tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60976532011-04-21T18:36:26.190-05:00Kangaroo JackNixon - Now More Than EverKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comBlogger831100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1076538582408021582004-02-11T16:24:00.000-06:002004-02-11T17:06:18.716-06:00Well, it looks like the long, strange trip I've been on with Gen. Clark is at an end. It is truly a sad day for this country when a man like General Clark drops out of the race for president. There is no doubt in my mind that Wes Clark would have been one of our great presidents, and was by far the best candidate in the field. He's not going to fade away - not by a long shot. Digby and Dave at Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1076456032064754872004-02-10T17:32:00.000-06:002004-02-10T17:36:20.826-06:00Just a notice: The computer's going to be out for a while getting its logic board replaced, so the blog probably won't be updated for a while.
When it gets back from the shop, posts will continue as normal.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1076367581103381752004-02-09T16:44:00.000-06:002004-02-09T17:02:08.903-06:00Quick link post: Fred Kaplan has an interesting post on George Bush's Meet the Press interview yesterday - in particular, his comments on Iraq and Vietnam. It seems that Kaplan's caught Bush in a "Reagan's bind" (see Slacktivist for a definition) on Iraq: either he's deliberately misleading the public, or he doesn't know what's going on in his administration. This comes back when Kaplan talks Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1076205239339978182004-02-07T19:36:00.000-06:002004-02-07T19:56:23.810-06:00Paul Krugman has a great review of the second wave of anti-Bush books (after Lying Liars, Big Lies, and Krugman's own Great Unraveling), consisting of Kevin Phillips' American Dynasty and Ron Suskind's The Price of Loyalty. Towards the end, he makes an astute observation, combining Phillips' thesis that Bush has no "higher goals" and evidence from Suskind to prove that power is really all that heKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1076184622115223852004-02-07T13:47:00.000-06:002004-02-07T14:13:07.623-06:00There's an interesting profile of John Kerry's Senate record up on the New York Times website. They point out that he hasn't had his name attached to many bills, but he has led numerous investigations into unsavory foreign affairs practices like Iran-Contra and BCCI. This is a huge advantage for Kerry - if he wins the nomination (which looks more and more likely every day) and the scandal Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1076100423885359412004-02-06T14:34:00.000-06:002004-02-06T21:02:37.310-06:00President Bush has named the seven people for his panel to investigate the WMD issue. I'm fine with 5 of them - former White House counsel Lloyd Cutler, ex-Senator Charles Robb, ex-judge Patricia Wald, Yale president Rick Levin, and former CIA deputy director Bill Studeman - and kinda so-so on McCain (I'd rather it be a retired senator without a stake in the process). There is one name that Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1076024720325729802004-02-05T17:38:00.000-06:002004-02-05T17:47:42.046-06:00Apparently there's trouble a brewing for Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and John Hannah, another Cheney aide, in the matter of the blown cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame. This is huge - if two White House aides are indicted for this crime, people will start digging deeper into the administration. As John Dean wrote, it could be Worse than Watergate. If Bush lied to go to war, it Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1076024287564585272004-02-05T17:37:00.000-06:002004-02-05T17:40:29.390-06:00Someone finally answers one of my burning questions:
Just what the hell is a Maoist any way?Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1075866981109874592004-02-03T21:44:00.000-06:002004-02-03T21:58:40.186-06:00So it looks like tonight's a good night to be John Kerry - he's picked up four of the primaries, with Edwards getting SC and Clark (as of now) winning OK by a slim margin. Just a month ago, Kerry's campaign was dead in the water and doing nothing to revive itself. Then he wins Iowa as the "electable" candidate. I figured he's take NH pretty comfortably, considering his proximity to the state. ButKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1075779255205785652004-02-02T21:31:00.000-06:002004-02-02T21:36:33.186-06:00I'd like to actually get my hands on the unclassified Army history of the war in Iraq (or at least the period of "major combat operations") that the New York Times is reporting on today so I can look into it in more detail before commenting on it. But from what the article says, it seems as though criticisms of the the Rumsfeld plan were onto something, even though they were derided at the time. Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1075674668342566972004-02-01T16:30:00.000-06:002004-02-01T16:33:24.700-06:00Super Bowl Prediction (take with a grain of salt):
New England: 9
Carolina: 6Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1075673209362231092004-02-01T15:54:00.000-06:002004-02-01T16:09:06.030-06:00To touch again on the previous post: why are people in the 2/3 primary states so gung-ho for Kerry now, when a week ago he was hovering slightly below 10%? It has to have something to do with media coverage - saturated with Kerry every day for the last week. Seems as though people think that Kerry's the only candidate in the race since the media's only reporting about him. It seems to be a Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1075434071465140092004-01-29T21:24:00.000-06:002004-01-29T21:43:23.873-06:00Mark Kleiman has the national tracking numbers up. I've been pondering a while the fact that it seems that a candidate's numbers in the national poll seem to tack with my perception of his news coverage. To wit, when Clark entered the race, he was at the top - and he was a major story for over a week. Then, when Dean grabbed the Gore endorsement, he shot to number one. And after his Iowa win, Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1075338806580910242004-01-28T19:12:00.000-06:002004-01-28T19:15:37.840-06:00Here's a Reuter's write-up of the Chicago Tribune story cited by Brad DeLong about the planned spring offensive into Pakistan that we may be conducting.
