Unfortunately, I heard a bit of Sean Hannity today. It happened when the Rick Emerson show stopped broadcasting for about ten minutes and the two stations on both sides of the dial bled through. It was a bit disorienting, the oldies station that blew Rick Emerson away a year ago faintly coming through, a spanish station chiming in, sports, and — slightly stronger than these three — Sean Hannity’s insights on Robert Novak’s revelatory new column about his side of the Vallerie Plame Affair. Oh boy oh boy oh boy has the Liberal Media gotten everything wrong about this story, and oh boy oh boy oh boy have the Wilsons been exposed as…

as what precisely, I do not know. I suppose I should be more on top of the arguments, as minituae has developed over the course of time. I’m still stuck on what was the last iteration of these things. With Rove we’re in the realm of technicalities, and I guess there’s nothing too much wrong with that. With Vallerie Wilson, the attack against her always seemed to me to boil down to the fact that her job description does not match that which we have learned about the world of spies from James Bond movies. And as for Joseph Wilson, those words in the State of the Union Speech, “Uranium from Niger”, is meaningless because don’t you know that Clinton said there were weapons of mass destruction?

Beside which, why isn’t the Liberal Media covering Rick Santorum’s press conference alerting everyone that the Weapons of Mass Destruction have been found? The answer to that question might simply be that the media doesn’t want to expose actual elected officials as being complete idiots, which would then embarrass the public that elected these idiots.

Before my brain could explode, Rick Emerson returned to the air, saving me from Sean Hannity, and that was that.

“Did you see the Farm Implement Parade last night?” So asked my 8th grade Speech Therapist.

“Oh gawd no.” I answered, a sour note on my face.

“Oh, it was great!”

The Farm Implement Parade was/is an annual parade held in November, sometime past dusk, of lighted farm equipment in the burgeoning metropolis of Sunnyside, Washington. Evidentally, the evidence being that my parents and others told me thusly (my parents going to the parade where I nor my brother wouldn’t), it was featured by Charles Kuralt in his seris of vignittes on quaint rural American festivals. When he retired (or was it died?), I saw him profiled as having “put towns on the map”, a lie as I don’t know and doubt seriously that anybody knows of any American municipality because Charles Kuwalt did a feature on it.

Flash forward to 2006. The Dempartment of Homeland Security has been exposed as pretty much one giant pork rind. For example, Indiana is listed as having more than 8,500 critical assets — 50 percent more than New York. I always maintain that the terrorists are somewhat of the ultimate urban snobs in terms of American knowledge. They know not from “Flyover Country”, essentially taking cues from where the media capitals of America are. It ultimately made little sense to suspect the Oklahoma City bombings as coming from Islamic terrorists. Attention Red State America: “Islamo-Fascists” do not even know you exist. (It is one of the virtues of living in the sticks.)

But wait! Maybe they actually do know about these quaint American festivals and the bizarre tourist traps you run into while driving through the vast American expanses. I picture Osama Bin Laden, just having picked up from the Discounted Cut-Out section, the coffee-table book of Charles Kuralt’s America. Thus, the skeptics will be proven wrong when the Amish Country Popcorn in Indiana explodes alongside the Sweetwater flea market in Tennessee.

Joshua Muravchik, resident scholar of the American Enterpise Institute, New York Times, 1-24-1991.

It will be weeks before the guns in the gulf fall silent, but we can see already the political contours of the world following an American victory. Important changes are in the offing on three levels of politics: domestic, Arab and global. Domestically, the most profound consequences may be felt in the Democratic Party, dominated ideologically since the Vietnam War by its dovish wing. If the large majority of American voters continues to view the gulf war as the most just, necessary and successful our country has fought since World War II, the Democrats will pay a heavy price for having opposed it.

However, those who bucked the leadership and supported the President — Stephen Solarz, Les Aspin, Dave McCurdy, Dante Fascell in the House; Joseph Lieberman and Albert Gore in the Senate — will emerge vastly strenghtened. They will win plaudits both for being right and for having risen above partisanship. If they stick together even loosely they will constitute a formidable new force in the party. From their ranks may come the next Democratic candidate, albeit not before Mr. Bush has had his second term.

In the Arab world, the drubbing of Saddam Hussein will be an epiphany that will demolish the appeal of the radical path. The bane of Arab politics has been a millenarianism that has stood in the way of a reckoning with reality — the reality of Israel, the reality of the West. Whether in the form of pan-Arabism, religious fanaticism or secular radical ideologies, this millenariansim has led many Arabs to believe that, with unity or the right leader or theory, the humiliations of colonialism and underdevelopment could be redeemed and the world could be had on Arab terms rather than through compromise.

