Latest news from Burpelson Air Force Base!

General enlists Hollywood to ignite campaign:

In an unlikely attempt to gain star backing for a slow-burning campaign, the Democratic presidential candidate, General Wesley Clark, is spending late nights talking politics with Madonna and wooing sympathetic supergroups such as The Eagles, with whom he recently shared the stage during a rendition of Hotel California.

Late nights with Madonna! Woohoo!

After a 90-minute policy discussion with Madonna in her Los Angeles home recently, a friend of the star was authorised to disclose that "Madonna was very impressed with Gen Clark's intelligence and his vision for America". Another associate added: "Don't under-estimate this. Madonna is often ahead of the curve."

You really can't make this stuff up!

Gen Clark, who had a cerebral and somewhat austere reputation [sic] during his military career, has spent much of the past month seeking out the late-night company of west coast rock stars, screen idols and movie producers. While his rivals preach to the worthy but unglamorous residents of early-voting Iowa and New Hampshire, Gen Clark is dressing snappily and going out on the town in LA.

Party on, Dude!

Do I detect the fine hand of Bubba Clinton?

The showbusiness strategy reflects a change of direction by the Clark campaign team, which has already decided not to compete in the rural Iowa caucuses that launch the primary season.

The general's tacticians believe that Howard Dean, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, has already won the support of most left-wing grassroots activists. Gen Clark's goal is to emulate Bill Clinton in the 1990s by capturing the heart of Hollywood, a centre of liberal power and influence in America.

"He wants to be the chosen candidate of Tinseltown," said one sympathetic film producer.

Good luck, Weasley!

But one more vignette:

Gen Clark's Eagles night was judged a political triumph by his team and a model for similar events throughout next year. The group, who hope to influence a future Democratic president on environmental issues, agreed to play for over an hour at the Hollywood fundraiser.

Dressed in black, the general told the audience that Hotel California had been his favourite song since the days of his military service in the state. The Eagles obligingly placed it first on their playlist. According to a campaign aide, "Gen Clark and his wife, Gert, stood by the stage, holding hands and singing along."

It must have been something to see.

More nausea inducing stories by following the link. And by the way, Weasley has noticed that the Hollyweirdos have money.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:39 PM -

 
Ruh Oh!

Revealed: Labour's Big Conversation is a fix:

Labour's new initiative to listen to voters, The Big Conversation, appears to be a big con: a Telegraph investigation has revealed that party officials have handpicked contributors - and have then edited out their negative comments.

The disclosure will be an embarrassment for Tony Blair, who launched the exercise on Friday, saying it was proof that the Government was listening to the people of Britain.

The Prime Minister called for "an honest and serious debate about the future", and urged voters to text or e-mail their views to a special website, www.bigconversation.org.uk.

The Telegraph discovered yesterday, however, that many of the stories on the website were crafted by Labour officials who interviewed carefully selected individuals known to be broadly sympathetic to Labour - and then cut out any negative comments.

What is it with people in the Left that gives 'em an almighty hankering for "dialogue"? Er, well shaped dialogue, that is.

Also, it's further evidence that just because you can do it on the Internet, doesn't mean it's worth doing.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:29 PM -

 
Mike Myers: Asshole in Fur

Don't hold back! Tell us how you really feel!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:14 AM -

 
And finally some good news!

A Red Ryder Christmas:

We bear glad tidings for the Ralphie Parkers of America on this, the official opening day of the Christmas shopping season: Santa may yet come through with that genuine Red Ryder BB gun. Even if it will come covered in warning labels instead of wrapping paper.

Two years ago we reported in this space how the grinches at the Consumer Product Safety Commission had taken aim against the Daisy Manufacturing Co. That's the company that makes the Red Ryder BB gun that Ralphie so desperately pines for in the cherished holiday film classic "A Christmas Story." Apparently the commission's departing chairman, Ann Brown, wanted to go out with a bang. The CPSC suit seeking the mandatory recall of 7.5 million Daisy air guns came just two days before her resignation.

That's Clinton butt girl, Ann Brown.

