Dave Cullen discusses the Jack Ryan scandal (via Talk Left).
And, by all means, read Cullen’s Columbine Almanac. Everything you think you know about Columbine- well, you are wrong.
Archives for 2004
The Democrat’s Intellectual and Spiritual Leader
David Brooks on the man the Democrats are embracing with open arms:
Like Hemingway, Moore does his boldest thinking while abroad. For example, it was during an interview with the British paper The Mirror that Moore unfurled what is perhaps the central insight of his oeuvre, that Americans are kind of crappy.
“They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet . . . in thrall to conniving, thieving smug [pieces of the human anatomy],” Moore intoned. “We Americans suffer from an enforced ignorance. We don’t know about anything that’s happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing…”
In the days after Sept. 11, while others were disoriented, Moore was able to see clearly: “We, the United States of America, are culpable in committing so many acts of terror and bloodshed that we had better get a clue about the culture of violence in which we have been active participants…”
In an open letter to the German people in Die Zeit, Moore asked, “Should such an ignorant people lead the world?” Then he began to reflect on things economic. His central insight here is that the American economy, like its people, is pretty crappy, too: “Don’t go the American way when it comes to economics, jobs and services for the poor and immigrants. It is the wrong way.”
I wonder if any Democrats have ever read the Rime of the Ancient Mariner?
The Democrat’s Intellectual and Spiritual LeaderPost + Comments (9)
New Alliance
You just knew this was going to happen (via Dean Esmay):
I guess we are just going to have to keep mocking some Democrats until they grow up and understand what fascists really are and what they really think. I sitll can’t believe the mainstream press has not called Gore on his remarks.
Funny place, Washington, DC. Only place I know where a man can call you a war profiteer, a war mongerer, and a liar, and then try to cozy up and be your best buddy, and when you tell him to “Go fuck himself,” you are seen as wrong.
Funny town, indeed.
Zach Exley
The Instapundit has a post up in which he notes the incredibly dishonest Memo from Mary Beth Cahill about the GOP’s “Coalition of the Wild-Eyed,” and readers point out that it is rather amusing to watch the Kerry campaign trying to distance themselves from MoveOn, Michael Moore, and the DU, when the DU is linked to the Kerry web site, a former front man for MoveON is now Kerry’s Director of Internet Operations.
Zach Exley is the fringe left, and has been traveling in loony left circles for years. How many of you remember “Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President?” A lot of you probably don’t, because it was written by James Hatfield, who claimed any number of bizarre things in the book. Hatfield’s chief claim to fame was his charge that Bush had been arrested for possession of cocaine, but his father’s powerful ties interfered and cleared the whole things up.
That is ground zero for the cocaine rumors. Unfortunately, it turns out that the author is a fraud and a two-time felon, and after numerous things in the book did not check out, St. Martin’s Press stopped printing and issued a recall. A small fringe publishing company, Soft Skull Press, then picked up the book.
The documentary “Horns And Halos” films the lunatic running Soft Skull, a chap named Sander Hicks, and James Hatfield running around trying to get the book published. Featured several times in the film is a mutual friend who gives advice. That mutual friend is none other than Zach Exley.
At any rate, Front Page has a lot more on the ‘colorful’ Mr. Exley.
The point of this post, btw, is not to limit who people speak with- that is fine. If John Kerry and Terry McAuliffe want to be at the Fahrenheit 9/11 premiere, fine. Freedom of speech and freedom of association. If John Kerry wants to hire Zach Exley- fine. But that doesn’t mean I have to forget that he refused to disavow the Hitler MoveOn commercials. That doesn’t mean I can’t point out all the outrageous things Moore has said and done.
Just quit pissing down my leg and telling me it is raining.
So Predictable
I told you they would try to do it. I told you they would watch the new Bush video and squeal because they would misinterpret it and think they were being compared to Nazi’s. Not only are they stupid, but they are predictable. At any rate, here is the GOP official response, which says just about everything I have to say:
On Thursday, the campaign launched a web video titled Kerry’s Coalition of the Wild-eyed. The video featured Democrats who support John Kerry making negative and baseless attacks against the President. Interspersed in the video were segments of two ads that appeared on a website sponsored by MoveOn.org – a group campaigning for Kerry – in January.
On Friday night, John Kerry’s campaign denounced our use of these ads, and called that use “disgusting.”
The Kerry campaign says, “The use of Adolf Hitler by any campaign, politician or party is simply wrong.”
We agree. These ads, like much of the hate-filled, angry rhetoric of Kerry’s coalition of the Wild-eyed, are disgusting.
– Where was John Kerry’s disgust when he hired Zack Exley – the man responsible for encouraging the production of these ads as part of a MoveOn contest – to run the Kerry campaign’s internet operation?
– Where was John Kerry’s sense of outrage when Al Gore, just yesterday afternoon, compared the Bush Administration to the Nazis saying, “The Administration works closely with a network of ‘rapid response’ digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for ‘undermining support for our troops.'”
