They are getting the talking points out to the peanut gallery
(Via C-Log) Newsweek has a new poll that says Weasley Clark is leading the Democratic field. Pretty good start for a guy who has yet to demonstrate an ability to find his butt with a road map and is, quite frankly, far from a household name. That is, if you believe them.

Campus Cut Ups!
(Via FR) From the UK comes Is being a thug a human right?

A boy who tattooed the word "Thug" across his forehead and a pupil who brought a boa constrictor to school are among children whose families have tried to defend their behaviour using the Human Rights Act.
...
Mr Whitbourn outlines the case of a secondary that refused to admit a boy who had semi-permanently tattooed the word "Thug" across his forehead.

"Although in reality, as he had done the tattoo in the mirror, it actually said 'GUHT'," he writes.

Truth in advertising I guess.

And the tyke with the snake had brought part of mum's stage costume to school. Hope she didn't get a chill!

Oh please!
The always delusional Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been chugging the Klinton Kool Aid - Clark's entry frightens GOP.

Earth to Cynthia! So far, Weasley has mostly managed to make a fool of himself. Bubba and his peanut gallery are going to have to work a lot harder if they hope to derail Howard Dean. Which was the point of your column, eh Cyn?

Well, here's a surprise!
Recall doubt scares off voters - Absentees: Early balloting dropped immediately after ruling. Kinda like the networks declaring that the polls closed early in Western Florida in 2000, eh?

NY Times, the paper of record
Over at Power Line, Hindrocket has been mining the NY Times corrections for some gems. I especially liked the slander of Charles Bronson.

Hmm, I thought they fired Jayson Blair?

We certainly wouldn't want that!
Montgomery County, Maryland is at it again:

Politicians in Montgomery County, Md., struck yet another blow against U.S. immigration law on Tuesday, as the county council voted unanimously to permit illegal immigrants to obtain public services using ID cards issued by foreign consulates, such as Mexico's fraud-plagued matricula consular. County Executive Doug Duncan praised the council's vote. According to Mr. Duncan, illegals have been unable to fully participate in the American dream because they couldn't produce valid identification.

Earth to Duncan, Earth to Duncan - sheesh, why bother? Here's an airbrain that thinks that the American dream is obtaining public services and that any illegal alien who shows up deserves carte blanche. I just wish it was only the Montgomery County taxpayers that were funding his delusion.

And then there's this from California where Gray Davis donned his sequinned hot pants and gave illegal aliens driver's licenses:

Housepainter Carlos Ponce Rodriguez has been driving to work for three years without a license.

Rodriguez doesn't want to be a scofflaw. But because he lacks immigration papers, he can't get a license.

Something so richly ironic must be bad for my diet. Deborah Kong, AP Minority Issues Writer is responsible for that blather.

UPDATE: And while we're at it, there's already a petition campaign for a referendum to overturn the driver's license law. That's swell and they ought to include the free tuition for illegal aliens law as well. But another ho on the stroll with Gray piped up:

"They are working and paying taxes. And when you send a message out that Latinos are not good people, you send a message to Republicans that might act on them," California Democratic Party Spokesman Bob Mulholland said.

Where to start? How about illegal aliens consume much more in public services than they pay in taxes; "Latinos" are not universally illegal aliens and vice versa; and illegal aliens are like all people - they range from the good to the bad. But they are illegal and our wide open borders are a burden that the taxpayers shouldn't have to shoulder. As for the comment about Republicans, Bobby is fuzzier than usual, but it sounds like he's playing a dubious race card. No wonder he's Democrat party spokesman.

He's back!
Jon Henley in the Guardian - Le Pen in sight of a regional triumph:

There are many grounds for mistrusting Jean-Marie Le Pen, but electoral prediction is not generally among them. When he hazards a guess the veteran leader of France's far right is rarely wrong. And this, he said yesterday, is the most winnable election of all his long career.

Even his opponents agree that next spring's regional polls, the first since the presidential and parliamentary elections last year which produced the biggest upset in the country's postwar political history, will probably give the pugnacious National Front president his greatest chance yet of a historic victory.

"I see things very clearly," he said yesterday, formally beginning his campaign for the presidency of the Provence, Alpes and Côte d'Azur (Paca) region before a battery of TV cameras in a chartered yacht replete with champagne and canapes in the Baie des Anges, off Nice.

