Incohere! Mood: chillin' Now Playing: "Big Iron" by Marty Robbins
With thanks to Pejmanesque for the link, here's a shiv between the ribs from Patrick Ruffini on the subject of Howard Dean's negative influence on the Democratic Party:
It's safe to say that Howard Dean's first four months as chairman of the Democratic National Committee have not gone exactly according to plan. After a Presidential season in which small donors eclipsed the power of the bundlers, Dean was supposed to keep the spigot of Internet money flowing, and perhaps even juice it up some more after the departure of the reviled McAuliffe. The selection of this unconventional politician was supposed to have morphed the DNC from a shadowy, inside-the-Beltway cabal into a populist grassroots machine, with a little bit of the same pop, sizzle, and spontaneity that characterized Dean's rise to the top of the Democratic field. In my parochial area of concern, online politics, Mr. Internet Candidate was supposed to be running laps around the Republicans, attracting hundreds of thousands of quirky, devoted online followers.
Instead, the DNC was outraised by the RNC $34 million to $16.7 million in the first quarter – following the 2004 cycle where the DNC actually raised more. Big donors are leaving in droves. The antics (helpful anthology here) that seemed refreshing and out-of-the-ordinary on the campaign trail are now grating and uncouth. And the DNC's web site still sucks, its blog has remained essentially unchanged since the election; gone is the excitement of Blog for America, in is the quaint charm of a major party weblog with 1, 3, and 7 comments respectively on its last three substantive posts. So much for the Internet Candidate™.
And how do the morons at Eschaton respond to my criticisms of Dean in their comment threads? By declaring ---with too much emphasis and generosity to actually be true--- that they're off to donate ever more money to the DNC. Got that? As a [rebuke] to me for my sensible remarks, these partisan bottom-dwellers ---who wallow in the mud of hatred for yuppies and Rethuglikkkan $cum--- can only think to send money to the Democratic Party. For what? More money would equal more approval of Dean's chairmanship? That's certainly interesting! All that more money is going to do is pay for the extra toppings on the pizzas the envelope-lickers will be ordering. You know: from their five-figure-a-month office space in a downtown near you where their coat-and-tied hippy bosses strategize on how to appear grassroots enough to fool you yet again.
Nader's still right about the two-party machine, even if you dumbasses still hate him for 2000.
A 360 on the 180 Now Playing: "Obsession" by Animotion
The Chicago Sun-Times' Thomas Lipscomb has some doubts about whether John Kerry has, in fact, released all of his military service records:
A front page story in the Boston Globe claimed that: "Senator John F. Kerry, ending at least two years of refusal, has waived privacy restrictions and authorized the release of his full military and medical records." In another Globe story Kerry had promised "The truth in its entirety will come out." But did it?
Kerry's election hopes faltered last summer and fall as accusations of fraudulent and incomplete military records were aired. The fact that Kerry repeatedly refused to sign a single-page military form called the Standard Form 180, that would have released all his military records to the public, was taken as proof he had something to hide.
Whether you think harping on this is chickenshit or irrelevant or anything else, you must agree that there is no other rational explanation for why John Kerry refused to release those files. None. He must have had something to hide ---and it's not (as Steve Soto speculates)--- "vanity" over having the world see that he did worse than Bush in school.
Care to take a guess as to what the real embarrassment was?
"Protecting the Left from Itself" Now Playing: "Two Hearts" by The Jayhawks Here's an interesting column from Brent Bozell about how Big Media is ---in the words of Paul Mirengoff--- "protecting the Left from itself." In this case, Bozell points out that the liberal media has got a pretty tight embargo on the crap that recently-elected DNC Chairman Howard Dean's been spewing:
The rule has been a blackout at the Big Three since the weekend Mr. Dean was elected. CBS hasn't mentioned the words "Howard Dean" since Feb. 20. ABC and NBC both ignored Mr. Dean for two months until they found his critical comments useful during the mid-April controversy over Terri Schiavo's death. But Mr. Dean's gaffes were nowhere to be found. They also ignored Mr. Dean for the rest of April, and then May.
