My brother, after the BoSox manager left Pedro in through that painful 8th inning, stated:
“They are not cursed- they are stupid.”
*** Update ***
Yankees won. Grady Little should be jobless before his plane lands in Beantown.
John Cole started Balloon Juice early in 2002. Those who have followed along know that this has been quite the journey.
by John Cole| 5 Comments
This post is in: Sports
My brother, after the BoSox manager left Pedro in through that painful 8th inning, stated:
“They are not cursed- they are stupid.”
*** Update ***
Yankees won. Grady Little should be jobless before his plane lands in Beantown.
by John Cole| 9 Comments
This post is in: Democratic Stupidity
Allan Colmes, the liberal half of Hannity and Colmes, just made Zack Exley, a smirking, condescending twerp from MoveOn.Org, look like an utter fool and a babbling idiot on national television. I can’t wit for the transcripts. Exley did not have one serious respnse to Colme’s questions, and instead had all sorts of cutesy words and phrases like ‘misunderestimated,’ etc.
In other words, it was like listening to Alec Baldwin without the acting talent.
by John Cole| 4 Comments
This post is in: Politics
Not sure what to make of this, but I notice that my referral logs show a number of hits from John Kerry’s blog. Oddly enough, it was not simply a mistake.
Also, it is important to note that Kerry has posted an explanation on his blogsite why he is against the 87 billion request for Iraq. it is the standard DNC boilerplate:
The best way to support our troops and take the target off their backs is with a real strategy to win the peace in Iraq – not by throwing $87 billion at George Bush’s failed policies. I am voting ‘no’ on the Iraq resolution to hold the President accountable and force him finally to develop a real plan that secures the safety of our troops and stabilizes Iraq.
The Administration has wasted every opportunity to build an international coalition in Iraq.
They sure are sticking to the talking points- they still think there is no plan, and they still refuse to admit there is an international coalition. The unanimous Security Council vote today probably really pissed them off, but why let reality get in the way of rhetoric.
With our soldiers dying on a daily basis, the President needs to change course. But rather than putting in place a real plan, he has spent months drifting and zigzagging.
From dictionary.com:
dai
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: Politics
For some reason, Steve Verdon keeps treating the DU folks as if they are worthy of serious debate.
by John Cole| 9 Comments
This post is in: Politics
A grown-up Democrat does the right thing- which means there is no chance in hell he will win the nomination:
Democrat Dick Gephardt, siding with President Bush on his $87 billion request for Iraq and Afghanistan, pledged Wednesday to finance the war on terrorism even if that posture undercuts his presidential bid or ensures budget deficits for years to come.
“We’re in a military situation, we’ve got a lot of foreign obligations, we’re fighting terrorism in many places around the world, we’ve got homeland security needs,” the former House minority leader said. “In light of that, I don’t think it’s possible to get to a balanced budget.”
In an hourlong interview with Associated Press editors and reporters, Gephardt criticized Bush’s postwar policy in Iraq, but argued that it would be irresponsible to vote against reconstruction money for two war-torn nations.
“I think we’ve got to send the right signal to our troops in the field, and we’ve got to send the right signal to people in Iraq who both don’t want us to succeed and do want us to succeed,” Gephardt said.
For years I railed against Gephardt when he was in a leadership position, and it is clear now how loyal a Democrat he was. Clearly, he does not believe the crap that the far left flank of his party tries to advance, but he did it because it was his job in the leadership. That is the only way I can explain his having morphed over the last 12-14 months into a respectable moderate Democrat.
by John Cole| 10 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
The economy continues to improve:
The U.S. jobs market is showing signs of improvement and inflation remains low in the economy outside the energy sector, government reports on Thursday said.
The number of Americans filing an initial claim for jobless benefits fell last week to the lowest level since early February, the Labor Department said, a hopeful sign for job seekers.
Underlying inflation, stripping out volatile food and energy costs rose 0.1 percent in September, in line with expectations. Over the last 12 months, the core CPI has risen just 1.2 percent, the smallest increase since February 1966, the department said.
“By and large these numbers so far today show a strong economy,” said Pierre Ellis, senior international economist at Decision Economics.
First-time filings for state unemployment aid fell 4,000 last week to 384,000 from the previous week. The number was broadly in line with analysts’ expectations that claims would be 388,000.
“The jobless numbers were certainly encouraging. We got a decline and it suggests that the labor market is recovering,” said Parul Jain, Nomura Securities International.
It was the second week in a row that claims came in under 400,000. Economists say claims above 400,000 suggest a deteriorating jobs market.
Why does it always seem that bad news for Democrats is good news for the rest of the country?
*** Update ***
Of course, Atrios shows why he continues to be a dishonest, semi-literate hack:
Congratulations to the 384K new jobless, and the 6K who we missed last week.
Moderately good news, or at least not horribly bad news.
by John Cole| 2 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Yet another crushing defeat for the US diplomatic corps:
The Security Council voted unanimously today to adopt a resolution on the future of Iraq, handing the United States a major diplomatic victory in its campaign to gather wider international contributions of troops and money for the rebuilding effort.
In a press conference after the 10:50 a.m. vote, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell called the action “a great achievement for the entire Security Council to come together again in this manner.”
Russia, France and Germany, all of which opposed the war and had been threatening to abstain from today’s vote, agreed to back the measure, saying they were acting in the interest of council unity.