"There will be three major contenders in the second round," he said. "Neither the right nor the left will withdraw - as they did to wreck our chances last year - and they certainly won't merge their lists.

"I am confident that here, finally, we will emerge as the winners of a three-way battle."

Le Pen is no friend of the Anglosphere, but at least he doesn't pretend he is.

A Salty Story for Talk Like a Pirate Day

I say keelhaul the lubber!

Anybody But Dean with a Twist
John Ellis discusses Weasley and the Presidential primary mechanics that made him necessary to the HillBillies in General Clark and Anybody But Dean. The usual suspects pulled off a smooth move by compressing the historical primary schedule:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAulliffe, in consultation with former President Clinton and a gaggle of Clintonian consultants, decided that the best solution was to compress the primary schedule down to about five weeks. Republicans had no objection to this scheme (memories of battling Buchanan through June of 1992 were still raw) and so it was that the "front-loading" of every major state primary was moved to the month of March. The result is that by March 2, with primaries in New York and California and a handful of other states, the winner of the Democratic presidential nomination will almost certainly be known.

In the McAuliffe schema, this will leave the Democratic Party with plenty of time to heal wounds, raise money for the interim (between the primaries and the Convention) and focus all concerned on the main event. It's a grand idea and, who knows, it just might work. But like all grand political schemes, the law of unintended consequences lurks. And the iron rule of media bias lurks with it.

Media bias, in this case, is more than the usual - it means that they will inevitably compress the field by their coverage:

But a presidential campaign isn't about delegates, it's about media coverage. The only way to attract media coverage is to win. Iowa and New Hampshire, being first on the schedule, are thus decisive. They determine who gets media coverage on the Super Tuesdays that follow and who does not.

And here's the problem for Terrible Terry and the Clintonoids:

Enter the law of unintended consequences. In practical political terms, the front-loading of the 2004 primary and caucus schedule means that former Vermont Governor Howard Dean will almost certainly be one of the two remaining candidates after the New Hampshire primary. He will finish first or second in Iowa. He will probably win New Hampshire (with Republican cross-over help). At that point, an Anybody But Dean (similar to the Anybody But McGovern in 1972 and Anybody But Carter in 1976 movements) would be all but impossible to organize. There simply wouldn't be enough time.

Which is why the HillBillies are propping up Weasley - he's Anybody But Dean, or as I like to say, "Clark is Bubba's Hubert Humphrey."

So what's the twist?

The twist is that Hillary Clinton's name will soon be floated as his running mate. The message will be that Clark-Clinton will unite the party. All of this has happened or will soon happen before a single vote has been cast. That's how much front-loading the primary schedule has exaggerated the importance of Iowa and New Hampshire and distorted the nomination process.

I guess this is the "Anybody But Dean with Hillary in the Caboose" theory. Hmm, I wonder if Weasley would let Hillary run things the way Bubba did?

For the alternative "Hillary Stalking Horse" theory, read the previous post.

More Weasley News!
Wes Pruden at the Washington Times opts for the "stalking horse theory " in Hurricane Hillary, coming right at us:

Caught between Isabel and Hillary, Wesley Clark, who may actually think he's running for president, finally made his debut on the national political scene, and a soggy day it was.
...
With everyone here obsessed with wind and rain, Mr. Clark tried to make the best of his big day in Little Rock, with a clutch of old Clinton hands and even a homegrown movie star (Mary Steenburgen) lending litter if not glitter.
...
Mr. Clark is a novice in politics and hasn't yet learned the difference between the machinations of professionals and the flattery of amateurs. He was impressed by the number of "hits" on several Draft-Clark Internet sites, not understanding that these were mostly from computer geeks and nerds with more time on their hands than smarts in the belfry. This flattery made him susceptible to the cunning of the Clintons, who need cover for Hillary to overcome the public's remembrance of the Clinton loathing of the military. With Clark covering her ample flanks, Hillary could concentrate on massaging the pent-up Democratic anger in the blue states.
...
The latest Hillary speculation was set off by what appeared to be an off-hand answer to a question in California about the Hillary chatter. But nothing is ever uncalculated by Bill Clinton. "That's really a decision for her to make," he said. Then he added, as if an afterthought: "She's being urged by supporters in spite of her commitment to serve out her six-year Senate term."

