08.28.06
Posted in Politics, Prez '08 at 4:29 pm by JB
I’ll do these one by one. Keep in mind we are still…. (damn) 18 months before the prez campaigns really get ramped up…. but this is my initial impression.
Sen. George Allen (R-VA)
Smart guy, mostly conservative, decent fella, but he has a bit of a temper. His whole “macaca” fiasco shows me that he just isn’t ready for prime time.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Another smart guy, and dedicated to his causes. Very conservative, but untested. He has yet to make his name known outside of conservative circles, Kansas, and us C-SPAN junkies.
Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN)
I am a Frist fan. I really am. But I can’t get my head around the fact that he is Majority Leader, isn’t running for re-election, and can’t show some balls to get some things done. He is the most ineffective leader I’ve seen that I can remember (I know, Reid is partially responsible) and that doesn’t show me much for a potential president. “The Senate is a collegial body.” My ASS. Anyone remember LBJ ? Frist would be better at HHS or something.
Newt Gingrich (Former Speaker of the House, R-GA)
Newt is an idea guy with a ton of baggage. I think he would be a great prez, but his odds are next to nil. But he will help keep the other candidates honest, and that means something. He engineered the ‘94 wins, and has a lot of use, even if his chances are slim.
Rudy Guliani (Former mayor of New York city)
Rudy has NYC crime correction, bureacracy beating, and strong leadership all over him. And 9/11. And he shoots straight. He does have baggage, but his credentials on security and leadership overtake those problems. He is a national figure with few nationally-known negatives…. people in Nebraska don’t follow his marital problems. He does have some social-conservative views that don’t exactly jive with a lot of Republicans, but I’m not sure that matters. GWB ran against McCain-Feingold, and then signed it. Presidents must make decisions and prioritize. Guliani won’t be perfect, but he takes care of the important stuff.
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
Chuck wants to be president too bad. He wants to please everyone all the time, and so pleases nobody overall. His positions are all over the place, there are no principles that I can see. He drifts with the wind, has no national presence, and isn’t articulate enough to even fake one.
Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR)
Again, maybe an HHS Secretary-ship. He’s a nice fella (I’ve met him a time or two) and he has decent ideas. But he’s not ready for prime time. Plus, he passed a smoking ban in restaurants in my beloved state of Arkansas, and the citizens aren’t all that happy. Nor am I. If I can’t smoke at Pancho’s, what’s the point of going ?
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
(sigh) Do I have to ? I think McCain is a decent bet. He’s smart and mostly principled. He does some things that make me crazy. McCain-Feingold violates the Constitution in SO many ways. Some of his activities on the Commerce Committee are just wrong. But he cares about security, and that’s the most important thing. The rest- hopefully his advisors will steer him straight.
Gov. George Pataki (R(ino)-NY)
Should he actually choose to run, he will be the GOP version of Dennis Kucinich. Not a prayer. Raises taxes constantly, doesn’t agree with the social values of the GOP. He’s a non-starter. And every word he says, every even he holds, there will be the spectre of Rudy standing over him.
Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA)
Another possibility. Not a lot to know about him at this point, but he polls decently for this stage, and any Mormon Republican who can get elected in the Peoples Republic of Mass is worth watching. He’s trying to raise his profile, isn’t running for reelection, so he’ll have two years to work on it.
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO)
Again, a good guy, but a single issue candidate. Immigration is a tremendously important issue, but not important enough to get you the big leather chair in the Oval. I just don’t see him having the punch needed to cover all the others.
Plus- hate to say it- but the current president got elected in ‘00 largely on charm and Cheney and advisors. It was widely known that Powell would take over State, Rice would be there, Rumsfeld was a stroke of genius… but the confidence in GWB was…. well. I can’t see the country electing another guy who will pick good people. The next guy has to be THE GUY. Bush became THE GUY, but when I closed that curtain in ‘00 the only thing I was sure of was he’d be better than Gore
There are others I’d add to the list, but that requires more thought than I want to give it at the moment.
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Posted in Politics, Prez '08 at 3:16 pm by JB
That poll that I posted earlier, remember this ? (participate if you can)
Just filled it out myself, from this site, and found an interesting result. I was one of two, so far, and… Someone out there has some interesting views.
Someone out there likes Frist, Hagel, Huckabee, and Pataki. That same person doesn’t agree with me on Romney and Tancredo. And that’s cool. No denigration intended. I just find it interesting.
This person likes Pataki AND Brownback. Talk about oil and water. We won’t get into the “first choice” picks. I can take either one. (my vote was Newt, in full disclosure, but there’s a reason…. I tried to take the poll the day I posted it, and got errors. Thought I’d try my tie-for-first pick this time)
I will post later my run-down on all these guys, and then we can talk about it more.
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Posted in Politics at 2:35 pm by JB
How else can you explain the two photos below ?! Mother Nature is certainly out to inflict maximum harm on the poor detainees down at Gitmo. Or maybe Allah saw them tossing nasty stuff at their protectors and decided they needed a good cleansing.
Matched with….
Some folks are about to get wet. Good thing they have towels. Sorry, was that racial profiling ? Oh well, tough shit.