How's that for a long-winded sentence? I could give John Kerry a real run for his money in that department.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1075328293581994202004-01-28T16:00:00.000-06:002004-01-28T16:20:24.623-06:00Via Brad DeLong there's word that the DoD may finally be going into Pakistan's tribal provinces after letting Osama bin Laden escape there after Tora Bora over two years ago. This seems like a good idea on paper, but the more I reflect on it, the more it seems like the 1970 invasion of Cambodia redux.
Nixon, after secretly bombing the country for a year, decided to invade Cambodia in April 1970 Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-107526278281804042004-01-27T21:57:00.000-06:002004-01-27T22:09:29.530-06:00Thoughts on New Hampshire:
Big winner is Kerry, obviously. Dean is still treading water, given that his poll numbers were ten points higher than his actual results going into Iowa and he was governor of the next-door state for a decade. Clark gets a boost from third - media whores won't be able to propagate the "the-Clark-campaign-is-doomed" meme after even an 800-vote third place finish, even Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1075153481591096082004-01-26T15:39:00.000-06:002004-01-26T15:55:50.780-06:00Politus has a post linking to a Washington Post story describing the inaccuracy of everyone's New Hampshire polls. They're hard on groups like ARG and Gallup in a "wink-wink, nudge-nudge", jocular sort of way, but the Post really lays it on Zogby and its questionable methods. But back to the point: polling firms have been notoriously and wildly inaccurate regarding the New Hampshire primaries forKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074814478362345292004-01-22T17:29:00.000-06:002004-01-22T17:36:41.123-06:00I haven't blogged in a little while, and I probably will only sporadically for a while, as I my time has been consumed by homework, and, well, homework, but here are some quick thoughts:
The State of the Union: More like an hour-long Bush-Cheney '04 infomercial broadcast on the major networks for free.
Iowa Caucuses: Kerry and Edwards big winners, Dean the big loser. Clark benefits from Dean Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074566646094473962004-01-19T20:37:00.000-06:002004-01-19T20:46:04.826-06:00So it looks like it's Kerry winning the Iowa caucuses, with Edwards in strong 2nd, and Dean and Gephardt lagging in 3rd and 4th. This is good and bad for Clark - on the one hand, it really deflates the Dean balloon and crushes the "inevitable" meme that had been on life support for the past week, but on the other, it gives Kerry something to hang his hat on in NH. I suspect that in NH Kerry, DeanKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074563654753864632004-01-19T19:53:00.000-06:002004-01-19T19:56:13.920-06:00Correction on the last post: According to the AP, Weaver and the Clark campaign are "in negotiations", whatever that means. Let's hope they wrap up those negotiations quickly and Weaver ends up on the Clark team.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074549258536873792004-01-19T15:47:00.000-06:002004-01-19T15:56:17.483-06:00I have to agree with Josh Marshall - the Clark campaign made a big pickup today by adding former McCain campaign official John Weaver to his campaign staff. This is big for two reasons: one, the obvious increase in the Clark campaign's overall skill; and two, Weaver will probably be put to task right away on catching up to Dean in New Hampshire, probably by appealing to independents who are Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074442284662128472004-01-18T10:05:00.000-06:002004-01-18T10:13:21.763-06:00My prediction for the championship games played today:
AFC:
Colts-17
Patriots-14
Analysis: Pretty even matchups - Manning and Colts' explosive O v. the Patriots' stingy D against the Patriots' anemic O and the Colts' pourous D. It'll probably come down to special teams, which the Colts have an advantage on.
