Open Threads

That’s completely absurd. If an al Qaida attack on armed, uniformed, active-duty military personnel employed by a country that describes itself as “at war” with al Qaida is a terrorist attack, then everything is a terrorist attack. Indeed, what happened in Kuwait was almost the reverse of a terrorist attack. Which doesn’t make it okay. In fact, it was very bad. But it was very bad because al Qaida is a very bad organization with very bad goals and it would be a terrible thing if they accomplished those goals. Trying to seize some kind of procedural high-ground where we label their every action as some kind of illegitimate terrorist atrocity is both pointless and self-defeating. Bush needs to stand up and say what everybody knows

Matthew Yglesias writes: President BushPost + Comments

Singer Harry Belafonte said on Friday he stands by remarks likening Secretary of State Colin Powell to a plantation slave who is “serving his master well” but insisted he never meant to defame the former general.

“This was not a personal attack on Colin Powell,” Belafonte said in a statement issued through his New York-based publicist. “However … speaking on behalf of so many African American citizens, I have found Colin Powell to be a tragic failure.”

Open mouth, insert foot.

Repeat until out of credibility.

Jamaican Me Crazy, Harry! (viaPost + Comments

How long before terrorism like this in Finland swings a number of more countries firmly into the current administration’s line of thinking?

How long before the left-wing kooks and the Common Dreams crowd start to claim that the CIA and the Bush administration are behind these acts to manufacture support?

Two Questions: How long beforePost + Comments

Then it is just downright disgusting. I have not seen the ad (won’t run on my puter for some reason), but any claim that a triple amputee from combat wounds is ‘afraid’ to lead is enough to make my blood boil. The Chambliss campaign should be embarassed if this is as bad as what the write-ups I have read have stated, and Georgia voters should give him a nice swift kick in the ballot box.

Although the Dems seem to monopolize bad taste, the Republicans have some serious jackasses of their own.

I would rather have Republicans in control of the Senate (despite their loathesome stands on a number of issues), but I can’t support candidates that stoop to this level.

***Update***

For an example of the kind of things about Republicans that drive me up the damned wall, check out this quote (via Eschaton):

Christian Coalition leaders fired up the faithful Friday with a pro-Israel rally and a pitch to renew the group’s power by rousting out the vote in November for conservative candidates.

“If you don’t do it, it ain’t gonna be done,” he said. “You will be doing the Lord’s work, and he will richly bless you for it.”

There are a lot of good reasons to support Israel and to vote liberals out of office. The Lord ain’t one of ’em.

If This Is True (viaPost + Comments

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Friday he will not march in the Columbus Day parade because organizers have refused to let him bring actors from the hit television show “The Sopranos.” The Italian-American group Columbus Citizens Foundation, which has run the parade for 58 years, asked Bloomberg to rescind his invitation to two Sopranos cast members because it was “deeply offended by this program’s extremely negative and ugly stereotyping of our people.

Apparently no one has told Mayor Boomberg, the Nanny of New York, that some of the Sopranos characters smoke. He’d probably march without them if he knew that.

New York Mayor Will NotPost + Comments