The Economist has an interesting article about the downfall of Dan Rather and on blogging and the mainstream media in general, and for once it is an article that is neither a snide dismissal of weblogs nor a breathless ovation spouting absurd blogger triumphalism.
Intimidation
I don’t like Juan Cole one bit. I think he is arrogant, obnoxious, overtly partisan, and I believe his reflexes are honed to blame America and Israel for almost every possible world issue. If he has any idea who I am, he probably thinks I am as big a jerk.
You know what I like less than Juan Cole? Attempts to intimidate or silence him
I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel Yigal Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligence, now an official at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He threatened me with a lawsuit over blog comments I made here at Informed Comment, reprinted at anti-war.com. This technique of the SLAPP or Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation had already been pioneered by polluting industries against environmental activists, and now the pro-Likud lobby in the US has apparently decided to try it out against people like me.
I urge all readers to send messages of protest to [email protected]. Please be polite, and simply urge MEMRI, which has a major Web presence, to withdraw the lawsuit threat and to respect the spirit of the free sharing of ideas that makes the internet possible.
Remember for a second the most honest (perhaps the only ones words ever spoken by Larry Flynt:
“We have to tolerate things that we don’t necessarily like, so we can be free. Free press is not just freedom for the thought you love, but freedom for the thought you hate.”
It Hurts Because He Is Right
Tom Friedman is angry this Thanksgiving, and if you ask me, he has every damned right to be. You should be pissed, too, especially if you are a Republican:
In my next life, I want to be Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.
Yes, I want to get almost the entire Republican side of the House of Representatives to bend its ethics rules just for me. I want to be able to twist the arms of House Republicans to repeal a rule that automatically requires party leaders to step down if they are indicted on a felony charge – something a Texas prosecutor is considering doing to DeLay because of corruption allegations.
But most of all, I want to have the gall to sully American democracy at a time when young American soldiers are fighting in Iraq so we can enjoy a law-based society here and, maybe, extend it to others. Yes, I want to be Tom DeLay. I want to wear a little American flag on my lapel in solidarity with the troops, while I besmirch every value they are dying for.
If I can’t be Tom DeLay, then I want to be one of the gutless Republican House members who voted to twist the rules for DeLay out of fear that “the Hammer,” as they call him, might retaliate by taking away a coveted committee position or maybe a parking place.
Yes, I want to be a Republican House member. At a time when 180 of the 211 members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Iraq who have been wounded in combat have insisted on returning to duty, I want to look my constituents and my kids in the eye and tell them that I voted to empty the House ethics rules because I was afraid of Tom DeLay.
Simply inexcusable. I understand that Ronnie Earle is a partisan hack who has a history of political prosecution, but after all of DeLay’s shenanigans with redistricting and who knows what else, it was kinda hard not to see this coming. Now, for no reason whatsoever other than arrogance, DeLay and is minions (morons??) have given the Democrats the ability to tar all Republicans as hypocrites. And you know what? They may be on to something, even though the Democrats have no such rule themselves.
Happy Thanksgiving
I haven’t been blogging much lately, but I today should be a blogging extravaganza. I have the laptop next to the couch in front of the widescreen, and I intend to blog, eat, and watch football for 15 hours. Yeehaw! NFL for eight hours and then the Backyard Brawl, the annual grudge match between WVU and Pittsburgh. Go Eers!
At any rate, Happy Thanksgiving, and if you want to read an interesting story about immigrants and Thanksgiving, check this piece in the NY Times:
The desire to celebrate Thanksgiving was so strong for Leticia Maravilla, a Mexican immigrant, that she roasted her first turkey before she had her green card, struggling through a newspaper recipe in English.
“I wanted to do it the same way Americans did it,” she said, speaking from Los Angeles though an interpreter.
Ms. Maravilla ended up with the most American of problems. The breast meat was bone dry. Now, with several Thanksgivings under her belt, she has the culinary conundrum solved. Ms. Maravilla will simmer her turkey on the stove with garlic and onions before she roasts it, a little tip from her mother in Mexico City.
