I didn't get an invite to the Bubbathon!

But then neither did a lot of other people including some close Clinton friends!


So I thought that to honor The Bent One, I'd have my own display of photos of the Clintons. Maybe I should open a museum! Or at least a gift shop!



































(While I touched up some of the snaps, none are original to me. Many can be supersized by clicking on them.)

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:15 AM -

 
A Wet Time at the Bubbathon

George Neumayr - Reigning Like a Dog:

God sent his rain down on the just and unjust at Bill Clinton's presidential library opening on Thursday -- a celebration of his "glorified house trailer," as Clinton put it, quoting a British publication's description of the architectural monstrosity next to the Arkansas river. Looking unwell and spent from his heart surgery, Clinton spoke of "red and blue" coming together, though there was little red apart from the color of ponchos in the audience at what looked like a rained-out U2 concert. It was an event held in the South but it might as well have been held in Hollywood. The press regarded it as a moment of great American majesty, but it smacked of the depressing cultural shabbiness that Clinton's Fleetwood Mac inauguration augured. The 1970s America that Clinton's events always epitomize is so devoid of distinctively American high culture that it has to outsource cultural performances to foreign rockers like Bono.

The press purred over the proceedings, though strangely the Clinton News Network and pro-Clinton gabbers on MSNBC felt safe enough to come out and acknowledge that Clinton as president had the morals of a strip club owner. "A rascally dog," Hillary Rosen on MSNBC called him. What happened to the left's agnosticism about attacks on Clinton's character? The infidelity charges against him were "uncorroborated," "baloney," "unbelievable," they used to say. Gennifer Flowers and all the others were lying connivers, they assured the American people. The right called him a "rascally dog" and they cried foul. Now they call him a rascally dog and pat themselves on the back for honesty that comes about 14 years too late.

Then they did the barking version of Jingle Bells.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 2:59 PM -

 
Today's Biscuits and Gravy

Bill 'Captain Queeg' Clinton Threatens Peter Jennings

Jordan's Queen Noor at an Arkansas Comfort Inn!. Kevin Spacey too! (But not together.)

Radio host calls Rice 'Aunt Jemima'. Madison, Wisconsin, where else? (Besides Berkeley, Ithaca, ....)

Trashing Condi Rice:

Now you can see the intolerance of the left. Their message is simple: minorities are good as long as they know their place. And the place for minorities is in the Democratic Party and on the liberal side of the political fence. Stray from the designated minority path and you get what Condi Rice is getting now.

Mad cow removed from party!

Baghdad Jim McDermott claims wiretapping is a 1st Amendment right

Join Friends of Hillary and receive a free bumper sticker. I'll pass, but maybe Hugh Jorgasm would like one.

And last but not least - Blues brother leads police on chase at airport (Elvis was there too):

Police in Crystal, Minn., found themselves living a scene right out of a movie when they got in a car chase at Crystal Airport (MIC) with a man dressed as Jake Blues, John Belushi's character in the 1980 movie "The Blues Brothers."

According to authorities, the Blues brother and an Elvis impersonator had been drinking at a bar near the airport. Police were called to the scene when "Elvis" began having convulsions. When police got to the scene, the man jumped up and began belting out show tunes.

Two women at the bar then told police that "Jake Blues" had stolen their car and driven to the airport.

Two police cars went to the airport and found the man, still in the stolen vehicle, parked between two hangars. A high speed chase ensued with the man trying to elude police by driving between hangars and across an active runway. Police were finally able to stop him by pinning his car between theirs. All three vehicles were wrecked, but no one was injured.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:15 AM -

 
Poor baby!

WashingtonPost.com Drops Ted Rall's Cartoons:

WashingtonPost.com is no longer running the cartoons of hard-hitting liberal Ted Rall.

They misspelled disgusting guttersnipe. You can view the expected load of whining from the little twinkie by following the link. Gosh, I hope the doggie door didn't hit him on the butt on his way out!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:21 PM -

 
Who knew the Frenchies had such a sense of humor?

The photo is forgettable, but the folks at Agence France-Presse must have worked overtime on the caption:

A British hooligan in the streets of Belgium. The typical Briton is polite, witty and phlegmatic, but lacks a certain style and has a dental hygiene issue while having an occasional drinking problem

Meanwhile in related news - Chirac urges fairer world order:

French President Jacques Chirac has called for a sounder and fairer international order based on a reformed and strengthened United Nations.

Gosh! That's sure a surprise!

