To paraphrase Billy Jack, I try — I really try.
When I entered the blogosphere, I did so with a determination to give y’all links to pretty much any commentary or original sources that I was referring to. I know blog patrons like free stuff, so I link
you to as much of it as I can.
But when I look at the New York Times policy, which doesn’t even let subscribers read the op-ed columnists on-line, and I see how often those writers provoke me to want to say something back, and I can’t really give more than little tastes of that context to the readers, to my people…
I just go berSERK!
Or at least, I get mildly irritated.
Anyway, I’m going to go ahead and say what I thought when I read Maureen Dowd‘s latest, and unless you have a hard copy lying around, or unless you’re a TimesSelect subscriber (and if you are — suckerrrr!), you’re just going to have to act like big boys and girls and read The State tomorrow — the actual, dead-tree edition that your Daddy reads — instead of trying to freeload off the Web.
Anyway, this is what I thought:
Maureen Dowd’s in high cotton now. She thinks she’s going to have Al Gore to kick around again.
That’s it. I didn’t tell you I had anything special to say about it. I’m just trying to get you to read the op-ed page.
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Maureen Dowd is not a journalist. She is not even literate on most issues. She just reflects the ignorant readership of the NY Times who think they don’t need to know anything in order to take a position on an issue.
Dowd has a job with the Old Grey Whore paper as long as she denigrates conservatives and conservative issues. Her juvenile writing is beyond weird in most articles, almost embarrassing in its shallowness. Other journalists with some semblance of talent must scratch their heads at this anomaly.
Every comedian in the country is hoping for an Algore comeback. I saw a blurb on TV the other day where for the 500th time I heard him say something about; My name is Al Gore, ex-President of the United States—- and the guy is nearly pathetic.. But here is a quotable quote from his infamous book—The Pacific Yew can be cut down and processed to produce a potent chemical, taxol, which offers some promise of curing certain forms of lung, breast, and ovarian cancer in patients who would otherwise quickly die. It seems an easy choice — sacrifice the tree for a human life — until one learns that three trees must be destroyed for each patient treated, that only specimens more than a hundred years old contain the potent chemical in their bark, and that there are very few of these yews remaining on earth.” — Al Gore, from his book, “Earth In the Balance.”
1) Maureen Dowd is an embarrassment to people of my political persuasion. Sometimes I think she’s a plant by conservatives to discredit the progressive cause. She’s even worse on TV, especially sitting next to somebody with an actual intellect like William Safire. Most of her writing is lightweight, a bit silly, and heavily personality-psychobabble-based.
2) The mini-wave going around for Gore now will probably crest in a little while and drain away. I personally wish it were for real, as I believe Al Gore has more integrity and conviction and love for humanity and the planet in the tip of his fingernail than you could squeeze from all the grcells of Bush and Cheney.
oops, malfunction there as I was trying to write “green-currency-tinted blood cells of Bush and Cheney combined.”
But what I wanted to say was that my patriotic side hopes that Gore does not run, nor Hillary win. We need new faces in the White House. The whole Clinton-Bush Senior-Bush Junior-Brother Jeb-Hillary-Gore-drama has been going on way too long, back to 1988. No reminders of the 80’s or 90’s. Don’t run, Al. Just work behind the scenes for real change in environmental policy. You could probably accomplish more that way.
John Edwards is running a stealth campaign, visiting 34 states this year, to visit every NAACP, Hispanic, lesbian and environmental activist he can.
Does Edwards have something against gay men?
Personally I like Maureen Dowd. She’s witty, intelligent and usually right on the issues. It’s refreshing to hear some biting liberal counter points to the mindless babbling from the right. So many left-wing columnists are dry and boring (Thomas Oliphant for example) that I have a hard time staying awake to finish what they have to say.
Dave says,
“Every comedian in the country is hoping for an Algore comeback”.
The Algore verbiage was concocted by Rush Limbaugh in some lame attempt at humor many years ago. Whatever humor value this had 5 years ago it is simply old and tiresome now. I’m surprised those on the right continue to find it so amusing. Dave, if you’re going to make fun of the dems (which is fine with me) at least try to be original. And you accuse Maureen Dowd of being shallow.
As for comedians, they couldn’t have asked for more material than our current president provides. From choking on a pretzel to falling off a bicycle to the never ending stream of idiodic statements that come out of his mouth. He’s a late-night comedian’s dream come true. Here’s a great Bushism:
“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
— Florence, South Carolina; January 11, 2000
Bud, you were right, Algore stopped being funny, if he ever was, about 5 years ago. yet he continues to book himself on Saturday Night Live and other venues where in the end he comes across as a pathetic hanger on. The Buffalo Bills of the election circuit, or a modern day Harold Stassen. The worst insult is that Gore couldn’t carry his home state of Tennessee, where his own father had been a senatorial legend or icon.
