Alternate Entries

Saturday, October 02, 2004

A longterm fellow poster to a newsgroup I frequent just left me a comment, which included a link to his LiveJournal site. His entries there take the form of wonderfully idiosyncratic drawings reflecting his daily life.

Four drawings

If only he updated more frequently.

posted by jeev | 11:18 AM |

Friday, October 01, 2004

A few days ago, I posted that I hoped the reaction to the debate last night wouldn't focus on things like body language. And I still believe the essence of the debate, and Kerry's clearly superior performance, rests in the way the two men did, or did not, address the issues raised. But a lot of people have noted Dubya's fairly clear discomfort with the entire process, made abundantly evident by the split screen presentation. The DNC has even prepared a little snarky video of the most egregious examples of nasty-faced eye rolling behavior. But Josh Marshall has pointed out what may be behind the President's performance:

What occured to me somewhat while I was watching the first time and even more on the second go through was just how long it's been since President Bush had to face someone who disagrees with him or is criticizing.

Every president gets tucked away into a cocoon to some degree. But President Bush does notoriously few press conferences or serious interviews. His townhall meetings are screened so that only supporters show up. And, of course, he hasn't debated anyone since almost exactly four years ago.

And that, I think, is cause for comment - this is a President who has been scrupulously insulated from ideas, points of view, even, apparently, documentable realities that don't agree with his own vision of the world. And having to come into contact with them is clearly not to his liking.

posted by jeev | 9:23 AM |

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Jon Stewart made a little joke when Allawi spoke here. Sounds like Allawi's speechwriters were the same as the President is using, he said, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Well, once again reality appears to have overtaken satire:

The unusual public-relations effort by the Pentagon and the U.S. Agency for International Development comes as details have emerged showing the U.S. government and a representative of President Bush's reelection campaign had been heavily involved in drafting the speech given to Congress last week by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

[]

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked Tuesday about similarities between Bush's statements about Iraq and Allawi's speech to Congress last week, said he did not know of any help U.S. officials gave with the speech. "None that I know of," he said, adding, "No one at the White House." He also said he did not know if the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had seen the speech.

But administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the prime minister was coached and aided by the U.S. government, its allies and friends of the administration. Among them was Dan Senor, former spokesman for the CPA who has more recently represented the Bush campaign in media appearances. Senor, who has denied writing the speech, sent Allawi recommended phrases. He also helped Allawi rehearse in New York last week, officials said. Senor declined to comment.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and British Foreign Service officials also helped Allawi with the text and delivery of his remarks, said administration officials who were involved.

Via Josh Marshall.

posted by jeev | 7:38 PM |

What's in the news:

The U.S. House of Representatives failed on Thursday to muster the two-thirds majority needed to pass a proposed constitutional amendment backed by President Bush to ban gay marriage.

What they don't say: there was never any question that it would fail. It was brought to a vote as a sop to the far right wing of the Republican party and as a way to force members of Congress to symbolically place themselves on the record on this easily distorted and utterly inflamatory issue. The cynicism is stunning.

posted by jeev | 7:08 PM |

I know, I know, I don't think I can deal with watching, either. But you should. And, if you've a mind to give a little cash to the DNC, as Atrios points out, right after the debates wouldn't be a bad time. And from the comments on Atrios' suggestion:

Vote, says Terry McAuliffe:

National and local news organizations will be conducting online polls during and after the debate asking for readers' opinions. Look for online polls at these national news websites, and make sure to vote in every one of them:

ABC News: http://www.abcnews.com/
CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/
USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/

And be sure to check the websites of your local newspapers and TV stations for online polls. It is crucial that you do this in the minutes immediately following the debate.

So you should probably do this, too.

posted by jeev | 3:14 PM |

In case you still wanted to know:

The unit histories undermine the initial contention of the Bush camp that he gave up flying because his services as an F-102 pilot were no longer needed. They show that the F-102 remained the workhorse of the 147th through mid-1972, when Bush moved from Texas to Alabama to take part in a political campaign, even as pilots were being trained on the more sophisticated F-101.
[]
The unit histories also cast doubt on a 1999 statement by Bush that there were "five or six flying slots available" in the 147th when he first expressed an interest in applying, in January 1968. At that time, the unit was two pilots short of its assigned strength of 29 pilots. Two pilots were undergoing training to take over the positions, and one pilot was on the transfer list.

Via Atrios.

posted by jeev | 10:47 AM |

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

This is not a photograph:

photorealistic Illustrator rendering of a baseball glove

Click through and then on the "Flash" link to see it come to life.
Via kotte.org

posted by jeev | 9:51 AM |

A quick graphic of the state of polls as of today:

bar chart of various polls

Via PollingReport.com

posted by jeev | 9:38 AM |

We'd like that torture outsourced please:

The Republican leadership of Congress is attempting to legalize extraordinary rendition. "Extraordinary rendition" is the euphemism we use for sending terrorism suspects to countries that practice torture for interrogation. As one intelligence official described it in the Washington Post, "We don't kick the sh*t out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the sh*t out of them.”

Via Crooked Timber.

posted by jeev | 9:16 AM |

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

What are the debates for? If 2000 is any indication, they are apparently designed to evoke meta-comentary about "body language":

But as Adam Clymer pointed out yesterday on the Op-Ed page of The Times, front-page coverage of the 2000 debates emphasized not what the candidates said but their "body language." After the debate, the lead stories said a lot about Mr. Gore's sighs, but nothing about Mr. Bush's lies. And even the fact-checking pieces "buried inside the newspaper" were, as Mr. Clymer delicately puts it, "constrained by an effort to balance one candidate's big mistakes" - that is, Mr. Bush's lies - "against the other's minor errors."

Watch: we'll see if it all just happens again. The press ought to be ashamed.

posted by jeev | 10:07 PM |

Monday, September 27, 2004

From James Carville's book, Had Enough, A Handbook for Fighting Back:

Back in 2000 a Republican friend warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we'd lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Gore, he did win, and I'll be damned if all those things didn't come true!

Via Altercation.

posted by jeev | 2:14 PM |