If — as seems all but certain — the war ends in Saddam Hussein’s utter humiliation, the sobering effect should be enormous. With Mr. Hussein’s Baath Party in tatters, Soviet influence a thing of the past, Islamic extremism losing its luster in Iran and the myth of unity shattered as never before, the Arab world may be ready finally for realism and moderation.

Last but not least, the gulf war marks the dawning of the Pax Americana. True, that term was used immediately after World War II. But it was a misnomer then because the Soviet empire — a real competitor with American power — was born at the same moment. The result was not a “pax” of any kind, but a cold war and a bipolar world. During the past two years, however, Soviet power has imploded and a bipolar world has become unipolar. A global rush toward democracy and free markets has spelled a huge victory for America on the ideological plain. Now, in the gulf war, our ideological supremacy is being matched by a demonstration of America’s refurbished military capability.

Since Vietnam, doubts had abounded, both at home and abroad, about America’s willingness to use force and its ability to do so effectively. It may well have been such doubts that led Saddam Hussein to ignore President Bush’s pleas and threats. It is not likely another ruler will soon hasten to make the same miscalculations. America’s rediscovered prowess will not be used for conquest but to deter others from conquest: to secure the “new world order” that has been a goal of American policy since President Woodrow Wilson. In addition it will strengthen the attraction of America’s political and economic system.

This Pax Americana will rest not on domination but on persuasion and example as well as power. It will consist not of empire but of having won over a large and growing part of the world not only to the joys of jeans and rock and Big Macs but also to our concept of how nations ought to be governed and to behave.

The fake bumper sticker says, “No More Joe,” and is pictured alongside a Lieberman sticker.

“Did Joe Lieberman’s voice really come out of George Bush’s face?” she said. “It’s so silly.”

“Did Joe Lieberman’s voice really come out of George Bush’s face?”??? If you can take that political ad literally, I wouldn’t quite understand what the point of it would be. One day Bush woke up and sounded like Lieberman in not just rhetoric but in voice pitch? The faux bumper sticker, on the other hand, presents the basic problem that I don’t understand how you can proport that there’s a bumper sticker that says “No More Joe” and not literally mean that there’s a bumper sticker that says “No More Joe”.

I saw two competing articles about the Democrats. One that said that there’s a bunch of “populists” or liberals running: Montana, Connecticut, Virginia. Another that said that there’s a bunch of “centrists” running: Tennessee, Missouri, Arizona. Why, even the “centrists” that are running are sounding populist themes of sort, and the same in some respect for that other group. I suppose they’re not necessairly mutually exclusive ideas of where the Democrats are heading, but they do denote a valuable counter-point to the conventional wisdom being tossed out on how Lieberman spells the doom of a “big tent” Democratic Party. And…

It’s worth mentioning that Lieberman states the belief that Al Gore’s eventual slogan “The People Versus The Powerful” politically cost the campaign. I simply disagree, believing that it’s the only thing that kept the moribud Gore — Lieberman ticket alive… a slogan, a message, anything that connects — however facially, with the electorate. Thus I’m in the sort of minority opinion that Ralph Nader’s candidacy ended up helping Gore, as it forced Gore to political definition. But for Lieberman, it was a cost of his political soul to even throw a political token to, quote-in-quote “populism”.

I hear that the political death of Lieberman spells doom for bi-partisanship. He works with Bush; we need Democrats who can be congenial in working with Bush for government to operate just as we need a Lincoln Chaffee to be able to work with Clinton in order for government to operate. But if the Democrats win the Senate in 2006, the Democrats would be giving us all a Harold Ford, Jr… a “Gang of 14” member waiting to happen.

Harold Ford has been making a living by courting Tennessee voters with frequent Fox News appearances. He lives in Tennessee. Lieberman lives in Connecticut. He seems to believe the general gist of, or rather more strikingly wants to force the general gist of into existance, say:

CAMERON: Antiwar liberals say Lieberman is out of step with his party and should be ousted. The problem, of course, is that that will invite Republican criticism that Democrats are the party of cut and run, unserious about security — by definition a weak position in a wartime election.

In Washington, Carl Cameron, FOX News.

And…

BRIT HUME: Well, it tells us that even in relatively dovish Connecticut where Joe Lieberman, if nominated, would be an odds-on favorite to win re- election, his own party may deny him that nomination, which gives you an idea of the extent to which the Democratic Party has drifted to the left because of Iraq.

What has happened is that all the antiwar sentiments of a huge part of that party’s base have been awakened by this war. They are emerging as the dominant force within the Democratic Party, pulling the party to the left on that and other foreign policy issues.

And the result is that a war that is going badly in the eyes of the public has been redounding amazingly in recent weeks to the benefit of the president who took us into that war, a remarkable achievement for the Democratic Party.