This was a reprise to the question posed to him in Little Rock in late 1991, not long after he gave a similar ironclad promise to serve out his term as the newly re-elected governor of Arkansas. Left to his own desires, he would have gladly kept his promise. But what could an honorable man do but listen to vox populi.

Except in those days, the folks didn't know Bubba, and nowadays they know Hillary all too well.

The polls suggest that Hillary, who has the highest negatives in the history of American politics, would lap the Democratic field twice but couldn't beat George W. even with Mr. Clark as her running mate. But there are a lot of angry Democrats in the blue states nursing the bitter remembrance of Florida.

And look who showed up for the hoedown!

The Clinton clatterati who flocked to Little Rock to give Mr. Clark a send-off are clearly in on the game plan. Leon Panetta, Mr. Clinton's chief of staff, agreed that the decision is one for Hillary to make (who could doubt it?), and said, helpfully, that "she's got a lot of people talking." John Catsimatidis, a New York supermarket maven and Clinton fund-raiser, went a little farther: "It will depend on how badly George W. does in the polls." He was among those called to the Clinton residence in Westchester County the other day to talk about Hillary's re-election campaign two years hence, and all anyone talked about was Hillary's campaign next year.

They're just helping out a like minded pal, I'm sure!

I'm not a believer in this theory yet - I think Clark is Bubba's Hubert Humphery - but you can't go broke overestimating the sleaziness of the Clintons.

It's Weasley!
I mentioned former General Wesley Clark back in June when Bubba let out some exploratory eructations for his little pal.



Hey, what's not to like about a "perfumed prince" who wanted to start a war with the Russians over media face time?

But the really scary thing about Weasley is the way he is joined at the hip with the HillBillies as John Fund relates in the WSJ in The Clintons' Candidate:

The chief boosters of Mr. Clark's candidacy are none other than Bill and Hillary Clinton. Mr. Clark hails from Little Rock, Ark., knew President Clinton when he was still a governor, and had an extraordinary degree of contact with him when he served as NATO commander during the Kosovo bombing campaign of 1999.

Mr. Clinton has nothing but praise for him: "He is brilliant, he is brave, and he is good."

I'm sure Bubba has heard tell of all those character traits even though he has no first hand experience.

As for New York's junior senator, she distanced herself yesterday from reports that she had already agreed to serve as co-chairman of the Clark campaign. But Fox News reports that her office doesn't deny that such a role "is in the works and might happen soon."

Ruh Oh! Howie Dean is gonna be pissed!

If that happens, Mrs. Clinton could walk into the Clark campaign headquarters and feel as if she had stepped back in time to her husband's White House circa 1996. Clinton commerce secretary Mickey Kantor will be a senior Clark adviser. Bruce Lindsey, the White House counsel for President Clinton, will be providing advice. So too will Eli Segal, Mr. Clinton's 1992 campaign chairman. Mr. Clark's spokesman is none other than Mark Fabiani, who handled damage control on scandals for President Clinton. No one would be surprised if Chris Lehane, Mr. Fabiani's business partner and Al Gore's former press secretary, also joined the campaign. Mr. Lehane resigned from Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign just last week.

It's old home week for all the usual suspects, including the bimbo eruption squad! All they need is Begala and Carville to round out the team. But the greatest amusement will undoubtedly be provided by the ankle biters over at the Dean Defense Forces. Hot dang, where's the popcorn?

Justice O'Connor Says U.S. Will Help Train Judges in Arab Countries

I thought they were miffed at us already? On the other hand, maybe we can ship them the entire Ninth Circuit!

Arafat threatens suicide over expulsion

OK!

"Is there anyone in Palestine who does not dream of martyrdom?"- Yasser Arafat.

Help make a thug's dreams come true.

And speaking of media lowlifes...
Tim Blair spots Time’s Liam Fitzpatrick and applies the clue bat:

“There is a strange bipolarity in the Australian psyche,” writes Time’s Liam Fitzpatrick:

Compare the louche abandon of the Sydney Mardi Gras with the gruff, homophobic machismo of the outback.