Christmas is the time for miracles, however, and the good news is that the commission has just reversed itself in a 2-1 vote for a settlement that drops the recall demand. Commissioner Mary Sheila Gall, who was the sole dissenting vote against the initial filing, declared that in 30 years of government service, she had "never seen a more outrageous miscarriage of justice and abuse of the processes of public policy" than the CPSC action against Daisy. This time she was joined by the new chairman, Hal Stratton, who voted to settle after reviewing the evidence and concluding that the CPSC might not prevail on the merits.

More on Daisy's penance by following the link including:

Finally, Daisy must affix more and bigger warning labels stating that the gun must--wait for it!--always be treated as if it were loaded.

Ya think?

In fact, our suggestion is that Daisy include a video of "A Christmas Story" in each of its BB gun boxes. Not only would it be more fun than a warning label, it would undoubtedly be a lot more effective.

Indeed.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:16 AM -

 
Kuku is racking up the endorsements!



If I were Howie Dean, I'd be very afraid! There might be a moonbat shortage!

UPDATE: Cato the Youngest has the skinny on Kuku's Adopt An Intern program. I tell ya, Howie, all the primo wingnuts are going to be taken!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:39 AM -

 
Ernst Blofeld Minime alert!

Soros son hawkish about Bush warfare:

Jonathan Soros, the son of billionaire George Soros, has joined electronic pop star Moby in launching an internet competition for a TV commercial attacking Bush.
...
"Bush's policies have ransacked the environment, put our national security at risk, damaged our economy and redistributed wealth from the middle class to the very wealthiest Americans," says Eli Pariser of moveon.org, an online advocacy group that is helping to organise the competition.

Of course they meant MoveOn.org, the foreign front group. When did SPECTRE change its name?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:32 AM -

 
Ruh Oh!

Hospital warns migrants to pay up. (Since this is the Arizona Republic, "migrant" means "illegal alien".)

TUCSON - Uninsured immigrants who fail to pay their medical bills are being reported to immigration officials and warned that they could face deportation under a new University Medical Center policy.

This month, hospital workers started calling the federal bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services to turn in "foreign nationals" with delinquent accounts, said Barbara Felix, UMC's international patient service's coordinator. The policy, affecting legal and undocumented immigrants, reflects the growing frustration of hospital administrators along the U.S.-Mexican border saddled with millions of dollars in uncompensated care. UMC alone has incurred $3.3 million in unpaid bills from immigrants since July.

The message to immigrants is simple, Felix said: "All we're asking is, 'Step up to the plate and assume the responsibility for having received the medical attention that you needed. We're happy to give it to you, but now get with the program and set up a payment plan and stick with it.'

"If you go to Robinson's May or Dillard's and you buy something, you pay for it," she added. "It (medical care) doesn't fall from the sky."

Elementary considerations of logic don't apply when you're in Wonderland. Let's hear from the "logic challenged":

Guadalupe Castillo, a Tucson immigrant advocate, called on UMC to revoke the policy, saying it was "immoral" and "unethical."

"It is the right of all human beings to receive medical care regardless of their citizenship," she said. "That (policy) is saying, 'Don't come to the hospital because if you do, we'll turn you in.' It's frightening."

I must have missed the discovery of the "right" of everyone in the world to receive medical care from the American taxpayer. Sorry Guadalupe, but the really frightening part is:

On Tuesday, Congress voted to give $1 billion to hospitals over the next four years to supplement the cost of caring for uninsured immigrants. The provision, part of the landmark Medicare bill, could ease the burden for hospitals in Arizona, which is expected to receive about $160 million.

In a recent study of undocumented immigrant health care, Tucson was singled out as one of the hardest hit areas along the border. The study found that illegal immigrants racked up $190 million in unpaid bills at 77 border hospitals in 2000. In Pima County, the tab exceeded $24 million.

