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2008 April 19 — Why Now?
On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog
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Paul Krugman Can Be Annoying

Someone needs to tell Mr. Krugman that you are not supposed to fact check Obama. He and I both know about the four Presidents and what the economy was like from 1980 until today, but we are not supposed to bring reality into this campaign.

When you go around writing columns like, Clinging to a Stereotype, and include numbers and graphs on your blog [Dying Midwestern city blogging and Midwestern economics] which support what you are saying, you are “harshing their buzz”, and they will attack you.

The attacks are guaranteed when someone like Anglachelg picks up on your writing and files posts like Myth of Bitter White Working Class and Stereotypes – Facts and Ideals. They don’t want to hear that mistakes have been made.

You are not following the media’s narrative, and that just causes confusion. How can the world function when “everybody knows” and “conventional wisdom” are no longer operative?

Of course the worse part, is that at the end of it all, there will be a Republican in the White House, because the Democrats refuse to listen to voters and give them the policies they are asking for, and have been asking for.

April 19, 2008   16 Comments

What’s Wrong With These People?

Fred Clark at the Slacktivist [via Scorpio] is right to yearn for The good old days, like January, 2008.

I like Facing South and respect the work of Chris Kromm, but he goes round the bend when the subject is Clinton. In his post, NC Primary Watch: How is Hillary honoring Passover?, he claims that when Clinton wanted the North Carolina debate date changed from today, she was “suggesting it would be offensive to Jewish families who will begin celebrating Passover at sundown today.” And then goes on to suggest that she should be doing something today associated with Passover.

Chris, she isn’t Jewish. This is a Jewish holy week, as in a Jewish religious observance. What was reported at the link you included: Clinton Agrees to N.C. Debate, was this statement: “But Clinton didn’t agree to the date, noting that night is the beginning of the Passover observance among Jewish people.”

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April 19, 2008   Comments Off on What’s Wrong With These People?

Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Worse

…It does. The BBC reports Iraqi cleric threatens ‘open war’

Radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has threatened to wage “open war” on the Baghdad government if it does not halt operations against his supporters.

Moqtada Sadr said he was giving the government a “last warning”, and urged it to take “the path of peace”.

His statement came as Iraqi troops, with US and UK support, clashed with his forces in Baghdad and the south.

He is comparing the Maliki government to Saddam, so this is pretty serious stuff. He has thousands of followers in Baghdad, and there is no way the US and Iraqi forces can stop them if all out war is declared. This could turn very nasty, as in Dien Bien Phu nasty, very quickly.

It would be extremely embarrassing if Iran had to invade to save the US and Iraqi armies.

April 19, 2008   Comments Off on Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Worse

Lapel Pin Reporting

Obama gets a little negative press, so the obvious answer is to find something to attack Clinton with, because that’s how this “game” is played.

Jeff Fecke at Shakesville makes a mild post about purported Clinton statements, Someone Says Something Sorta Silly, and the trolls come out of the woodwork to attack everyone and anyone who doesn’t forswear Clinton and bow down to Obama.

Since this involves MoveOn, you need to know my feelings about them, as stated in MOVE-ing ON. They are part of the Obama campaign, for all intents and purposes, so it will be difficult for Obama to distance himself from then as Kerry was forced to do in 2004. They ceased to be an independent agent on February 1st with their rushed move to endorse a candidate.

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April 19, 2008   7 Comments

Passover

At sundown today the Jewish commemoration of the flight out of Egypt begins. Pesach, the festival of freedom, is the story of the Book of Exodus, and fictionally presented in the film, The Ten Commandments, which will probably be on television this week.

This is a time of Matzah [unleavened bread], Marror [bitter herbs], wine and the retelling of the story of founding of Israel.

April 19, 2008   5 Comments

Wow, Even The Senate Caught On

Lambert at Corrente tells us that the World’s greatest deliberative body calls in the cops, regarding $10 million dollars that magically appeared in a transportation bill after it had been passed without the earmark.

This turkey was way over ripe, because as I noted back in January, it was Too Much Even For South Florida. The local transportation authority in Lee County told the Feds they didn’t want the money, because they didn’t want to build the interchange the money was suppose to finance.

It turns out the only person who wanted the interchange was a developer who owned property in the area, and, from the generosity of his heart, dropped thousands of dollars into the re-election campaign of an Alaskan Congresscritter [OK, not a big puzzle, Don Young is Alaska’s only Congresscritter].

It is really depressing when being elected to public office in Alaska is almost in and of itself proof that you are corrupt. Almost as depressing as my belief that it would save time if anyone who runs for office in Florida as a family values Republican would be required to register as a sex offender.

April 19, 2008   Comments Off on Wow, Even The Senate Caught On