(Photo: Phil Compton, Midwest bureau)
9.13.2008
The Wikipedia doctrine
Just for the record.
The Bush Doctrine is a journalistic term used to describe some foreign policy principles of United States president George W. Bush, enunciated in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Scholars identify seven different "Bush Doctrines," including the notion that states that harbor terrorists should be treated no differently than terrorists themselves, the willingness to use a "coalition of the willing" if the United Nations does not address threats, the doctrine of preemptive war, and the president's second-term "freedom agenda".[1]
[From Bush Doctrine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
The first usage of the term may have been when conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer used the term in February 2001 to refer to the president's unilateral approach to national missile defense well before September 11th.[2][3]
I'm starting to feel like I'm defending the bad guys here and I don't like that but, damn, when we have so many really important questions to be asking why do we persist in yipping about trivia? There really is no "Bush Doctrine," Charlie.
Let's get on with it.
9.12.2008
Why wait?
PR Watch - Sears has entered into a first-ever deal with the United States military to market a new line of officially sanctioned, military-styled clothing to men, women and boys. The military has officially licensed a "soldier chic" line of clothing to Sears called the "All American Army Brand First Infantry Division" collection.
[From UNDERNEWS: SEARS TO START SELLING LINE OF OFFICIAL U.S. MILITARY GARB]
All right!
Zach Patton, Governing - Crystalball clairvoyants of St. Johnsbury, Vermont: Rejoice! You can once again practice your sooth-saying gifts without fear of recrimination:
Soothsaying might still be banned in some parts of the country, but St. Johnsbury has repealed the ordinance against peering into the future that it had on the books since 1966.
[From UNDERNEWS: THE PROPRIETY OF PROGNOSIS]
The line forms over there. No, I won't be in it, but still. Apparently there are lots of laws in various places that apply to fortune telling, at least of the freelance variety.
No, Bunky, it will never end
Some schools have no problem with chest-baring boys or sports bra-wearing girls appearing at football games. Others say it's OK for boys, not for girls. And some say body painting is fine for the sprawl of an outdoor stadium, but not for the confines of a gym.
[From Shirtless cheering at sporting events raises eyebrows in suburban schools -- chicagotribune.com]
Just get used to it.
Oh, right
So I guess that worked out, then. Which is good because things would get way confusing if it hadn't.
IF YOU ARE reading this editorial over breakfast, and neither you nor your raisin bran has been sucked into a black hole, the worst fears about the Large Hadron Collider have not yet been realized.
And who would be around to appreciate the strangeness and sadness?
It would be strange and sad if, in the course of establishing how and why matter emerged out of nothingness, an experiment were to consume a planetful of people who might be interested in the answer.
[From Accelerator anxiety - The Boston Globe]
The cruelest cut
NEW YORK (AP) -- John McCain is mocked as an out-of-touch, out-of-date computer illiterate in a television commercial out Friday from Barack Obama as the Democrat begins his sharpest barrage yet on McCain's long Washington career....
At least he wouldn't lose so many emails. That's something.
But wait...
That's kind of cool. I had an outdated computer in the early '80s too. Not to mention a suit. And a clunky phone (dude I had a cell phone so clunky I had to haul it around in the trunk of my car). No glasses, though. Those were the days, eh?
The newest ad showcasing their hard line includes unflattering footage of McCain at a hearing in the early '80s, wearing giant glasses and an out-of-style suit, interspersed with shots of a disco ball, a clunky phone, an outdated computer and a Rubik's Cube.
[From East Valley Tribune | Daily Arizona News for Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale]
I'm kind of looking forward to seeing this. I wonder what kind of computer it is.
9.11.2008
Ahhh...just thought of that?
The Homeland Security Department will put all incoming air cargo through radiation detectors at the nation's airports to try to prevent terrorists from smuggling radioactive bombs into the U.S.
[From U.S. scans incoming air cargo - USATODAY.com]
The bridge
Of all the presidential candidates, Barack Obama has the longest track record of supporting the "Bridge to Nowhere" -- he supported it before Sarah Palin even ran for governor. In 2005, Barack Obama voted for the final Highway Reauthorization Bill that included $223 million for the "Bridge to Nowhere." Unlike John McCain who instantly highlighted the "Bridge to Nowhere" in a press release the day the bill was passed, Barack Obama did not have the political courage to stand up to wasteful earmarks and only did when he started to run for president. Barack Obama's most egregious support for the "Bridge to Nowhere" came in October 2005 when he voted against stripping $125 million in funding from the bridge to fund rebuilding a bridge in New Orleans.
[From Palin, bridge to nowhere and earmarks. Memo from the RNC - Lynn Sweet]
Yes, Bunky, they really were in bed with Big Oil
WASHINGTON - Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties partied, had sex with and accepted golf and ski outings from employees of energy companies they were dealing with, federal investigators said Wednesday.
[From Gov't officials investigated for sex, gifts - Yahoo! News]
9.10.2008
Exactly
What Obama knew or should have known (as lawyers say) was that even using the word "lipstick" could be taken as a reference about Palin since she just used the word last week at the GOP convention to define herself.
[From Obama says Palin lipstick remark flap a "made up controversy" - Lynn Sweet]
Speaking as a fish...
...very nearly as old as McCain, I do not appreciate being told I'll stink in eight years, change or no change, thank you very much.
Obama: "You Can Put Lipstick On A Pig - It's Still A Pig... You Can Wrap An Old Fish In A Piece Of Paper Called Change, It's Still Gonna Stink After Eight Years"
[From Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post]
And speaking as a fish who's voted Democrat for nigh onto half a century I call bullshit on the lipstick gag too, no matter Obama's staff and corps of sycophantic bloggers (the very gang that was shocked - shocked! - by a satyric New Yorker cover only a few short weeks ago) now protest it's a hoary old joke that's been repeated many times, yes, of course, of course, but this time it was a clear reference to Sarah Palin and everybody there knew it, and you know it and I know it too. And that stinks, and it stinks right now.