The good thing about the not so eloquent Bush is that when speaks, all know he is telling the truth about what he really believes. Compare that to Clinton. There is the difference between these two Presidents on a personal level.
Dave, you’re right about Gore, he really shouldn’t run. I like Al, but Phillip’s probably right it’s time for some new blood.
As for “the not so eloquent Bush telling the truth”. Now that’s a good one. I know you’re kidding. I’m not even going to cite anything on this. It would be like hunting in a baited field. And that is simply not fair.
I think John Edwards IS gay…no one but a flamer pays that much attention to his hair. Fritz
One thing’s for sure, if Gore was president we wouldn’t keep reading these kinds of stories. It’s way past time to bring the troops home!
The U.S. military continues to investigate what happened in Haditha, where a total of 24 civilians died. But one congressman, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said today that he’s convinced the incident was mass murder and that it was covered up.
John Murtha’s mind is made up. He doesn’t want to wait on the facts.
If he sides with the military, the press will turn him back into a nobody.
The military is dealing with a situation where people in civilian dress, occupying residential homes with families, are attacking our soldiers. If a soldier intentionally executes a child that is non threatening, then that soldier should be punished. Everything else is acceptable in urban warfare.
Dave, “acceptable in urban warfare” statement is utter nonsense, recycled from the Vietnam era. The wanton excecution of civilians is NEVER acceptable. Murtha is a proud military man that’s appalled at the way our armed forces are being misused. The stress is beginning to tell on many of the soldiers and sadly we’re beginning to witness unspeakable attrocities. Isn’t this the kind of stuff we’re supposed to be preventing?
I say again, BRING THE TROOPS HOME, NOW!
When and where do you plan to fight the Islamic terrorists, bud?
Is that part of the liberal plan to leave it “for the children”, just like bankrupt Social Security, Medicare, and 60,000,000 illegal aliens?
Lee, I’d fight the terrorists where they are which isn’t Iraq. Since Afghanistan is falling apart we could shift our troop commitment there and spend a bit of money to make their lives better. The Afghan people have one of (if not the) shortest life expectancy outside of Sub-Saharan Africa.
SS is solvent until about 2038. I’d do away with income cap to extend this a bit more. Then we need to make some tough decisions (raising payroll tax rates, reducing benefits, raising the retirement age, etc.), that don’t include the so-called private accounts crap peddled by Bush. As someone reaching retirement age in about 15 years I would be willing to swallow hard and move that back a year or 2.
Medicare is much tougher. Perhaps we need to scrap it altogether and go with a, GASP, Canadian style single payer system that includes all Americans.
Where did you come up with the 60 million figure for the illegal aliens? That’s more than 1/5 of the nation’s population. I keep hearing 11-12 million. Anyway, I don’t consider them much of a problem, but the U.S. Senate bill seems about right.
There, no one can claim liberals don’t offer alternatives.
One more thing about fighting the terrorists. It’s actually not a big priority with me. I think the threat is greatly oversold. It’s mostly political fear mongering to win the gullible vote. Some quality intelligence, good police work, improved relations with foreign governments and perhaps a bit of selective military intervention will work a whole lot better for a whole lot less money than the quagmire disaster in the phony war on terror we’re currently waging. Let’s go back in time, not to 9/10/01 but to 12/31/99. Far less money, far better results.
Of course you socialist would like to do away with the income cap on Social Security, while maintaining the cap on benefits.
That might wake up many Americans to the fact that Social Security is not a insurance, nor a retirement fund, but just another welfare program.
The Senate just voted to give more Social Security to illegal aliens, and their extended families, even if they used stolen SSNs to get their illegal jobs. Good. Anything which makes honest Americans wake up to this scam is good. Pile on more deadbeats getting checks. Bankrupt it sooner.
The figure for at least 60,000,000 new immigrants comes from several sources, including the Pew Center on Immigration and Bear Stearns, both of who estimate the actual number of illegals here in 2005 to be 21,000,000. The Border Patrol says there are 3,000,000 crossing here a year. The Census counted 8,700,000 in 2000. You do the math.