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

(Image credit: Iowa Presidential Watch)

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:26 PM -

 
At least he didn't put the massage on his MasterCard

Braying ass Bob Beckel ("Dedicated to the unrelenting pursuit and exposure of the right") was Walter Mondale's campaign manager in 1984 and left the field of that disaster to become a media talking head of the leftoid persuasion. Last night he was on Hannity and Colmes trying to defend the abuse of Condoleeza Rice by the usual suspects. Ann Coulter kicked his butt:

COULTER: I notice these liberals want to talk about anything under the sun, Bill Clinton, Pat Robertson, but not liberal attacks on Condoleeza Rice. Dick Clarke, the flamboyant opponent of the Bush administration, came out with a book earlier this year claiming that Condoleeza Rice, when he talked to her about Al Qaeda, her face showed that she was perplexed, as if she had never heard of Al Qaeda before. Can you imagine somebody saying that about Wolfowitz?

HANNITY: We found a tape of it.

COULTER: No, but this is, liberals have, that’s my fourth example now of liberals having a problem with blacks. Having a little bit of a race issue when you have blacks working for a Republican administration.

BECKEL: Ann, Ann, that is so outrageous.

COULTER: And I notice that you will talk about anything but Condoleeza Rice and the attacks on Condoleeza Rice.

BECKEL: Ann, Ann, could you please just for one minute. I know you usually overwhelm people, but you’re not going to overwhelm me. I have no problem with her because she’s black. I have a problem with her because I don’t think she’s up to the job.

COULTER: Oh, unlike Warren Christopher.

BECKEL: Do not begin to say that people like me are racists when I spent a lot of time out in the vineyards in the civil rights movement. I don’t think you could cite one credential where you have.

COULTER: And you listen to jazz.

More shouting-head hijinks by following the link, but what's up with the Pat Robertson stuff? Well, earlier Bob had tried to play the Donk "faith" card:

BECKEL: Let me first say something here for the sake of this. Ann, I find it, my faith says to forgive you and I will here. But I really wish you would think about the words you used, because they’re very painful. You all invoke God, like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. You know what? In the Bible it says we’re to care for one another, we’re to take care of those who are the meek and the poor, we’re to lift them up, we’re to forgive our enemies, we’re to turn the other cheek. I don’t know anywhere in the Bible where the Lord ever said that the Lord would come down on the side of, as Pat Robertson said, on the side of George Bush. The truth of the matter is that Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, and frankly Ann you, are taking some of the most incredibly important symbols to us, God, race, and what you’re doing, and what Robertson--I’ll say this not about you but about Robertson--he is a con man, and he has prostituted himself. He does not know the Scriptures and he has abandoned his love for the Lord Jesus Christ to love secular things.

Is that kewl or what? Especially since ole Bob is prominently featured over at The Smoking Gun in another case of prostitution:

Meet Maryam Massihi. The 21-year-old hooker recently stole political consultant Bob Beckel's heart--at least for a few hours, at $300 per. Then Massihi (who used the names Tiffany and Cindy professionally) and her cohorts allegedly tried to extort $50,000 in hush money from the Democratic heavyweight (he ran Walter Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign). Beckel's recent run-in with Massihi & Co. is detailed in this search warrant affidavit filed August 23 in Alexandria, Virginia's Circuit Court. Beckel discovered his young consort via the Internet (Massihi's electronic come-on is below) and paid her by check, which proved helpful when cops began probing who was trying to shake down the 53-year-old Beckel.

There's six pages worth of fun, but I liked the part where Bob offered to send her a vague "hello" while he was on the air. Oh yeah, her pimp had a Cadillac Escalade with license plate "SOPAFLY".

It doesn't get any better than this!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 4:00 PM -

 
Catfish and Hush Puppies

Time for a hearty lunch!

Line of the Day: Clinton Library Unzips!

Organisers worried about smell of horse dung at MTV Europe Awards - as well they should be.

Professor "Inadvertantly" Approves Crime as Class Project. Since it was political, it's "dog bites man" news, but the hard part is figuring why it was a "German Studies" class.

Bill Gates drowning in spam - "Microsoft founder and chairman gets 4 million e-mails a day, making him world's most spammed person."

A new mad cow case in Canada - with a fetching snap of the cow.

Your Tax Dollars at Work: The U.N. discovers the cause of anti-Semitism: Jews.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:56 AM -

 
Today's the big day!

And we're already having fun!