As always, the answer to all the whining of the "immigrant advocates" is that problem will clear up if the "immigrants" just head on home.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:23 AM -

 
Today's Hoot

Daniel Henninger at the Wall Street Journal keeps us up to date on the Nine Dwarves with 'The Democrats!': Beloved Series Nears End of Run. I'd like to quote the whole thing, but here are some excerpts:

There is a school of thought in the newspaper business that this is the least read day of the year. If there is any truth in that, then it's the perfect day to ponder the nine men and women running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
...
The kind of Democrats who wonder how the members of their party suddenly came to be known as "progressives" don't seem to believe this is happening to them, that some magical event will save them from this calamity. They'll awaken one morning to a clear sky, and all this weirdness will have gone away because across the top of every morning paper it will say: "Hillary's Hat's in the Ring."
...
As an old high-school debate judge, it appeared to me that the only thing resembling an authentic debate took place in a remarkable exchange between Al Sharpton and Tom Brokaw over the Tawana Brawley case, for which Mr. Brokaw sought an apology. Instead, Mr. Sharpton deftly dumped the entire history of the Confederacy, lynching and racism down upon the startled head of Mr. Brokaw who finally said "we'll try to leave it at that," only to get punched around some more for venturing into Mr. Sharpton's neighborhood.

It is getting more difficult by the debate to resist Rev. Sharpton's ineffable charms, as when months ago, he summed up the evening as "seven politicians, an officer, a lady and me, a gentleman."

The Rev is certainly a piece of work. But then so are they all.

My fave though is:

There were as well many closely harmonized choral pieces on Medicare and Iraq, but my favorite song was "Negotiate With North Korea." Howard Dean, the middle tenor: "I think the offer that the president of North Korea has on the table has real promise." Mr. Gephardt, after noting from the upper registers that Kim Jong Il "is half nuts anyway," said President Bush "should go and get a negotiation going and get to the bottom of this." And Mr. Kerry, the basso profundo, urged "greater cooperation with North Korea."

You wonder if these guys ever met a moonbat they didn't like?

And, of course, the punchline:

The effect over time has been corrosive. Messrs. Dean, Kerry, Gephardt, Lieberman and Clark--serious individuals in private, away from this burlesque--have come to look and sound ridiculous. They make the clowns--Messrs. Kucinich and Sharpton--seem endearing by comparison.

Republicans could care less. But serious Democrats, claiming fealty to the more robust legacy of FDR, Harry Truman and LBJ, must cringe at the infantilizing of their party. They may hope that all this will be forgotten next year. But the whole whacky cast has been performing on television for months. Nobody forgets a good show.

It's like one of those awful reality TV shows - you can hardly wait for them to all get voted off the island.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:00 PM -

 
Vintage whine from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Fox, but not CNN, was at Bush's Thanksgiving surprise

I'd love to say "Payback's a bitch!" but the presence of a Reuters reporter rules that out.

Kathryn Kross, CNN's Washington bureau chief, told the Post that a two-person crew from her network was dismissed from the White House pool Wednesday, with the understanding that no further news would be made.

I think the appropriate response is "You snooze, you lose."

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:18 AM -

 
President Bush goes to Baghdad. Here come the whines!

The President visits the troops in Baghdad on Thanksgiving and the whole trip was hush hush for security reasons. And surprise, surprise - the usual suspects are a tad grumpy:

Democrats Temper Praise for Bush Visit With Criticism:

The surprise visit stunned and confused his rivals, who struggled — in the midst of Thanksgiving dinner — to balance praise for the president's gesture with renewed criticism of his Iraq policy, which they said would be among his greatest vulnerabilities in next year's election.

They managed to handle the criticism part as the rest of the article demonstrates.

But the biggest whines were from the media - Some Understand Covert Journey; Others Fear Bad Precedent:

But Philip Taubman, Washington bureau chief of the New York Times, said that "in this day and age, there should have been a way to take more reporters. People are perfectly capable of maintaining a confidence for security reasons. It's a bad precedent." Once White House officials "decided to do a stealth trip, they bought into a whole series of things that are questionable."

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, criticized the White House correspondents who made the trip without spilling the secret. "That's just not kosher," he said. "Reporters are in the business of telling the truth. They can't decide it's okay to lie sometimes because it serves a larger truth or good cause."

It must be tough to acclimate when you've just beamed down.

However, the blue ribbon goes to Ole Shifty Joe:

Former White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, who worked for President Bill Clinton, said: "There's no way to do this kind of trip if it's broadcast in advance, for security reasons. My problem with this is not that he misled the press. This is a president who has been unwilling to provide his presence to the families who have suffered but thinks nothing of flying to Baghdad to use the troops there as a prop."