NFC:
Eagles-21
Panthers-17
Analysis: On paper, this would be a pretty lopsided EaglesKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074310224412939062004-01-16T21:17:00.000-06:002004-01-16T21:32:19.123-06:00I have to agree with Mark Kleiman on this one: the supposed murkiness which Matt Yglesias cites is one more of external perception than it is of actual clarity. As Kleiman enumerates, Clark's been pretty consistent on Iraq: Saddam is/was a bad guy, probably a long-term threat to the United States given the consensus (i.e., what Clark cites in his testimony and was generally agreed upon before Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074225484548925352004-01-15T21:57:00.000-06:002004-01-15T22:00:20.123-06:00Another link: If you're one of the two people on the internet who hasn't seen the parody MoveOn ad, here it is.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074210267206353062004-01-15T17:28:00.000-06:002004-01-15T17:46:20.123-06:00I must disagree with Atrios here: Clark was as antiwar as he says. Just because he didn't use his CNN job to shout out "I AM AGAINST THIS WAR" at the top of his lungs or go and march on Washington doesn't mean he didn't make his position known. Does the Congressional Record not count for anything anymore? He made his position pretty clear there: that Saddam Hussein represented a problem for the Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074122449959799022004-01-14T17:17:00.000-06:002004-01-14T17:22:41.826-06:00A quick link post: over at BusyBusyBusy, the premier practicioner of the "shorter" format, there's a humorous and spot-on recap of the conversation going on over at Slate between various liberal proponents of the war in Iraq (although I'm not sure you'd call Hitchens a liberal - more like a self-absorbed and self-righteous quasi-intellectual). Check it out.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074061826733357892004-01-14T00:22:00.000-06:002004-01-14T00:33:33.826-06:00Why do I get the feeling that the Bush space program is deja vu all over again. As Josh Marshall blogged and I commented on earlier, this plan is a little too reminiscent of Poppy's space program - full of sound and fury but doing nothing. And it seems that Bush the Lesser is doing the same thing. It says in the CBSNews article that a man on Mars is not supposed to land until 2030. This is far Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1074046531065734612004-01-13T20:14:00.000-06:002004-01-13T20:21:11.373-06:00There are only three types of people who maintain complete consistency on complex subjects in the face of changing evidence: the stupid, the dishonest, and the insane. We require our politicians to be one of the three.
- Mark "Arrr" Kleiman
How true. Witness Bush (stupid and dishonest), Dean (dishonestly and insanely rigid), and Tom DeLay (just plain insane).Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1073970094988271352004-01-12T22:52:00.000-06:002004-01-12T23:01:56.346-06:00Slate's Chris Suellentrop has done a pretty good job thus far covering Wes Clark in New Hampshire. But now he's decided to go Pickler and write an article which egregiously misrepresents a series of Clark quotes - probably in an attempt to be "even-handed" to Dean, the Republicans, Osama bin Laden, and who knows else. For instance, a bold header says "Bush was 'warned' about 9/11?", as if that's Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-107394347871603682004-01-12T15:28:00.000-06:002004-01-12T15:38:19.500-06:00I've been medidating on this for a while...
Quite frequenty when he co-hosts Crossfire, Paul Begala calls Bill Clinton the best president of our lifetimes. Which got me to thinking that for me, at least, it was certainly true. For the whole of my life, some 20+ years, there's been Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush the Lesser. Well, there's not really a choice for best president of my lifetime hereKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1073938131095812962004-01-12T14:06:00.000-06:002004-01-12T14:09:12.256-06:00"You sit down! You had your say, and now I'm going to have my say."
Now, does that remind you more of Paul Wellstone or Bill O'Reilly? You know what they say about the company you keep, Howard. Everyday it looks more and more like Dean is Republican in both temperament and upbringing - upper class Yalie who can dish it but can't take it.