By this standard, every place on earth is bipolar. Compare the louche abandon of Castro Street with the gruff, homophobic machismo of gangsta rap. Compare the louche abandon of the lobster with the gruff, homophobic machismo of the sea bass. Compare Liam Fitzpatrick with someone who has a clue.

Contrast the shining, multicultural cities with rural outposts where shadowy, armed survivalists zealously prophesize an Indonesian invasion.

Excuse me? Care to provide some names and locations, pal?

Sorry Tim, Little Liam is on the louche side himself.

Meanwhile, back in the stacks
From Lileks:

I went back to the editorial archives today, to see what was said around the time of the Dec 1998 “Desert Fox” campaign. (And let us just imagine the panic if the current administration started naming military operations after famous Nazi nicks.) As I trolled back and forth in the microfiche looking for the relevant piece, I was struck by the other things the chattering classes brayed five years ago. "Lift the sanctions" was a popular item. And why? Because it would show Saddam the world was serious about giving him one last chance. Okay, here’s your gun back. But if you shoot us we’re going to take it away. The naivety nearly makes you weep. These people didn’t want Saddam’s body bobbing ass-up in the Tigris. They wanted a world in which the fascist clique that ruled Iraq curtseyed and bowed in the lovely gavotte of international diplomacy. However many people died in Saddam’s gulags was irrelevant; what mattered was that the UN was Concerned, and that the Iraqi Ambassador - clad in a nice Western suit, skilled in many tongues, daubed with a Macy’s cologne - agreed to facilitate the process of calibrating the precise nature of the consquences of failing to live up to the spirit of the letter of the penumbra of the -

Ah, it’s noon; shalll we have lunch sent in, or have our drivers take us to the Village? I understand there is an excellent Tibetan restaurant that’s just opened.

Ah, a leisurely lunch. Let's consult the Frenchies.

I’ve read enough editorials from various papers from this period to reinforce something I’ve long suspected: the reason many editorialists hate this war is because they don’t feel it’s theirs.

If Clinton had risen to the occasion, wiped out al-Qaeda, sent Marines to kick down the statues and put bullets in those filthy sons’ brainpans, this would be the most noble effort of our time. We would hear clear echoes of JFK’s call to bear any burden. FDR, Truman, Marshall Plan, forbearance, patience - the editorial pages of the land would absolutely brim with encouragement and optimism every damn day, because the good fight was being waged, and the right people were waging it.

I never seem to hang out with the right people.

I can’t help but come back to the central theme these edits imply: we should have left Iraq alone. We should have left this charnel house stand. We should have bought a wad of nice French cotton to shove in our ears so the buzz of the flies over the graves didn’t distract us from the important business of deciding whether Syria or China should have the rotating observer-status seat in the Oil-for-Palaces program. Afghanistan, well, that’s understandable, in a way; we were mad. We lashed out. But we should have stopped there, and let the UN deploy its extra-strong Frown Beams against the Iraqi ambassador in the hopes that Saddam would reduce the money he gave to Palestinian suicide bombers down to five grand. Five grand! Hell, that hardly covers the parking tickets your average ambassador owes to the city of New York; who’d blow themselves up for that.

Would the editorialists of the nation be happier if Saddam was still cutting checks to people who blew up not just our allies, but our own citizens? I’d like an answer. Please. Essay question: “Families of terrorists who blow up men, women and children, some of whom are Americans, no longer receive money from Saddam, because Saddam no longer rules Iraq. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Explain.”

Can we provide an ass whupping er, a dunce cap for the wrong answer? Much more by following the link.

Who was that masked man?
(Via Dave Barry) 'Superhero' takes on clampers:

Clad in a blue leotard and wielding a saw, a man claiming to be the UK's first wheel clamp vigilante is offering his services to motorists.

Angle-grinder Man - a self-proclaimed superhero - patrols by night looking for unhappy drivers who have been clamped and then sets their cars free.

He promises to take on clamping firms, speed cameras and the congestion charge on behalf of drivers.
...
"I may not be able to single-handedly and totally cast off the repressive shackles of a corrupt government - but I can cut off your wheel-clamps for you."

Click through to see a photo of his snappy costume.