Good to see that Joe is still a lying crapsack.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:10 AM -

 
Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers

And to top things off, a Pilgrim story from Caroline Baum at Bloomberg.com.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:59 AM -

 
More on the Geneva Wankfest

Yesterday, I mentioned the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society, but I forgot to mention the Summit web site. There's not a whole lot of there there, unless you are a connoisseur of the art of bureaucracy and enjoy reading things like

Comments from the Civil Society Working Group on Content and Themes to the Draft Non-Paper on the Declaration of Principles from the President of WSIS PrepCom

Easy for them to say, I'm sure.

And speaking of the "Declaration of Principles," they seem to be on about the 15,000th draft because they can't get everyone to agree on which pointless verbiage to include. Check the latest draft out for yourself, but the following are some of my favorites. Bear in mind that the 'crats have coined a new acronym: ICTs are Information and Communication Technologies.

10. We affirm that development of ICTs provides enormous opportunities for women, who should be an integral part of, and key actors, in the Information Society. We are committed to ensuring that the Information Society enables women's empowerment and their full participation on the basis on equality in all spheres of society and in all decision-making processes. To this end, we should mainstream a gender equality perspective and use ICTs as a tool to that end.

"Mainstream a gender equality perspective"?

11. In building the Information Society, we shall pay particular attention to the special needs of marginalized and vulnerable groups of society, including migrants, internally displaced persons and refugees, unemployed and under-privileged people, minorities and nomadic people. We shall also recognize the special needs of older persons and persons with disabilities.

Yikes, don't forget the nomads! I wonder if they want laptops or handhelds?

14. We continue to pay special attention to the particular needs of developing countries, countries with economies in transition, Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States, Landlocked Developing Countries, Highly Indebted Poor Countries, [countries and territories under occupation], countries recovering from conflict and countries and regions with special needs as well as to conditions that pose severe threats to development, such as natural disasters, [and foreign occupation].

There are some whole new categories there that I didn't know existed! But there's no mention of Highly Indebted Wealthy Countries Who Piss Away Money on the UN.

And the text in brackets means it is under debate. You don't have to screw on your thinking cap too tight to figure out which of the usual suspects want the phrases above.

Of course there's also

[Note: the whole document is in square brackets]

Sheesh - I thought it was circling the bowl.

After the pontificating is over there's the punchline in the Plan of Action where the UN weenies demand cash and control of the Internet although it's sprinkled throughout a nice heap of silage. Or maybe manure. It's one end or the other.

Don't call us, Kofi, we'll call you.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:30 AM -

 
Be there or be square!

I've mentioned before that the United Nations is staging a gala social event in Geneva on Dec. 10-12. 6,000 delegates, 50 "heads of state", and nothing to do but shop, er, decide how United Nations control should be extended to the Internet. You know, based on their fabulous track record for running things. Robert Fulford has the skinny in the National Post - Keep Kofi away from the Internet:

Like bureaucrats everywhere, the people running the UN believe above all in the growth of their power. This winter, undeterred by their failures in peacekeeping, AIDS prevention and women's rights, they are focusing on a new target of opportunity: the Internet.
...
On Dec. 10-12, more than 6,000 delegates will gather in Geneva at the UN's World Summit on the Information Society, warming the hearts of restaurateurs and hoteliers for several kilometres in every direction. Some 60 heads of government have promised to come, including Gerhard Schroeder and Fidel Castro.

Now it's 60 "heads of states" including the old murderer, Fidel! It's the social event of the season!

The man in charge is Nitin Desai, an economist and a UN under-secretary-general. He's Kofi Annan's special advisor for this project, a nimble bureaucrat who knows how to keep a crazy idea alive and may even push this one through.

Admittedly, the conference in Geneva looked for a while like a solution without a problem. The International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, proposed this grand international gathering in 1998, after reporting on severe disparities in the telephone systems of rich and poor countries. The General Assembly endorsed the conference in 2001, but about that time things started turning sour. Sad to say, the inequalities began disappearing on their own. As a UN press release put it this year, "The connectivity gap between rich and poor had narrowed." Cellphones were the reason. It looked like the UN wasn't needed. Maybe the conference would have to be cancelled.