Thanksgiving, which began as a party for immigrants, remains the most accessible American holiday for many newcomers. It requires no specific religious or political allegiance. Even if an immigrant is from a culture where whole roast turkey is never on the menu – and that is nearly everywhere except North America – most are willing to give it a try.
Remember to be thankful and grateful today, and a special thanks to our heroes in combat overseas, but also remember how lucky we are to live in this country. We have our problems and our mistakes, but despite what the naysayers at home and abroad want us to believe, we are the greatest nation on earth. Just ask our newest citizens.
Election Fraud- Keeping the Myth Alive
Yesterday I had a few words to say about the damaging effect the false claims of voter suppression and election fraud were having on the country, and today I would like to provie you with several examples of how liberals keep the myth alive to support their own personal political agenda. You see- there is nothing to be gained from admitting that they simply lost the election. That would be tantamount to admitting failure, and would require introspection and self-examination. Hubris, villainization, and name-calling are much easier. The examples, from the last 24 hours:
1.) Kevin Drum in the Washington Monthly:
CONSPIRACY MONGERING….A close election? But one marred by voting irregularities? Mostly centered on Democratic precincts? And now a subject of conspiracy theories and demands for a recount?
Ah, it’s just a bunch of whiny Democrats. They should suck it up and accept the will of the people.
Unless, of course, they’re Republicans.
If Kevin was not a skilled political operative capable of much mischief, I would simply refer him to this website devoted to discussing the fallacy of false analogy. However, he understands the importance of disinformation campaigns, and that is the only reason he would throw something as absurd as this out in to the public sphere. For everyone, though, we will take this step by step:
False Analogy: In an analogy, two objects (or events), A and B are shown to be similar. Then it is argued that since A has property P, so also B must have property P. An analogy fails when the two objects, A and B, are different in a way which affects whether they both have property P.
Kevin links to this story, which details an election that was determined by a mere 32 votes, but which also contained up to 248 documented instances of voter irregularities:
State Rep. Talmadge Heflin asked the state House of Representatives today to overturn the results of his failed re-election bid and either order him returned to the Legislature or call for a new election.
Heflin’s attorney, Andy Taylor, said the election results in state House District 149 in southwest Harris County were fraught with voting irregularities and potential fraud, most of which occurred in predominantly Democratic precincts.
“The true outcome of this election was stolen from the voters in House District 149,” Taylor said Tuesday. “We will prove that Representative Talmadge Heflin was re-elected.”
Heflin, a Republican member of the House since 1983 and chairman of its Appropriations Committee, lost to Democratic businessman Hubert Vo by 32 votes earlier this month. But Heflin’s campaign alleges that those election results include at least 248 irregularities that could have altered the outcome…
Taylor said a review of county voting records from the Nov. 2 election shows that 101 voters were allowed to vote in the district illegally despite having moved out of Harris County. Twenty-seven voters were allowed to cast their ballots twice, he said
Liberals Who Hate Big Government
I find this post from the folks at Pandagon to be a bit puzzling:
You know, I wonder about the results of this poll. I watch news a good 6-7 hours a day, and read even more – between Iraq and Terrell Owens gettin’ a white lady, the FDA story barely got play. After Friday’s basketbrawl, it was over.
Did people even know that the FDA’s regulatory oversight is about as good as a drunk’s motor coordination?
As someone who usually holds most government agencies with little to no regard, I find it puzzling that Jesse refers to the FDA with such contempt. Granted, every time there is a food poisoning case 60 Minutes will run a shock and horror piece on how few Food Inspectors there are and that we are on the verge of a major food epidemic.
But, you know what? I am on the verge of a major food epidemic every day. But, gosh darn it, I keep washing my foods and keep washing my hands, cooking my meats thoroughly, and what do you know- crisis averted!
At any rate, the reason E. Coli and Mad Cow breakouts are such a big thing, and the reason VIOXX and Thalidomyde are so seared into our memory is because they are such rare events, and as such, are outliers to the norm.
