A look at the Kerry – Bush blog hybrid:

Looks like Zell Miller has his “Democrats for Bush” organization rolling right ahead.

People cheered, clapped and nodded in agreement as Senator Miller delivered empowering remarks about his faith in President Bush and his belief in the direction of our nation.

Yeah. Whatever. That party has shifted left, left, left… eh? So left, they almost match Nixon’s politics these days…(*)

Zell Miller, the 56th most Democratic Senator…

Heading up Democrats for Landon… I mean, Bush.

A quote, searching through google cache of Usenet posts.
“(George Bush) talks lik Dirty Harry, but acts like Barney Fife!”
–Georgia Governor, Zell Miller, 1992.

Looking through the Democrats for Bush blog:

Dan Ackyrod has endorsed Bush! And… to this, we get the comment: Bush in 2004 – Hillary in 2008. Sentiments I could agree with

Hm. A Bush loving Clintonite. That’s an… oddity.

Any day now, someone’s going to have to mention on that blog that Phil Hendrie is supporting Bush…

(*)The current ironic political thinking: Nixon was the last big-spending Liberal.

“Well, he wasn’t — he wasn’t in the loop, frankly, on a lot of this stuff….For example, just three weeks after the — after we got here, there was communication, for example, with the President of Pakistan, laying out our concerns about Afghanistan and al Qaeda, and the importance of going after the Taliban and getting them to end their support for the al Qaeda. This was, say, within three weeks of our arrival here.” — Dick Cheney on Rush Limbaugh.

I’m not the first person to say this, and I won’t be the last, but… “wasn’t in the loop”?

His job title was White House Counterterrorism Coordinator…

If you look up “loop” in the dictionary, circa 2001, you will see, since the items in this loop are in the photograph’s sight, a picture of Richard Clark smack dab in the middle of said loop…

Maybe Cheney would be on the edge of this loop… I don’t know.

Unless we have more than one loop going here. A more… how do you say… loopy loop in parallel with this loop.

Found out this morning
There’s a circus coming to town
They drive in cadillacs
Using walkie-talkies, and the secret service

Their big top
Imitation of life
And all the flags and microphones
We have to cover our eyes

We play the sideshows
And we like the tunnel of love
And when we ride the ferris wheel
We’re little children again

And when they’re asking for volunteers
We’ll be the first ones aboard
And when the ringmaster calls our names
We’ll be the first ones to go … to sleep

Stealing all our dreams
Dreams for sale
They sell ’em back to you

On with the show
Start the parade
We sand along
Sweep us away

It’s political party time
Going down, going down
And the celebrities all come out
Coming down, coming down, coming…

The sun is going down
And the dogs are starting to howl
We stay out after dark
Eating cotton candy
And the music’s playing…

How we all laughed!
We split our sides
The cameras flashed
We almost died!

The rain’s gonna pour on down, falling out of the sky
Coming down, coming down
And the celebrities all run out, and the rain’s
Coming down, coming down

Gonna rain,
Gonna rain, gonna rain
Gonna rain, gonna rain,
Rain, rain
Rain, rain

And now I wonder who’s boss
And who he’s leavin’ behind?

Listening to “MAX 910 AM” “Talk Radio for Guys” (flickering past the generic old “Hot Talk 1080” — “Hot Talk” in radio parlence signifying only “Talk Radio that is not firebrad Republican Right-Wing”, now alerting to the world its demographic reach extends not beyond the reader of Maxim), it’s pretty easy to remember the reasons that, just beyond the war with Iraq, why “Media Regulation” is Cause #2 for America’s “Liberal / Left”.

Even if some of the programs remain the same… Phil Hendrie and Clyde Lewis in particular… the entire packaging of the station makes the station…

Unbearable. Unlistenable.

But never mind. After Friday night’s debacle, I was anxious to hear Clyde Lewis on Saturday. Probably a bit more anxious than he even really deserves, but, you see, the sizzle is sometimes more intriguing than the steak.

10:00. He wasn’t on. Dead air. I basically felt like the kids in the movie Pump Up the Voume (a thinly veiled copycat of Network, but never ye mind), tuned into the radio to see if “Hard Harry” was going to manage to come on even as the powers that be were clamping down on his rogue pirate radio operation.

Forty minutes later… slight glitches of sound coming through intermittently, and…

Canned Comedy routines. The routines that the station programmers have replaced CNN at-the-hour news-updates with.