The Washington Post editorializes

THE LAST THING we want to do is dampen the festivities in Little Rock, where the Clinton Presidential Center is opening today, but does anybody remember Marc Rich? He's the fugitive financier who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton on his way out of office -- after Mr. Rich's ex-wife, songwriter Denise Rich, gave $450,000 to the foundation raising money for this very same library.

Heck, they have to have a lot of loot to put up all those displays with political diatribes! Besides, I tend to think of it like an endorsement contract. All the big celebs have them!

Meanwhile, Bubba himself is getting a tad defensive:

Bill Clinton insisted yesterday that he never "disgraced this country" or "lied to the American people about my job."

The remarkable outburst from Clinton came as officials in Little Rock denied that his presidential library glosses over the Monica Lewinsky scandal and subsequent impeachment.
...
In an interview with ABC's "PrimeTime Live," which airs tonight, Clinton repeated his claim that the Lewinsky scandal was more the product of vengeful Republicans and special prosecutor Kenneth Starr than his own recklessness.
...
"Oh, God," said Lucianne Goldberg, the blogger who helped Linda Tripp secretly tape-record Lewinsky discussing her affair with Clinton. "He's living in a dream world. That's utter nonsense. You can parse that for paragraphs."

The NY Post has more:

NO BLUE dress, no hug, no cigar. Welcome to the sanitized "scandal" exhibit at Bill Clinton's $165 million presidential library, which officially opens today in Little Rock.
...
The sole image of Lewinsky appears in the video clip that shows the beret-sporting intern standing on a rope line, smiling broadly at Clinton.

But the clip ends abruptly — before Clinton is famously shown hugging the smitten seductress.

Who cut out the naughty bits?

And the fun has just started!

(Photo credit: unknown)

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:04 AM -

 
Listen up!

(Via LGF) They're Called Security Rounds:

Let me be very clear about this issue. I have looked around the web, and many people get this concept, but there are some stragglers. Here is your situation Marine. You just took fire from unlawful combatants shooting from a religious building attempting to use the sanctuary status of their position as protection. But you're in Fallujah now, and the Marine Corps has decided that they're not playing that game this time. That was Najaf. So you set the mosque on fire and you hose down the terrorists with small arms, launch some AT-4s (Rockets), some 40MM grenades into the building and things quiet down. So you run over there, and find some tangos wounded and pretending to be dead. You are aware that suicide martyrdom is like really popular with these kind of idiots, and like taking some Marines with them would be really cool. So you can either risk your life and your fireteam's lives by having them cover you while you bend down and search a guy that you think is pretending to be dead for some reason. Also, you don't know who or what is in the next room, and you're already speaking english to each other and its loud because your hearing is poor from shooting people for several days. So you know that there are many other rooms to enter, and that if anyone is still alive in those rooms, they know that Americans are in the mosque. Meanwhile (3 seconds later), you still have this terrorist that was just shooting at you from a mosque playing possum. What do you do?

You double tap his head, and you go to the next room, that's what.

What about the Geneva Conventions and all that Law of Land Warfare stuff? What about it. Without even addressing the issues at hand you first thought should be, "I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6." Bear in mind that this is a perpetual mindset that is reinforced by experiences gained on a minute by minute basis. Secondly, you are fighting an unlawful combatant in a Sanctuary which is a double No No on his part. Third, tactically you are in no position to take "prisoners" because there are more rooms to search and clear, and the behavior of said terrorist indicates that he is up to no good. No good in Fallujah is a very large place and the low end of no good and the high end of no good are fundamentally the same... Marines get hurt or die. So there is no compelling reason for you to do anything but double tap this idiot and get on with the mission.

If you are a veteran then everything I have just written is self evident, if you are not a veteran than at least try to put yourself in the situation. Remember, in Fallujah there is no yesterday, there is no tomorrow, there is only now. Right NOW. Have you ever lived in NOW for a week? It is not easy, and if you have never lived in NOW for longer than it takes to finish the big roller coaster at Six Flags, then shut your hole about putting Marines in jail for war crimes. Be advised, I am not talking to my readers, but if this post gets linked up, I want regular folks to get this message loud and clear. Froggy OUT.

More by following the link. I'm continually amazed by the whiners that think this is a game of beanbag. It's like the folks who want to ban dodge ball are now going to tell us how to fight terrorists.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 6:03 PM -

 
More singlewide fun!

