This may be one of the greatest opening lines in blog history:
You got your French Fries, which are soaked in grease, and your French Toast, which is soaked in eggs, and your French Cooperation, which is soaked in sanctimony.
From the Kick them While
From the Kick them While they are Down Files:
Among them are new revelations about the tangled finances of the former president’s brother, Roger Clinton. In the course of the pardon investigation, committee lawyers uncovered unexplained deposits of hundreds of thousands of dollars in blank traveler’s checks in his bank account. They also found evidence that Clinton – a rock and roll singer, but never a terribly successful one – was paid enormous sums by foreign governments for performances overseas. And they discovered a $15,000 money transfer from Bill Clinton to his brother at a time when Roger Clinton faced growing pressure to tell authorities what he knew about the pardon matter.
Amusing and everything, but this is a non-issue anymore. Nothing will ever come of it, and this is the real Republican addiction- Clinton-bashing. Let them ooze their way into history, and quit having top journalists at major conservative journals wasting time on these issues. There is enough going on out there that really needs to be debated.
I do not know if
I do not know if there is global warming or not. I am inclined to believe that it is a possibility, but I can also see the arguments that are made that this is just a normal fluctation. Sometimes it seems like the debate is not really a debate, but a playground name-calling incident. At any rate, this just made me laugh. If this is not from the style over substance files, I do not know what is:
Kyoto is also unlikely to have much impact in stopping the effects of global warming, but nations should sign it anyway, says Dr. Robert Watson, chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the chief spokesman on climate change for the World Bank.
“Kyoto, as it is currently constructed, does send an important signal to governments and industry that there is a market for more energy-efficient … technologies,” Dr. Watson said yesterday in Ottawa. But without the United States as a signatory, it is difficult to see how the emissions-credit scheme might work for Canada, he said. “I can’t see how Canada can help meet its obligation by selling anything to the U.S., if the U.S. isn’t part of the protocol.”
Translation: Global warming is an important issue, but if you refuse to do exactly what we want, we will refuse any of your attempts to address the issue in a manner other than what we prescribe.
At least in this article, the scientists are admitting what they do not know, which is refreshing.
Dr. Watson acknowledged there is still much to learn about climate change, but said the world cannot wait for perfect knowledge before taking action.
“There are scientific uncertainties, but the weight of evidence suggests that we humans are responsible for most of the observed warming in the last 50 years. We believe that future climate change is inevitable and for most people in the world the impact will be negative.”
Or are they?
The impact of global warming in Canada is already apparent in the Arctic where ice thickness and coverage is being reduced, Dr. Watson said. Earth’s mean average temperature is expected to rise 1.4 degrees Centigrade to 5.8 degrees Centigrade by 2085.
“For many parts of Canada, the change in temperatures could be towards the upper 5, 6 to 7 degrees Centigrade — there is a huge amplification [in temperature effect] as you go north into the Arctic area,” Dr. Watson said.
Jonah Goldberg and the folks
Jonah Goldberg and the folks at the Corner are beginning to notice the Chris Matthews crack-up I have been talking about. Yes, that was a blatant attempt to pat myself on the back.
Andrea Harris, of Ye Old
Andrea Harris, of Ye Old Blogge, is the guest blogger on Fox today. We have a special affinity for Ms. Harris- she started this about the same time we did, and she was one of the very first to link yours truly.
Bravo, Andrea.
This is why irresponsible behavior
This is why irresponsible behavior by the American press is so loudly denounced by bloggers, and why it is ripped to shreds by respectable and reflective journalists like Matt Welch.
In today’s Arab News, we see a story titled Free at Last for a Global Power Play by William Pfaff. In this rambling expose of anti-Bush, anti-American sentiment, we learn that:
George W. Bush’s speech on Monday, on the half-year anniversary of the World Trade Towers and Pentagon attacks, provided a more coherent statement than we had yet had on the policy he is following.
The policy’s objective and limits nonetheless remain unclear, which adds to the impression that Washington’s new working assumption is the reverse of the Orwellian postulate that “war is peace.” For the United States now, or at least for the Bush administration, peace is war.
That is right. We are warmongers with an unclear policy, but a clear enough policy that this author can assert that our only goal is global hegemony and continuing warfare so as to justify a large increase in military spending.
What does this have to do with an irresponsible American press? Several paragraphs later, the author asserts:
None of this really fits together. The action-reaction proportions are all wrong.
This administration is making use of the Sept. 11 tragedy to do what the neoconservative right has wanted for a long time, which is to renounce inconvenient treaties, junk arms control, build and test nuclear weapons, attack Saddam Hussein and abandon multilateralism, cooperation with international organizations and compromise with allies, all in order to aggrandize American international power and deal expediently with those who challenge it.
Why does that sound familiar? Oh, that is right. This is taking Dana Milbank’s blatherings in the WaPo yesterday, propping them up and taking them as legitimate and true, and then using those specious arguments as an assault on American foreign policy.
When our mainstream, ‘respectable’ journalists are irresponsible and peddle nonsense, particularly nonsense veiled as insightful or as ‘constructive criticism,’ there are opportunists both at home and abroad who seize upon their legitimized absurd opinions and use them as a foundation for another layer of false truths and distortion of the status quo. Want some more examples?
Do a google search for the Marc Herold civilian casualty reports, and then look who uses those statistics the most.
Look for the hysterical (not in the funny way) column by the LA Times on March 9th (now a pay article) about the Nuclear Posture Review, and look at the fallout from the assorted cretins and rogue states from around the globe.
Go read this take-down by Matt Welch of the buffoons at the Chronicle.
I am not asking for censorship, and I will fight that to the very end. Why can our press not be as responsible as they are free?
More evidence that Chris Matthews
More evidence that Chris Matthews is losing his mind. Although I do agree a little bit with these comments. He is still going nuts, methinks.