The Democrats disappoint.
A cautionary tale
Experience promises to be something of a central question in this critical debate between Palin, 44, and Biden, 65, at Washington University in St. Louis - just as it was 20 years ago, when a young Republican ,Dan Quayle of Indiana, 41 at the time, stood alongside the elder Democrat Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, then 67, in Omaha....
"I have far more experience than many others that sought the office of vice president of this country. I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency." [said Quayle]...
To which Bentsen replied: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy...''
But what's also best remembered about that encounter between the seasoned old senator from Texas and the young turk from Indiana is that the Democratic ticket of Bentsen and Michel Dukakis lost, and George H.W. Bush and Quayle won the White House. Held it only a term, but won it nonetheless.
[From Palin-Biden, Quayle-Bentsen: A repeat?: The Swamp]
9.09.2008
Oh no, not the lunches!
After breaking with his party in 2006, running for reelection as an Independent, and speaking at the Republican convention on behalf of John McCain, Sen. Joseph Lieberman will no longer attend the Senate Democratic policy lunches held each Tuesday.
[From Lieberman done with Democratic lunches: The Swamp]
Dude, that's soooo cold. OK, it's not as bad as being sent to bed without your dinner, but still. I guess nobody'll try to fool those Democrats again, after this.
From our Midwest bureau...
...which is no longer in California but down around Georgia somewhere, I don't know, it's a very, very big mid. Also a very serious looking bird.(Photo: Phil Compton)
Oh, right, almost forgot
The world ends tomorrow, somewhere around 3:15 PM. That would be Eastern Time, I suppose, although under the circumstances the exact time zone doesn't matter all that much.
Why the Earth could end when the new collider fires up
[From Why the Earth could end when the new collider fires up -- chicagotribune.com]
Or, maybe not. Says US physicist Steve Giddings:
"There were already very strong physics arguments that there is no risk from hypothetical micro black holes, and we've provided additional arguments ruling out risk even under very bizarre hypotheses."
[From Physics expert: European collider is safe - UPI.com]
So OK then. Arguments. That ought to do it, then.
Me? I'm not worried. Although I don't think I'll pay my electric bill until Thursday.
Experience is all - or not
To suggest that Obama and Palin are historical anomalies is, well, ignorant of history.
[From Experience shows Obama and Palin fit right in - The Boston Globe]
Boston Globe's Washington bureau chief Peter S. Canellos runs down the experience of previous presidential candidates, including Alton B. Parker (whaaat?), FDR, Jimmy Carter, Taft, Hoover, and Ike. And does anybody remember Sargent Shriver?
9.08.2008
Oh yeah, they're right on top of things all right
Scholars and open government advocates, though, are sounding the alarm that Cheney, perhaps the most secretive and influential vice president ever, who entered government service during Richard Nixon's administration, could be returning to Tricky Dick's disdain for open government.
[From The Raw Story | Scholar: Cheney secrecy laying groundwork for possible 'history heist']
Could be returning? Dude. Please.
Cheney could be, say said scholars and advocates, planning to flout (flout!) the Presidential Records Act. Like, who would imagine? Cheney? Flout?
(Isn't that a great word? Flout?)
9.07.2008
From "Empire Burlesque"...
In other words, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will uphold the machtpolitik principle that has replaced Constitutional government in the United States: leaders cannot be punished for even the most egregious high crimes -- aggressive war, torture, tyranny. Not one of the principal perpetrators of the crimes that we have all seen committed before our eyes in the last few years will be punished, or face even the slightest discomfort or dishonor. Not one.
[From Chris Floyd Online - Cave Dwellers: Biden Backs Down From Any Pursuit of Bush Crime]
...pretty much the only blog left that's not obsessively yipping about Sara Palin, pro or con, and worth dropping in now and then to read.
It's not about the resumes, Obama says
"This whole resume contest that is going back and forth is not what America has been looking for.''
[From Obama: 'Resume contest' irrelevant: The Swamp]
Which, come to think of it, is probably a pretty good line to remember if you're looking for a job yourself.
So then. Now that's settled, I'm thinking of running myself. Don't laugh. Last time I stood for electoral office I waged a brilliant write-in campaign and got 100% of the vote. Sure, I mine was the only name on the ballot. And there were only six people eligible to vote for Democratic Precinct Committeman. And two didn't show.
Oh, wait. That's sort of a resume thing, isn't it. OK, forget about it then.
The question
ST. PAUL—The America here has no suffering middle class to speak of, just like the America in Denver barely sweats terrorist threats.
In Denver's America, George Bush is the president, he's a Republican, and almost everything is his fault. In St. Paul's America, liberals are running and ruining the country, and some guy named George makes a brief cameo from a video screen, never to be heard from again.
Americans in St. Paul worry about rising taxes and swelling welfare rolls; in Denver, they worry about global warming and people without health insurance. There are Iraq Wars in both places, but one is a rousing success and the other a colossal mistake.
John McCain and Barack Obama both accepted their parties' presidential nominations—McCain in St. Paul on Thursday, Obama in Denver the week before — with pledges to unite the country. But which country, exactly, would that be?
[From 2 Americas, a world apart -- chicagotribune.com]
Exhausted by all the politics?
Here's a suggestion from the Dull Men's Club.
play the thesaurus game, where you look up a word. then look up the third synonym listed. on this page look up the new third. see how long it takes to go full circle.
[From Safe Excitement]
Woohoo!
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