“LOUD CHEERING AND STRONG APPLAUSE:” Bush on Wall Street, where they seem pretty happy with him.
Archive for 2007
January 31, 2007
AN INSTAPUNDIT FLASHBACK: “HE’S DOOMED, THEN: ‘The only thing standing between Joe Biden and the presidency is his mouth.'”
Yep. Calling Obama the first “articulate and bright and clean” black candidate for President is unfair. Say what you will about Al Sharpton, but his personal hygiene appears to be excellent.
UPDATE: Ann Althouse: “I’m on the same page as Kos on this one.” Me too.
But Jonah Goldberg is defending Biden.
IS THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE ABOUT TO COLLAPSE? “I am starting to lend more personal credence to the theory that a combination of strong growth, fat corporate profits, and already tight labor market might push the unemployment rate to lows we have not seen since the 1960s.” That would be nice.
JULES CRITTENDEN: SURGE!
AN AL-QAEDA / CBS video partnership? “CBS used Flash, while AQ prefers realPlayer. That’s just one more reason to hate both Al Qaeda and realPlayer, I guess.”
BILL ROGGIO REPORTS:
Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, one of Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-laws with deep roots in al-Qaeda as a financier and facilitator, has been reported to have been murdered in his bedroom in Madagascar. Khalifa, “who mined and traded precious stones in Madagascar,” was reported to have been murdered by “a gang of 20 to 30 gunmen broke into his brother’s bedroom, shot him dead ‘in cold blood’ and stole his belongings.”
It’s hard to see this as bad news.
UPDATE: An angry lefty reader thinks that this is bad news because — if Bush weren’t an inept boob — we would have captured Khalifa and reaped an intelligence bonanza.
I’m sure we’d rather have captured him alive and interrogated him, but that’s not always possible. And at any rate, I doubt Khalifa would have produced much useful intelligence in the absence of now-banned interrogation techniques. I’d rather have him pushing up daisies than either operating out in the world, or filing a civil rights suit from Guantanamo. Of course, such a ban does tend to make people like Khalifa worth more dead than alive, but I can live with that consequence, and am surprised that lefty Bush critics feel otherwise, given all the complaints about Guantanamo, etc.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Meryl Yourish emails:
From the article:
“They stole everything — his computer, all of his things,” said Khalifa’s brother.
Uh-huh. His computer. Your lefty reader isn’t reading between the lines in the news article.
I doubt it was just someone desperate for an early release of Windows Vista. And another reader emails:
Your blurb contains an update that says:
“UPDATE: An angry lefty reader thinks that this is bad news because — if Bush weren’t an inept boob — we would have captured Khalifa and reaped an intelligence bonanza.”
If you read Bill’s article, you will see that he had been captured three times in the past and let go in each case. Basically it is a case for showing why we can’t use conventional law enforcement techniques against these maniacs.
He was arrested in the US in 1994 … let’s see … which administration was that again?
I blame Bush.
HOW MANY LEGISLATORS DOES IT TAKE TO BAN A LIGHTBULB? More than they’ll probably muster for this dumb idea:
A California lawmaker wants to make his state the first to ban incandescent lightbulbs as part of California’s groundbreaking initiatives to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
The “How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act” would ban incandescent lightbulbs by 2012 in favor of energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs.
I’m quite interested in compact fluorescents — I’ve installed quite a few in my house, and I’ve been experimenting to see which ones suck (most of them) and which ones are okay. But banning incandescents? That’s just silly.
Now a ban on private jets? Much less intrusive, and there’s lots of reason to think that this sort of thing has gotten out of hand. Flying commercial — you can even fly First Class if you want — is a small sacrifice for our business and political and entertainment leaders to pay in order to fight the scourge of global warming. Plus, who knows, if the “jet set” starts flying commercial again, maybe commercial flying will get better . . . .
Pioneering forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass is the inventor of the University of Tennessee “body farm,” made famous by Patricia Cornwell’s bestselling novel of the same name. Bass is also, with Jon Jefferson, a bestselling author in his own right under the name Jefferson Bass. We talk about forensic anthropology, their new novel Flesh and Bone, what CSI gets wrong, and how to have fun in Chattanooga’s gay bars. Plus, Dr. Bass’s new effort to find out what happened to the Big Bopper in his plane crash with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens.
You can listen directly — no downloading required — by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. Or you can download the file directly by clicking right here. You can get a lo-fi version, suitable for dialup, cellphones, etc., by going here and selecting the lo-fi version. And, of course, you can always subscribe via itunes. Please do! And, as always, my lovely and talented cohost is taking comments and suggestions.