– Where was John Kerry’s anger when Al Gore in May spoke of “Bush’s Gulag”?
– Why has John Kerry not denounced billionaire and Democrat Party donor George Soros for comparing the Bush Administration to Nazis. Soros stated, “When I hear Bush say, ‘You’re either with us or against us,’ it reminds me of the Germans. It conjures up memories of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind Hort mit (‘The enemy is listening’).”
– Why has Kerry not spoken out against filmmaker Michael Moore who last October compared the Patriot Act to Mein Kampf. “The Patriot Act is the first step. ‘Mein Kampf’ – ‘Mein Kampf’ was written long before Hitler came to power.”
We created this web video to show the depths to which these Kerry supporters will sink to win in November.
Is this the Democratic Party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who reassured his countrymen we have nothing to fear but fear itself?
No. This is John Kerry’s Coalition of the Wild-eyed, who have nothing to offer but fear-mongering.
Sincerely,
Ken Mehlman
Campaign Manager
No more apologies, no more backing down to their faux outrage. The Democrats have spent the last year lying about Iraq, lying about the way we went into Iraq, calling the President stupid, calling the vice-President a crook and a war-profiteer, lying about the economy, lying about the start of the recession, lying about asbestos in the water, and so on and so on.
The Leahy-Cheney dust-up really sums it all up. The Democrats think they can say and do anything they want, and then we will be chummy with them anyway. Finally, the gloves are off.
And- Get it through your thick heads- it was you who compared Bush to Hitler- all this commercial does, as Mehlman said, is demonstrate the depths to which Kerry supporters will sink. Think about that while you ar chewing your popcorn in Fahrenheit 9/11. You lie down with dogs…
*** Update ***
Not only are they unable to understand the commercial, they are lying about it:
Dear [Name Withheld],
Yesterday, the Bush-Cheney campaign, losing any last sense of decency, placed a disgusting ad called “The Faces of John Kerry’s Democratic Party” as the main feature on its website. Bizarrely, and without explanation, the ad places Adolf Hitler among those faces.
The Bush-Cheney campaign must pull this ad off of its website. The use of Adolf Hitler by any campaign, politician or party is simply wrong.
We sent you a fundraising plea earlier this morning. But when this came up, we decided it was important to show you just what we’re up against: a presidential campaign that is willing to do or say absolutely anything to win.
Oliver Is Confused Again
Oliver states:
It’s possible that he’s lying. But I think the poor dear just believes the stories Cheney & Co. are telling him:
“First of all, most of Europe supported the decision in Iraq. Really what you’re talking about is France, isn’t it? And they didn’t agree with my decision. They did vote for the U.N. Security Council resolution. … We just had a difference of opinion about whether, when you say something, you mean it.”
Flashback to Feb 2003: Polls find Europeans oppose Iraq war.
Unless Oliver is under the misguided impression that UN Security Council votes are now popular referendums in Europe, he has this ass-backwards. Resolution 1441, the last UN Security Council resolution to pass, passed unanimously. After the inspections were once again stalled, the administration proposed the eighteenth resolution, which would have been Resolution #1442. That was subsequently withdrawn because of Russian, German, Chinese, and French opposition, and would not have passed because of the positions of the permanent members.
In short, Bush was right, Oliver is wrong. Of the European nations, France and Germany were opposed (Germany presided over the council), Russia was ambivalent- against but willing to cooperate under certain circumstances, Bulgaira, Spain, and England were in favor.
Good Question
Which brings to mind a good question — why not require the entire country to take an introductory economics course? If everyone had to learn a little basic, non-calculus economics it seems to me that that would be a very worthwhile investment.
I agree- it would be great. Except the NEA would probably never allow it.
1.) No one will be able to agree what to teach in the course. Economics is just as politicized as everything else these days. I am sure Matt remembers the Truman quip:
“GIVE me a one-handed economist. All my economists say, ‘on the one hand…on the other.'”
2.) If there is going to be a national requirement for an introductory economics course, there will be the need to test the results of that course. This alone is enough to make the NEA oppose it, let alone the other issues that will arise. In between the wails that ‘We aren’t teaching the children to learn, but we are teaching to the test,’ claims that the test was racist or Euro-centric would arise, etc.
3.) What would you do if people failed the test?
4.) Can basic economic principles be taught to people in schools dominated with students who can not perform fundamental math or read at a 3rd grade level?
I think one of the problems with people like Matt is that he has had too good of an education- the Dalton School, Harvard. I am certain that if he is not already applying, in a few years he will be applying to and will be accepted to a prestigious graduate school to further his studies. And because he is that intelligent and will be that fortunate, he will never truly fathom what goes on in education departments around the country. He will never truly grasp the institutional inertia i public schools, never truly understand the NEA, never understand the built-in obstacles that impede ANY change in schools.
Having said all that, it still is a worthy goal.