Fark Rundown

Only pub in Austalian Outback’s hottest town closes

Kobe Bryant booed in Denver – “guilty, guilty”

Woman tries to use “Get out of Jail Free” card

Former NYC mayor Ed Koch is Bolting for Bush

From Forward magazine:

I am a lifelong Democrat. I was elected to New York's City Council, Congress and three terms as mayor of New York City on the Democratic Party line. I believe in the values of the Democratic Party as articulated by Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and by Senators Hubert Humphrey, Henry "Scoop" Jackson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Our philosophy is: "If you need a helping hand, we will provide it." The Republican Party's philosophy, on the other hand, can be summed up as: "If I made it on my own, you will have to do the same."

Nevertheless, I intend to vote in 2004 to reelect President Bush. I will do so despite the fact that I do not agree with him on any major domestic issue, from tax policy to the recently enacted prescription drug law. These issues, however, pale in importance beside the menace of international terrorism, which threatens our very survival as a nation. President Bush has earned my vote because he has shown the resolve and courage necessary to wage the war against terrorism.

John Kerry: one toke over the line

To be fair, he was in Vietnam. So I hear.

Captain’s Quarters thinks that the lax security at Vermont Yankee could break Howard Dean. If the economy picks up and the war on terrorism becomes the top concern in America, it’s sure not going to help. (Hat tip to Pundit Filter).

Mark Steyn surveys the Democrats in New Hampshire and their inability to cope in “The Last Refuge of the Defeated.”

Maguire is back from a mini-break and providing some bloggy goodness.

John Cole points the way to this snarky Jay Caruso counter-point on a particularly silly Kevin Drum post, claiming that liberals are really winning the culture war. Whistling past the graveyard, Kevin?

Will you stifle?!?

Here’s the concluding paragraph from an article in The Hill titled “Dean can’t beat Bush”:

USA Today’s cartoonist summed up Democrats’ dilemma last week with a picture of a thousand dollar check written to the Dean campaign by Bush-Cheney ’04. The memo tells Dean to simply “keep talking!!!!”

This was followed up this morning by a NY Times article: “In Shift, Dean Starts Watching His Words.” Heh.

From Slate: “General Electric – Why is Wesley Clark so excited? He’s being attacked by Howard Dean”

Damn - U.S. Black Hawk Crashes in Iraq; 9 Dead – no word yet as to whether hostile fire was involved.

It’s those other big corporations dragging down America!

Here’s the very first question from the Democrats’ recent radio debate (the pie-chart one):

The first question is for Governor Dean.

Forty years ago, in his State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson declared an unconditional war on poverty. Both Democrats and Republicans have controlled the White House and Congress since then. Why are so many Americans still living in poverty?

DEAN: I think a lot of it has to do with the extraordinary corporate alliances and rapaciousness that this president has encouraged since he's been president.

Let’s take a moment to process the vapidity of that response. OK? OK. Now, some quotes by P.J. O’Rourke in “Parliament of Whores”

You might think big business would be hard to define in this day of leveraged finances and interlocking technologies. Not so. Big business is every kind of business except the kind from which the person who’s complaining about big business draws his pay. Thus the “Rock around the Rain Forest” crowd imagines record companies are a cottage industry. The Sheen family considers movie conglomerates to be a part of the arts-and-crafts movement, something like the Morris dancers. And Ralph Nader thinks the wholesale lobbying of Congress through huge tax-exempt advocacy groups is similar to being a migrant farm worker.

Business and industry – trade and manufacture – are inherent in civilization. Every human society, no matter how wholesomely primitive, practices as much trade and manufacture as it can figure out. For good reason. It is the fruits of trade and manufacture that raise us from the wearying muck of subsistence and give us health, wealth, education, leisure and warm, dry rooms with Xerox machines that allow us to be the ecology-conscious, selfless, committed, splendid individuals we are.

Here’s more from P.J. in the chapter on ecology (this Amazon feature is amazing!)

I always cringe when I hear populist types like Al Gore and Howard Dean try to the paint “big business” as the scourge of society. Big business is society. Mammoth corporations make that sheetrock on your wall to keep you warm. Oil companies provide the gas for your VW touring van. And if you get sick, thank heaven those pharmaceutical companies developed a drug to help treat your illness.