But Nitin Desai didn't get his beautiful office in New York by letting that kind of embarrassment inconvenience him. He began chattering about a new problem, which nobody mentioned in 1998. Now, he said, we must deal with a computerization gap, or "the digital divide." The conference's purpose will be to encourage high-speed computer access and content development in the poor countries.

Do I detect demands for largesse in the offing for some of the "heads of state"?

And oh, by the way, Desai also wants to take power out of the hands of (can you guess?) the Americans.

There's a surprise!

He believes the Americans are running things, and it's the duty of the UN to make them stop. Desai says that while the Internet was put together by private interests, its current problems (he mentioned spam, viruses, cybercrime, and pornography) call for "governance." Doing his best to keep up with current language, Desai recently said the Geneva conference will "address such issues as e-education, e-health and e-governance." The UN policy people now insist that the Internet, being a public resource (actually, it's mostly owned in private) should be managed within any given country by the national governments and internationally by, well, the UN.

Bite me, Nitin.

When President Bush doesn't show up for this wankfest, brace yourselves for the "unilateralism" whines.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:26 AM -

 
A turkey for Thanksgiving

Hill on Afghan Trip for Holiday:

November 26, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was flying last night to Afghanistan, where she will spend Thanksgiving before traveling to Iraq to meet with soldiers and ask questions about the ongoing nation-building efforts, her office announced.

That would make your god damn day. I wonder if she is bringing her entourage that likes to spit on the flag?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:05 AM -

 
No politically correct foolishness goes unpunished!

James Taranto reveals a dispatch from the PC nuthouse:

An unnamed employee of the University of Virginia Medical Center is under fire for using a racial slur in a conversation, reports the Cavalier Daily:

University President John T. Casteen, III issued a statement yesterday responding to allegations that a Medical Center employee used a racial epithet during a conversation at a recent staff meeting, calling the usage "offensive" and "insulting." . . .

In an e-mail sent to a black faculty e-mail list, History Prof. Julian Bond, national chair of the NAACP, called for the employee to make a public apology and take sensitivity training.

"My first impulse is that this should be a dismissible infraction--but free speech protections I hold dear tell me that shouldn't be so," Bond wrote, adding that the administration "ought to disavow such language."

"The University expects all members of the University community to be alert to the rights and dignity of all our people and also alert to racial and other insults," said Casteen in his statement.

So what did the employee say that was so offensive? R. Edward Howell, CEO of the medical center, reports it was "something like this: 'I can't believe in this day and age that there's a sports team in our nation's capital named the Redskins. That is as derogatory to Indians as having a team called Niggers would be to blacks.' "

Stand by while they devour their own.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 1:25 AM -

 
I love a good hanky panky story!

Some Tennessee legislators have been caught with their hands in the till again, including one of the notorious Ford family:

Take, for example, state Sen. John Ford.

The Memphis Democrat has spent almost $2,200 in the past year to overnight packages by FedEx. That compares to $18,000 spent a year for all 132 members of the legislature.
...
Billing records show that Ford's office has allowed his ex-wife Tamara Mitchell Ford to repeatedly use the state's FedEx account. Included are more than a dozen overnight packages she shipped at state expense to her family in South Carolina.

And that's not all. Taxpayers also paid for her to FedEx packages to court officials in Alabama where she faced DUI charges, packages to a resort in Orlando, even to overnight her credit card payments to American Express.

But wait, there's more!

Talk radio's Phil Valentine says, "Give me a break."

"This kind of garbage has got to end. We've got people who do not realize that this is taxpayer money."

The senator himself also keeps the FedEx trucks running, overnighting packages to lots of constituents named Ford: Joseph Ford, Kemba Ford, Michael Ford, Michelle Ford, Maxine Ford.

"No relation, of course," Valentine deadpans. "No, no, no. He's buying a car, you see, probably one part at a time. They are FedEx'ing it in."

Then, there are his constituents at some of the country's finest catalogue companies, such as Neiman Marcus and JCrew.