“To the benefit of the president”. That Fox News roundtable, sooner or later as it must, rebounds over to Hillary Clinton:

KRISTOL: Well, you could or you couldn’t. But she went out of her way to say that she wouldn’t, having left it ambiguous, because she might be running for president and she doesn’t feel you can take on the left-wing base of the Democratic Party.

So we have a Clintonian Bush administration and a McGovernite Democratic Party. What a wonderful situation.

This for saying she’ll back the Democratic nominee, whether or not Lieberman runs as — quite literally a member of the Lieberman Party.

Ugh. There’s really only three entertaining races at the moment. Entertaining being an operative word that does not necessarily mean relevant to actual issues. As those things go, this one is the only one that matters at the moment.

Members of the Korean Democratic Women’s Union met in front of the statue of President Kim Il Sung on Mansu Hill on Friday to vow to uphold the Songun leadership of Kim Jong Il faithfully as instructed by the President. Pak Sun Hui, chairperson of the KDWU Central Committee, made a report at the meeting to be followed by speeches.
The reporter and speakers said that the President, basing himself on the immortal Juche idea, set forth the unique line of attaching importance to arms and military affairs that the victory of revolution and independence and sovereignty and prosperity of the country and nation are ensured by arms. And he led the Korean revolution to victory and glory, putting forward the women as the pillars driving one of the two wheels of revolution.
The destiny of the country, the final victory of the Juche cause and the bright future of building a great prosperous powerful nation are guaranteed by the Songun policy, they said, expressing their firm determination to become the devoted standard-bearers remaining intensely loyal to the policy pursued by Kim Jong Il.
Present at the meeting were Kim Jung Rin, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and women’s union officials in Pyongyang.

You gotta love North Korean state media! My favourite flavour of story is where world leaders bow before and honor either the current Dear Leader or the Previous Dear Leader. This is followed in line by such stories as the one above, where North Koreans bow down before one or the other Dear Leader.

The vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front issued a statement on July 8, the 12th anniversary of demise of President Kim Il Sung, according to Internet site Kuguk Jonson. The statement said that Kim Il Sung is the distinguished leader unprecedented in history and the great revolutionary, outstanding statesman and peerlessly great sage who enjoyed profound respect and praises from all people for his feats and high prestige.
Kim Il Sung was highly lauded as a veteran statesman in the world and the greatest man representing the 20th century as he made undying contributions to the human cause of independence through his energetic external activities all his life, it noted, and went on:
The Juche cause, the Songun revolutionary cause started by Kim Il Sung in Mt. Paektu has been successfully carried forward by Kim Jong Il, the sun of the 21st century and the peerless Songun brilliant commander.
Kim Il Sung will always live in the hearts of the Korean nation and humankind as the sun of Juche thanks to Kim Jong Il possessed of intense loyalty to Kim Il Sung and extraordinary political ability.
The Korean people will further glorify the undying feats performed by Kim Il Sung in accomplishing the cause of national reunification and give further spurs to the nationwide grand march for reunification under the uplifted banner of “By our nation itself” and thus bring earlier the day of reunification without fail when all the fellow countrymen will live together after putting an end to the U.S. colonial domination and military occupation.

I hear this whispering hope about one of his sons, who loves Western Culture and travels around to various world ski resorts to soak stuff in. The hope is that maybe this will seep in a bit, and when Kim Jong Il dies, maybe he will open up the state a bit. This forgets that Kim Jong Il loves vast swarths of Western Culture hisownself, in his own inimitable manner. He has a film studio where he had a kidnapped director make him movies. And he has a vast Swedish Porn collection, a fact that always puts his infatuation with Madeline Albright into a curious perspective.

You know, something about Lieberman’s opening to his debate with Lamont — coupled with his “There you go again” comment, has me thinking.

I know George Bush. I have worked against George Bush.
I have even run against George Bush. But, Ned, I’m not George Bush.

Why not just run a political campaign where you use old political zingers? Next he should use Mondale’s “Where’s the Beef?”, which considering that one of his arguments is that Lamont is a one-note candidate without any substance, fits into his arsenal.

I imagine, fairly or unfairly, Schwarzenegger just repeating his catch-phrases in a campaign for governor. Be like him!

The subtext of the debate, for all the Lieberman haters, is that he was aggressive with Lamont where he wasn’t in his debate with Dick Cheney. The problem comes in that where you might have excused his debate performance with Cheney as simply showing his personality, that pin is pricked when Lieberman tried to throttle Lamont. So when Bush apparently whispered in Lieberman’s ear at that famous State of the Union kiss, “Thanks for your patriotism”, Lieberman’s definition of patriotism continues to be Bush’s, and we move on to that Wall Street Journal editorial and various utterances about how “we undermine Bush at our peril.” Lamont says that he stummered a bit at the start of the debate due to the fact that his preparation took a look at his Cheney debate, something I don’t quite understand seeing as Lieberman had already shown signs of what he was going to do with Lamont.