Hate Speech Alert!
Patrick Goodenough at CNS shocks with Australian Muslims Take Pastors to Court over 'Vilification':

Two Christian pastors in Australia will appear in court next month to face complaints brought by Muslims who accuse them of vilifying Islam.

Their appearance in a legal tribunal in the state of Victoria is the culmination of an 18-month dispute between a Christian group that organized a seminar on Islam and three Muslims who attended it.

The three claimed a speaker at the seminar had incited "fear and hatred" against Muslims and, backed by the state's Islamic Council, took their case to a special state commission operating under controversial new hate legislation.

What's got the perpetually offended's panties in a knot?

"It cannot be regarded as controversial that there are passages in the Quran ... [and other important religious texts] which could and do incite believers in Islam to violence and hatred of non-Muslims. These passages are well-known, and widely cited by terrorist groups," it said.

"Exposing the roots of this problem within Islam is not the same thing as inciting hatred. Since Christians are one of the named targets of jihad fighting in the Quran, they have a right and a duty to be well informed about this aspect of Islam."
...
"One of the things we're doing is documenting Islamist theological statements in the Australian Muslim community. One of the issues here is 'What is Islam,' and we will most likely present a detailed report on what Muslims in Australia have been saying about issues such as jihad and democracy.

"Why take a Christian to court for what Muslims themselves are saying right here in Melbourne?"

Whoops, nothing like quoting them! They'd have a coronary if they saw Little Green Footballs or MEMRI.

The Islamic Council of Victoria, which is bringing the suit, was in the news for something else this month:

The Islamic Council of Victoria is considering whether to accept as a member an Australian Muslim suspected of having strong links to al-Qaeda.

The ABC yesterday reported that Spanish court documents appeared to link Melbourne man Sheikh Mohammed Omran and Bilal Khazal of Sydney with suspected al-Qaeda associate Abu Dahdah.

Mr Dahdah is being held by Spanish authorities.

Now the Sheikh says he never heard of Dahdah, but why bother?

The council would not condemn Mr Khazal if he was a supporter of Osama bin Laden, but would condemn him if he supported terrorism, Mr Elgafi said.

Woohoo, there's a distinction for you.

And good riddance
I noticed much teeth gnashing on both the moderate right and left over the failure of the WTO soiree in Cancun. Frankly, my immoderate take is that the WTO is just another useless international organization and good riddance. The US doesn't need a peanut gallery of the usual suspects dictating trade policy. We already get enough worthless advice from the same characters at the United Nations. The focus now shifts back to bilateral agreements where it should have been all along as Jeffrey Sparshott details in the Washington Times:

The United States is ready to start forging bilateral and regional trade agreements after global talks collapsed Sunday under the weight of differences between rich and poor nations.
...
The United States is negotiating free-trade agreements with five countries in Central America, five in southern Africa, and with Australia and Morocco. Bahrain and the Dominican Republic also are set to start formal talks.

As for the usual suspects that are crowing over the WTO conference collapse as some sort of leftoid victory over capitalism, I can only say, "Thanks pals!"

Their family trees don't fork alert!
Woman bridesmaid to ex-husband and mother. And for all those attributing this kind of thing to American hillbillies, the locale for this is Scotland.

My vote for best factoid:

Alison Smith discovered her husband, George Greenhowe, 21, in bed with her mother, Pat, 44, just 10 days after their marriage in Angus in November 2001.

I bet that put a damper on things!

"He never apologised for what he did but everyone makes mistakes."

Sheesh! And check out this snap of the happy trio.

Who knew there was an asshat shortage?
Ex-Gen. Wesley Clark to Seek White House. This is beginning to look more like the California recall election every day.

Who goosed the Moose?
(Via Junkyard Blog) In his new blog at The New Republic, Gregg Easterbrook has a few words on everyone's favorite pretend lawman, Chief Moose - What a relief this guy no longer carries a badge. It seems the chief and his wife, Sandy, run a tidy little extortion racket on the side. I should have guessed when she lamented her lack of antiques.

Our legal system at work
Thomas Sowell observes the size of the problem in Risky business:

One of the signs of our times is a recent ruling by a federal judge that those who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks can sue the planes' manufacturer and the owners of the World Trade Center, among others. This extraordinary -- indeed, unique -- terrorist attack was "foreseeable," according to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in New York.