The New Republic endorses Joe Lieberman

Here's an excerpt:

In late 2002, with the Bush administration threatening preemptive war in Iraq, Democratic strategists developed a remarkable plan for the midterm elections: Ignore national security. One year after the bloodiest foreign attack on U.S. soil, and on the eve of one of the most audacious foreign policy gambles in U.S. history, Democratic candidates campaigned on the sluggish economy and prescription drugs. And Bush and Karl Rove ripped them to shreds.

From that humiliation, the Howard Dean revolt was born. In early 2003, the former Vermont governor began captivating the Democratic base with his thunderous attacks on Washington Democrats. But, in their righteousness, Dean and his supporters have embraced an analysis potentially even more damaging than that of the party leaders they seek to depose. We are not speaking primarily about Dean's general-election prospects (though they are grim, and their potential consequences for the House and Senate even grimmer). The problem with Dean's vision of the Democratic Party is more than electoral; it is intellectual and moral. And the candidate who offers the clearest, bravest alternative is Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman.

Wow, Kos is right: TNR really hates Howard Dean.

Bush faulted on no-bid contracts

"The government waste our audit has uncovered is shameful and inexcusable," the audit report stated.

Oops! My bad.

Kerry = Kaput

He’s now third in New Hampshire, behind Clark. The Washington Post piles on: “He has lurched from one vapid slogan to another, constructed an unwieldy and duplicative campaign structure, and fired his campaign manager in midstream.”

David Broder on Dean: “It is hard to recall another challenger who has simultaneously outdistanced, out-organized and outmaneuvered the other candidates as thoroughly and swiftly as Dean has done, and at the same time has so thoroughly demonstrated a penchant for embarrassing himself.”

New poll: Bush up, Dean down

This USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll is stunning on so many levels (story, poll results). First of all, the attacks on Dean are taking some steam out of his campaign and now Wesley Clark has pulled into a statistical tie. Meanwhile, Bush’s approval ranking is at 60% and satisfaction in the way things are going in the United States (Q #14) is at a nine-month high of 55%.

There is an undeniable trend in the Democratic field for favorable/unfavorable/”never heard of” numbers: as the “never heard of” numbers go down with time, the “unfavorable” numbers go up. In other words, the more Americans know about the Democratic candidates, the less they like.

For example, in November 33% of Americans said they’d never heard of Howard Dean; in this latest poll, that’s down to 17%. But the undecided vote went emphatically into the “unfavorable” column: in the same time period, Dean’s “favorable” rating went up 2% and his “unfavorable” went up 15% (from 24% to 39%). The trends are similar for the other candidates, with Clark doubling his “unfavorable” number from 13% to 26% between September and January.

Another question (Q #13) sure to please Karl Rove: in a Bush/Dean matchup, 47% of likely voters said they were certain to vote for Bush, but only 20% said the same about Dean. Although I’m sure Democratic voters will coalesce behind their nominee, that’s a wiiiide margin of support.

Wednesdays are for W

Last night I was reading the transcript of the Democrats’ radio debate and Howard Dean was trying to explain his rationale for repealing all of the Bush tax cuts, including those for the middle class. If I may paraphrase, his argument went something like this: “The middle class got almost nothing…and I want it back.” This morning, the Boston Globe reports that a Dean flip-flop is in the making: “Dean may support middle-class tax cut.” So, in the end, after all the empty rhetoric about standing up for Democratic beliefs, Dean is going to bury his unpopular positions and say whatever is necessary to “win.”

Stand up for a true leader: President George W. Bush



After you’re done, sign up for the “Wictory Wednesday” blogroll and join the other great bloggers who are Blogging for Bush.

Check out the latest Carnival of the Vanities at American RealPolitik.

The continuing humor of the NY Times Corrections page

The Television column on Dec. 28, about "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," quoted a dialogue passage incorrectly from a November episode. Ms. DeGeneres asked Robert Downey Jr. what he was thankful for on Thanksgiving, not what his plans were. To which he replied: "Oh, so much. Let's see. I'll be going to Palm Springs and I won't be getting arrested while I'm there." — not "and getting arrested."

An understandable mistake!

How nutty is Kucinich? Exhibit A: Kucinich Shows Pie Chart on Radio Debate