Saturday, November 05, 2005

 

Observation of the Day

[Dick Morris] shot to real fame in the 1990s when a beleaguered Bill Clinton brought him into the White House to rescue his presidency from oblivion. Morris came up with the “triangulation” strategy, a wholly cynical and brilliantly successful gambit of politically positioning the President equidistant between Democrats and Republicans
....

But, in the process, Morris fell out badly with Hillary Clinton. In those days she had some principles....

—Gerard Baker in his review of CONDI vs. HILLARY: The Next Great Presidential Race by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
 

 

Opinion of the Day

I don't think there is any inclination or desire in the leadership in this administration to withdraw militarily from Iraq at any time in the future.
—Former President Jimmy Carter as quoted by David Cook
 

Thursday, November 03, 2005

 

When a sense of humor can be critical (updated)

The Scotsman reports that—
Belgian police have arrested a Flemish woman for calling her Walloon husband "lazy."

The man claimed his wife was being racist when she called him "a lazy Walloon, a slave and an inferior creature."

Many men might resort, when dealing with their consort, to the alliterated retort:

Why you Belgian beldam! You wad of Flemish phlegm!"

Sometimes that ends it; sometimes they get smacked.


6:18 pm

Speaking of getting smacked.... Husband-abuse is breaking out across Europe. A later item in the Scotsman reveals

SUN editor Rebekah Wade has been arrested for assaulting her EastEnders star husband Ross Kemp.

The 37-year-old is in police custody and Kemp, 41, who plays a hardman in the soap, is said to have a cut lip.
....

Ms Wade has edited the Sun, the UK's biggest-selling daily newspaper since 2003, and has campaigned against domestic violence.

And then there was the killer newspaper carrier in Tulsa, who confessed to two murders last week. More are feared.

Do you think the media can be trusted?

 

Idiotic Poll Finding of the Day

One in four Americans — 24 percent — did not yet know enough about [Supreme Court nominee Alito] to make a judgment.
—Finding from a Washington Post–ABC News poll
 
 

Mindbender of the Day

The fact there hasn't been an attack here is great news. But it is beginning to have a negative aspect to it, which is complacency. It is very hard to get the appropriations that we need ... for reducing our vulnerabilities here at home under these circumstances. We have not done a very good job of reducing our vulnerabilities here at home.
— Richard Clarke, author of Against All Enemies and advisor to the National Security Council on counterterrorism on 9/11/01, as quoted by David Cook

Putting aside the thought that the absence of an attack on the U.S. is anything but great news, the problem for the American public is neither complacency nor lack of appropriations for security. The problem is that the vast sums already appropriated have been criminally mishandled, mismanaged, and mispent.

Until that golden morn when those crimes are investigated and the culpable government and corporate heads are displayed about the public square, there will be little progress in implementing plans to protect the country. In their stead we will be offered the ersatz security of the continuing elimination of our civil liberties.
 

 

Hope of the Day

What's unprecedented about this war is how fast support is eroding. —John Mueller writing in "Why this unpopular war has no tipping point"
 
 

Heading of the Day

Still waiting for capitalism to work
From Howard LaFranchi's "Clash of visions for Latin America" in the CS Monitor

One glaring problem for the Bush vision is that the economic model the president is selling has not lifted the masses of the population during the roughly two decades it has been applied. Economies are growing, but income gaps that make Latin America the world's least equitable region have not closed. Tens of millions of people live on less than $2 a day, while unemployment averages more than double the US rate and a majority of new jobs are created in the black market.

Related post
My detail's bigger than your detail (9/23/05)

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

 

Censorship of the Day

The Washington Post is not publishing the names of the Eastern European countries involved in the covert [CIA] program, at the request of senior U.S. officials. They argued that the disclosure might disrupt counterterrorism efforts in those countries and elsewhere and could make them targets of possible terrorist retaliation. —Dana Priest in "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons"
 

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

 

Vituperations of the Rich and Famous

Steve Ballmer

From the sworn affidavit of Mark Lucovsky, former Microsoft engineer (via One Stop Thought Shop)—

Prior to joining Google, I set up a meeting on or about November 11, 2004 with Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss my planned departure....At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: "Just tell me it's not Google." I told him it was Google.

At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google."

Karl Rove

From an account by journalist Ron Suskind—

Inside, Rove was talking to an aide about some political stratagem in some state that had gone awry and a political operative who had displeased him. I paid it no mind and reviewed a jotted list of questions I hoped to ask. But after a moment, it was like ignoring a tornado flinging parked cars. "We will fuck him. Do you hear me? We will fuck him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever fucked him!" As a reporter, you get around—curse words, anger, passionate intensity are not notable events—but the ferocity, the bellicosity, the violent imputations were, well, shocking. This went on without a break for a minute or two. Then the aide slipped out looking a bit ashen, and Rove, his face ruddy from the exertions of the past few moments, looked at me and smiled a gentle, Clarence-the-Angel smile. "Come on in."

Bill O'Reilly

From the sexual harrassment complaint filed by Andrea Makris against Fox News' Bill O'Reilly—

If you cross FOX NEWS CHANNEL, it's not just me, it's ... Roger Ailes who will go after you. I'm the street guy out front making loud noises about the issues, but Ailes operates behind the scenes, strategizes and makes things happen so that one day BAM! The person gets what's coming to them but never sees it coming. Look at Al Franken, one day he's going to get a knock on his door and life as he's known it will change forever. That day will happen, trust me.

And then there's always—

If any woman ever breathed a word I'll make her pay so dearly that she'll wish she'd never been born. I'll rake her through the mud, bring up things in her life and make her so miserable that she'll be destroyed. And besides, she wouldn't be able to afford the lawyers I can or endure it financially as long as I can. And nobody would believe her, it'd be her word against mine and who are they going to believe? Me or some unstable woman making outrageous accusations. They'd see her as some psycho, someone unstable. Besides, I'd never make the mistake of picking unstable crazy girls like that.

Monday, October 31, 2005

 

Quote of the Day

Politics is as it is not because of the nature of politics but because of the nature of people. To expect the practice of politics to be somehow nobler than your own workplace or community organisation, to expect politicians to be better and more virtuous than you yourself are, is to guarantee disappointment.
—Australian Senator John Faulkner in 2005 Henry Parkes Lecture
 

Sunday, October 30, 2005

 

Accident

It looks as if I'm going to have one arm in a sling for a few weeks, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to write. Am exploring the possibilities now. Normally it would be my ass in a sling, which doesn't seem to make any difference.

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