Courtesy of Diary of a Deanophobe.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1073797309941243942004-01-10T22:49:00.000-06:002004-01-10T23:02:10.776-06:00Another post, another link to Josh Marshall (hey, it's the best blog out there). He's discussing the revelations former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has made on 60 Minutes and in Ron Suskind's new book. I must admit that I'm a bit more willing to believe O'Neill's claims that the invasion of Iraq was sought out from the start of the Bush administration than Marshall is. He's correct in saying Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1073774102793030182004-01-10T16:25:00.000-06:002004-01-10T16:35:23.106-06:00I just want to follow up on my last post by asking a rhetorical question to critics of manned space exploration (particularly those who say that robots can do the science faster, better, and cheaper): do you really think that the reason we go into space is because of science? Sure, the scientific knowledge we gain from space exploration is a bonus - and contrary to what skeptics might say, the Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1073767327192928512004-01-10T14:34:00.000-06:002004-01-10T14:42:27.393-06:00I'm with Josh Marshall on the Bush moonbase/man-on-Mars plan - it reeks of deja vu from Poppy's space plan. It sets out an impressive and worth goal but leaves out a firm timetable and leaves us wondering how exactly how we're going to fund this thing - and all the while the who project is left handing in the air as the deficit grows, the 2004 campaign grinds on, and Bush expends political Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1073531239747635052004-01-07T21:02:00.000-06:002004-01-07T21:09:43.603-06:00From a New Republic writer endorsing Wes Clark:
If the need arose, Americans would follow Wesley Clark into war. They should follow him to the White House first.
Amen, brother.
In another, altogether unsurprising and totally expected move, TNR's crack team of editors endorsed Joe Lieberman for the Democratic nomination, which seals the dramatic shift that they've made from being one of the Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1073446117826870992004-01-06T21:18:00.000-06:002004-01-06T21:28:57.180-06:00First mini-rant.
Do polls matter?
I ask this question because of a Politus post citing some unambiguously good news for our guy Wes Clark in a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll - namely that he's closed within the margin of error of Dean. Politus mentions that Deaniacs populating various blogs are trying to spin the results of this poll (and other recent negative results) as being inconsequential - theKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1073444746213868962004-01-06T21:04:00.000-06:002004-01-06T21:06:05.883-06:00I should probably inform the two people that may or may not read this blog that I'll probably be going light on the rants while I'm back in college, slogging through my fun classes and Russian and writing a column for the paper... which conviently takes the place of any long rants. So there may be shorter rants appearing when I find the time/energy to write something. Just a fair warning.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-107344460281103042004-01-06T21:02:00.000-06:002004-01-06T21:03:42.510-06:00I was going to launch into a post on the "Blame Canada" approach to the Mad Cow Disease outbreak, but Ezra at Pandagon beat me to it.
Damn.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1073360097573942652004-01-05T21:32:00.000-06:002004-01-05T21:35:16.700-06:00Best Strong Bad Email ever.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1073277492513093252004-01-04T22:35:00.000-06:002004-01-04T22:38:31.210-06:00No surprise here.
Did anyone think that he wouldn't vote with Bush 98 percent of the time? I suppose I'm surprised that it's not 100 percent, but then again, there's never been a perfect toady. Norm owes his Senate seat to George W. Bush and Karl Rove, and there is no fucking way he's going to defy their political wishes. He's not a Senator from Minnesota - he's the Senator from Rove.
Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1072911124524051042003-12-31T16:15:00.000-06:002004-01-05T21:20:43.510-06:00Howard Dean is the worst candidate the Democrats could nominate for president this election cycle. He is an arrogant, hypocritical cynical politician, who can dish out the worst slams and insults to others but can't seem to take mild-mannered criticism. I say his because now he seems to be complaining that the other candidates should stop criticizing him.
Oh really, Howie? I seem to recall a Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1072663099062859482003-12-28T19:57:00.000-06:002003-12-28T19:58:35.606-06:00Can I call Howard Dean "Cheney-lite" now?
It only seems fair.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1072662711695723682003-12-28T19:50:00.000-06:002003-12-28T19:52:08.330-06:00Shorter Tom Friedman:
Poland rules, France still sucks.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1072488090527159622003-12-26T19:20:00.000-06:002003-12-26T19:21:47.020-06:00Shorter Paul Krugman:
The media sucks.
Bad.
