LEGO Porn
Inside the LEGO vault in Billund, Denmark:

Marc

The Politics Of Personal Destruction
Mark Steyn:

I don't want this election fought as the Adulterer vs the Deserter. The "politics of personal destruction" is insufficient to the times, and an insult to the entirely non-metaphorical personal destruction of thousands of Americans that took place on September 11.

Marc

Beg Like The Lowly Dog You Are
From the Maryland GOP:

Mayor Martin O'Malley...said he has no plans to ask the state for any emergency or stopgap aid to avert the layoff of up to 1,200 teachers and school employees. 'We need to get our own house in order,' O'Malley said.

Baltimore Sun, Thursday, January 15, 2004

Just 28 Days Later...

'I would hope the governor might step up. I'm somewhat exasperated...'

Mayor Martin O'Malley Baltimore Sun, February 13, 2004

I hope to see this headline in the Sun very soon:

Ehrlich To City: Drop Dead

Marc

The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few
According to today's Baltimore Sun, a secret anti-terrorism evacuation plan, codenamed The Genesis Project, that designates Frederick as an evacuation site in the case of an attack on Washington or Baltimore, will be discussed with Frederick's municpal leaders, but not the pubic at large. The plan would call for, among other things, the Frederick fairgrounds to be converted into a medical treatment and decontamination center.

Tony

Bush Deserter Evidence Goes AWOL
The Boston Globe is reporting that a key witness has discredited the story of Bush's chief accuser:

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett, who has been pressing his charges in the national news media this week, says he even heard one high-ranking officer issue a 1997 order to sanitize the Bush file, and later saw another officer poring over the records and discovered that some had been discarded.

But a key witness to some of the events described by Burkett has told the Globe that the central elements of his story are false.

George O. Conn, a former chief warrant officer with the Guard and a friend of Burkett's, is the person whom Burkett says led him to the room where the Bush records were being vetted. But Conn says he never saw anyone combing through the Bush file or discarding records.

"I have no recall of that," Conn said. "I have no recall of that whatsoever. None. Zip. Nada."

Conn's recollection also undercuts another of Burkett's central allegations: that he overheard Bush's onetime chief of staff, Joe M. Allbaugh, telling a Texas Guard general to make sure there were no embarrassments in the Bush record.

Burkett says he told Conn, over dinner that same night, what he had overheard. But Conn says that, although Burkett told him he worried that the Bush record would be sanitized, he never mentioned overhearing the conversation between Allbaugh and General Daniel James III.

Marc

Finally!
Something interesting in this campaign:

Democratic presidential frontrunner John Kerry is planning a response to a DRUDGE REPORT exclusive which first revealed the frantic behind-the-scenes drama surrounding a woman who recently fled the country, reportedly at the prodding of Kerry!

The nature and details of a claimed two-year relationship, beginning in the Spring of 2001, between a young woman and Kerry is at the center of serious investigations at several media outlets.

Here's the weird part:

Kerry is scheduled to appear on IMUS IN THE MORNING on Friday. Later he is scheduled to join General Wesley Clark, who, in an off-the-record conversation with a dozen reporters earlier this week, plainly stated: "Kerry will implode over an intern issue."

Reporters who witnessed Clark making the stunning comments marvel at the General's reluctance to later confirm they were spoken -- only to later endorse Kerry for the nomination!

As Drudge would say, "Developing..."

Marc

Williams to return to Tampa
Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams has agreed to terms that will bring him to the front office of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Williams, who won the Super Bowl with the Redskins during the 1987 season, joined the Skins in 1986 after a five year stint with Tampa Bay during which he led the Bucs to three playoff berths, including a loss to the Rams in the 1979 NFC championship. Following the 1982 season Williams left Tampa as a result of a contract dispute. The Bucs didn't return to the playoffs until 1997. After leaving Tampa, Williams played with the Oklahoma Outlaws of the USFL for a couple of years, before joining the Skins in 1986.

Williams will resign as the head football coach at Grambling, where he was only the second football coach in school history. He will leave his alma mater with a 52-18 record in six seasons. Williams will work as a personnel executive in the Bucs scouting department. The team will hold a press conference to introduce the former quarterback tommorrow.

Tony

Lazy Brothers-In-Law Need Jobs, Too
The Sun is reporting that many city high school athletic events have been cancelled due to a lack of buses. Some bus companies have refused to take jobs from the city because payment is late or never comes at all. So what is the city's excuse for this mess?

School system spokeswoman Vanessa C. Pyatt said the delay in payments to bus companies, officials and some coaches results from a "staffing shortage."

Marc

Addendum: International Brotherhood of Lazy Brothers-In-Law
The unions are voting today on whether to accept the temporary pay cuts proposed by Mayor O'Malley. But don't expect them to vote on their own time:

The Baltimore Teachers Union vote will be held from noon to 4 p.m. today at the Baltimore Convention Center.Teachers and teachers' aides may enter through the entrance at Pratt and Howard streets. Free parking will be available in a lot at 200 W. Lombard St., and in a garage at Pratt and Howard. City schools will close at 12:30 today to allow for the voting.

In Honor Of Draper...
From James Lileks' Gallery Of Regrettable Food:

Check out the coffee Jello.

Marc

Addendum: It's a Draper bonanza! - The Story Of Bread

Harm City
Here's a map of crime within a quarter-mile of my house in the last two weeks of January:

Two robberies, three stolen cars - it could certainly be worse in this town. Check out your neighborhood!