If you factor in all that the FDA is responsible for, and the number of ways in which the FDA is involved with so many apsects of our lives, add to that the pressures and demands of consumers and big business and the tightrope the FDA must walk between the two of them, while also noting that quality food and drugs are available for market at mostly reasonable prices, and I would argue that it is difficult to view the FDA’s performance as anything less than a smashing success.
And yes, I know this post is going to get me on the Libertarian shit list.
The Cult of Victimhood
A federal judge denied a request by third-party presidential candidates who wanted to force a recount of Ohio ballots even before the official count was finished.
Judge James G. Carr in Toledo ruled Tuesday that the candidates have a right under Ohio law to a recount, but said it can wait. The judge wrote that he saw no reason to interfere with the final stages of Ohio’s electoral process. Officials have said the results will be certified by December 6.
This is, of course, going hand in hand with the race-baiting and fear-mongering led by John Conyers, Maxine Waters, and the usual suspects, who are doing everything they can to deligitimize the 2004 election. Their letter to the GAO:
“We write with an urgent request that the GAO immediately undertake an investigation of the efficacy of voting machines and new technologies used in the 2004 election, how election officials responded to the difficulties they encountered, and what we can do in the future to improve our election systems and administration.”
Particular concerns brought up are:
-The almost 4,000 votes awarded to Bush in Columbus, Ohio, reported by the AP, which was only noticeable because more votes were recorded in the precinct than there were registered voters.
-Votes lost on a local initiative in Florida because the computer could only store so many votes.
-Apx. 4,500 votes lost in one North Carolina county.
-A glitch in San Francisco computers which caused many votes to be uncounted.
-Florida’s anomalous results where only districts with touch screen voting had disproportionate votes for Bush than expected. This analysis has since
been duplicated by a UC Berkeley professor and others.-AP reports in Florida and Ohio of voters who stated when using touchscreens, when they selected “John Kerry,” that instead “George Bush” would appear on the screen.
-Long lines in urban Ohio areas, to the point where voters left in frustration after 8 or so hours. But that’s not all. The second letter, dated, November 8th, reported additional incidents.
-3,000 phantom votes were added by a Nebraska “vote tabulator” which doubled the votes.
-22,000 North Carolina votes which later had to be added because the computer initially discarded them due to system overload.
-21 voting machines in Broward County, Florida, malfunctioned, eliminating prior votes that had been cast on them in this most-Democratic county in the state.
-Warren County, Ohio’s, bogus refusal allow independent monitoring of vote counting based on a terrorist incident which turned out later to not exist.
-Malfunctioning vote cassettes in Palm Beach, FL.
-Boxes of absentee votes discovered after the election in a Broward County election office.
Notably, nine (9) out of the current 14 supporters are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). They are Barbara Lee (who is a leader of the Caucus), along with John Conyers, Jerold Nadler, Melvin Watt, Tammy Baldin, George Miller, John Olver, Bob Filner, and Jan Schakowsky. According to the CPC website, there are currently 55
congressional members on the Progressive Caucus. For a list of members, see: http://bernie.house.gov/pc/members.asp
No election is perfect, and were this an effort to truly aid the creation of an error and nusiance free electoral system, who would be against it. The fact of the matter is that this is not the intent. The intent is to whip up racial animosity, to encourage the myth that the election, ‘just like in 2000,’ was stolen, and that there was widespread vote fraud and voter disfranchisemnet.
The Democratic party, or at least the fringes of the party that I despise, has devolved from a coherent ideology to a melange of victims groups- a cult of victimhood that values propaganda over logic and reason.
You tell me- which is more damaging:
1.) Naturally ocurring and regrettable voter irregularities of no over-all significance in reghards to the outcome of an election.
2.) Systematic efforts by one party to convince large portions of the electorate that their vote did not count, will not count, and never will count because of evil, insidious plots designed to disenfranchise minorities and poor people.