One other note is that I see a creeping in of an old Republican canard used by liberal Democrats: Sore Loserman. I expect and hope that travels around when he issues his signatures to get on the ballot the day after he loses the primary.

An Open Letter to the Horse Thief.

Dear Horse Theif:

Over a dozen horses have been placed in this location and they were all removed within 24 hours. We suspect it’s the same person who is doing this, as well as removing other horses in the area.

What gives?

By removing the horse you are depriving both children and adults of the joy of spotting this horse and noting part of this city’s history.

No amount of pleasure you get by stealing our horse could afford the joy you are taking away from the community as a whole.

Further, if you are walking around with a tool capable of cutting wire rope, I’m going to venture to guess that you can afford to walk into a Dollar Tree and buy your own horse.

So please do, because installing these horses, including hardware, costs nearly $3 a horse.

Personally, I’m a student who is not working, so this is a big sacrafice for me. A sacrafice that I’m willint to make to benefit the community, but not to benefit you personally. In the last case I used my birthday money, so you should feel pretty bad about your actions.

Leave the horses alone.

Kim.

…………………………

Lordy, lordy, lordy. This note was tied next to one of those damned minature horses that are tied around to street corners around Portland. To that person who seemed to be watching from the parking lot, waiting in her car, as I transcribed this letter to my notebook, in the happenstance that you are reading this, I am uninvolved in anything here.

But I really don’t know who’s side I’m supposed to take here. Stealing those minature horses strikes me like stealing gnomes, and we all love the Gnome Liberation Army. But there’s a twist here that makes it a little less sanguine: gnomes are private property stolen on private areas. In this case, the horses are left in public areas. What the heck are they doing there?

I have seen the horses “providing joy” to both children and adults. To me they just bring confusion and bafflement. Again: what the heck are they doing there?

This letter has proven most useful in answering that question. Apparently they are left by a college student, with a suggestion that there are compatriots in on this of one sort or the other. But it leaves more questions than answers. (1) What a strange hobby. Let the buyer beware, I guess. (2) What history, exactly, is it telling of Portland? Horses used to be what automobiles are today, and were left on the sidewalk? Was there a horse racetrack in the vicintity? A manufacturer of minature horses? What?

I sort of defend Lieberamn with his guise of running as a, quote-in-quote “Provisional” is it? Democrat. It’s the first promise of his upcoming Independent bid for Senate: he will caucus with the Democrats. The law specifically tells him that he can’t call himself a Democratic candidate, thus the qualifier, suggesting nothing but that promise.

I wonder if all politicians will double-dip like Lieberman plans on in the future: run as a member of whatever party in the primary, and if you lose just run as an Independent. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

In the meantime, the quote from last night’s debate between Lieberman and Lamont that seems to be getting the most play is Lieberman saying “There you go again”. Evoking Reagan. In a debate for the Democratic Primary. Reagan. Republican hero Reagan. Not as popular amongst Democrats as amongst Independents, not as popular amongst Independents as amongst Republicans, who revere him.

Yep. He’s looking ahead to when he can wedge into Arthur Schlesinger’s candidacy. Here’s to a great three way race in November! I guess.

What’s impressive is that I noticed this admist the ridiculous deluge of comment spam that I have to deal with these days. It is for things like this that I do not just turn the comment section off. If anyone can help Rich out, there you go.
………………………………………

Hello, I am a paper ephmera dealer from Lancaster County Pennsylvania and I believe I may have come across original late 1800’s cabinet photos of skull and bones members at YALE. Individuals were photographed with SKULL & BONES tie clasps in clear view. There are other photos of other individuals with other types of tie clips some are the same, so I think that perhaps they too were members of possibly another group at YALE. The photographer was PACH BROTHERS who i know did the yearbooks and such at YALE during the late 1800’s and the photos were pencil numbered indicating to me that they were going to be used elsewhere (perhaps in a yearbook?) My question is do you have any idea of HOW I can identify these people if they were members of skulls and bones. No names are on the photos. If anyone can help me figure out how to identify these people, pleasde email me at ksavi@comcast.net ….Thanks …..Rich

Memphis-area megachurch has erected a Statue of Liberty lookalike — holding a cross instead of a torch — to remind Americans of their “spiritual liberation” and to show that Christianity should guide the nation.

Some area residents have complained to local newspapers that they think the 12,000-pound structure is “ridiculous.”

Here’s how weird I am. The first I heard of this Statue of Liberty I thought of Franz Kafka’s sword-wielding Statue of Liberty in his book, Amerika. It’s a good book, probably the only thing Kafka wrote that could be considered… um… not entirely depressing.