That John - wotta guy! And what's his take on the situation?

As for Sen. Ford, he tells Phil Williams, by phone, that the real crime is that NewsChannel 5 would dare to call him to ask about how he spends your money.

"Don't call me today, tomorrow or ever -- you understand?" Ford says. "Don't call me back. If you do, I'm going to consider it harassment and file charges against you."

A true man of the people.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 1:01 AM -

 
It's good to see that the USA doesn't have a monopoly on asshats

The Scotsman astonishes with Council: national anthem too racist for Scots:

THE anthem God Save the Queen has been dropped from refugees’ citizenship ceremonies in Glasgow because it is deemed to be racist to Scots, it was reported yesterday.

Councillors have also decided that the Union flag will not be present at the events because of its sectarian undertones.

Maybe they could just become citizens of the EU? Or maybe the UN?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:36 AM -

 
And for Ernst Blofeld fans...

Dick Morris discusses The Front:

THE Democratic Party is being replaced by a new group called "Americans Coming Together," which has been launched with two $10 million donations from financier George Soros and Peter B. Lewis, chairman of the Progressive Corporation. The new organization wants to raise $94 million to finance a massive campaign against Bush - all with soft money.

The Democratic Party, which is only allowed to raise hard money (donations limited to $2,000 per person) by the McCain-Feingold law is unable to amass the resources necessary for a national campaign, so it is ceding the main role to Americans Coming Together.

Hypocrisy in American politics at least provides material for humor. How else are we to view the attempts of Democratic Party leaders to circumvent the McCain-Feingold prohibition on the use of soft money in campaigns after their party insisted on its inclusion in the bill?

Er, they're lying crapsacks?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:46 AM -

 
It's truly a conundrum!

Howard Kurtz muses on leaks to the press:

Reporters love leaks. Can't get enough of 'em. The juicier the leak, the more sensitive the disclosure, the more likely you are to see it splashed on the front page.

But lately there have been a series of leaks that haven't gotten all that much attention outside of the conservative corner of the profession.

Which raises the following possibilities:

1) Mainstream reporters are sulking about having been beat.

2) The stories aren't all that great.

3) The establishment press reacts differently when conservatives break stories, assume it's part of the vast right-wing conspiracy and try to knock down the allegations.

Hint:

It's little wonder that some on the right are complaining once again about media bias.

I'm really scratching under my cap on this one.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:42 AM -

 
They're just funnin' us

USA Today has an editorial Q&A with primo dipstick Carol Moseley Braun. Aside from the usual blather, we find:

After a public career culminating in a job as "ambassador to paradise" (New Zealand), former U.S. senator Carol Moseley Braun was going to till an old family farm until 9/11.

Based on all available evidence, ole Carol would be challenged to tell one end of a cow from the other. Hmm, I wonder if there is a snap of her in bib overalls?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 6:16 PM -

 
Buh Bye Pond Scum

Jurors Recommend Death Penalty in Sniper Trial

Waiting for the headline: USA Executes Muhammad.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:06 PM -

 
Big Media can't count either

You all heard the news stories that "arm twisting" by Republican honchos in the House of Representatives got the Medicare reform act passed there. Hell, Teddy has been whining about it non-stop. Well, here's what actually happened from someone with insomnia who stayed up to watch:

This weekend the entire national media reported that due to "arm-twisting" on Republicans in the House, the Medicare bill passed in the House after an unprecedented three-hour delay between the original vote and when the vote was gaveled to a close.

If everyone is saying this, it must be true, right?

Wrong. You cannot necessarily trust what you read in the papers, or see on network TV.

At 3 a.m., the original voting time on the bill, the tote board on C-SPAN showed that the bill would lose, 216-218. In that tally, which was not final until the gavel fell, 204 Republicans voted for the bill, but 25 voted against. At 5:53 a.m. when the vote was gaveled to an end, the bill passed, 220-215, with 204 Republicans voting aye and 25 voting nay. Contrary to the entire national press coverage on this issue, there was NO NET GAIN among Republicans in the House.

