Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Giving up is unforgivable.

You know he’s going to shit a cat.

The willow is too close to the house.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Come on, man.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Innocent people do not delay justice.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

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Archives for 2003

Time to Update the Talking Points

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According to Steve Verdon, Democrats better update their talking points. The next time they bring up the Bush economy (which soon will be called the Bush boom), Steve Verdon suggests mentioning the Clinton recession.

Also, there is this news:

Revising its year-end economic forecast sharply upward, The Conference Board today projected that real GDP growth will hit 5.7% next year, making 2004 the best year economically in the last 20 years.
The forecast, by Conference Board Chief Economist Gail Fosler, expects worker productivity, which set a 20-year record in the third quarter, to rise at a healthy 3.6% next year. That would follow a gain of 4.3% this year.

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The Only Thing

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This is the only thing Dennis Kucinich may win this election.

kuci.jpg

Gina Marie Santore of Garden County, N.J., and Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) talk about their date in Concord, N.H., Thursday, Dec. 11, 2003. Santore has been flown to New Hampshire to have a date with Kucinich after a candidates forum earlier this year where Kucinich said he is still looking for a first lady. The New Jersey woman beat out about 80 other contenders for a date with the twice-divorced Ohio congressman in a contest on a political Web site. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

It is like the Dating Game but icky.

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Please, Calpundit

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In one of his shoddier posts, Kevin Drum comes to the conclusion that Haliburton is nothing more than a ‘War Profiteer.” Of course, Kevin is a good Democrat, so he has probably thought that all along and just waited for the slightest bit of evidence before making his defamatory proclamation. Go read his post, and then ask these basic questions:

1.) Did he factor into the price differential of the labor costs of each provider? Certainly Kevin is aware that the military labor costs are fixed (they never paid overtime when I was in the service), and certainly Halliburton employees in the region deserve a decent wage. After all, Kevin believes that grocery clerks should command $17.90 an hour.

2.) I am pretty certain Kevin did not factor underwriting costs. The military doesn’t have to pay for private insurance on their employees and their equipment, and it would not be factored into the cost per gallon as it most certainly would for Halliburton.

3.) Kevin completely ignores the cost of captial outlays for things such as, say FUEL TANKERS. The military’s are paid for- you and I paid for them. Bet hat does not get factored into the price per gallon, either.

4.) If he really wanted to compare like services, he should compare the costs of Halliburton vs. another independent company, rather than comparing the military to Halliburton.

5.) Halliburton, in order to receive government contracts, must adhere to the workplace and environmental standards set forth by Congress. Not so for the Kuwaiti source, and the military eats the cost.

6.) There is going to be a markup of some sort- Halliburton is a profit business. Kevin needs to let us know what an appropriate markup is, and then maybe he can tell us above and beyond what number is actual war profiteering.

It is like liberal Tourette’s anymore. “Ch-Ch-Ch-Cheney! Halliburton! No Blood for Oil! War Profiteering!”

*** Update ***

Cripes. Here is another doozy from our favorite left coaster:

….Conservative bloggers are up in arms: there was an anti-terrorist demonstration in Baghdad yesterday that attracted about 10,000 people but the U.S. press said almost nothing about it. Here’s Instapundit:

Had these demonstrators been marching on the other side, this would have been a big story instead of the closest thing to a non-story. So why isn’t it a big story when it’s good news? Because they want us to lose?

I got a couple of emails about this too, so I got curious. Did anyone cover it?

This isn’t exhaustive, but after a few minutes of checking the answer is no. The New York Times, LA Times, and Washington Post had nothing (or next to nothing). But neither did the conservative Washington Times. The Guardian didn’t report it, but neither did the conservative Telegraph. Among Mideastern newspapers, it was almost universally ignored too: I found a front page link in the Bahrain Tribune and a picture but no story in the Jordan Times, but nothing else. Even Iraq Today doesn’t have anything up yet. Ditto for the Israeli papers and the Asian papers.

In other words, as near as I can tell, this just isn’t big news. CNN and Fox covered it briefly because demonstrations make for good TV images, but aside from that neither liberal nor conservative news outlets cared much. This isn’t any kind of anti-war bias, it’s just news judgment: there was lots of other news yesterday, some of it Iraq related, that was more important.

In short, Instapundit and others claim it should be big news, questioning the judgement of those presenting the news. Kevin confirms their argument- it wasn’t big news, therefore it isn’t big news. Just the judgement of the mainstream media.

Thanks for our daily dose of circular logic. My head is spinning.

*** Update #2 ***

Oliver reads a different version of the same story Calpundit originally linked to, except the version Oliver read uses more inflammatory language than the analysis Kevin originally linked to in his post. He then asserts that I am wrong. I am going to start checking lefties for reading comprehension.