(seriously, this is a great column on the problems with the media. read it)Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1072227663389921742003-12-23T18:59:00.000-06:002003-12-23T19:01:19.416-06:00Here's another pro-Clark, anti-Dean blog that's fairly easy to read and will probably be updated more often than the excellent if sparse TNR blog, Diary of a Deanophobe.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1072138241346340812003-12-22T18:09:00.000-06:002003-12-22T18:10:57.013-06:00Shorter Christopher Hitchens:
The war in Iraq is directly responsible for all that is good and right in the world, regardless of the truth. And Howard Dean sucks.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1072051503012306102003-12-21T18:03:00.000-06:002003-12-21T18:05:18.466-06:00Shorter Tom Friedman:
Ideas are like birds, and birds can't fly when the US embassy walls are too high.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071937091508029032003-12-20T10:07:00.000-06:002003-12-21T09:14:08.720-06:00Qaddafi's (that's how I'm going to spell it) son says that the war in Iraq had nothing to do with Libya's offer to eliminate its WMD programs. I'd tend to believe him - Qaddafi's been trying to reintegrate himself into the international community for the better part of the last 5-plus years, beginning with better cooperation over the bombing of PanAm flight 103. Libya, for its part hasn't really Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071888430191325142003-12-19T20:45:00.000-06:002003-12-19T20:47:40.366-06:00Commence Google bombing:
Unelectable
Unelectable
Unelectable
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Unelectable
Unelectable
Unelectable
Unelectable
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Unelectable
UnelectableKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071863944976731402003-12-19T13:50:00.000-06:002003-12-19T13:59:48.413-06:00Am I the only person who doesn't give a crap about the Lord of the Rings?
It's difficult for me to fathom why people and critics are tripping over themselves to gush about these movies. I've tried watching the first two movies, but was bored to tears - they all seemed rather pointless. I had no interest in the characters in the same way I had with, say, Neo in the Matrix or Tom Cruise's Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071863334828908432003-12-19T13:48:00.000-06:002003-12-19T13:49:09.126-06:00The Onion, hilarious as always.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071850335726022282003-12-19T10:10:00.000-06:002003-12-19T10:12:30.480-06:00Here's a great new blog by the New Republic's Jonathan Chair called "Diary of a Deanophobe." This'll probably be the one-stop shop for anti-Dean lefties like myself for the forseeable future.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071611672339254222003-12-16T15:46:00.000-06:002003-12-16T15:54:45.770-06:00Following up on the last post, which is probably a bit incoherent, I'd just like to clarify where I stand on what we should do with Saddam:
1. Have the CIA get as much information out of him as possible.
2. Have the United Nations set up an Iraqi tribunal, as the Iraqi justice system will be set up by the not-quite legit IGC and we shouldn't be trying him ourselves (Noriega he ain't).
3. The UN Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071521103518991552003-12-15T14:39:00.000-06:002003-12-15T14:45:16.803-06:00I think that one of the great tragedies of the war in Iraq is that we don't have an international tribunal set up to deal with the crimes against humanity perpetrated by Saddam Hussein and his minions over the last 30 years. Something like the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia would be appropriate and even have a legitimizing affect for our war in the eyes of the world. Hussein would be Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071520677282906922003-12-15T14:36:00.000-06:002003-12-15T14:38:10.653-06:00Since it's write like Nedra Pickler day...
"When Wesley Clark testified before the war crimes tribunal for deposed Serb leader Milosevic, he failed to mention Saddam Hussein's many crimes against humanity."
Too bad that's probably what she'll actually write tomorrow.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071440858969047692003-12-14T16:16:00.000-06:002003-12-14T16:27:52.330-06:00Here's a better picture illustrating the humorous Marx/Saddam similarity.
People are talking about how Saddam's capture affects the presidential race. It certainly takes some of the wind out of Dean's sails and puts some into the Gephardt, Edwards, and Lieberman campaigns, otherwise known as the guys who voted for the war. Ironically, it's probably good for Wes Clark that he's testifying at the Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071439658085885522003-12-14T15:58:00.000-06:002003-12-14T16:07:51.643-06:00Watching the coverage of the capture of Saddam Hussein, I was struck by how many people were astonished that Saddam didn't go out with guns blazing. But that just isn't the way he operates - Hussein is more concerned with his own survival than with anything else. I don't think he gave a damn that we got him; all that matters to him is that he's still breathing. Unlike Osama bin Laden, Saddam Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071400313858690692003-12-14T05:11:00.000-06:002003-12-14T05:13:05.973-06:00Hussein captured?
Looks like it.
Good riddance.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071356560382739312003-12-13T16:50:00.000-06:002003-12-13T17:03:28.113-06:00This is old, but Atrios has a post on the pairing of Howard Dean with any of the other eight candidates as either president or vice president. He basically argues that after the debate where no other candidate raised his or her hand when asked whether Dean could be elected that there was no way any could be his VP or he could serve as VP for any of them.
Let me disagree.
