Original Gangsta

Apparently, Laura Bush has been assigned by her husband the task of cleaning up our streets.

President George W. Bush announced a new plan Wednesday to help keep kids out of gangs.

Bush is proposing a three-year, $150 million initiative to battle gangs, and first lady Laura Bush will head up the program, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.

That sounds about right. Who else would inner-city youth rather hear from than someone who is familiar with their struggle and plight? Namely a nebbish, middle-aged white woman.


"Now, we can handle this like some
gentlemen or we can get into some
gangsta shit."

Reid To Frist: "I Said Thrown Down, Boy."

From earlier this week in The Post:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has threatened to invoke a rules change in the Senate that would prohibit a filibuster of judicial nominees, a move that has been called the "nuclear option" because of its potential to shatter any remaining bipartisan comity in the Senate. Reid all but dared Frist to try.

"They can threaten the nuclear option," he said. "If they feel that's great for the institution and the country, let them do it." Noting that the only complaint he has heard from fellow Democrats is that not enough of Bush's judicial nominees were blocked in the past four years, Reid said he is prepared "to go behind the pool hall and see who wins this one."

I was against Reid as Senate Minority Leader namely because, after he stated that he would rather "dance" with the opposition than "fight," I was under the impression Reid would handle himself like an even weaker-kneed version of Joe Lieberman. However, that "pool hall" comment was fucking bad ass. Where have I heard it before...

TYLER: For a man that don't go heeled, you run your mouth kinda reckless.

WYATT: Don't need to go heeled to get the bulge on a dub like you.

TYLER: That a fact?

WYATT: Yeah. It's a fact.

TYLER: Well I'm real scared.

WYATT: Damn right you're scared. I can see it in your eyes.

Wyatt steps forward suddenly, eyes cold and hard like a shark. Suddenly realizing he's in way over his head. Tyler shrinks back reflexively, his hand moving toward his gun. The other players scatter. Wyatt nods, his voice calm and steady:

WYATT: Go ahead. Skin it. Skin that smoke wagon and see what happens.

TYLER: Listen Mister, I'm getting' tired-

Wyatt abruptly SLAPS his face, making his teeth clack together.

WYATT: I'm getting tired of your gas. Jerk that pistol and go to work.

Tyler goes pale, all pretense of courage gone. Wyatt slaps him again.

WYATT: I said throw down, boy.

Another slap. Tyler stays frozen, blood dripping down his chin.

WYATT: You gonna do something or just stand there and bleed?

Bush Cheats, Liberal Media buries Story

Still sick here.

In the meantime, check out this story from FAIR. One would think that when the President cheats in a debate, it would be news.

One would be wrong.

In the weeks leading up to the November 2 election, the New York Times was abuzz with excitement. Besides the election itself, the papers reporters were hard at work on two hot investigative projects, each of which could have a major impact on the outcome of the tight presidential race.

One week before Election Day, the Times (10/25/04) ran a hard-hitting and controversial exposé of the Al-Qaqaa ammunition dump identified by U.N. inspectors before the war as containing 400 tons of special high-density explosives useful for aircraft bombings and as triggers for nuclear devices, but left unguarded and available to insurgents by U.S. forces after the invasion.

On Thursday, just three days after that first exposé, the paper was set to run a second, perhaps more explosive piece, exposing how George W. Bush had worn an electronic cueing device in his ear and probably cheated during the presidential debates.

The so-called Bulgegate story had been getting tremendous attention on the Internet. Stories about it had also run in many mainstream papers, including the New York Times (10/9/04, 10/18/04) and Washington Post (10/9/04), but most of these had been light-hearted. Indeed, the issue had even made it into the comedy circuit, including the monologues of Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jon Stewart and a set of strips by cartoonist Garry Trudeau.

That the story hadn't gotten more serious treatment in the mainstream press was largely thanks to a well-organized media effort by the Bush White House and the Bush/Cheney campaign to label those who attempted to investigate the bulge as "conspiracy buffs" (Washington Post, 10/9/04). In an era of pinched budgets and an equally pinched notion of the role of the Fourth Estate, the fact that the Kerry camp was offering no comment on the matter perhaps for fear of earning a "conspiracy buff" label for the candidate himself may also have made reporters skittish. Jeffrey Klein, a founding editor of Mother Jones magazine, told Mother Jones (online edition, 10/30/04) he had called a number of contacts at leading news organizations across the country, and was told that unless the Kerry campaign raised the issue, they couldn't pursue it.

