Apparently the broadcast of today’s Bush speech on weapons proliferation experienced technical glitches… satellite interference or something. The metallic interference sounds that you might hear on a ham radio (just a guess, really) or a police blotter radio.

So, if CNN had actual transcripts of their broadcast of the event it’d go like this:

ahem

n recent years, another path of proliferation has become clear, as well. America and other nations are learning more about black-market operatives who deal in equipment and expertise related to weapons of mass destruction. These dealers are motivated by greed, or fanaticism, or both. They find eager customers in outlaw regimes, which pay BZZT BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT. Eow Eow!!! CLick Clack BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZt. deadly technology and expertise going on the market, there’s BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT. Eow! Eow! Clickety Click. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZEowEowZZZZZZZZZZZclickZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. sophistication of such networks can be seen in

Or something to that effect.

We await to see how it goes over.

Paraphrase of the day, taken from somewhere I don’t know. I’ve googled it and I can’t find precision anywhere.

“Voting for Kerry is like voting for the editorial board of the New York Times. Surely an improvement over the editorial board of the American Spectator, but burrowed deeply into establishment politics.”

Sounds about right.

Bill O’Reilly’s Mea Culpa.

Conservative television news anchor Bill O’Reilly said Tuesday he was now skeptical about the Bush administration and apologized to viewers for supporting prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

“What do you want me to do, go over and kiss the camera?” asked O’Reilly, who had promised rival ABC last year he would publicly apologize if weapons were not found.

Hey, O’Reilly…

SHUT UP!! You had your turn!

While critical of President Bush, O’Reilly said he did not think the president intentionally lied. Rather, O’Reilly blamed CIA Director George Tenet, who was appointed by former President Clinton.

Oh, you’re just mouthing Right-wing Spin. SHUT UP!!

Now, as always, we give the guest the last word.

My book has outsold Al Franken’s book and is running neck and neck with Hillary Clinton’s book.

Cut the mic!

We’ll be right back with more from the “No Spin Zone”, on this chattering network, the home of “Fair and Balanced” blathering.

………..
This seems to be about the best blogger comment on this development that I can find.

As a rule, avoid Crossfire. Not much of substance ever comes out of the cross-current debates, and there isn’t a whole lot of surprises that are going to come out of the mouth of Carville, Carlson, Novak, or that other guy. (All apologies to “that other guy”, but I can’t think of his name.)

But, here’s a good exchange from last November anyway, where James Carville does hit on something:

CARLSON: I understand that. But I want to put up, actually, an astute observation about your party from one of its own members, Senator Zell Miller, still a Democrat, of Georgia. Here’s what he wrote yesterday in the “Wall Street Journal”. And I’d be interested to know what you think of this.

CARVILLE: Why would anybody get the idea that Dick Nixon was a liar?

……….

Senator Zell Miller, DINO and conservative Democrat (beyond “conservative Democrat”, but never mind) of Georgia, retiring this year. If you look at the AP totals of delegates, you’ll see that “Other” has one delegate pledged to them. This is a “superdelegate” (to give more weight to the insiders after McGovern and Carter, the Democrats vetted the process by giving their Congressional Caucuss votes — so that they could nominate Walter Mondale, I … guess). This is Zell Miller’s vote. He’s voting for George W. Bush in the Democratic Primary.

More on Zell Miller in a later post.

Nuclear destruction is inevitable.

Is there any hope? There is only this: the people under discussion tend to do most things by accident.

— Daniel Pinkwater, Young Adults page 84 … 1985

Make of it what you will.

This link makes it 34 trackbacks… and probably growing.

Do I care? … Barely.

The dumb-bell shaped map brings me to this rebuttal from the “Centrist corner” of the American political blog scene.

Myself? All the Shah’s Men is the best book from the list. In fact, I’ll go and place it on the sidebar over there.

I’ve read a handful of the books, and it’s not too difficult to figure out which side of the bell those handful come from. But I don’t have too much use for most of these books.

This list is interesting. But I’m puzzled by why he would put Dick Morris as the arbitrator of good faith in his battle.

The Democratic Primary Voter has puzzled me. According to the chattering class, according to the exit and enterance polls, and according to conventional wisdom they’ve gravitated over to “Mr. Electable”, John Kerry.

How… is… John… Kerry… electable?

