Okay, this Uggabugga post freaks me out :

We’ve seen over the last couple of years a vicious political debate. Exhibit A is Ann Coulter’s Treason. Democrats are traitors, don’t you know. And then there were the ads that tied Daschle with Saddam. And so on.

It’s going to get worse as the presidential race heats up. The end result will be whole bunch of people enraged at the Democrats.

So, donning our Nostradamus hat, we boldly make the following prediction:

There will be at least one major act of violence against the senate candidate(s) for president.

And we mean life-threatening violence. Like attempted murder.

The scary thing is, I wouldn’t be 100% surprised if something like that happened either. People on both sides of the aisle have been really stepping up their rhetoric lately. With both sides accusing the other of being traitors, it’s just a matter of time before somebody snaps and decides to do his/her “patriotic duty”.

First of all, lemme just say that I think the news people made up the term “spider-hole”. Secondly, I’m glad we caught Saddam. He was obviously a twisted bastard and I’m glad he’s going to stand trial. Buuuuttt…..

Everybody needs to stop doing the dance of joy and realize that we’re still stuck in Iraq. Once the public tires of seeing the “Saddam goes to the dentist” clip, they’re going to realize that we’ve still got 20-25 body bags transfer tubes coming home every week.

As far as the political implications of this, I think it’s too early to tell. The conventional wisdom is that it hurts the Dean campaign. Of course, people said similar things after Bush landed on that aircraft carrier. So far, Dean’s been doing the right thing. He’s giving credit where it’s due, and then hanging back to see where this story goes. Lieberman, on the other hand, is a little toady who will take any opportunity to bash Dean at this point.

Call me optimistic, but when all is said and done, this could benefit the Democrats quite a bit. The problem with this whole “war on terror” thing is that Bush has been constantly moving the goalposts to easy targets. He knows as well as anybody that we can’t really rid the world of terrorism, any more than they can rid the world of selfishness, greed, or lust. That’s why he’s been making this all about personalities.

When the war on an idea is framed in a way that it’s the United States versus a boogeyman (Bin Laden, Hussein), a “war on terror” is something that people can easily wrap their heads around. Rather than carefully explain what it means to be “at war” against an undefined concept, it’s easier for Bush to just get behind a podium and taunt the evildoers like he’s a pro wrestler. But now that Hussein is caught, they’re going to have to move the goalposts again.

The worst thing about the way that Bush has been framing the debate is that liberals have been falling into this trap again and again. By punctuating our arguments with “Where’s Hussein/bin Laden?”, we’ve been going for the easy win. While the temptation is to respond to Hussein’s capture with “Now that we’ve caught the guy who killed thousands of Iraqis, can we go after the guy who killed thousands of Americans?”, we need to turn Hussein’s capture into the living embodiment of the failure of Bush’s foreign policy.

Saddam’s gone, but terrorism isn’t going to go away. As the terrorist attacks continue, the senate message needs to be that George Bush doesn’t understand terrorism. His fixation on Saddam Hussein was a detriment to the war on terror. Not only did they spend too much time obsessively searching for one man and his fictional WMD’s, but they took time and money away from the fight against the Islamic Fundamentalists who attacked us on 9/11 (of which Saddam isn’t a part). Sure this is a victory in a broad sense, but don’t ever forget that this has nothing to do with terrorism or 9/11.

Okay, I’m getting tired of the “Fair and Balanced” quote in my title bar. I want something new. Can you guys think of some good ones?

Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

a word or phrase the describes the purpose of the site (Yahoo says my site is “ranting and raving about politics”)

a depression-era reference that loosely fits the look of the site (maybe a Ukulele Ike reference?)

a satire of a popular political or commercial slogan (ex. “The Suck Stops Here”)

something completely random and funny

Or should I just go without a slogan? Lemme know in comments.

Also via TBogg, comes this video of a CNN broadcast showing American soldiers murdering a wounded Iraqi man followed by cheering.

And they wonder why the rest of the world hates us….

Damn. It seems that the Salvation Army has their minds stuck in the stone age (link via TBogg) :

A lawsuit will be filed against The Salvation Army alleging discrimination against married women in management. Married women “officers”, as the administrators are called, are expected and REQUIRED to perform the same tasks as the married men, while their salary is given to the husband only. As a result, the married women officers cannot collect social security benefits or have any reported income for tax or credit purposes. Even the yearly Christmas bonus allowed per officer was given only in the husband’s name.

Allowances are paid to both single men and single women. However, once a woman becomes married, she loses her individual pay and becomes listed as a spouse for income tax purposes.

Each officer’s schedule requires many long hours performing equally the same duties and responsibilities. Both married men and women are reviewed yearly for their job performance, skills, and areas to improve. The married women are reviewed and rated with the same guidelines and formula as the married men.

The Salvation Army requires married couples to be officers together. That is, married men and women are not allowed to seek employment outside the organization, due to excessive demands placed upon them as officers. However, if the married couple decides to leave, or is terminated, it is very difficult for the married woman to establish herself financially and in the workplace.

