Blogging from work, that is. Well, actually I'm not on for another couple minutes, but I am in the workplace. And like Tony, I don't really have anything to say (Zing!).
Marc
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Marc
The number two spot on this ticket will then, reports indicate, be selected in a horse rectum eating contest to be broadcast on NBC's Fear Factor.
Tony
Israel will strike at more Hamas leaders, the Israeli defense minister said Tuesday, a day after the founder of the Islamic militant group, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, was assassinated in a missile attack.Here's what the widow of terrorist, I mean... "militant", leader Ahmed Yassin had to say:Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and his security chiefs decided to try to kill the entire Hamas leadership, without waiting for another terror attack, security sources said Tuesday.
We're counting on God and God will give us our revenge... on the Jews I hope, and on the collaborators, and on the spies.The Europeans are, predictably, outraged:
The EU recognises Israel's right to protect its citizens against terrorist attacks. Israel is entitled to do this under international law. Israel is not, however, entitled to carry out extra-judicial killings.Translation from Diplomatic French: Israel is allowed to sweep up body parts after suicide bombings, but not to do anything to prevent them.
Marc
Q: How many John Kerrys does it take to change a lightbulb?MarcA: At least four. One to unscrew the old light bulb. One to simultaneously announce his courageous commitment to replacing the old bulb. One to vote against funding the new light bulb. And one to denounce George W Bush and America's Benedict Arnold CEOs for leaving everyone in the dark.
Marc
For example, in his Saturday response for the Democrats to President Bush's weekly radio broadcast, Sen. Edward Kennedy said that the administration's arguments for war against Iraq were not merely, in Kennedy's view, mistaken, they were a conscious dishonesty -- a "distraction." Such statements are perhaps predictable from a senator who recently cited, approvingly, the writings of Karen Kwiatkowski.The Weekly Standard reports that she, a retired Air Force officer, has written about "the Zionist political cult that has lassoed the E-Ring" of the Pentagon (the offices of senior civilian Defense Department officials). She says the war in Afghanistan was "planned of course before 9/11/01" because of "Taliban non-cooperation" regarding a trans-Afghanistan pipeline. She says that with "Bush and his neoconservative foreign policy implementers" -- those E-Ring Jews -- resembling propagandists such as Lenin, Hitler and Pol Pot, "all evidence" points to "a maturing fascist state" in America and, in foreign policy, "fascist imperialism touched by Sparta revived."
Tony
Chen was shot across the abdomen and Vice President Annette Lu was struck in the right knee as they stood in an open-roof sport utility vehicle waving at crowds lining the streets of the southern city of Tainan, the president's hometown.Now, I'm not saying the Red Chinese would assassinate someone to influence an election... oh, wait, that's exactly what I'm saying.The injuries were not life-threatening and neither Chen nor Lu lost consciousness or required surgery, officials said. The Reuters news agency said they were released from the hospital several hours later.
Marc
But it is our business when a candidate for President claims the political endorsement of foreign leaders. At the very least, we have a right to know what he is saying to foreign leaders that makes them so supportive of his candidacy. American voters are the ones charged with determining the outcome of this election - not unnamed foreign leaders.Cheney was responding to a Kerry speech which included this steaming cauldron of barf:
If I am President, never again will parents or husbands or wives of soldiers have to send them body armor instead of photographs and care packages. Last month a young newlywed in Virginia who, as her husband was about to ship out to Iraq, gave him a bullet proof vest for Valentine's Day. I can tell you right now: in a Kerry Administration, no one will be getting body armor as a gift from a loved one; it will come from the Armed Forces of the United States of America. We will supply our troops with everything they need.Cheney took the bat to this one as well:
Just this morning, he again gave the example of body armor, which he said our administration failed to supply. May I remind the Senator that last November, at the President's request, Congress passed an $87 billion supplemental appropriation. This legislation was essential to our ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan - providing funding for body armor and other vital equipment; hazard pay; health benefits; ammunition; fuel, and spare parts for our military. The legislation passed overwhelmingly, with a vote in the Senate of 87 to 12. Senator Kerry voted no. I note that yesterday, attempting to clarify the matter, Senator Kerry said, quote, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."For the record, people like Tom Daschle, Dianne Feinstein, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Hillary Clinton voted for that $87 billion supplemental that Kerry voted against.
This whole thing seems pretty crooked to me. Heading into this weekend you couldn't find a soul who thought Owens had any kind of chance at the hearing. Then the hearing was delayed, ostensibly so that both sides could appear in person, rather than the conference call that was slated for Sunday. By Tuesday the conventional wisdom is that Owens will win and the Ravens and 49ers scramble to finalize a deal ensuring that they'll get something out of this mess.
Crooked or not, Baltimore dodged a bullet by failing to secure Owens. And after having suffered through the past week, which included Owens telling anybody with a laptop that he's not coming to Baltimore, they probably are breathing a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Philly has the Leon they've always wanted.
Speaking of Philly, here's what Philadelphia 76er Allen Iverson had to say about his decision not to dress for a recent game. Iverson had been injured and missed several games in a row. He was not cleared by trainers for Sunday's game, but said he could play. When the coach told Iverson that he'd be coming off the bench because of his injuries, Iverson felt otherwise.:
"I'm a starter. I've been a starter here for eight years. I'm not a sixth man," Iverson said after the game [Sunday]. "I'm a starter. I know in this league ... if someone comes back from an injury, if he's a starter he starts. What's the difference? If you're going to cut my time down, cut my time down. It doesn't make any difference. I'm a starter."
