New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday that whoever wins the presidency in November, “at least we’ll have an adult in office who can lead and accomplish something.”
Archives for April 2008
The Debate
It sure seemed weird that the moderators of a Democratic primary debate picked up interrogation tips from Sean Hannity. Is this some sort of aberration for ABC? A self-described industry insider at Kos says no.
I have had, over the years, some interactions with top ABC executives. At a funeral, the then-president of the network stormed off after we got into a discussion of the Iran/Contra scandal. He declared that Bill Casey was “the greatest patriot this country has ever known” (George Washington, Abe Lincoln, FDR, MLK… chopped liver compared to Casey), who apparently did the country a great service by undermining the constitution.
In short, last night’s debate was not so much a change in the media’s outlook, but rather a change in that ABC no longer feels the need to maintain any pretense of objectivity and wisdom.
Is the guy right that ABC is run by right wing nuts who describe selling arms to Iran as the height of patriotism? How the hell should I know. But I think it is a funny coincidence that ABC is the same network that paid an acknowledged rightwing activist to direct a comically slanted “documentary” that blamed Clinton’s penis for 9/11. The handling of that episode by ABC News (advance screenings for conservative pundits only, fabrications and known myths all knocking Democrats, no pet goat, etc etc) demonstrated as well as any story could that the network’s executives have a personal slant only a few degrees removed from horizontal.
The partisan disease doesn’t permeate ABC News like it does over at FOX; nonetheless whatever recessed boil produced Path to 9/11 clearly hasn’t gone away. It won’t shock me if the stakes/pressure of this election kick out a few more embarrassments on the same level as yesterday’s “debate.”
Thursday Open Thread
I got nothing.
*** Update ***
There is this:
If the terrorists are smart, they will give up on trying to attack us and just sit back and wait, because eventually our entire country is going to be so stupid that people will start sticking their tongues in wall sockets just to see what electricity tastes like.
Hrmm.
Posting It Before John Does
Scientific conferences are now happening inside World of Warcraft. That should help with travel costs, but on the downside it’s harder to get smashed and wake up in a competitor’s hotel room*.
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(*) Seriously, the bar is the most underrated part of a conference. Sex isn’t even an essential point – I missed out on that part, but I did get propositioned once, for a postdoc job. Both of us were Dan Rather plus eight (i.e., not sober) and we’d had one of those free-ranging, loopy scientific conversations that can’t happen in front of a poster or during the Q&A after a talk. That’s also why small conferences are more productive than the mega-attendance kind – most of the important people all go to the same bar.
While We’re Talking About Basra
America has the awesomest allies.
He was not deserting his men, the Iraqi Army captain insisted Wednesday. He had left his 70 soldiers in the midst of a battle in Sadr City the day before to take his long-overdue three-day break.
The captain, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said he intended to extend the break to five days, maybe longer. He had not been paid in two months and was overwhelmed by the problems of commanding his company, part of the 1st Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division. He was considering not going back to the fight in Sadr City.
At least they can dance.
Shenanigans
This is interesting.
Petraeus carefully dodged a question from Sen. Hillary Clinton about what resources he was planning to deploy to Basra and over what length of time.
Clinton evidently suspected that the plan envisioned the deployment of U.S. troops on a large scale in the Shiite south, despite the fact that the Iraqi government is supposed to be responsible for security there. Petraeus responded vaguely that it was “a phased plan over the course of a number of months during which different actions were going to be pursued.”
[…] When Vice President Dick Cheney, who had previously played the “bad cop” in the George W. Bush administration’s relations with al-Maliki, visited Baghdad in mid-March, one of his objectives was to get al-Maliki to go along with the Petraeus plan to eliminate the commanding position of Sadr’s forces in Basra. Al-Maliki has told Iraqi officials that Cheney put pressure on him to go along with the Basra operation, according one Iraqi source.
[…] The Cheney visit apparently mobilised al-Maliki, but not in the way Cheney had intended.
Four days later, when Petraeus met with al-Maliki’s national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie to talk about the U.S. campaign plan for Basra, al-Rubaie warned Petraeus that al-Maliki had a different plan. Petraeus was apparently told that the operation would last from a week to 10 days — not the several months envisioned in the Petraeus plan.
A major, bloody offensive would make a great prop for bashing Democrats with. The public would obviously hate seeing more kids die, but it takes a kind of Democrat that we don’t have to go on promising withdrawal in the middle of a pitched battle. In the current political climate a shooting battle, even one that we’re losing (maybe especially one that we’re losing) could do wonders for a hawkish Republican candidate.
And when would that battle take place? The story said that Petraeus planned to begin around mid-summer. It also said that the operation would take a few months. Mid-summer, plus a few months, puts us in…October. Surprise!
Hillary Was In Her Element
Yes, she was:
Donate here. I just sent another $25.00.
And, in memory of George:
There goes another $25.00. Give till the Hillbots squeal.