For a moment it sounded as though Clyde didn’t make it.

But, there he was. At 11:05. Apologized for the technical glitch. And… he was off. An unremarkable showing, followed the next night by the house astrologist disappointingly, mind ye, but there it was.

From his forum, we have this stream of postings:

23:04: And now at the top of the hour, a silent void. Waiting for Clyde, but only the sound of silence from the radio. NOT a good sign.

23:30 As Phills program ended the station just powered down big time.
and a no go on 1390.
thanks for the info.
but AllI get is the sound of raido frogs.
some sort of static….frogs….
crickets….
no Clyde…..
time to just go ta bed

06:30 No more Ghettos”…Really Red, 1979. A song that is fitting for a thought. Play it right now.

Yeah, Portland is in need of some real Pirate Radio. And not the little 96 point something mini over on the near NE side…

11:03 So is Saturday just a lead in to worse to come?
will 910 F with its Audience and listeners?
was this an honest mistake …or something more sinister.
are they really ready to cut off their nose to spite there face.
who, ? and I mean who? Has better Friday sat and Sunday late night talk during those hours. Nobody I woud tune into
Clyde Could you please post the market shares during the time slot.
that would speak volumes.

And so it goes…

Thinking about Richard Clarke’s allegations.

“Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq,” Clarke said to Stahl. “And we all said … no, no. Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan. We need to bomb Afghanistan. And Rumsfeld said there aren’t any good targets in Afghanistan. And there are lots of good targets in Iraq. I said, ‘Well, there are lots of good targets in lots of places, but Iraq had nothing to do with it.

“I think they wanted to believe that there was a connection, but the CIA was sitting there, the FBI was sitting there, I was sitting there saying we’ve looked at this issue for years. For years we’ve looked and there’s just no connection.”

How is this news? Welcome to Memory-less America, I suppose.

Sept. 4, 2002

It was 12:05 p.m. when the director of Central Intelligence told Rumsfeld about the intercepted conversation.

With the intelligence all pointing toward bin Laden, Rumsfeld ordered the military to begin working on strike plans. And at 2:40 p.m., the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted “best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H.” – meaning Saddam Hussein – “at same time. Not only UBL” – the initials used to identify Osama bin Laden.

Other than that… no, we can’t place any blame on Bush for lack of stewardship on the issue of terrorism pre- 9/11 (as the Hart / Rudman Report tried to sound the alarm.) … this’ll be settled in his one hour closed door session with the investigation. Above all, remember: IT’S All Bill Clinton’s‘s Fault…

So, Howard Stern is turning himself into the Poor Man’s Lenny Bruce… who, in the waning days of his career during his obscenity trias took to reading his court transcripts for his routine.

Well, here’s Howard Stern:

http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=1452

Stern pointed to Thursday’s Oprah Winfrey Show TV broadcast focusing on teenage girls’ sexual behavior, including a “secret language” of sexual terms.

“It’s hoopla,” Stern agreed. “It’s Oprah going woo…”

Bear with me. Here’s the transcript from Oprah Winfrey’s show, not aired on Howard Stern’s show.:

WINFREY: Yeah. So you say–let’s talk about that secret language, Michelle.

Ms. BURFORD: OK, a tossed salad is–get ready; hold on to your underwear for this one–oral anal sex. So oral sex to the anus is what tossed salad is. Hi, Mom. OK. A rainbow party is an oral sex party. It’s a gathering where oral sex is performed. And a–rainbow comes from–all of the girls put on lipstick and each one puts her mouth around the penis of the gentleman or gentlemen who are there to receive favors and makes a mark in a different place on the penis, hence, the term rainbow. So…

Entercom purchases Infinity Broadcasting. (I think that’s what they bought.)

They swap the local Sports Talk Radio with the local “Hot Talk” radio stations.

And I turn on the two stations as they swap, just before the “Art Bell / Jeff Rense” type local Clyde Lewis is supposed to come on.

And, the introductory spot shows the obvious: the corporate bosses have segmented the audience down to the average Maxim reader… all shows designed to serve the centerpiece of the station: Tom Leykis

And Clyde Lewis does not come on.

Here’s Clyde’s message:

Not Quite, Not Yet

I can only ask that you call and ask if Ground Zero will air and at what times.