If history is any guideKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071337664548366572003-12-13T11:44:00.000-06:002003-12-13T11:47:57.196-06:00What I'm listening to right now - Foo Fighters' "One by One".
This is a great CD. For some reason, it reminds me of early Zeppelin albums where all the songs were great and you really had to listen to the whole thing through to truly understand how good it was. Of course, there are some good singles: 'Times Like These', which has probably received the most radio play, is the best song on the Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071336951701539862003-12-13T11:35:00.000-06:002003-12-13T11:44:15.840-06:00Hmm.
you are mediumauqamarine#66CDAAYour dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days.Your saturation level is medium - You're not the most decisive Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071019927036446342003-12-09T19:31:00.000-06:002003-12-09T19:32:18.953-06:00What Digby said.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1071004088549259192003-12-09T15:02:00.000-06:002003-12-09T15:09:15.390-06:00Methinks Lord Saletan makes some sense.
I don't mind that Gore endorsed somebody for president; I do mind the implication (hell, Dean's said it out loud) that everyone else should just quit because Dean's ahead right now. Don't criticize him for the sake of the party? Please. That's what Dean has been doing for the entirety of his campaign. He is in no position to demand that people not Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1070853924496622242003-12-07T20:56:00.000-06:002003-12-07T21:25:36.110-06:00There's been a buzz about cover songs at the blogs I frequent, so I'll give a listing of the covers I happen to like. To elaborate on the topic of covers, I just have to say that I enjoy them if they're done right. If not, ugh.
So here goes, in no particular order (orignial artist in parentheses):
1. "Blackbird" by Sarah McLachlan (The Beatles) - Great acoustic rendition by one of my fave Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1070730170855374352003-12-06T11:02:00.000-06:002003-12-06T11:03:02.316-06:00George W. Bush: Miserable failure
Just getting in on some Google bombing.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1070683822079145422003-12-05T22:03:00.000-06:002003-12-06T11:03:37.443-06:00Movies, movies, movies.
Two movies I've seen in the last week:
The Last Samurai: This is probably the best movie I've seen all year. Great acting, good plot, and epic battle scenes. Tom Cruise does a great job as the embittered American soldier employed as a mercenary by a westernizing Japanese emperor to liquidate the last of the samurai (hence the title). There are definitely elements of the Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1070683342692376632003-12-05T21:57:00.000-06:002003-12-05T22:02:34.026-06:00Phil Carter makes a good point about the Bush fake-turkey episode during his surprise Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad. He points us to a picture of the prez serving some clearly boosted troops some not-perfect looking turkey out of cafeteria-style hot containers, saying that this is the real signifigance of the trip. Fine, I completely agree with him.
Then why did the White House (or whomever, but Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1070517938372783662003-12-04T00:03:00.000-06:002003-12-04T00:05:49.176-06:00This is frickin' hilarious. Click on the banner.
Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1070509294854808362003-12-03T21:25:00.000-06:002003-12-03T21:41:45.130-06:00Howard Dean and the draft - this is one of those things that practically epitomizes why I don't like Dean and see him as sort of a Democratic George W. Bush in temperment and personality.
Here's the gist of Dean's draft: Dean gets a deferment for the draft due to back problems in 1970 (when he was a student at Yale) - he brings in x-rays and a physician's letter, to quote the NY Times, "eager Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1070349666126237522003-12-02T01:16:00.000-06:002003-12-02T01:21:26.360-06:00Mickey Kaus once again proves his hack credentials, in case anyone was in doubt. He goes off on Howard Dean for wanting to bring Saddam Hussein before an international war crimes tribunal (something Waffle-Powered Howard and I agree on) and then spouts off some nonsensical jibberish about Osama bin Laden. In doing so, Kaus just proves that he has absolutely no idea what he's talking about. Leave Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1070323542245084932003-12-01T17:59:00.000-06:002003-12-01T18:05:52.506-06:00Well, the acclaimed Pirates of the Caribbean is coming out on DVD tomorrow, so I thought I'd weigh in with my thoughts on the movie.