(1) He suffers from the Dukakis problem. In 1988, Lee Atwater handed Jim Pinkerton(*) a 3 by 5 inch card and asked for a bullet point by bullet point reference guide for talking points on Dukakis negatives, easy for Bush I to digest. It’s easy to see Karl Rove creating that very list right now on an exact replica of the notecard… except this time he may just well not bother giving it to Bush II and just hand it to Roger Ailes at Fox News. Start by slurring Massachusetts in general, and referencing Kerry’s “Liberal Elitist” aristocratic appearance. Move on to the silly social wedge issue. In 1988, it was Dukakis’s civil libertarian stand on flag burning and being “against the Pledge of Allegiance” by signing legislation allowing children to not have to say it. In 2004: Gay marriage. Don’t necessarily have to take it head-on (don’t want to alienate the soccer mom too much… no strike that, now they’re supposedly “Security Mom”s), but… just keep it there in the news. National Security? Why, I hear Kerry voted against CIA funding back at the end of the Cold War!

(2) He suffers from Al Gore’s problem. Riding onto the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on a motorcycle? Staged. Cursing for Rolling Stones Magazine? Huh? Whazza? Earth-tones, anyone? Add to it the general “Insider” point of reference, no over-arching “Vision” and a large need to “play it safe” and calculate the percentages out as to what comments will please and/or offend what percentage of this segment of the voting population…. necessary, I suppose, except you need to make it look like that is not what you are doing… Granted, Al Gore somehow won the popular vote and arguably the electoral vote, but he did so largely in spite of himself.

(3) HE RAN AN UNINSPIRING CAMPAIGN. He impressed NOBODY in 2003. Or did I miss something? I know that nobody was paying attention, but I, to a larger extent than others, was. Supposedly he works best when his “back is against the wall”. I … guess… so. He emerged from a crowded field at the top in a nomination process designed for the early war of attrition, and thus has been crowned. How am I to expect that he won’t repeat the lousy campaign that he ran in 2003 in the year 2004?

The political masses are playing “Pundit”. (Why and how? I can’t really speculate on the matter.) And they’re playing “pundit” based on what the chattering classes have prognosticated… I’m not sure that the political masses would be aware that Dean is “Unelectable” if the chattering classes had not pontificated on the question. And I’m not sure if they would have deemed Kerry as “Electable” if the chattering classes had not deemed it so. Does this make any sense?

(*)Updated: Pinkerton just wrote an editoral lombasting the Bush Big Budget. Skip to the final paragraph of page 2 for all ye know and all ye need know.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4179618/

Russert: This is what John Kerry had to say last year. He said that his colleagues are appalled at the quote “President’s lack of knowledge. They’ve managed him the same way they’ve managed Ronald Reagan. They send him out to the press for one event a day. They put him in a brown jacket and jeans and get him to move some hay or move a truck, and all of a sudden he’s the Marlboro Man. I know this guy. He was two years behind me at Yale. I knew him, and he’s still the same guy.”

Did you know him at Yale?

President Bush: No.

Russert: How do you respond to that?

President Bush: Politics. I mean, this is—you know, if you close your eyes and listen carefully to what you just said, it sounds like the year 2000 all over again.

Russert: You were both in Skull and Bones, the secret society.

President Bush: It’s so secret we can’t talk about it.

Russert: What does that mean for America? The conspiracy theorists are going to go wild.

President Bush: I’m sure they are. I don’t know. I haven’t seen the websites yet. (Laughs)

Russert: Number 322.

President Bush: First of all, he’s not the nominee, and I look forward

Russert: Are you prepared to lose?

President Bush: No, I’m not going to lose.

Russert: If you did, what would you do?

President Bush: Well, I don’t plan on losing. I have got a vision for what I want to do for the country. See, I know exactly where I want to lead. I want to lead us I want to lead this world toward more peace and freedom. I want to lead this great country to work with others to change the world in positive ways, particularly as we fight the war on terror, and we got changing times here in America, too.

Russert: Biggest issues in the upcoming campaign?

President Bush: Who can properly use American power in a way to make the world a better place, and who understands that the true strength of this country is the hearts and souls of the American citizens, who understands times are changing and how best to have policy reflect those times.

And I look forward to a good campaign. I know exactly where I want to lead the country. I have shown the American people I can lead. I have shown the American people I can sit here in the Oval Office when times are tough and be steady and make good decisions, and I look forward to articulating what I want to do the next four years if I’m fortunate enough to be their president.

Just to let you know. Gary Tradeau. Yale Graduate. I hear he’s of a member.

Maybe that’s what was behind his good natured ribbing of John Kerry back in 1971.

And maybe that’s what was behind his cruel attacks on Howard Dean. Tear him down. Replace him with the Skull and Bones replacement for the Skull and Bonesman he’s pretending to not like.

Or… something to that effect.