As the record revealed, to anyone who cared to watch the C-SPAN coverage of the event live, the entire change that ultimately passed this bill occurred on the DEMOCRAT side of the aisle. Three Democrats who originally voted against the bill changed their positions (as all Members can do before any vote becomes final) and voted aye. In addition, one Democrat, David Wu (Ore.) who had not voted in the preliminary tally, decided to vote aye.

Ruh Oh!

But what about the bogus reports?

How could the entire American press get the story wrong, when it occurred in public, in front of God and everybody? The blame belongs initially to one reporter for the Associated Press, Mark Sherman, who got the story wrong initially and in his follow-ups. Most of the 426 major print media stories on this subject (according to GoogleNews) simply picked up and reprinted the Associated Press story. So Sherman's erroneous statements became their erroneous statements.

But then there were the news "organs" who "improved" the story. More by following the link.

If you can't believe 'em on the small stuff, how can you believe 'em on the big stuff?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:54 AM -

 
Aw Jeez, not him again!

Chirac celebrates 'victory for Europe'

England's rugby champions have won effusive praise from Jacques Chirac, who said their defeat of Australia was "a victory for Europe."

Time to link to the ladies again.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:27 AM -

 
They even have matching tin foil beanies!

Ted Rall endorses Howard Dean and Howie's ecstatic.



Hmm, those beanies kinda look like the wrong end of Thanksgiving turkeys. No wonder they fit.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:11 AM -

 
I have a clever four step plan!

1. You come up with a Medicare reform bill that's frankly crap, but will pass in the House and Senate by a small majority with some arm twisting.



2. The fact that the bill doesn't actually lift the taxpayers' wallets and remove the cash and credit cards will enrage the usual Donk suspects who will start a filibuster which will effectively kill the bill.



3. As a result, you don't get the bill you don't want plus you do get lots of good advertising:





4. You enjoy an evil laugh at the Donks' expense!

Hmm, maybe the picture caption should be "Filibustering Democrats dump oldsters out of wheelchairs!" Bwahaha!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:56 AM -

 
Memos, what memos?

(Via FreeSpeech) The Boston Herald editorializes on the al Qaeda-Saddam memo:

Reports of events in Iraq and U.S. policy there have long been skewed by an oppositional media establishment. A new example makes the point very well.

Prestige outlets in Washington - the big newspapers, the newsmagazines and the broadcast networks - have been molasses-slow getting to an astonishing story in the Nov. 24 issue of The Weekly Standard, a conservative publication. The issue was mailed on Monday, Nov. 17, and was available on the Internet a couple of days earlier. Nonprestige outlets, including Internet ``blogs'' (personal Web pages) and conservative publications, were the only ones to notice at first.
...
The importance of the letter is not particular reports but the sheer scope of the evidence. It would fully entitle any president to treat the possibility of a connection with the utmost gravity, and certainly raises questions about the quality of intelligence analysis.

The public ought to know that this evidence is there. Yet the Washington Post ran a very brief, dismissive story Nov. 15, a Saturday, when attention is skimpy. Perhaps under pressure from continued coverage by the ``blogs,'' The New York Times, cue sheet for the establishment, got around to the story on Thursday, Nov. 20 - at the bottom of Page 14, the third of three pages of Iraq news. And the same day the Post used the letter as an opening into reports of disagreements between the Defense Department and the CIA - on Page 34.

This amounts to hiding the news.

"All the news that fits".

And while we are talking memos, what about the one revealing the Donk plan to politicize the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for partisan gain? It's been 17 days since it was revealed and Sen. Jay Rockefeller has yet to disavow it. All the latest at http://www.intelmemo.com/.

And last on the memo menu - what about the ones revealing the Donk plan to blackball minority judicial nominees? Well, not much is doing there other than Illinois Senator Dickie Durbin still has his panties knotted because someone spilled the beans. Hmm, why don't they roll out Ted "Unsafe at Any Speed" Kennedy to call all the minority nominees Neanderthals again?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:02 AM -

 
Access to Tools

Eye on the Left has a Howard Dean Ski Poster!

Sheesh, when I first heard that Howie was a Powderhound, I thought it was Peruvian Marching Powder. You know, stand by while Howie has a tootski and then he'll froth for his fans.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 6:39 AM -