By the same reasoning, it was "foreseeable" that there would be jackasses like Judge Hellerstein on the federal bench.

Yup.

Worst of all, they have fostered a legal mindset in which virtually every tragedy is seen as the fault of the nearest source of "deep pockets."

Hmm, Bubba and Hillary are sitting on big book advances. Why not sue them too?

Kim Gandy has her knickers in a twist!
And she wrote a letter to the editors of the NY Times to complain:

To the Editor:

Re "NOW's Woman Problem" (editorial, Sept. 14):

One of the reasons women had to struggle so long to win the vote — and why we continue to fight for full equality — is the trivializing of women and our concerns.

It smacks of sexism when the endorsement of two major women's organizations is demeaned as "silly."

It smacks of utter cluelessness for "two major women's organizations" to endorse Carol Moseley Braun whose primary claim to fame is spending "quality time" with African dictators. Even the editors of the Times couldn't give that one a pass.

Blogburst alert!
(Via NZPundit) John Burns: 'There Is Corruption in Our Business' :'NY Times' Writer on the Terror of Baghdad.

From the point of view of my being in Baghdad, I had more authority than anybody else. Without contest, I was the most closely watched and unfavored of all the correspondents there because of what I wrote about terror whilst Saddam Hussein was still in power.

Terror, totalitarian states, and their ways are nothing new to me, but I felt from the start that this was in a category by itself, with the possible exception in the present world of North Korea. I felt that that was the central truth that has to be told about this place. It was also the essential truth that was untold by the vast majority of correspondents here. Why? Because they judged that the only way they could keep themselves in play here was to pretend that it was okay.

There were correspondents who thought it appropriate to seek the approbation of the people who governed their lives. This was the ministry of information, and particularly the director of the ministry. By taking him out for long candlelit dinners, plying him with sweet cakes, plying him with mobile phones at $600 each for members of his family, and giving bribes of thousands of dollars. Senior members of the information ministry took hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes from these television correspondents who then behaved as if they were in Belgium. They never mentioned the function of minders. Never mentioned terror.

In one case, a correspondent actually went to the Internet Center at the Al-Rashid Hotel and printed out copies of his and other people's stories -- mine included -- specifically in order to be able to show the difference between himself and the others. He wanted to show what a good boy he was compared to this enemy of the state. He was with a major American newspaper.

Corruption? Sounds like whoring is the best description. Hmm, that reminds me that I haven't seen "Bazookas" Lara Logan since she was putting out her high pitched whine from the Palestine Hotel in downtown Baghdad.

And the article makes you take the current line being trotted out by these paragons with a whole truck load more than a grain of salt.

And the dog ate their homework too!
Over at The Corner, Roger Clegg asks Who are you going to believe, us or our website?

NRO readers know that the Center for Equal Opportunity and American Civil Rights Institute have been contacting universities that have racially exclusive programs (internships, summer seminars, financial aid, etc.) and threatening to file complaints against them if the programs aren’t opened up to all students regardless of skin color. Most schools we’ve contacted have already agreed to change the programs—the Supreme Court’s decisions on affirmative action this summer doesn’t change the law for these programs, since they go way beyond mere “preferences”—but frequently officials will assert that the programs really weren’t racially exclusive anyway: They were just described that way on a website that needs to be updated. The latest issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education contains a letter to the editor from Shippensburg University that likewise draws a distinction between what a university policy (involving speech codes) really was and how it just happened to be described on a “Web site that had not been updated.”

Is it just me, or is this a ridiculous dodge?

It's a ridiculous dodge.

If a business has a sign posted out front that says, “Irish need not apply,” wouldn’t everyone laugh if the company said, “Oh, we really don’t have an anti-Irish policy; we just forget to take down the sign”?

Indeed.

Who's that singing Kumbaya?
From the Telegraph - Muslims boycott Archbishop's talks:

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, suffered a blow yesterday when Islamic scholars boycotted top-level talks between the faiths.

The Muslim academics abruptly withdrew from a two-day meeting with Anglican delegates in New York in protest at the appointment of the worldwide Church's first actively homosexual bishop.

OK Rowan, patch this one up!

