Monday, October 09, 2006

Hidden camera in the Washington Post Newsroom


Don't bother asking how we do it. Suffice it to say that our operatives have placed our unique Blogotronic™ mini-cameras and microphones in the newsroom of the WaPo. Shhhhhhhh... let's listen in...


Yesterday's lead story was genius! U.S. casualties in Iraq have risen sharply...


Seriously? U.S. deaths are up? I hadn't heard that...


No, not deaths. Number wounded...


Oh.


But we need a theme for next Sunday's hit piece, I mean, lead story. Any ideas?


Gas prices?


If you haven't checked, genius, gas prices are $2 a gallon...


Unemployment rate? Anything going on there?


Idiot! Don't you read your own paper? Unemployment is in the 4% range... unbelievably low!


Can we ignore the unemployment rate and use some other meaningless statistic that sounds like things are bad?


Like what?


Job creation numbers?


Cheezus, that the New York Times' turf! Did you just fall off the mango boat yesterday?


Stock prices?


Uhm, Warren Buffett Junior, stocks are at an all-time high.


Another article on the Woodward book? How the administration isn't listening to anyone?


The National Review already torched Woodward's story, that's a dead-end.


You know, I'm sitting right here next to you! I can hear you both!


Uhm, okay, thanks, Bob.

Maybe we cover the National Intelligence Estimate again? Talk about how fighting terrorists causes more terrorism?


Moron! We already tried that! Bush released the whole NIE... everyone knows it doesn't say anything!


How about another article hammering Bush on the Iraq reconstruction effort?


Dionne, you are really ticking me off. That's ludicrous, the one in September already got blown out of the water.


Dammit! Wait! I've got it! We start calling ex-pages and see if any of 'em will accuse Foley of some other hideous crime...


Great idea, E.J.! We're on it!!



Oven-fresh good readin', just like Mama used to make:
Captain's Quarters: DNC Still Can't Find An American Soldier To Support
GatewayPundit: Despite the bleating, GOP base hasn't moved...
Hugh Hewitt: Leaving Foley, Parsing Rahm
Rick Moran's RWNH: Never say never, but...
STACLU: DPRK tests their nuke...
Wizbang: Everything I needed to know about the Foley scandal I learned from the Democratic talking points
Washington Post Trackbacks: here, here, and here

Sunday, October 08, 2006

For "progressive" talk radio, it's all about the children



Handicapped-accessible jungle gym, $7,500...


Salary and benefits for three teachers, $254,000...


Multi-slide outdoor commercial playground, $6,300...


Salary, benefits, hardware, and software for computer-based, multimedia educational program for 100 students, $198,000...


Indoor fitness and playground center, $18,300...


Amount allegedly stolen from the Gloria Wise Community Center to prop up the failed "progressive" radio network Air America, $875,000...


Here at Air America, we focus on the three C's...


Compassion.


Commitment.


Caring.


Currency.


Ooops. Maybe that's four C's. Bottom line, though...


It's all about the children.


Because we're progressives, we care.


To keep us on the air, America, give 'til it hurts. Won't you help us spread a message of the three... -er- ...four C's? Call now. Operators are standing by.


Hat tip: Larwyn

Oven-fresh good readin', just like Mama used to make:
Hugh Hewitt: All politics local? So is voter fraud
LawHawk: Indictments in Gloria Wise/Air America scandal
Radio Equalizer: Outrage
USS Neverdock: Air America wise guys get a pass
Wizbang: National theater chains choose not to show controversial movie

Saturday, October 07, 2006

The Democrats and the strength of their convictions


It's 1930-era politics at its best: Democratic leaders have promised to increase taxes on middle-class America, whether or not evidence shows it's a lousy idea. Let's listen in as the ranking minority member of the House's tax-authoring Ways and Means Committee -- Charlie Rangel -- talks to Congress Daily and Bloomberg News:

Congressman Rangel, if Democrats regain power in 2006, will you consider extending any of the President's tax cuts?


I cannot think of a single one!

Does that mean you'd consider tax increases for all American taxpayers?


No question about it... everything has to be on the table.

* * *

Then these comments were featured in a Wall Street Journal op-ed ("An Honest Democrat"). The op-ed congratulated the New York Democrat, telling voters they knew what they were getting by electing Democrats.

With all the firm conviction of fresh Jello, Rangel reversed course faster than John Kerry tacking on his windsurfing rig. Cue the rewind soundtrack, Charlie... *** screeeeeeeeecch ***.

When Rangel was contacted by the New York Sun regarding his statements, he disavowed the remarks, probably figuring voters were too stupid to remember something that had happened 72 hours prior:


...[it's] too soon to discuss any tax hikes or tax cuts...


...If it relates to tax cuts on 2010, I can't say I have any great ambitions as to what I would like to see...

* * *

Ah, the Democrats and the strength of their convictions.


Rangel, who has served in the House for 36 years, has said he will retire if Democrats do not win back the House. I get the feeling that's yet another commitment he wouldn't keep if called on it.


It's just more evidence that, once you finally do pin down a Democratic position on a specific issue, you can be sure it'll change once the poll numbers come in.


Vote Republican.


Oven-fresh good readin', just like Mama used to make:
Anchoress: No one to credit for the good economy
Hugh Hewitt: The choice
Rick Moran's RWNH: Losing momentum in Iraq isn't the problem
STACLU: Friday Free For All
Wizbang: More good news, buried

Friday, October 06, 2006

Anna Diggs Taylor body-slammed by 6th Circuit


In what is certain to crystallize as one of the harshest judicial rebukes in recent memory, the recent decision that held the NSA terrorist surveillance program unconstitutional was stayed, pending appeal. The original decision, on a case brought by the ACLU and heard by Jimmy Carter appointee judge Anna Diggs Taylor, has been termed "a lawless usurpation of power" and "a bad joke--an exercise so deficient in legal reasoning that it would fail a first-year law school class."