Tony
"I mistranscribed a key word," explains Patrick Healy, a political reporter for the BOSTON GLOBE who covered the event in a pool capacity.So what does Kerry do? He repeats the claim!"Listening to the audio recorder now, in the quiet of my house, I hear 'more leaders' and I am certain that 'more leaders' is what Senator Kerry said."
In a telephone interview, the Massachusetts senator and presumptive Democratic nominee said "it's no secret" that some countries are "deeply divided about our foreign policy. We have lost respect and influence in the world."THIS is the issue that Kerry finally decides to have some backbone about? The one time in his life he isn't going to flip-flop? He's going to run as the guy who Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder want to have in the White House? Sweet Jesus.He continued: "I stand by my statement. The point is not the leaders. What's important is that this administration's foreign policy is not making us as safe as we can be in the world."
Marc
"I'm pretty tough on Castro, because I think he's running one of the last vestiges of a Stalinist secret police government in the world," Kerry told WPLG-ABC 10 reporter Michael Putney in an interview to be aired at 11:30 this morning.Kerry on Elian:Then, reaching back eight years to one of the more significant efforts to toughen sanctions on the communist island, Kerry volunteered: "And I voted for the Helms-Burton legislation to be tough on companies that deal with him."
It seemed the correct answer in a year in which Democratic strategists think they can make a play for at least a portion of the important Cuban-American vote -- as they did in 1996 when more than three in 10 backed President Clinton's reelection after he signed the sanctions measure written by Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep. Dan Burton.
There is only one problem: Kerry voted against it.
Asked in the Herald interview last year about sending Elian back to Cuba, Kerry was blunt: "I didn't agree with that."MarcBut when he was asked to elaborate, Kerry acknowledged that he agreed the boy should have been with his father.
So what didn't he agree with?
"I didn't like the way they did it. I thought the process was butchered," he said.
Liz was describing a political conversation she had with her grandmother (who will be voting Republican in November for the first time in her life), and I thought of something that hadn't occured to me before.
It's conventional wisdom that old people have disproportionate political power because of their high turnout compared to other age cohorts. So why has so much ink been spilled over the political impact of the "jobless recovery"? Old people don't work! Some of them have never worked. No amount of unemployment is going to affect their social security checks. The stock market has been doing fairly well, so their portfolios are safe. And Bush just gave them a big fat new entitlement. Is there any economic reason for old people not to vote for Bush?
This is important because all the social issues help Bush amongst the elderly. One of the things that caused Liz's grandmother to become fed up with the Democrats is gay marriage. That issue alone should drive the last few elderly Catholics out of the Democratic party. Bush's religiousity is also a strength with these voters, regardless of affiliation. Several times I have been helping old women find a book about Bush, and they will say something like, "I'm glad we have a Christian in the White House."
This Week is coming on in a few minutes, so I don't have time to look up the numbers on how old people voted last time. I would guess they went narrowly for Gore. But I don't see them going Democratic this time.
Marc
The Terps, who came into the game after back to back wins over North Carolina State and Virginia, are now set to face NC State in the semi-finals this afternoon at 4pm. The Terps split with the Wolfpack in their two matchups this season.
Maryland out rebounded the fifteenth ranked Demon Deacons by ten and were surprisingly 8% points better than Wake at the line. Free throw shooting has plagued the Terps all season, but they managed 24 for 32 from the chairty stripe last night, a whopping 75% from a team with the lowest free throw percentage (66%) in school history.
Free throws, in fact, were the deciding factor as Maryland guard John Gilchrist went to the line with 3.7 seconds left and the game tied at 86. Gilchrist made the first, giving the Terps the one-point lead. He then deliberately missed the second. A short rebound made it impossible for Wake Forest to push the ball up the court, and the Terps held on to their third victory in twelve days.
Though Gilchrist emerged as the star of the game, five Terps scored in double digits, with Gilchrist and Travis Garrison (who also had 10 rebounds) leading the team with 16 points a piece. Nik Caner-Medley and Chris McCray followed with thirteen points each while center, and former AC Trojan Jamar Smith finished with eleven.
While Maryland is a virtual lock for a tourney bid, there are several teams that have already wrapped up automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments. The NCAA tournament selection show is slated for Sunday evening and will be broadcast on CBS.
Tony
Marc
Protesters aside, it's hard to ignore the fact that Bush was president when these attacks occurred. And few would argue the fact that Bush performed admirably in the wake of the attacks, particularly in the first few weeks, as we as a nation tried to sort out what had happened and what our response should be. Bush needs to remind voters of his steady hand during these tumultuous events. Further, he needs to remind the country (and he does need to remind us, we have an unbelievably short memory) that the attacks were only a few years ago, and that we are far from being out of the woods.
Washington Post columnist David Broder offers a historical perspective on this issue, one which I think should help to settle the matter. Broder points out that Franklin Roosevelt's actions during the 1944 presidential campaign make Bush's use of the 9-11 attacks seem mild, even timid.
Will this put to rest the issue? Probably not, as I suspect most of the people vocal in their opposition are unlikely to have supported the president no matter what he might do, save maybe him showing up at their house and giving them a nickname. But, as I said, Americans have a short memory these days. We believe that the events of our day are the most important events of all time, from the O.J. trial, to the contested 2000 election, to these Bush campaign ads. Broder's piece provides a little historical prospective on this matter. And historical perspective in America is as needed as it is in short supply.
Tony