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Friday, April 18, 2003
I saw a bunch of articles today about the ongoing battle between the Club for Growth and the Republican Main Street Partnership and Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) over tax cuts. The Club for Growth, a major Washington lobbist group, advocates cutting taxes as much as possible as fast as possible (for the growth of their clients' bank accounts, of course). The RMSP, composed of moderate Republicans such as Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine, John McCain of Arizona, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, is far more leery of throwing away so much government revenue when the budget is already falling apart, especially in a tax cut so narrowly tailored to benefit the wealthy. I mention all this mainly because I'd never heard of the RMSP before, and its membership roster reads like a laundry list of every politician I actually respect. I actually felt compelled to send them a congratulatory email. The way I see it, those guys are the only ones standing between us and a far-right catastrophe of historic proportions. | Thursday, April 17, 2003
Did you know Reebok made a whole series of shorts about Terry Tate: Office Linebacker? In case you missed it, the original Terry Tate spot was, according to many (read: me), the best commercial of this year's Super Bowl. I highly suggest you check it out. They do make you register, however; fortunately, it's just an email address they want. | Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Actor Tim Robbins, an outspoken antiwar activist who recently had an engagement at the Baseball Hall of Fame for the 15th anniversary of "Bull Durham" cancelled because of the hall's far-right director didn't want any damn peaceniks around, recently made a really surprisingly good speech at the National Press Corps in Washington. He talks about his hopes in the aftermath of 9/11 that the country would come out of the tragedy with a new unity and a sense of purpose, to build a better world out of the ashes of two towers destroyed by hate, and his distress "as our leader encouraged us to show our patriotism by shopping and by volunteering to join groups that would turn in their neighbor for any suspicious behavior". He questions why it is that the government is simultaneously so eager to crack down on fictional violence in movies and video games and so eager to send out the nation's youth to commit real violence overseas. He calls on the media to tell the truth, the government to read the constitution, and his local school board to stop cancelling civics class because the kids want to talk about Iraqi civilian deaths. Text of the speech is here. | This is disgusting. Last year, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware decided it would be a great idea to give police national authority to shut down any event or establishment where anybody was caught using drugs, or that looked sort of like somewhere where people might use drugs, on the principle that they must be promoting drug use. What kind of evidence did the cops need under this law? Well, the presence of glow sticks or a massage table are listed as surefire proof that ecstacy was passing 'round. I am not making this up. Fortunately, saner heads prevailed, the bill's other sponsors walked out, and Biden's baby went nowhere. Which is why he just tacked it on to the Amber Alert bill. It was sure to pass, and he had it added just before the final vote, so there was no debate on the amendment, which would have been thrown out in a hurry if anybody was paying attention. Shame on you Mr. Biden. This sort of rider is a disgrace to yourself and the Senate. This is why we need to things, preferably both. First, we need a line-item veto. God knows 80% of the mass of any bill is pork and riders, and none of it should get past the president's desk. Second, we need limits on what can be added to a bill. It should not be possible to add funds for an apiary in Maine onto a defense bill. Both of these would require constitutional amendments. So be it. That's what the amendment process is for. Thomas Jefferson said that "no man should be bound by the law of his fathers." Now I'm going out on a limb, but I'd suspect he'd also say that no man should be bound by anything that comes out of the arrogant, disconnected, corruption-ridden, bought-and-paid-for US Government of 2003. | Tom Ridge lowered the Terror Alert Color to yellow! I feel safer already! Well, maybe not so much "safer" as "convinced the system is completely meaningless as anything but an Orwellian propaganda tool," but hey, at least it's making me feel something, right?  | Monday, April 14, 2003
White House Escalates Diplomatic Pressure on Syria, says a Washington post headline. Christ, can't the neocon hawks even wait until their first war is over before starting the runup to their next one? | Sunday, April 13, 2003
Ronald Reagan Jr. thinks Dubya is a pretty lame president who's usurping the Reagan legacy for decidedly un-Reaganesque (i.e. ridiculously stupid) ends. In his words, "My father crapped bigger ones than George [W.] Bush." And on whether we'll find "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq: "I'm sure we'll find some; They're being flown in right now in a C-130." I highly suggest reading the interview. | CNN's QuickPolls annoy me. Almost invariably, the poll questions are ones that the average reader is taking a wild guess on. Right now, for instance, the question is "Do you think Saddam is a) Alive in Syria b) Alive in Tikrit c) Dead?" How about d) How the heck should I know? Polls are a great way to get public opinion or demographics, but this kind of poll is just stupid. Speaking of CNN, there's a short sentence innocuously place in one of their recent articles: "White House officials said there is no guarantee that Bush will ever formally declare the war over..." Now who didn't see this coming? It's just like the terror alert colors. The whole idea is to keep everyone scared all the time so no one will question the government. Has the American public not read 1984? Am I the only one seeing this?? | They've been reporting for a couple of days that Apple Computer is in talks to buy Universal Music, the world's largest music distributor, from Vivendi-Universal. That would be really wierd. Wonder if it would work? It would certainly prove whether or not you could successfully run a music business with the computing public as an ally instead of an enemy. Another rumored suitor for Universal is Microsoft... oh man, now that's exactly what we need, even MORE Redmond hegemony. | Now this is important: A site dedicated to the more bizarre pronouncements of the Iraqi Information Minister. Remember, "They're not even [within] 100 miles [of Baghdad]. They are not in any place. They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion ... they are trying to sell to the others an illusion." | Unlike Kirkuk, the Kurdish peshmerga didn't move into Mosul when the Iraqis abandoned it. With no Americans, no Kurds, and no Iraqis to keep order, the city is tearing itself apart. I just read one of the things I most feared reading: an Iraqi kid telling Philip Robertson "this isn't freedom, this is bullshit." Pray this isn't what becomes of the Iraqis' liberation. | |