Marc

Funeral attendance not Edwards cup of tea
With Wesley Clark dropping out of the race and Howard Dean holding on as long as possible in the hopes that Kerry does something stupid enough to derail his virtual lock on the nomination, the media has moved on to the second phase of the Democratic nominating process: The Veepstakes.

This turn of events spells the most trouble for North Carolina Senator John Edwards, whose campaign has, almost from the beginning, been dogged by questions about his feelings toward acceptng the VP slot. The youthful Edwards, who has repeatedly rebuffed this questions, is now being treated by most reporters as if he is, in effect, running for vice-president. But asking him this question over and over again, as today's Media Notes points out, is an exercise in futility.

If Edwards would say yes to this question it would mean the end of his campaign. If he says no he would make it all the more difficult to accept the nomination if it were offered to him.

Of course Edwards is considering a VP nomination. Why in the hell wouldn't he? He's young, he's not running again for the Senate and he could use the slot as a launching pad for 2008.

Here's the answer I think he should give:
Ted, Sam, George, Cokie, Tim, Bob, Wolf, Tom, Peter, Dan, Brit, I am focused and committed to the goal of becoming the next president because I truly believe that I can help bring about the real change that America needs and wants. If that does not happen, I would of course consider any opportunity to further serve my country.

Would people think this was bullshit? Maybe. But my gut tells me its closer than anything else he's said to the way he really feels

Tony

Under Gibbs, with patience comes success
News out of Washington today is that Redskins QB Patrick Ramsey is reportedly upset over talks head coach Joe Gibbs has been having with veteran quaterback Mark Brunell. The talks, which occurred over the weekend and which Ramsey was alerted to ahead of time, have included Gibbs offering Brunell the chance to compete for the starter's job if he were to sign with the Skins. Ramsey, who is set to begin his third NFL season, had assumed that the job would be his to lose after he earned the position last year. Ramsey was the starting quarterback until late in the year when he was replaced by Elisabeth Hasselbeck's husband as a result of injuries.

Check out Wilbon's take here.

I understand Ramsey's position here, but he needs to realize that acquiring Brunell (or any veteran QB) could very well be a blessing in disguise. With the amount of punishment Ramsey took last year it may be wise for him to sit a year or two, learn the Gibbs system and allow Gibbs time to revamp an offensive line that gave up sack after devastating sack last year. In the meantime, acquiring Brunell would dramatically increase Gibbs' chance at returing the Skins to respectability, and contention, maybe as early as next year.

Tony

Poor Teachers
From an editorial in the Sun:

The deal is a good one. Teachers' salaries have gone up considerably in the past six years - 40 percent and more - and the General Assembly, which foots most of the bill for the city, is aware of that. It makes sense, politically, to share the burden - in a way that won't hurt the city's schoolchildren. And the money will be paid back to the teachers within 17 months.

Please, won't someone think of the children!

Marc

You learn quickly, grasshopper
I'm trying something new. I call it "Zen blogging." I'm just gonna let these quotes, which appeared in the same article in today's Sun about the big Thornton rally in Annapolis, speak for themselves:

The rally included many eager to participate in a show of civic action, and some not so willing. Eight-year-old Chinua Abubakar was fidgeting in the evening chill, so his mother wrapped his ears in a knit cap but rebuffed his calls to leave. "I've been telling him he must listen," said Darlene Abubakar, a Prince George's County resident who wants smaller class sizes.

"We think that term 'slots for tots' reeks of questionable ethics," said Beth Novick, a sixth-grade teacher at Greenbelt Elementary School in Prince George's County who brought two of her pupils.

"If no one comes down here, I'll wake up one morning and have no P.E. class," said Tim Mullaney, 11, one of Novick's pupils.

Tony "The Blogmaster" Jackson

The comeback...ah, fuck this shit
According to today's Washington Post, Howard Dean, egged on by supporters, will not drop out of the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination if he fails to win next week's Wisconsin primary, as he had previously stated. Dean, who raised about $1 million after primary losses in New Hampshire and Iowa (and all states that have held primaries or caucuses to this point), says he will continue his quest for the presidency until he either wins or is mathematically eliminated from the contest. According to the article, this decision was the result of meeting supporters throughout the state of Wisconsin who urged Dean not to give up the fight. In the article Dean said he likes to make decisions by allowing ideas to "incubate unconsciously for a long time." Wow, that's exactly how I used to pretend I was working on papers in college.

Personally, I think Dean's campaign realized that a)they are not going to win Wisconsin, b)they've got the money to keep running and c) they're not giving that money back, so what the hell. It seems to me that the Dean strategy is to hang in this thing as long as possible in the hopes that Kerry does something devestatingly stupid. Well, here's to hope.

In other political news, Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank muses today as to the chances that Dick Cheney will get booted off the Republican ticket this fall. It seems the chances are slim right now, but I'd love to see him replaced if only because it could inject some flavor into what's shaping up to be a rather bland general election.

And finally, I'll leave you with satirist P.J. O'Rourke's take on the Democrats and Iraq (as appeared in the Jan/Feb issue of Atlantic Monthly):

For the major Democratic candidates, Iraq is the Sharper Image airport-store issue -- a big, attractive thingamajig with lots of intriguing features. But there may be baggage problems. And what do you really do with it when you get it home.

Tony