And speaking of Bubba

Democrat Presidential contenders, campaigning in Iowa yesterday, vigorously debated what title they should use to refer to former President Bill Clinton.

Dick Gephardt, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Lieberman and Carol Moseley-Braun lobbied to refer to the former president as the "Dear Leader." However, John Kerry, Howard Dean, Bob Graham and John Edwards argued that Mr. Clinton should be addressed as "Exalted Leader." The Rev. Al Sharpton stood alone in insisting on calling him "The Grand Kahuna."

It's Scrappleface.

I prefer hemorrhoid.

California Angst Alert!
From the SF Chronicle - Clinton on recall: 'Don't do this' :

Los Angeles -- Former President Bill Clinton, speaking at an African American church where Democrats have found comfort in the past, made his most forceful public indictment of the California recall Sunday, calling it a Republican power grab that goes beyond just the career of Gov. Gray Davis.
...
Later, he told reporters the campaign to oust Davis isn't a right-wing "conspiracy" but an out-in-the-open attempt to "shred the Constitution."

The forces of darkness are everywhere I guess. Pardoned any terrorists lately, Bubba?

But there were other amusements at the Bubbafest:

Later, Clinton and Davis emerged from the La Golondrina restaurant into a closed-off street full of vendors selling sombreros and trinkets, and the crowd pressed in under the intense sun. As Clinton answered questions from reporters, a Latino man yelled, "Thanks, Mr. Davis, for the driver's license!" (Davis only days ago signed a measure allowing illegal immigrants to obtain licenses.)

How satisfyingly diverse!

And the NY Post has more in Bubba Leads Gray Hooray:

But the event was not without circus-like elements.

Among the 2,000 people in the congregation was actor Robert Blake, who is awaiting trial for the murder of his wife.

Blake is free on $1.5 million bail and has been attending services at the church for about a month.

When Clinton quoted the passage from the gospel of John, "He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone," Blake's face appeared on a TV screen set up in the church.

Sheesh, it should have been Bubba's face!

Today's Hoot
Is over at Spathic:

With very little persuasion at all, I could be convinced that every single person involved with the WB's Play for a Billion gameshow deserves to be velcroed to the bottom of a city bus that's being driven through a minefield dotted with napalm pits.

And speaking of headline writers
A pal in the Old North State alerted to me the latest at The Raleigh News and Observer (The Nobs to its fans). To give you some perspective, the Nobs always has an air of NY Times wannabees trying to promulgate their stylish values to the benighted yokels of North Carolina. It reads less like a newspaper and more like a checklist of the day's leftoid talking points with a local flavor.

Anyhow, the Nobs powers-that-be apparently decided it was time for some extensive puffery about talking hair-do, Sen. John Edwards, so they kicked off an "in-depth" 4 part series on the Breck Boy. In the dead tree version they had 5"x8" photos of him on the campaign trail above the fold on the front of this and last Sunday's paper. Must have been no other news! You can get some of the flavor from their web site today and the full series is online in a special section.

As far as the articles go, here's the gist - "He's a swell man of the people." Zzzzzz. But the real question is, who's writing the headlines and subheads? A teenage girl with a crush on Johnny?

The first episode was: Easy smile hides iron will to win: First-term senator forges ahead at an unlikely pace as he sets his sights on the presidency. The pace is unlikely all right - he's battling Al Sharpton at the bottom of the rankings. And the "easy smile"? Someone tell 'em how to spell sleazy.

Later in the week, of course, Edwards withdrew from the North Carolina Senate race amidst the grumbling of the party faithful that he was going to lose that as well as his presidential bid. So after a little scrambling at the Nobs, here's the title for the final episode - Beyond senate, he races at Bush: Some call it arrogance, but his instincts tell him the time is right to push for the presidency. Sheesh, why don't they just run a closeup of his butt?

And why don't they save a whole lot of column inches and just hire Scott Ott? - Sen. Edwards Announces Retirement from Politics.

Everyone needs a hobby
It's all the same AP story, but at the Boston Globe the headline is Name-change idea for country has few backers in Georgia. Actually it's all about Butts county. Elsewhere, they were on the case and also had bumper sticker photos: Is there no end to the cracks about Butts County?; County's Name Kicks Butts; and In Butts County, y'all just back off.

"People always crack a smile in Butts County"