Glenn Beck has a snap of the new Clinton Presidential Library that more thoroughly emphasizes the singlewide properties than the architect's rendering I posted previously. Click the picture for the full sized original. And yes, that is an old railroad bridge next to it.

One tends to wonder what genius thought up the design, but this Newsweek puff piece tells us that a lot of it is due to Bubba himself. He claims it's "the bridge to the 21st century." Bwahaha!

(Hat tip: SondraK)

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:24 AM -

 
Biscuits and Gravy

What a gig!:

It must be nice to be Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations. You’re from Ghana, a country with an annual gross domestic product per capita of approximately $2,200, and yet you have a world-class educational background after attending college in Minnesota, graduate school in Geneva, and a Masters program at MIT. You make $227,253 per year simply for blathering against the United States and Israel, and writing perturbed letters to homicidal dictators. You get to pretend moral superiority while providing aid and comfort to terrorists. Plus you get to eat in the finest restaurants in New York.

Return of 'Slick Willie':

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — It's started all over again. The calls from visiting journalists. The requests for television interviews. The grand opening of the Clinton Library and Nostalgia Bazaar has brought 'em all out again, like the furies.

But, thank goodness, they're not really interested in me. Or, for that matter, in Bill Clinton. No, they want the inside scoop on his alter ego, his evil twin, the Banquo at this otherwise cheery banquet, the notorious, the resilient, the absolutely unkillable . . . Slick Willie.
...
By now I've seen myself credited with coining the nickname Slick Willie so often that I expect it will be noted on my tombstone. Databases generations hence will doubtless contain the entry, "Slick Willie — Nickname given 42nd pres. of U.S. by obscure Ark. newspaper editor."

"Country Joe" looks like a retired shoe salesman:

Country Joe McDonald stood in the Gazebo near Whyte Avenue, strummed his flat-top guitar and sang an antiwar protest song.

McDonald brought hundreds of thousands of young people to their feet in 1969 to jeer the Vietnam War at the Woodstock festival.

On this sunny afternoon, his presence attracted about 120 people to decry the American assault on Fallujah and the ongoing Iraq war.

Like Jerry Hill, the majority of crowd members were middle-aged. Many were admitted old hippies.
...
Thin, clean-shaven, balding and slightly stooped, the 62-year-old McDonald says he's still a socialist but confesses he's now part of the middle class.

Sounds like the plan has some flaws:

A woman who wrote books about ways to profit from government loopholes was charged Tuesday with stealing almost $83,000 from Social Security.

Dianne Holmes-Despain, 51, allegedly collected disability benefits while she was writing books and magazine articles, and teaching college courses from 2000-02, authorities said.

Europe doesn't believe in democracy:

It may sound apocalyptic, but I do believe that the democratic experiment in continental Europe, begun just over 200 years or so ago, is coming to a close.

The European Union is creating what it hopes will be a benign oligarchy. Real political power will reside once again within elite circles (as it does already in France) which will conduct their business in the corridors rather than in the assemblies.

Meanwhile, the United States will persevere with the belief, which Europe regards as crass, that giving ordinary people power over their governing class is the only hope for peace and security. Democracy, and what it entails, is not what unites us, Mr Blair. It is what divides us.

I'm surprised he remembered where it was:

On his first day back in the Senate since losing the presidential election, Sen. John F. Kerry hunkered down for hours in his aptly labeled hideaway office in the U.S. Capitol and spurned questions about how he was adjusting.
...
Kerry held a meeting to thank his staff, and aides said he spent the day making phone calls and working with staffers to prepare legislation for the next Congress. [That ought to be a novel experience - ed.] Although aides had touted a speech Kerry planned to make from the Senate floor about the national debt, it looked likely yesterday to be put off.

ENEMY PROPAGANDA:

Get set for another round of America- bashing — this time over charges that a U.S. Marine shot to death an apparently disarmed, wounded terrorist inside a mosque in Fallujah.

Emphasis on apparently, please.

Meanwhile, as the anti-American rhetoric has begun to fill the airwaves, the cold-blooded execution of a kidnapped female humanitarian aid worker by Iraqi terrorists is met with the usual, ho-hum, "ain't it just terrible" pablum.

Get the Kyoto wankers some fire extinguishers:

The recent surge in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which made front-page headlines around the world last month, may have been caused in part by smouldering peat bogs in Borneo.

The legacy of Reed Irvine:

The passing of Reed Irvine on Nov. 16, 2004, comes at a time when his war against the Big Media has achieved some notable successes. In the 35 years since he founded Accuracy in Media, the Big Media have lost much of their stature and do not seem so big anymore.

