Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
BILL CLINTON, who has made no secret of his love for Oxford and whose daughter is a student there, may be asked to stand for Chancellor of the university to succeed Lord Jenkins of Hillhead.
The prospect of a Clinton candidacy was greeted enthusiastically yesterday by Professor Alan Ryan, Warden of New College, who is on a sabbatical year at Stanford University in California.
He said:
by John Cole| 6 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links
Interesting thread over at the Daily Kos discussing the fallout from Daschle deciding not to run in 2004. Some on the list have noted in Kos’s comments section that perhaps this is good for Dick Gephardt in the Iowa primary.
I do not think I could disagree more. IMHO, there is simply no chance in hell that Dick Gephardt will be the Democrat’s nominee. Why?
1.) Gephardt was utterly humiliated in every election in which he was the leader. He never regained the House, despite an exceptionally strong Dem. Presidential candidate (who won the popular vote- which would lead me to think that the Dems would have a decent chance of recapturing the House).
2.) The base hates him. He is a sell-out, he is too conservative, and he voted for the Iraq resolution. The people who decide who the Democrat candidate is will not forget that vote, nor his working with the Republicans and the Bush administration (which is seen as utter capitulation to the people who count in the Democrat primaries).
3.) Many refer to his power with labor. Folks, this is not 1960 anymore. Labor simply is not that important of a voting group as it once was. Perhaps CFR may impact that, but union membership has been declining for years. Furthermore, Unions achieved many of their goals that wed them to the Democrat party. For the most part- they do have decent wages, decent health care, decent retirement. Now, many union members feel comfortable voting on socially conservative issues, such as guns. Also, I think the importance of the friction between the environmental movement and unions should not be downplayed. Bush attempted to drive a wedge in between these groups with ANWR and other issues.
Most importantly, unless you have been visiting the Daily Kos, Eschaton, Ted Barlow, or other lefty sites frequently and for a while, you just have no idea how much the base hates Gephardt. He has no chance in hell.
This post is in: General Stupidity
I took my son to see Michael Moore live at the Roundhouse, in north London, before Christmas. The US radical and author of the best-selling book Stupid White Men was (mostly) clever, funny, angry, sharp, iconoclastic and sceptical about the lies and humbug processed by the US government and big business. Sure there were some flunked bits
This post is in: General Stupidity
UN Sees 1/2 Million Casualties in Iraq War
Which, given the U.N.’s record in Rwanda, means that the estimate is about 400,000 fatalities short of the threshold to REALLY DO NOTHING.
Seriously, though- Isn’t this the same analysis that got released a couple of months ago and was ignored/debunked?
This post is in: Open Threads
Tom Daschle is not running for President. I never thought he would. His wife would probably have to quit her lucrative lobbying job.
This post is in: Open Threads
If you want to see three of the nation’s most obnoxious liberals discussing media bias, tune in to Al Franken and Mario Cuomo on Donahue tonigh.- I think it is on again at midnight. There was some horribley inept conservative talk show host making little to no sense from the right, so other than Bernie Goldberg, the show was infuriating.
Mario Cuomo had the best quip of the night, though unintentional. He claimed (and I paraphrase) “Liberals like the whole truth, both sides of the argument and are more subtle and nuanced. Conservatives write their message in crayon, we use fine point pen.”
Real subtle Mario- You didn’t mean that conservatives are stupid, did you?
This post is in: Open Threads
Slow news day, so I have one more grievance I would like to air before I settle down to a night of hockey and reading.
Why can I only find the super-sized gourmet croutons at the store anymore. What happened to the itty bitty perfectly square ones that were hard as hell that I really like? I can’t find the damned things anywhere. And Kroger keeps hiding the plain tomato soup that comes ina can. I don’t want the pre-made stuff, I don’t want chunks in it, I just want 1950’s era add milk to the can tomato soup. How else am I supposed to eat my grilled cheese sandwiches?