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Posted in Politics, Economics, Katrina at 12:39 pm by JB
While the federal government is promising billions of dollars to rebuild homes below sea-level in New Orleans, can we get some extra cash to build some stone masonry high-rises in San Francisco, straw huts in Key West, and maybe a few trailer-parks in the Tornado Alley strip of the mid-west ?
As long as we’re gonna waste money…. It’s like these people have never heard of this story.
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Posted in Unhinged, Alex Jones at 12:32 pm by JB
I just love posting about some of the insane comments we get. Here’s one posted yesterday by (I’m sure) loyal reader ‘trip’:
erm, something almost none of you alex jones slammers havent taken into account is that most of his work is evidently documented! do you understand that concept, EVIDENTLY DOCUMENTED!
“erm”, no, I don’t understand that concept, because “evidently documented” doesn’t mean anything. I assume you mean he has evidenCE, but let me restate the truth about this old yarn….. if your evidence and sources and contacts are other nutjobs, that doesn’t exactly bolster your arguement.
It’s similar to the columnist Pauline Kael after the ‘72 presidential election. Oh, and by the way, this is how you actually gather evidence- not by listening to everyone who agrees with you…. She has been widely reported to say “how did Nixon win, I don’t know anyone who voted for him”. (Nixon won that in a landslide) What she actually said was “”I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.” At least she could admit, however blindly, how absolutely insulated her and her worldview was. (that’s a quote from the NYT, by the way, not exactly my “bible”)
this basicaly means that its not up for debate whether or not he is right or wrong. he is a research journalist you morons, you know, someone who gathers ‘information’ and ‘factual evidence’.
Au contraire, mon frere. That basically means I can absolutly debate it. If you and Mr. Jones don’t have the ’stones’ to put up with criticism, then you need to find a shed in the mountains and stay there. For every ‘fact’ he has to establish his ‘evidence’ I can provide 10x the counter-evidence in the form of witness testimony, participant testimony, government testimony, reports, news accounts, etc… and not from the cranks that Jones hangs his hat on, but from notoriously convervative sources as the New York Times, CNN, the DNC, Clinton admin press releases.
And to call Alex Jones a “journalist” is a severe insult to actual journalists. He’s more of an Art Bell wannabe.
try waking up and smelling the coffee. expand your fucking minds for christ sakes!
oh yeah, and anyone that has absolutly any admiration for george bush is clearly a complete knumskull, you are the reason children are getting bombed everyday, you make me sick.
“knumskull” ?! Nahhh… too easy. But I’m sorry you are sick, ‘trip’. Maybe you should see a doctor. Actually, I think you need a few doctors. Go here and I’m sure they can help you out.
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Posted in Pop Culture, War on Terrorism at 11:54 am by JB
Saddam is getting a (forced) taste of the best parts of American culture. 
(h/t GOPVixen)
“Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is being made to watch his appearance in cult cartoon South Park while he is behind bars.
The deposed leader on trial in Iraq was featured in the movie spin-off as the lover of the devil. ‘South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut’ featured Hussein and Satan attempting to take over the world together.
That’s just about the coolest thing I’ve heard today.
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Posted in Politics, The UN-able at 11:37 am by JB
Chuckie says the UN building is not safe. His solution ? What else, spend a ridiculous amount of money.
The United Nations is a disaster waiting to happen [ed. Some of us would argue that the disaster that is the UN has been happening for years] _ a potential towering inferno that could be as devastating for workers, staff and visitors as the terror attacks on the World Trade Center’s twin towers, a U.S. senator said Sunday.
Calling the 39-story, glass-walled Secretariat building on the East River a “firetrap” that violates many sections of New York City’s building code, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and U.S. Ambassador John Bolton should “make it a priority” to force through a $1.6 billion renovation program.
“The United Nations’ grave state of disrepair may be hidden, but it is putting the health and safety of thousands who work within the building and in the area in a real degree of danger,” Schumer told a news conference on the street in front of the landmark complex.
…
The plan to renovate the complex and bring it up to code has been in talking stages since 2000 but has been bogged down in political and bureaucratic delays, Schumer said, adding that “every day it is not done adds another $225,000 to the cost.”
…
Under the U.N.’s existing assessment formula, the United States would pay 22 percent of the cost of renovation. But the plan has stalled in part over the refusal of Congress to approve expenditures that are not “transparent,” and by the New York state legislature’s rejection of plans for alternative space to house the world body’s operations for three to four years.
So we pay 22% of $ 1.6 bil…. that’s $352 million. The Pentagon, widely known as the largest office building in the world, is 6.5 million square feet (SF). For $1.6 bil you could build a new Pentagon-sized building for just under $250/sf. That’s a ridiculously high $/sf. The UN building, however, is much smaller, so the $/sf higher still.
I was in NYC recently. There are millions of empty sf in buildings that are just sitting there unused. Why can’t the UN renovate some of those buildings and rent Madison Square Garden when they need to get together and pass useless resolutions that they don’t backup ?
I like this idea. (massive understatement alert)
Developer Donald Trump later offered to do the job for $600 million to $700 million _ half the U.N.’s cost estimate _ manage the project and waive his own fees.
“They don’t know what they want, they don’t know what they have, they don’t know what they’re doing,” Trump told a Senate hearing.
“Don’t know what they’re doing”…. no kidding, Don.
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