Their loss of credibility is a testament to Reed's successful efforts to tell the truth about so much of what we see, read and hear. Reed was David against the media Goliath. Reed's stone was the pen.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 6:25 AM -

 
It had to happen

The latest from the Lads from Lagos as reported by The Register:

This mail may not be surprising to you if you have been following current events in the international media with reference to the Middle East and Palestine in particular.

I am Mrs. SUHA ARAFAT, the wife of YASSER ARAFAT, the Palestinian leader who died recently in Paris. Since his death and even prior to the announcement, I have been thrown into a state of antagonism, confusion, humiliation, frustration and hopelessness by the present leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the new Prime Minister. I have even been subjected to physical and psychological torture. As a widow that is so traumatized, I have lost confidence with everybody in the country at the moment.

You must have heard over the media reports and the Internet on the discovery of some fund in my husband secret bank account and companies and the allegations of some huge sums of money deposited by my husband in my name of which I have refuses to disclose or give up to the corrupt Palestine Government. In fact the total sum allegedly discovered by the Government so far is in the tune of about $6.5 Billion Dollars. And they are not relenting on their effort to make me poor for life. As you know, the Moslem community has no regards for woman, hence my desire for a foreign assistance.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:00 PM -

 
You absolutely cannot make this stuff up

BERKELEY: Carts stay cool as city takes heat on storage policy / When the homeless lose or abandon stuff, it gets frozen:

Berkeley tolerates its homeless people, and takes good care of their stuff when they abandon it in shopping carts.

Not only does the city pack carts and other belongings into a huge container in case folks want it back -- it also deep-freezes them for as long as 90 days.

About a year ago, Berkeley bought a 40-foot-long, 8-foot-wide refrigerated container for $8,200 after public works officials complained about vermin infesting carts stored at the city's outdoor corporation yard.

The city signed a five-year, $61,500 lease with Caltrans for land under the University Avenue overpass at Interstate 80 to put the container on, and ran power to the unit.
...
San Francisco and UC Berkeley also store homeless people's belongings as a result of lawsuits filed by homeless advocates, but they don't freeze them.
...
Critics say Berkeley's freezer program is an example of good intentions run amok. The city, which faces a $7.5 million deficit, should treat abandoned shopping carts as stolen property instead of worrying so much about the contents, they say.

More than you want to know about the whole subject by following the link. I realize that applying logic to this might lead to madness, but I'm curious - has anyone ever dropped by to pick up their stuff? The article doesn't provide any statistics but does have an anecdote:

A homeless man who lost his cart holding blankets and new shoes a month ago, when he left it to go to Oakland to face charges of public intoxication, said Monday that he did not know about the storage program.

But George Williams, 60, said it would have been a lot of trouble to find the right city officials and get to West Berkeley to retrieve his stuff.

"I never followed up,'' said Williams, who was pushing a different cart full of blankets, some food and a bottle of vodka.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:37 AM -

 
You have issues? I have answers!

Lindsey K. Anderson, the music critic for the Michigan State University State News, regales us with Thank you, supporters of President Bush, for four years of tyranny:

I would like to thank the 51 percent of American voters who re-elected President Bush.

Thank you for putting a man back in office who favors rich, white men. His deep love for people like himself will push him to continue cutting taxes, and our nation's deficit will continue to expand wider than the average American's waistline.

[more bitter juvenile whining skipped]

I was at a conference in Nashville earlier this month, and one of the sessions was "Freedom Sings," a collaboration of musicians who played and sang about the First Amendment and songs that had, at times, been banned from radio air waves because of content or perceived content.

They sang Louie, Louie?

At the end, the Janis Joplin-esque woman of the group started to sing, "You're a Grand Old Flag."

She was a fat drunk?

If you're unfamiliar with the lyrics, they are as follows: "... And forever in peace may you wave. You're the emblem of/The land I love/The home of the free and the brave."

"Music critic" discovers George M. Cohan!

I couldn't sing along. In fact, I was short from bursting into tears.

So that explains her size!

This land is not free. This land is not peaceful. This land is led by a tyrant. And thank you, America, for voting him back into office.

Based on the unintentional irony, I'd guess ole Linsey is likely a music major too.