BTW- If KBR really is overcharging, I have no sympathy for them. I am just tired of this whole Cheney/Halliburton/War Profiteeriong mantra that the left brings out whenever anything regarding the countries is metioned. At any rate, since Oliver didn’t get past the headline of his story, I would recommend that you read it, since it is far less clear cut than Oliver would have you believe.

I really don’t know where the left is coming from anymore. If Halliburton and KBR are overcharging, I am getting screwed to- I pay taxes just like everyone else on the planet, so it certainly is not in my interest for this to go on, if accurate. I am also not a Halliburton employee or stockholder. What irks me is the knee-jerk response and the automatic assumption that this administration has done something wrong (why else mention that Cheney once led Halliburton?). IN essence, Oliver would like you to believe we went to war to make Cheney rich. Thatis what you are saying, isn’t it, Oliver?

Actually, that is exactly what Oliver is saying:

We were right to go into Afghanistan. The Taliban government provided aid, refuge and cover to Osama Bin Laden, and refused to turn him and his organization over to international authorities after 9.11 – but the lack of attention, and the diversion of resources to Iraq has undercut the authority of the Karzai government and makes an example to the world that we’re more interested in carving up contracts for Halliburton than aiding the people of the middle east.

Moderate Oliver is pretty deep into the kool-aid today.

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McCain-Feingold

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I don’t know what to say about this ruling from the free speechers on the SCOTUS.

I feel betrayed by Congress, the President, and the Court. If you want some insightful or meaningful commentary from me, forget about it for now (and I don’t mean to imply my posts are usually inciteful or meaningful). I am going to try to make sure that I am one of the first people arrested next year for violating this law.

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More on The ‘Debate’ From Last Night

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According to the AP, the candidates were less than candid about some things last night:

Debate viewers got a gloomy picture of the economy and, perhaps predictably, heard about none of the improvements that have come since Bush took office. For example, Sen. Joe Lieberman declared it would take a Democratic president to “get this economy going,” but the economy has been gaining momentum over the last several months since Bush’s third round of tax cuts took effect.

Weekly claims for unemployment insurance have fallen since April, and economic growth and productivity in the third quarter reached 20-year highs.

Several of the nine candidates criticized the tax cuts Bush pushed through Congress. But none mentioned that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who has served both Republican and Democratic presidents, has cited those cuts as a reason for the recent economic growth.

Using a favored attack line against Bush, Lieberman said “3.5 million people have lost their jobs” and Howard Dean commented twice on the 3 million jobs lost under Bush.

While it is true that about 3 million jobs were lost during the early months of the Bush presidency, that trend has been reversing for several months as the jobless rate has dropped from a peak of 6.4 percent in June to 5.9 percent last month.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who studies political rhetoric at the University of Pennsylvania, said the debate was filled with hyperbole and exaggeration typical of candidates trying to unseat an incumbent president.

In other words, don’t take these people seriously.

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Sully on the Debate

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Man, did Sullivan nail the debates:

On Edwards: “Edwards revealed why he hasn’t caught on – not just the accent, but the exhausted and obviously phony Shrum-like rhetoric about “special interests” and lobbyists. I kept thinking to myself: the guy’s a trial lawyer. Who does he think he’s kidding?”

On Moseley-Braun: “Moseley-Braun is a complete embarrassment. She has nothing to say except “I’m a black woman.” She is, of course, an insult to black women, most of whom do not respond to life’s problems by reiterating ancient boilerplate about helping kids and moving forward.”

On Kucinich: “Kucinich was mesmerizing in his way, with his huge ears and beady little eyes. He kept arguing as if there were 170,000 U.N. troops sitting around, waiting to be told that it’s time to replace all those Americans in Iraq. Presumably he knows this is a fantasy. He doesn’t seem to be illiterate. He puts sentences together with correct structure and grammar. So how can he keep reiterating something that is as feasible as handing Iraq over to Martians? And why wasn’t he laughed off the stage?
”

On Clark: “Clark was dull.”

On Sharpton: “But he’s a buffoon, another insult to black voters’ intelligence. He’s not a serious candidate for high office or any office. It seems absurd that real potential presidents have to stand on the same stage. It’s not a racial thing. He’s no crazier than Kucinich. But at least Kucinich has done something in elective office, if only bankrupt a city.”

On John F’ing Kerry, who, btw, served in Vietnam: “He’s the only candidate you just know for sure would be a terrible president – indecisive, vain, out-of-touch and incapable of rising to the occasion. Dean, Lieberman and Gephardt all strike me as men who could grow in the office. Not Kerry. He’s Gore, without the charm.”

The others got off with minor scrapes. The transcript, in its entire awfulness, is here.

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Note To Republicans

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If you ever wanted to know why Democrats make a lot of headway by labeling Republicans as foolish and spiteful, check out this idiotic ‘fisking’ of a John Lennon song that appeared in the Weekly Standard. Not some third rate blog, not the local indie rag, but a so called serious magazine.

Yes, Imagine was idiotic. But so was the Macarena. Your point, Mr. Engel?

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