On the whole, it was a good, light-hearted adventure movie, or: This movie would have sucked without Johnny Depp. His portrayal of Jack Sparrow single-handedly lifts this movie above its otherwise mediocre plot. Depp brings sarcasm and wit into a Jerry Bruckheimer Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1070142968433544142003-11-29T15:49:00.000-06:002003-11-29T15:56:17.396-06:00This is interesting. Human Rights Watch is calling for the US to keep detainees in Guantanamo, rather than repatriating them to China. Guantanamo seems to be a bugaboo for many people concerned with human rights. I think the Bush administration made a big mistake announcing that there could be military tribunals for some those there, because it focused unnecessary attention on the detention of Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069555113386484452003-11-22T20:36:00.000-06:002003-11-22T20:38:40.750-06:00America, Israel, the West Bank, and Iraq
Kevin Drum over at Calpundit has a pretty good synthesis of my feelings regarding our tactics against the guerillas in Iraq. At the same time, the comparison of Iraq to the West Bank is all too correct and completely wrong. Of course, the proper solution is not to get yourself put in this position, but that's another story.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069361018697627682003-11-20T14:36:00.000-06:002003-11-20T14:43:45.593-06:00Over at Slate there's a pretty convincing explanation of why so many people are enthralled with JFK assassination conspiracies rather than accepting the obviousness of the truth. Basically, author David Greenberg says that people, especially those in the New Left, refused to believe that all the hopes and dreams for political and social change that went unfulfilled in the '60s, hopes that were Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069302702042104222003-11-19T22:30:00.000-06:002003-11-19T22:31:48.886-06:00How to get more traffic to my blog...
I could write something patently offensive, obviously wrong, and somewhat homoerotic, like Kim duToit!
Nah.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069299752963359062003-11-19T21:41:00.000-06:002003-11-19T21:42:39.533-06:00Monica Lewinsky says that her past has hurt her love live.
To which I can only reply: No fucking shit.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069282571599541322003-11-19T16:49:00.000-06:002003-11-19T16:56:17.940-06:00LBJ's aides and relatives are quite rightly upset over the airing of 'documentary' on the History Channel on the assassination of President Kennedy. "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" apparently presented in one of its episodes a theory that LBJ was behind JFK's assassination. Unlike the right-wing hysteria over the Reagan documentary, LBJ's family and associates are fully justified in their anger at Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069264212255209322003-11-19T11:36:00.000-06:002003-11-19T11:50:18.613-06:00So now we've started to level houses in Iraq. This strategy has me conflicted: yes, it doesn't exactly seem right to go around blowing up homes with howitzers, but at the same time it's pretty obvious that the Iraqi insurgents are using homes as their base of operations and mortar-firing positions. So they're a legit military target. But then again, we've seen how well this strategy works for Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069204673876097532003-11-18T19:07:00.000-06:002003-11-18T19:18:00.486-06:00Phil Carter's critique of the new Pentagon war plans for Korea and the Middle East (read: Iran and Syria) are spot on, and I agree with him almost completely. While I agree that they're not fatal, I think that there's definitely too much risk in these plans - risk that is accepted because of the percieved 'lessons' from the Second Gulf War.
The big issue, as Phil points out, is rear echelon Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069202819766927012003-11-18T18:37:00.000-06:002003-11-18T18:47:05.963-06:00Kevin over at Calpundit dissects Kausfiles' claim that Dean has been opportunistic and inconsistent re: his position on the Iraq war. The thrust of Kaus' argument is that Dean had previously been supportive of Bush in June 2002, but had turned against him as the Democratic base came out full bore against the war.
Actually, Dean's been rather consistent vis-a-vis Iraq. But I'll take issue with Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069197282843965292003-11-18T17:08:00.000-06:002003-11-18T17:14:49.486-06:00Right now, I'm listening to Neil Young's Are You Passionate from last spring. It's really quite a good album, and has received some bum press due to the presence of the 9/11 song "Let's Roll" (which I happen to like, but that's another discussion). Young's backing band is composed of elements of Booker T and the MGs rather than Crazy Horse (with the exception of "Goin' Home"), and the album has aKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069188904325857202003-11-18T14:42:00.000-06:002003-11-18T14:55:51.450-06:00What's In A Name?
Over at Pandagon there's discussion on the naming of military operations and how the 1st AD's Operation Iron Hammer is eerily similar to an aborted Nazi operation against the Soviets during WWII. Also brought up is 1998's Operation Desert Fox (in case you're wondering, the most celebrated Nazi general of WWII, Erwin Rommel, was nicknamed the desert fox for his exploits in NorthKangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097653.post-1069188041937502772003-11-18T14:40:00.000-06:002003-11-18T14:40:48.183-06:00Kangaroo Jack is now in the house.Kangaroo Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02075140212827162480noreply@blogger.com