Now, while I can't help her out with any Dr. Schooler-style hypnotherapy, I think that despite that waistline crack, she really just needs some comfort food. How about this? Hardee's introduces new mega-calorie Monster Thickburger:

As many fast-food chains are catering to the health-conscious, Hardee's is introducing the biggest and thickest of its Thickburgers - one with enough calories to make Ronald McDonald blush.

The St. Louis-based chain on Monday rolled out its Monster Thickburger - two 1/3-pound slabs of Angus beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame seed bun. The sandwich alone sells for $5.49, $7.09 with fries and a soda.

Even a news release touted the Monster - at 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat_ as "a monument to decadence." Add fries and a soda and a single meal would involve more calories and fat than most people should get in a day.

"It's kind of like the burger everyone would like to get - but not the one you get all the time," said Brad Haley, vice president of marketing for Hardee's.

Why don't you wrap a lip lock on that, Lindsey? Here's a $1 off coupon to help.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:24 AM -

 
Get your party duds on, it's time for a hoedown!

As I have mentioned previously, this Thursday is the big opening of the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock. Now, The Prowler reports (skip past the rumor that Hillary will run for Governor of New York in 2006):

The Clinton Library is spending some of its hard-earned corporate donations to fly down more than 170 former Clinton White House staffers to the Little Rock dedication ceremonies. Not all of the 170 are going entirely gratis, however. Only about 50 of Clinton's closest advisers are making the three-day trip cost-free. The library will pick up all expenses for those special few, excluding incidentals.

And don't worry about them having to stay at Motel 6. Yesterday Sean Hannity reported that the bigs will be staying at the Peabody Hotel, which until its recent refurbishment was named the Excelsior and was most famous for ... (er, how to say this?). It was most famous for being the place where Bill Clinton offered to introduce Paula Jones to Mr. Trouser Snake. I wonder if they have a brass plaque on the suite commemorating the event?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:57 AM -

 
And a good time was had by all

AWARD-SHOW STABBING :

Pandemonium broke out during the taping of Vibe magazine's award show last night, when a man was stabbed during the ceremony, sending stars fleeing from the mayhem in their limos.
...
"It was pure panic," the witness said. "I never saw anything like it. Those cars were flying out of here. Russell Simmons ran out of here crying."

Another witness told MTV that Knight had run onto the stage, screaming obscenities at the audience of about 1,000. Several people in the crowd were pepper-sprayed, the network reported.
...
It is unclear how the incident will effect UPN's broadcast of the show tonight.

That's one way to spice up those boring award shows!

The violence broke out as rapper Dr. Dre rose to accept the Vibe Legend Award from presenters Quincy Jones and Snoop Dogg, a witness at the Santa Monica event told The Post.

An unidentified man sitting with Death Row Records chief Marion "Suge" Knight lunged toward Dr. Dre with a knife — but members of rapper 50 Cent's entourage intervened, the witness said.

It is unclear who was stabbed. MTV reported that he might be a member of the rap group G-Unit's entourage.

Frankly, it's a like a news report from Mars. Who are these people and why do they have entourages? To fight with the other entourages?

Knight and Dr. Dre feuded a decade ago about the direction of Death Row, a label founded by Knight that launched the careers of rappers like Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur, who was murdered in a rap feud.

Knight has been in and out of jail since 1997, most recently getting hit with a 10-month sentence last year for parole violation.

"All I know is that someone from Suge's table ran forward to get to Dre, but a bunch of people from 50 Cent's table blocked him," said the witness.

"Whoever was stabbed was not a celebrity."

Whew! That's good news!

The after-party at a nearby hotel was canceled.

Bummer!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:10 AM -

 
If they are passing out bouquets for the last election...

These guys deserve a bunch - 'The Last Mission':

"The last mission of Vietnam War veterans ended on Nov. 3, at 2:08 p.m. Eastern Time, when John Kerry conceded the presidential race to George W. Bush," announced James Warner, a lawyer who was a Marine pilot in Vietnam and spent five years and five months in Hanoi as a prisoner of war. On Saturday night, Mr. Warner gave a "debriefing" on the role that two controversial groups of veterans played in raising doubts about John Kerry's fitness to serve as commander in chief. His audience consisted of attendees at Restoration Weekend, an annual gathering of political activists organized by David Horowitz, a former left-wing radical who fought to undermine the Vietnam War effort as an editor of Ramparts magazine, but who has now changed sides and become a leading conservative writer.