But weren't Dean's high profile and red meat style some of the reasons why the Democrats wanted him for the job? Weren't they looking to put a celebrity politician and a would-be Presidential nominee in the role of sticking it to the Chimperor week after week? Just think on that one. Why don't the big networks run with Dean's gibberish more often?
Because it reflects poorly on their liberal agenda.
Since he was elected to the top party spot on Feb. 12, Democrats have hidden [Dean] like the Clinton staff hid mistresses.
They've received a lot of help from a national media blackout. As Mr. Dean traveled the country dispensing gaffe after gaffe, the national networks ignored him almost entirely. On Thursday, June 2, he cracked at a left-wing convention that many Republicans "have never made an honest living in their lives." ABC, CBS and NBC ignored him for three days, until the Sunday morning interview programs, which have about a quarter to half the ratings of the evening news.
It's not quite hate speech yet, but the potential for such is obviously there. Big Media, for now, can look away. But, soon, Dean is going to lose his shit and there won't be any choice left.
I Didn't Know That! Mood: a-ok Now Playing: "Milk It" by Nirvana
I just watched the lovely and talented Alanis Morissette sing our national anthem in the pre-game show of Game One of the Finals ---having heard from the announcer that she has recently become an American citizen. I didn't know that! What a hoot. I dig her a dozen different ways. She is deliciosity itself.
Meltdown
As Charles Johnson notes, DNC chairman Howard Dean is in a full-on meltdown. During a recent speech in San Francisco, Dean said that Republicans are
"a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party."
What does this even mean? Isn't Dean himself supposedly a "white Christian"?
There can be nothing more nauseating in politics than this sort of pandering. To take it upon oneself to castigate the opposition in terms that may as well be applied to oneself is almost incredibly inept.
How are you Leftist wankers enjoying your consolation prize? Is there any major Democrat who hasn't taken a dump on this guy in the past couple weeks? Frank, Biden, Edwards, Pelosi ---the list of remorseful buyers is growing, folks. Dean is pumping out soundbites for the 2006 Republican campaign machine at an astonishing rate.
The Fireflies
My back yard is full of fireflies ---and I am quite delighted.
But fuck a loud dog, though. Why do people keep animals around who hate everything and cause hatred in those around them? It's psychotic. I think a certain class of people need that kind of strife in their midst as a kind of validation of their own existence. Lots of barking and bedlam and nonsense all the time to drown out the essential silence of their mindless lives.
Home Sweet Home
Well, I'm back in the blogging saddle. I didn't really miss it too much, although I did miss having access to the Internets (as the President once referred to it. Or them.).
Plus, I am now in my new home ---my first house. It's a pretty amazing feeling, but one that hasn't fully sunk in yet. It's a lot of responsibility, but one that I needed to accept, being the old man I am.
This is going to be a really hot and nasty summer. I can feel it already.
Gettin' down to the Nut Cuttin' Now Playing: Bernadette Peters' horn solo from "Tonight You Belong to Me" (from The Jerk)
Game on, beeyotch. A walk-through and then The Great Stack of Papers. Jesus! Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking!
Playing Both Ends against the Middle Now Playing: "Common Disaster" by the Cowboy Junkies
Is this a joke? In a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, ABC News correspondent Terry Moran said:
"There is, I agree with you, a deep anti-military bias in the media ..."
Recall that this is the same moron who jumped all over Scott McClellan last week for the latter's temerity in suggesting that Newsweek magazine be as zealous in reporting that their information on Koran flushing at Gitmo was wrong as they were in making the charge in the first place.
It's plenty bizarre. Moran admits that Big Media is biased against the military, yet takes it upon himself to accuse the White House of intimidating people who exhibit such a bias. Is that supposed to make sense? The White House isn't allowed to make the same point about lying propagandists that Moran just did?
