the day off.

*** Update ***

Here is the transcript.

*** Update #2 ***

William Jefferson Dean?:

Russert: Well, in 1995, when you were advocating that position, you were asked how would you balance the budget if we had a constitutional amendment…

Dean: Yeah.

Russert: …calling for that, and this is what Howard Dean said.

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Hands-Free Foolishness

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From the ‘No Kidding’ department:

Talking on a mobile phone while driving your car is just as dangerous when using hands-free equipment as when holding the phone in your hand, according to a Swedish study published on Monday.

The National Road Administration (SNRA) tested 48 people in driving simulators, dividing them into two groups — one with and the other without hands-free mobile phone devices.

The drivers in both groups received about 10 phone calls each during 1.5 hours of simulated driving in different conditions. The test revealed almost no difference in reaction time between the two groups.

“It is the distraction of the phone conversation that is the problem,” Ingemar Skogo, the SNRA director general, told Reuters.

No kidding. ANYONE who has had either a learning or memory course could have told you this- it was not holding onto the phone that was causing the problem, it is the attendant COGNITIVE INTERFERENCE with hand-held OR hands-free phones that is the problem. In other words, “It’s the distraction, stupid.”

Alan Baddeley has constructed an entire career studying these issues- I wish lawmakers would pay attention to some of his work, or at the very least read what I have written about this issue.

*** Update ***

This is related.

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Interesting

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This story on Congress and Spam is generally unremarkable, but I did find the byline interesting:

Congress Finds Rare Unity in Spam, to a Point By JENNIFER 8. LEE

Wasn’t there a movie named Jennifer 8? Was this reporter who it was based on? Or did the reporter take the name after the movie? Or, in some weird cosmic coincidence, are there two naturally occurring Jennifer 8’s?

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Affirmative Action

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As I stated before, giving people points solely because of their race is simply wrong and tantamount to a quota system. At the same time, I stated that “Only the dimmest of bulbs would begin to assert that blacks, in the past, were given a fair shake in our society, and only the equally block-headed would attempt to argue that this has not had profound and long-term effects within black communities,” and thus, acknowledging race inthe admissions process seems to be fair and to make sense. The Supreme Court agrees:

In two split decisions, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that minority applicants may be given an edge when applying for admissions to universities, but limited how much a factor race can play in the selection of students.

The high court struck down a point system used by the University of Michigan, but did not go as far as opponents of affirmative action had wanted. The court approved a separate program used at the University of Michigan law school that gives race less prominence in the admissions decision-making process.

The Constitution “does not prohibit the law school’s narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body,” Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote.

I will be waiting for an apology for those of you who called Bush a liar when he stated the point system was essentially a quota system. I will also be waiting for the apology from those of you who called people racists for pointing this out.

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New Mark Steyn

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Screw Harry Potter- the new Mark Steyn column is up and it is free:

It’s mullah time! The question now is whether Iran’s ayatollahs and the original ”Islamic republic” can survive the summer, or whether President Bush will mark the second anniversary of Sept. 11 with two-thirds of his axis of evil consigned to the trash can of history.

That would be a remarkable achievement, by any measure save that of Democratic presidential candidates such as John Kerry, who seems to be running as the French foreign minister (a niche market of limited appeal even among Dem primary voters, one would think). Senator Kerry will continue to insist it’s all a disaster and possibly a cover-up, too. But over in North Korea, the third member of the axis will get the picture. For one thing, it’s hard to be an effective axis when there’s just one of you.

Is there anyone who doesn’t think that John Kerry is a smug, condescending liar who wants to be on every side of an issue? Anyone? Ok, except Theresa Heinz, is there anyone.

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Love Those French

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Cute:

For the second straight game, fans at the Confederations Cup booed when the “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played before the United States took the field.

The whistling sounded louder at Saturday night’s 1-0 loss to Brazil than it was before the Americans lost to Turkey 2-1 on Thursday in Saint-Etienne.

Really, they are not anti-American. They just hate George Bush, right?

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Very Interesting

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By now you have heard, ad nauseum, all the details of the non-looting of the museum in Baghdad. Here is an extra little piece of info that you perhaps had not heard before:

How much was taken is a matter of heated debate. The museum’s director of research, Donny George, told all who would listen that an astonishing 170,000 objects — almost the museum’s entire collection — was gone, a historic cultural loss. Mr. George accused American soldiers of turning a blind eye.

Now, it seems most valuable objects were taken out of the museum for safekeeping before the war began. While there was looting in the chaotic days that followed, Mr. George seems to have overstated the extent of it — and neglected to mention that one reason the Americans didn’t defend the museum was that it was apparently being used as a base by Iraqi snipers.

Ahh, the press.

(via Instapundit)

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