As the evening proceeded and one Vietnam veteran after another shared the story of how veterans felt compelled to attack Mr. Kerry for his 1971 testimony branding fellow veterans as war criminals, former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg leaned back in his chair in amazement. "I think some of them are too intense," he told me. "But screwing with these guys by accusing them of atrocities was one of the biggest mistakes John Kerry ever made. Thirty years later he woke a sleeping giant."

Sweet.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 3:44 PM -

 
It just keeps on getting better

First post-therapy Kerry supporter speaks out publicly:

A post-therapy John Kerry supporter spoke out about her trauma treatment for the first time this weekend, saying Florida psychologist Douglas Schooler took her from the depths of despair over President Bush’s victory to a new lease on life.

Forty-four year old Karen of Boca Raton, a divorced mother of one who didn’t want her last name in print, called the trauma specialist’s intensive election therapy “profoundly effective” and described his hypnosis technique as “a healing process.”

Soon to be an annoying TV commercial, I'm sure.

“I wasn’t sleeping,” Karen told the Boca Raton News in an interview. “I was very devastated and very astonished that people would re-elect this president. I was moody about the war and economic issues. I felt very unsettled and fearful. I thought, ‘Oh no, what will happen for four years?’”

Karen, whose medical insurance covers the treatment, said she approached Schooler last week after finding herself unable to function publicly due to President Bush’s re-election.

“Dr. Schooler absolutely understood the pain this election caused me and he opened my mind to a new point of view,” Karen said. “You’re relaxed, he talks to you and you just come out of it feeling more positive and renewed. It took one session. He did some relaxation techniques and probably did some things I didn’t even realize.”

Ruh oh!

A Schooler client for seven years, dating back to her divorce, Karen said the doctor helped her realize it had been unhealthy for her to expect Kerry to win.

Karen sounds like a cash cow.

“One woman I treated the other day said the election triggered other issues in her life,” Schooler said. “Stuff she had been working on for a long time became worse. That’s pretty common in trauma cases: A small thing like an election triggers longstanding mental problems.”

He said it, not me.

In addition to Schooler’s one-shot hypnotherapy, more than 30 people have called the non-profit American Health Association at 561-361-9091 to sign up for free support group therapy.

Executive Director Rob Gordon said Friday that AHA’s first election support group is scheduled for after Thanksgiving. The Boca-based charity, which has more than 500 professional and non-professional volunteers in Palm Beach and Broward counties, is offering the free sessions through the end of the year.

“I’ve been talking to people and coaching them on the phone,” Gordon said. “Most are older than 50 and their mental issues stem from the 2000 election.”

Bwahaha! And likely before the election too, but I guess I'm just one of the spoilsports:

Since the Boca News broke the election therapy story on Monday, Gordon said he had been flooded by calls from Republicans who don’t take the trauma seriously. However, he said he received a phone call Friday afternoon from FOX News commentator Bill O’Reilly and expects to defend his diagnosis on The O’Reilly Factor next week.

A psychologist at the Boca-based Center for Group Counseling, whose spokeswoman last Monday was referring depressed Kerry voters to the Democratic National Committee, said he thinks AHA and Schooler are unethically using the Kerry supporters’ misery for self-promotion.

“The word ‘trauma’ is overused and I haven’t seen Kerry voters traumatized according to the existing definition,” said William A. Weitz, adult program manager. “Certainly we’ve had people discussing their responses to the election at regular support group meetings, but the idea you would use hypnosis on them doesn’t make sense to me.”

Boca Mayor Steven L. Abrams, a Republican, said post-election therapy is “more of the same” in a city where people already spend tens of thousands of dollars a pop on plastic surgeons, beauticians and matchmakers.

I wonder if they would like some Brie with their whine?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:30 AM -

 
It's bacon and eggs this morning

"This is For the Americans of Blackwater"

A bad election for old media

I had a theory in the 1980s that you could cover the presidential campaign from five rooms -- the two rooms in which the candidates' morning meetings were held and the three rooms, all on the West Side of Manhattan, in which the network producers and anchors decided what would run on the 6:30 newscasts. The interaction between the people in those five rooms pretty much determined what the voters would learn about the candidates and the campaigns.

'Power Talk!' – How the Information Revolution Defeated John Kerry

The crusade resulted in a call for Siegel to testify before Congress, an experience he describes as "humbling." A glowering Sen. John Glenn, for instance, inadvertently paid tribute to the effectiveness of his efforts, telling Siegel at the beginning of his interrogation, "So you're the guy who sent me a lifetime supply of teabags."