And here’s a better summary of the audience for “Max 910”:

a rich, golfing, jock a**hole whose idea of culture is dwarf-tossing at the local bar. Yeah, the world is full is this “type” all right. They make about 6 figures a year working as “sales manangers”, the only TV shows they watch are reality programs and sports, they buy season tickets for the Blazers so they can show off their silicone addled trophy wives in public, their favorite bands are Creed and Jimmy Eat World, and of course, their preferred brand of talk radio is Stern and Leykis. Nothing funnier than listening to some smarmy hack say “boobies” over and over with Enter Sandman playing in the background.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/15/politics/15VIDE.html?ex=1394686800&en=03106322a35655a1&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND

Federal investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law, which would be offered to help elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription medicines.

The materials were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, which called them video news releases, but the source is not identified. Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, “In Washington, I’m Karen Ryan reporting.”

…

Another segment shows a pharmacist talking to an elderly customer. The pharmacist says the new law “helps you better afford your medications,” and the customer says, “It sounds like a good idea.” Indeed, the pharmacist says, “A very good idea.”

In one script, the administration suggests that anchors use this language: “In December, President Bush signed into law the first-ever prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare. Since then, there have been a lot of questions about how the law will help older Americans and people with disabilities. Reporter Karen Ryan helps sort through the details.”

And the Bush Administration defense?

“The use of video news releases is a common, routine practice in government and the private sector,” Mr. Keane said. “Anyone who has questions about this practice needs to do some research on modern public information tools.”

Jon Stewart’s response: “Yeah, didn’t you read the ‘Modern Public Information Tools’ Manual?”

Actually, for more on “modern public information tools” such as the one employed by Bush Administration, try books Toxic Sludge Is Good for You, Trust Us: We’re Experts, and website Disinfopedia.org.

#1: Kerry is reported to have said, “I’ve met foreign leaders who can’t go out and say this publicly, but boy they look at you and say, ‘You’ve got to win this, you’ve got to beat this guy, we need a new policy.’ Things like that”.

#2: Bush Administration wants “names”. Colin Powell says so on the Sunday Morning Talking Show,

#3: The wire service reporter reports that he screwed up. I mistranscribed a key word,” explains Patrick Healy, a political reporter for the BOSTON GLOBE who covered the event in a pool capacity.

“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.”

I HAVE A Question: What’s the difference between the two? Why are the left-ward blogs saying that there is a difference?

#4: The “right”ward chatterers bounce off of this. “What endorsements?” The thought is just soooo absurd, after all…

I’ve this weird sense of what to me looks like the obvious: QUESTION: who do you think Germany’s Schroeder, France’s Chirac, Canada’s Martin, and Spain’s Zapatero would rather see as America’s president?

Isn’t the Bush line supposed to be that they’re all cheese-eating surrender monkeys anyways without a clear grasp of our righteous mission*, and we can’t capitulate to them (“America needs not wait for a permission slip) — no, our mission is not to create a coalition… or is there a sufficient political shift going on in this nation that that line of tact simply won’t get as far as it used to?

Question: What would happen if whatever foreign diplomat that Kerry might have spoken to comes out and says whatever they might have said to Kerry?

Would anyone care? Should anyone care?

………………………………………….

* David Brooks’ Example in Waiting: *Nor is America itself without blame. Where was our State Department? Why hasn’t Colin Powell spent the past few years crisscrossing Europe so that voters there would at least know the arguments for the liberation of Iraq, would at least have some accurate picture of Americans, rather than the crude cowboy stereotype propagated by the European media? Why does the Bush administration make it so hard for its friends? Why is it so unable to reach out?

The answer to that question cracks me up. See first *asterix* mark.

Some things I’m wondering.

Is Spain now part of Rumsfeld’s rubric of “Old Europe”?

(“New Europe” being those countries that simply had a gap between public approval and the government on the particular issue of the Iraq War.)

Is there a way that we can malign the Spanish in the same way that we maligned the French?

Perhaps we can refer to them as a bunch of burros… a reference that can easily be carried over stateside and attach itself with the Donkey of the Democratic Party.

Y’know: Spain’s great contribution to the literary canon: Don Quixote. Not the “Clear Eyed Realist” that we need to win a war against Evil.

(Oh, yeah. BTW: look over to the sidebar and click on the link “Coalition of the Willing theme song.”)