Without commentary, the 6th circuit's slapdown of Diggs Taylor bodes well for a program that appears utterly critical in maintaining national security:

The unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave little explanation for the decision. In the three-paragraph ruling, judges said that they balanced the likelihood an appeal would succeed, the potential damage to both sides and the public interest.

In other words, it's entirely reasonable to expect that Diggs Taylor's weak and partisan ruling will receive the judicial beatdown it so richly deserves.

Exclusive transcript: conversation the NSA terrorist surveillance program picked up last month

What if...


Lorie Byrd, writing at Wizbang and Townhall, poses a question I've often wondered about but have never been able to adequately articulate:

One of the favorite topics of discussion in the media and among Iraq war critics is whether or not the Bush administration has properly prosecuted the war, but the topic I have yet to hear discussed is whether or not the anti-war left and the media in America have properly prosecuted their roles during the war in Iraq.

With Bob Woodward's book, State of Denial, in the news, and the recent declassification of the April 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, the topic of how things are going in Iraq, whether we are more or less safe, and whether or not the action there has led to the recruitment of more terrorists, is a hot topic.

Not being debated, though, is what the status of the war in Iraq might be today if Democrat leaders and the media had conducted themselves differently. If all the successes of American troops in Iraq had been reported as studiously as the setbacks, would terrorists have been able to convince their young, impressionable followers that they were winning? If it were clear to the Iraqi people that politicians in D.C. were committed to finishing the mission in Iraq, would the attitude of the people there be different? If politicians and anti-war activists had not accused our own troops of engaging in torture, and worse, would world opinion, and specifically the opinion of the Iraqi people be different?

No, I am not blaming all the ills of the world on the reporting in Iraq or on Democrats. I am just wondering, aloud, why there has not been more discussion about the consequences of the words and actions of the anti-war left and anti-American reporting...

WizBang

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Deep inside the Democratic planning bunker...


Thanks to our patented Leftotronic™ technology, we've secreted a hidden camera and microphone deep inside the Democratic National Committee's command bunker. Shhhhhh.... let's listen in as the party leaders plan for campaign 2006...


Now, guys and gals, we have got to jump on this entie-yah Foley sitchee-ation and make these Republicans pay this time. Any ideas?


It's simple, you bald-headed cracker! Let's put the heat on Speaker Hastert! Chop off the head... and the torso... -er-... bleeds... a lot!


Don't you mean, "chop off the head and the body dies", genius? That's whah you appear on Fox and I don't. Your brainpower couldn't illuminate a flashlight, Beckel.


Stop your insipid infighting. We have one enemy: Bush and the rest of the Republicans.


Hate to break it to you, Alan, but that's more than one.


Stifle yourself, Beckel! If I need your opinion, I'll squeeze your head! The problem is that Hastert's timeline holds up! The family purposefully withheld the information from him. So that's a dead-end.


That's big talk comin' from you, pencil-neck. Why aren't you sitting on Hannity's lap, you ventriloquist's dummy?


Boys! Shut the hail up! You all are behavin' like seven-yeah olds.


Howie, you've been awfully quiet. Any strategies from our ostensible party leader?


Culture of corruption! Abramoff!! YEEEEAAARRRGGGHGHGHHAAARGH!!!


You know... Howie's right. Loud and somewhat deranged... but right. The culture of corruption has been the Republicans' biggest problem for years. Think about the Abramoff scandal...


Hey, Einstein, did you forget that our dear leader, Harry Reid, took about $70K from Abramoff's firm? And then did some extensive lobbying on his behalf? Plus, at least one of Reid's folks went to work for Abramoff? That's the last thing we wanna do - open that can of worms!


Hmmm, you have a point. Maybe that whole corruption theme is a bad idea. We don't want to remind voters of the $90 grand found in Jefferson's freezer... that pins the tail right back on the donkey, so to speak.


What about the child-subordinate angle? Cain't we take advantage of that?


Oh, don't go there, you bald-headed stooge! That'll bring up the whole Reynolds affair and the pardon!


Refresh mah memory. What the hail are you talkin' about?


Are your brain-cells still burned out from the Al Gore victory party in 2000?

Don't you remember? Jessie Jackson added former Democratic Congressman Mel Reynolds to his Rainbow payroll. Reynolds was one of maybe 175 pardons that Bill granted just before leaving office. Reynolds was serving a federal sentence for... about 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud, and lying to the Federal Election Commission. Plus he was serving five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer.

So do we really want to resurrect that story? Think about it: an ex-congressman who had sex with a subordinate won clemency from a president who had sex with a subordinate, then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate? And his new job with Rainbow was as... youth counselor?

Do you really want to bring that up?


Bill, are you payin' attention? This is serious! What the heck are you reading? Is that a Hustler magazine??


(Flips magazine shut) It's not what it looks like!!


Oven-fresh good readin', just like Mama used to make:
Captain's Quarters: Appeals Court Hints At Reversal On NSA Surveillance
Hugh Hewitt: Foley fallout, part I
Rick Moran's RWNH: October 5th, a day of peace, love, and...
STACLU: A Short History Of The ACLU
Wizbang: Foley: the plot sickens