A Near Run Thing Now Playing: "Waterloo" by ABBA
Tomorrow, I am supposed to close on my house. I am nervous. I have been nervous for weeks.
The only advice I can think of to give a prospective homebuyer right now is this: moneymen like to know that you are in debt. They like to see that you like them and their kind enough to have given yourself over in dozens of different ways to various credit card companies and department stores and gas stations. If you do not have this sort of record of indebtedness ---and, instead, prefer to live simply and within your means--- you will be considered by mortgagers and other moneymen to be a suspicious character.
Therefore, even though you may not like it, force yourself to go and get a credit card from one of the big oil companies. Get one from a major retailer. And, every now and then, use these cards. But be absolutely certain that you pay your monthly charges on time and in full. Don't let it overwhelm you, but do use them.
This will show those from whom you wish to buy a house that you are a fully functioning member of our consumer society. Don't worry about it, though: the privilege of home ownership in our culture is tremendous. It is a blessing that too many people in too many places will never know.
I am grateful to my benefactors and I am hopeful that tomorrow will be one of the most important days of my life. That isn't an understatement. That isn't an overstatement. That is the American Way.
Tania, Is That You? Now Playing: "Dancing Queen" by ABBA
I'm watching this great American Experience documentary on Patricia Hearst and I can't help noticing how familiar her rhetoric is.
She is the archetype of most everybody I argue with these days. Utopian horseshit with the veneer of intellectual sophistication. "Stickin' it to the man" 'cause you can afford to talk like you are. Good stuff there.
And what's become of Patty? Well, she looks great. But she came back over to the dark side. You know: where all of her money was waiting for her.
Grate
I'm listening to the CNBC replay of this morning's edition of Meet the Press with Howard Dean and the only thing he's said that I can agree with ---and I'm paraphrasing here--- is that the Schiavo Case will prove to be a turning point in how the public regards the Republican Party as a party of individual rights and small government. And that's true. Tom DeLay and Rick Santorum and the other hardline Republicans have gravely harmed the GOP with these flashes of evangelical madness. It still appalls.
As for Howard Dean, he's still an angry little twitch of a man. I wouldn't trust him with a sack of shit.
Language Mood: not sure
My Momma accidentally came across this blog the other night ---as she does once or twice a year--- and she said that my foul language is just too hurtful. Or something like that. Well, I agree ---at least about the language I used in my post about Terry Moran and Newsweek. I was just venting, of course, but foul language is no substitute for good writing.
Pretty Good
I went and saw Revenge of the Sith Friday night with some friends who had a free pass for me. It was all digital. And it's a pretty good movie, too. Very interesting to see the origins of Darth Vader.
My old friend Jones and I were remembering going to another Star Wars movie some 22 years before ---and in almost the same spot (near Highland Mall here in Austin). But Return of the Jedi was a disappointing commercial of a movie. This one, though, is so visually interesting that it's hard not to like it. And it ties up all the loose ends.
I never bothered to see Attack of the Clones, though. Phantom Menace was such a kids' movie that I figured Clones would be just as bad. Who knows? Maybe I'll look at it some time if it comes on the TV.
As for Revenge of the Sith, you can't not see it if the Star Wars saga is of any interest to you at all. It explains everything that led up to the original movie. Check it out.
Whiny Little Prick
So ABC News correspondent Terry Moran goes crying to Scott McClellan that the White House is putting pressure on Newsweek magazine to explain why they fucked up and how the Koran is actually treated ---by regulation--- by the United States military? What a whiny little prick! Newsweek shouldn't have to be told that their shit reporting has been the trigger to murder and rioting in the streets of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They should own up to what they did when they let Michael Isikoff spread his anti-military propaganda in their pages.
What about journalistic ethics, Terry? What the fuck is this bullshit about the White House "pressuring" the goddamned media? Newsweek published a lie: let them be as conspicuous in copping to that as they were in running with it in the first place.
chillin'
(Thanks ---if that's the word--- to the Boston Globe for 
a-ok
not sure