Bud, your attitude represents the typical American who is complacent toward the Islamic terrorists. Yet, when, not if, we have the next terrorist act in the USA you will be the first to point fingers about how poor a job the feds have done to protect us. Islamic fanatics do NOT want to co-exist peacefully with Christians or westerners, their creed compells them to conquer and convert us. It is as simple as that.
Just call me Mr. Complacent.
Dave, it’s not that I’m unconcerned about terrorism it’s just that I’m not obsessed with it. Billions of dollars and thousands of soldiers lives aren’t going to make much of a difference if we focus on the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact if we’re dumb about it we actually increase the risk and help recruit new radicals to the terrorist cause. Let’s just be smart. That’s what those of us on the pragmatist left want.
Afghanastan = smart
Iraq = dumb
Anyone who thinks Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya were not developing WMD for terrorist deployment against America and Europe is really delusional.
So you’re saying Iraq is currently developing WMD? How do they do that with 130,000 American troops over there? Our military must be in worse shape than I thought.
Bud, If we had ONLY gone into Afghanistan and ignored Iraq, tell me what the situation would have been like? I surmise that Bin Laden would have simply shifted operations into Iraq just as Zarqawi did so we would be back where we started. All of this is intertwined and you cant conduct an operation in ONLY Afghan. any more than only cleaning up Iran while ignoring other problem areas. Who knows, Venezuela may join the list soon the way Chavez is going.
bud, don’t play dumb. If you think Iraq is stabilized and doesn’t need us to finish cleaning up the remnant of terrorists and Baath fascists, just give us your explanation.
Dave and Lee. You guys have missed your calling. You really should be in the marines. Why don’t you sign up instead of just talking about it. With a 5 front war we’ll need lots of soldiers.
I love it when liberal shirkers tell everyone else that they have no right to a political opinion unless they are active duty soldiers in the military the shirkers so despise.
And bud, you don’t “join the Marines”. You become one.
Lee, lighten up. The right is so thin skinned. Nobody is denying anyone the right to their opinion. All I’m saying is your opinion is wrong and completely unsupported by facts. And what does this ‘you don’t “join the Marines”. You become one.’ suppossed to mean? How do you become a Marines?
Bud, I served in the US Army already, although I would enjoy a tour of duty with the Marines, but they would probably assign me to the 82nd Chairborne to do computer work. haaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaa I would be happy as long as they didnt assign me to the Mary Rosh White Flag Brigade.
Iraq had WMD and terrorist training camps with ties to the 9/11 hijackers. That’s enough facts.
b U.S. Troops Cleared in Ishaqi Raid Probe
Investigation Into Civilian Killings by Marines in Haditha Remains Open –
KIM GAMEL, AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq (June 3) – A military investigation into allegations that American troops intentionally killed civilians in Ishaqi, a village north of Baghdad, has cleared them of misconduct, the U.S. said – even though it acknowledged the deaths of up to 13 Iraqis in the March raid.
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060601032209990008&_ccc=1&cid=842
Brad, now that you’ve given everyone a shot at smearing a great lady (Ms. Dowd), why don’t you do a column on a truly disgusting peace of garbage, Anne Coulter? Her latest filthy trashing of the 9/11 widows in her new book (and on The Today Show) was completely beyond the pale. NBC should be ashamed of themselves for having her on the air.
Bud, Ann C. is a piece, I will agree with you there. What she is saying is exactly true. The 4 flaming 9-11 witches collected a ton of settlement money and now are touring the nation getting huge speaking fees to denounce our President. They have no shame at all. They stopped grieving for their victim husbands long ago, now it is a crusade to elect liberals and democrats. Ann said what someone needed to say.
Don’t you love Hillary Clinton pretending to care about the WTC victims?
Her ersatz husband was the one who let some of the 1993 bombers go free, notably Ossama Bin Laden. What can you expect from a former KGB stooge, and his wife, former law clerk for the Communist Party in California?
Shame, Shame, Shame. The right in this country has gone mad. ann coulter is peddling a piece of filth that doesn’t deserve the title book by slandering a group of wonderful ladies that have the courage to say what needs to be said about the totally irresponsible leadership in the white house. Bush completely let the country down before, during and after the 9-11 attacks. But maybe some good will come of this. Maybe now, the 80% of Americans that aren’t still fawning over the disgraceful idiot we have in the white house will now wake up and see what the right is really all about: a bunch of money grubbing, irresponsible, cheap shot artists that don’t care about this country or the people who live in it. Anyone who defends coulter is simply not a real American.
IOW, bud hasn’t read Ann Coulter, but Al Franken told him what to think about her.