Needless to say, this will definitely be on my mind the next time I see some little old man ringing a bell outside a department store. Y’know, wilh all the patriarchal bullshit that women still have to deal with in our society, I assumed being treated like they were the property of their husbands was one of those things that had virtually disappeared. I’m willing to give people a little leeway when it comes to being old-fashioned, but the idea that the money married women earn is going directly to their husbands is twisted and dehumanizing and just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Back in July, I posted a link to SelectSmart’s Presidential Candidate Selector. Here were my results then :

1. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (100%)
2. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (81%)
3. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (78%)
4. Gephardt, Cong. Dick, MO - Democrat (72%)
5. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (71%)
6. Lieberman Senator Joe CT - Democrat (70%)
7. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol IL - Democrat (70%)
8. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (69%)
9. Graham, Senator Bob, FL - Democrat (58%)
10. Libertarian Candidate (32%)
11. Bush, George W. - US President (4%)

When I take the test again today, I get this result :

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat (80%)
3. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (79%)
4. Clark, Retired General Wesley K., AR - Democrat (74%)
5. Green Party Candidate (70%)
6. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (66%)
7. Socialist Candidate (62%)
8. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (59%)
9. Gephardt, Rep. Dick, MO - Democrat (59%)
10. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (54%)
11. Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat (42%)
12. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (40%)
13. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol, IL - Democrat (36%)
14. Libertarian Candidate (29%)
15. Hagelin, Dr. John - Natural Law (14%)
16. Bush, President George W. - Republican (9%)
17. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (2%)

I dunno what the hell changed in the last few months to make the results this different. The biggest change here is the 20-point drop in compatibility with Kucinich. I’m not sure what may have caused that, but skimming through the Kucinich page on SelectSmart’s site, I see a few things I disagree with :

Faith based initiatives:
Voted “yes” on responsible fatherhood via faith-based organizations.
Security & Terrorism:
Voted “yes” on the “Visa Entry Reform Act of 2001″, a bill to strengthen counter-terrorism efforts by imposing restrictions on student visas and among other things, it creates a centralized ‘lookout’ database.
Abortion Policy:
He received a 10% score from Planned Parenthood and a 75% from the National Right to Life Committee.
Civil Liberties:
He received a 66% score from The American Civil Liberties Union.

I doubt these positions have changed since the last time I took the test.

What’s even stranger is that I only have 14% in common with the Natural Law Party Candidate. New-Agey, Hippy shit aside, I usually like the Natural Law Party stances on quite a few issues (at least, a lot more than the Libertarians). If you check out John Hagelin’s page, it’s blank. If they don’t even have the data, where the hell is the 14% figure coming from?

I dunno how to explain it other than to say that these kinds of quizzes are completely worthless, but they’re still kinda fun and addictive.

(more…)

Y’know, I keep wanting to give these guys the benefit of the doubt. I keep telling myself that we all want the same things, just that they have a really screwed up way of doing it (poor planning, lying, unfounded optimism, etc.). But then something like this happens…

A Pentagon investigation has found overcharging and other violations in Iraq reconstruction contracts worth $15.6 billion that were awarded to Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company, two defense officials said Thursday.

An audit of Halliburton’s Kellogg, Brown & Root subsidiary found substantial overcharging for fuel and other items, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The problems go beyond overcharging, they said, declining to elaborate.
. . .
senate Reps. Henry Waxman of California and John Dingell of Michigan have accused KBR of price gouging for gasoline used in Iraq. The two congressmen said Halliburton charged the Army as much as $2.65 a gallon for gas under a no-bid contract, while another Pentagon agency imported fuel from Kuwait to Iraq at a cost of $1.09 to $1.15 per gallon.
. . .
Congress’ General Accounting Office found in 1997 and 2000 that KBR had billed the Army for questionable expenses on its support contracts for operations in the Balkans. Those reviews cited instances such as charging $85.98 per sheet of plywood which cost $14.06 and billing the Army for cleaning some offices up to four times per day.

These guys aren’t patriots, moral leaders, or even legitimate businessmen. They’re just thieves, pure and simple. The only thing that separates these guys from bank robbers is that instead of using a gun and a mask, they use a pen and a handshake. I hope this investigation goes somewhere, but I’m sure it’ll end up in the dead letter office along with the Plume affair, the Energy Taskforce, Enron, etc…

That’s Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards. Although best known for his hit “Singin’ In The Rain” and being the voice of Jiminy Cricket, he was a huge star in the 20’s and 30’s. Throughout his career, he sold over 70 million records, but today he’s virtually unknown.

Here’s an obituary from 1971 :

‘Ukulele Ike’ dies broke, alone at 76

HOLLYWOOD - (UPI) - Clifford Edwards - alias Jiminy Cricket and “Ukulele Ike” - who had the sheiks and flappers carrying Ukuleles and swinging to “Jada Jada Jing Jing Jing” in the 1920s, is dead at 76.

Edwards died Saturday broke and forgotten, a welfare patient at the Virgil Convalescent Hospital. His remains were still unclaimed today.

Born in Hannibal, Mo., Edwards began singing as a teen-ager in St. Louis saloons and made the ukulele his trademark.

He rose to star status when he teamed with Bobby Carelton to sing Carelton’s tune, “Jada”, one of the first big hits of the jazz age. He introduced “Singing in the Rain”, had a role in Gershwin’s “Lady Be Good” and made hit records of “Sleepy Time Gal”, “June Night” and “I Cried for You”.

His singing and film roles made Edwards a millionaire, but he wound up bankrupt after two divorces, income-tax troubles and years of gambling.

In 1940 his career revived when he was chosen as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in the Walt Disney movie classic, “Pinocchio”, and sang the introductory song, “When You Wish Upon a Star”.

A few nightclub engagements followed but interest faded.

Edward remained in the entertainment business until the end, however: His 30-year-old recording of “When You Wish Upon a Star” opens The Wonderful World of Disney on television each week.

Officials did not report his death until yesterday because they had not realized who Cliff Edwards was.

If you’ve never heard him before, you should definitely check out his page at RedHotJazz.com. I especially recommend “That’s My Weakness Now”, “Anything You Say!”, “My Dog Loves Your Dog”, and definitely “I’m Going To Give It To Mary With Love”.

For those of you interested, I’ve written an article for the newest issue of Ostrich Ink comparing the websites of the nine senate Presidential Candidates. You can check it out by clicking on the image below :

Warning : The article contains many, many cheap shots. If you take your favorite candidate too seriously, you’re likely to get offended.