Music: “Temptation,” by Mobius Dick. This podcast was brought to you by Volvo USA — if you buy a Volvo, tell them it’s because of The Glenn and Helen Show!
THOUGHTS ON MCCAIN, WARNER, AND “BENCHMARKS.”
UPDATE: More background here.
GLOBAL WARMING CULPRIT LOCATED: “‘He uses the 707 as the family van,’ says Jumbolair developer Terri Jones. ‘The Gulfstream is his sports car.'” Green Hollywood outrage is sure to follow this revelation . . . .
MEGAN MCARDLE: “Gasoline prices rose slightly a year ago from $2 to $3 (readers in Europe are snickering, or sobbing) and the media was filled with how awful this was and what oh what was the president going to do to bring prices back down? Now that gas is cheap again, the hue and cry is about how to get people to use less. In the garbled logic of politics, where human beings are unmoved by incentives, CAFE standards offer a ‘have your cake and eat it too’ promise — low gas prices and low gas consumption. Unfortunately, reality will assert itself and we will find low gas prices bringing high gas consumption, no matter what CAFE requires.”
Charles Schumer and Barack Obama plan to introduce a bill today in the Senate that will impose more regulation on political speech during campaigns in order to end “deceptive” practices. The New York Times editorial board enthusiastically supports this new bill, even though it admits that the one abuse most often associated with this effort can be prosecuted under existing law.
It’s all about protecting incumbents. It always is.
RUDY GIULIANI: “STAR POWER.” A big vulnerability is going to be on the gun issue, I think: It is for him what Campaign Finance Reform is for McCain, something that chases away GOP base voters who lean libertarian.
THE TOSHIBA PORTEGE R400 gets “gadget of the week” honors at Popular Mechanics. Doesn’t sound like my cup of tea, though.
SCIENCE FAIR BOOKS, Valentine’s Day reading, and more, at the Books for Kids blog. Plus, “princess books” that won’t shrink the brain.
BIRMINGHAM, England — Eight terror suspects accused of planning a kidnapping were arrested in pre-dawn raids Wednesday, police said.
Police would not comment on Sky News TV reports that part of the plan was to behead a hostage and post the act on the Internet, and neither the Home Office nor West Midlands police could not confirm details of the alleged plot.
Not much information there, but if that’s the plot I’m glad it was foiled.
UPDATE: A roundup on what’s going on from Pajamas Media.
MICKEY KAUS on a double standard regarding reportorial speech at the New York Times.
Hey, at least we’re not talking about Chris Hedges. Then again, maybe we’re not allowed to . . . .
January 30, 2007
TEN YEARS TO SAVE THE PLANET: Let’s start by banning private jets.
No, really! Also stretch limos.
A HERD, NOT A PACK: “I’d noted earlier that the media seemed to be going back to its traditional ways, of serving as an arm of the antigun movement. Well…”
I WROTE A MOBIUS DICK SONG a few years ago called Submarine on Europa. Now there’s a guy who’s working on actually putting a submarine on Europa.
BALL OF WHACKS UPDATE: Virginia Postrel is posting whacks photos. Maybe they can go in a Whacks Museum. . . .
GOOD NEWS FOR THE BLOGOSPHERE:
In a landmark ruling in favor of bloggers and cyber journalists, a Santa Clara County Court defended the First Amendment rights of online journalists to protect their confidential sources, effectively giving web journalists the same protections afforded to traditional print journalists. . . .
Apple was ordered to pay all legal costs associated with the defense, including a 2.2 times multiplier of the actual fees, bringing the total to about $700,000.
At least, this will make people think twice about trying to push bloggers around, on the theory that they’re little guys and that doing so is risk-free. On the other hand, as I said last time this kind of bullying backfired, “Don’t get cocky.”
MORE ON GUATEMALA, from Xeni Jardin. Background here.
MY LOCAL PAPER wins an award for videoblogging. I hope they’ll do more of this kind of thing.
BENCHMARKS: The new “lockboxes?”
UPDATE: Is the Republican Congress blowing things again? “I think I’m seeing a sea change in the way the war is being reported. Cautious optimism, or at least a lack of pessimism, seems to be leaching into MSM reporting.” Talk about lousy timing.
Or maybe this is brilliant Rovian jiu-jitsu: GOP members turn negative on the war, media reflexively turns more positive on the war. . . . It’s the power of negative thinking!