Link via Oliver Willis.

Big Time Update

The official Batman Begins site has been updated in a major way.

Go check it out whilst I recover.

Sick

I'm wicked sick. It all kind of washed over me around 9:00.

Hopefully will check in tommorow.

Kenny

Because you were forced to sit through an hour-plus of lies and garbage, your reward:

I'd say it was the right time
To walk away
When dreaming takes you nowhere
It's time to play
Bodies working overtime
Your money don't matter
The clock keeps ticking
When someone's on your mind

I'm moving in slow motion
Feels so good
It's a strange anticipation
Knock, knock, knocking on wood
Bodies working overtime
Man against man
And all that ever matters
Is baby who's ahead in the game
Funny but it's always the same

(Chorus)
Playing, playing with the boys
Playing, playing with the boys
After chasing sunsets
One of life's simple joys
Is playing with the boys

Said it was the wrong thing
For me to do
I said it's just a boys' game
Girls play too
My heart is working overtime
In this kind of game
Someone gets hurt
I'm afraid that someone is me
If you want to find me, I'll be
Playing with the boys

(Chorus)
Playing, playing with the boys
Playing, playing with the boys
After chasing sunsets
One of life's simple joys
Is playing with the boys

I don't want to be the moth around your fire
I don't want to be obsessed by your desire
I'm ready, I'm leaving
I've seen enough
I've got to go
You play too rough

(Chorus)
Playing, playing with the boys
Playing, playing with the boys
After chasing sunsets
One of life's simple joys
Is playing with the boys


"Dare I say I'm essentially the
greatest musician in history?"

Bush VS. The Founders

Bush, State Of The Union.

Because marriage is a sacred institution and the foundation of society, it should not be re-defined by activist judges. For the good of families, children, and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage.

The Founders, The Declaration of Independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Get the picture you fucking cultural sloth? All men means everyone, not just the folks that you and your Jesus Friends are comfortable with. We tried cherry-picking who gets rights and who doesn't once -- it was called the two-hundred fucking years prior to the mid-60's and it didn't fucking work out all that well.

Gay people aren't going anywhere. Suck it up and deal with it. Personally, I'm willing to throw caution to the wind and suggest that my May wedding will turn out fine even without a special amendment to protect marriage.

Living History

When I first saw this on Sunday I thought it was a fake.

Apparently, no.

U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror

by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 (1967)-- United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.

According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.

....A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson gave his personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the chief of state, in Honolulu in February.

The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government, which has been founded only on coups and power plays since November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Deim was overthrown by a military junta.

Pierce

Stand back.

You do not own their courage.

The people who stood in line Sunday did not stand in line to make Americans feel good about themselves.

You do not own their courage.

They did not stand in line to justify lies about Saddam and al-Qaeda, so you don't own their courage, Stephen Hayes. They did not stand in line to justify lies about weapons of mass destruction, or to justify the artful dodginess of Ahmad Chalabi, so you don't own their courage, Judith Miller. They did not stand in line to provide pretty pictures for vapid suits to fawn over, so you don't own their courage, Howard Fineman, and neither do you, Chris Matthews.

You do not own their courage.

They did not stand in line in order to justify the dereliction of a kept press. They did not stand in line to make right the wrongs born out of laziness, cowardice, and the easy acceptance of casual lying. They did not stand in line for anyone's grand designs. They did not stand in line to play pawns in anyone's great game, so you don't own their courage, you guys in the PNAC gallery.

You do not own their courage.

Spreading Democracy

Watching the Iraqi people vote over the weekend was an inspirational, powerful moment that has already been cheapened by those with the pomposity to suggest a successful election in Iraq somehow justifies the 22 months of lies and duplicities that preceded it. The democratization of Iraq was never the goal of the invasion, it was seen as the fortuitous by-product of removing Saddam, whom -- we were told -- was an imminent threat. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz listed the rationales for war in a May 2003 interview with Vanity Fair.

There have always been three fundamental concerns. One is weapons of mass destruction, the second is support for terrorism, the third is the criminal treatment of the Iraqi people.

...

The third one by itself, as I think I said earlier, is a reason to help the Iraqis but it's not a reason to put American kids' lives at risk, certainly not on the scale we did it.