Validation by Defeat

A small but significant, because articulate, sliver of the Democratic Party seems to relish interpreting the party's defeat as validation. This preening faction reasons as follows: the re-election of George W. Bush proves that 51 percent of the electorate are homophobic, gun-obsessed, economically suicidal, antiscience, theocratic dunces. Therefore to be rejected by them is to have one's intellectual and moral superiority affirmed.

Keith Olbermann warns against conspiracy theories (no, really)

Keith Olbermann, who since the election has made the average democratundergorund moonbat look like a nobel laureate, is now warning people not to believe every conspiracy theory they read on the internet.

Kofi's continuing coverup

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hold a hearing this afternoon examining how Saddam Hussein abused the United Nations Oil for Food program. The panel is likely to hear testimony showing that earlier estimates that the Iraqi dictator stole approximately $10 billion from the program substantially underestimate the extent of the thievery. The Oil for Food program, which operated from 1996-2003, was supposed to be using these funds to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people.

The Senator vs. the U.N.

"In seeing what is happening at the UN," Coleman told me, "I am more troubled today than ever. I see a sinkhole of corruption." The United Nations and its secretary general are in a world of trouble.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:14 AM -

 
Biscuits and Gravy

Maureen Dowd, the high school princess, has the vapors yet again:

You'd think the one good thing about merging church and state would be that politics would be suffused with glistening Christian sentiments like "love thy neighbor," "turn the other cheek," "good will toward men," "blessed be the peacemakers" and "judge not lest you be judged."

Glenn Beck helps poor MoDo out:

It is important to reach out to Kerry voters after the election and give them an important message... [Let the video play a while - ed.]

The usual suspects at the Boston Globe do a vast Kerry post mortem. You can tell the level of "reporting" from:

The line was the brainstorm of former US senator Max Cleland of Georgia. A close friend and Vietnam veteran who had lost both legs and his right arm in combat...

I guess they count grenade handling accidents on the way to a beer party as combat. On the other hand, they provide a new Lurch excuse story for our collections:

On the afternoon of Aug. 9, John F. Kerry stood on the lip of the Grand Canyon, about to make one of the biggest mistakes of his three-year quest for the presidency. A stiff wind was blowing across the canyon, and Kerry, whose hearing was damaged by gun blasts in Vietnam, had trouble understanding some of the questions being thrown his way. But he pressed on, coughing from the pollen blowing on the breeze.

Ryan Lizza does a better job (Via Kaus):

It's that time again for Democrats. Kerry aides and party strategists have thrown themselves into their quadrennial post-campaign ritual of recriminations. Old scabs are being picked. Scores are being settled. Clintonites point fingers at the Kennedy wing. Longtime Kerry aides throw accusations of disloyalty at the Clintonites. Staffers from the Democratic National Committee lob bombs at staffers from the campaign. Policy wonks gripe about inept political consultants. Kerry aides who traveled on the campaign plane snipe at the aides who were based in Washington. Democrats, out of power and out of jobs, are doing what they do best: turning on one another.

Oil-for-Food Official May Have Blocked Inquiries:

Benon Sevan, the official accused of improperly receiving lucrative rights to purchase oil from Saddam Hussein's government while he was running the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, discouraged his staff from probing allegations of corruption and helped block efforts by the U.N. anti-corruption unit to assess where the program was vulnerable to abuse, according to senior U.N. officials.
...
Sevan declined to be interviewed for this article. In an e-mail to friends, he said he was the target of an "intense smear campaign" by groups seeking to discredit the United Nations and prevent it from returning to Iraq. He defended the program as making "a real difference in the daily lives of the average Iraqi people."

'We have let things slip, and let extremists live under our noses':

The Netherlands, with its reputation for liberalism, tolerance and freedom of speech, has never been so divided. Since the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a radical Muslim a fortnight ago, the country's 30-year-old experiment in tolerant multi-culturalism has begun to fail. [Since? Begun? - ed.]

She's kidding, right?:

Mindy McAdams, a University of Florida journalism professor, applauded bloggers' efforts but urged them to adhere to ethical standards held by mainstream journalists.

And in related news:

Jayson Blair, the diminutive ex-journalist who shook up the mighty New York Times when his serial plagiarism was revealed last year, has all but evaporated from public view.

Now seeing a psychiatrist and a psychologist and working out of a basement office in his parents' home in Centreville, Va., he says he has found God and thinks he has a calling other than journalism — although he's not sure what it is yet.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:26 AM -