Interesting USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll results yesterday. Some mixed results, but clearly, the poll trends toward Bush. i'm left wondering how such a thing is possible in the face of the full court press being made by Don Hewitt and others of his ilk.

(i know, i'm mixing sports and naval metaphors.)

Question 2 asks:

If Massachusetts Senator John Kerry were the Democratic Party's candidate and George W. Bush were the Republican Party's candidate, who would you be more likely to vote for?

On overall job approval and Iraq, the presidents numbers are creeping back up. The only hint that anyone's been listening to Dick Clark is that Bush's numbers on terrorism were down 7% since March 5-7.

Has the Clark strategy been ineffective? Will the Democrats run out of new ways to smear Bush before the summer is over? When they run out of ways to distract the public from just how bad a candidate they've chosen, look out below!

Posted by: annika at 04:12 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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i'm really not paying attention to the whole Dick Clark snipe-fest. It's all politically motivated finger pointing. On all sides. No one wants to admit that there's blame enough to go around for 9/11.

As far as i'm concerned, they all fucked up, each in their own way, and each to varying degrees. i'm talking about Bush, Clinton, Cheney, Clark, Allbrite, Reno, Tenet, Woolsey, Kerry, Monica, Woodward and Bernstein, Buddy, Barney and probably Socks the cat, too. They all could have done more, i'm sure.

Consider Socks. With all this info floating around about Al Qaeda back in the 90's, why didn't Socks hear anything? Wasn't he listening? Cats have much better hearing than people, and they're lower to the ground, too. And if he did know something, why didn't he tell anyone? It boggles the mind.

Seriously, all this finger pointing is pointless and counter productive. The question is: who has the best plan going forward? Which side in this debate is going to best prevent future terrorist attacks? These commission hearings (and their associated ephemera: the books, 60 Minutes, Larry King and the like) are not helping our fight. In my opinion; the debate has devolved into a political mutual masturbation society. Who can jerk the public off most effectively? That's why i've lost interest.

i think a recent quote by Jonah Goldberg amounts to the best bottom line take on this whole Dick Clark brouhaha:

For a whole bunch of reasons — the Florida recount, Howard Dean's influence on the Democratic party, the failure to find WMDs, etc. — the foreign-policy debate is no longer a debate over facts, it's a debate over motives.

One side simply believes, as a matter of theology, that Bush couldn't possibly have had sincere motives for war. It had to be a 'lie,' in the words of Ted Kennedy, 'made up in Texas.'

The other side, my side, finds such an analysis so irrational, so hateful and so profoundly dangerous to America that it becomes difficult not to wonder if such people hate George Bush more than they fear terrorists or love America.

Posted by: annika at 04:51 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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It's funny. i first learned about the verb "to Moby" by reading Andrew Sullivan.

As i understand it, Mobying is when someone posts something on a conservative forum, pretending to be a conservative, but saying liberal things in order to confuse and promote disillusionment among conservative voters.

Like for instance, this recent Andrew Sullivan post, where he actually suggests that John Kerry might be obliged to be strong in the War on Terror, simply because he's a Democrat. (An interesting theory, which requires one to ignore our last two Democratic presidents in order to keep from laughing uncontrollably at it.)

Says Andrew Sullivan:

Sometimes, a Democrat has to be tougher than a Republican in this area - if only to credentialize himself. I can certainly conceive of Richard Holbrooke being a tougher secretary of state than Colin Powell. I'm not yet convinced and want to hear much more from Kerry. But I'm persuadable.

Posted by: annika at 05:35 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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i told you Kerry would self-destruct. The process has already begun. The polls may not show it now, or ever, but Kerry keeps making the type of blunders that will not endear him to the undecideds.

From the New York Times:

On his first full day off . . . Mr. Kerry awoke determined to hit the slopes of Mount Baldy.

. . . [A] reporter and a camera crew were allowed to follow along on skis — just in time to see Mr. Kerry taken out by one of the Secret Service men, who had inadvertently moved into his path, sending him into the snow.

When asked about the mishap a moment later, he said sharply, 'I don't fall down,' then used an expletive to describe the agent who 'knocked me over.'

The incident occurred near the summit. No one was hurt, and Mr. Kerry came careering down the mountain moments later, a look of intensity on his face, his lanky frame bent low to the ground.

If character counts, can we really count on this character? What an asshole.

Ass . . . hole.

A smart pro quarterback will always remember to lavish expensive gifts on his offensive line whenever he can. Then there are the idiot quarterbacks who blame their offensive line when things go wrong. Those QB's don't last long. The lesson is, be good to the guys who are there to save your ass. Be very good to them.

Kerry is not only an asshole, he's an idiot. You don't insult someone who's job is to take your bullet.

Moxie makes a great point:

Last summer President Bush fell off a Segway -- on a mode of transport in which it was allegedly impossible to do so. He didn't turn it on first to activate the gyroscopes, but he never blamed anyone. He also managed to leap to safety, landing on his feet.

This is a fundamental difference between John FrankenKerry [link omitted] and George W. Bush.

One takes his blunder in stride and the other points fingers, verbally disrespects someone who protects him all while displaying clear signs of schizophrenia. Some delusions of grandeur . . .

Hugh Hewitt linked to a story about asshole Kerry's shopping trip photo-op.:

The Massachusetts senator and his daughter Vanessa, 27, were escorted from their stately red brick townhouse in Beacon Hill to a nearby Borders bookstore by a seven-car motorcade — two police cars, three SUVs loaded with Secret Service agents and two minivans stuffed with reporters.

[A] gaggle of reporters tailed the senator on his round of errands, just in case he made news.

They were on hand as Kerry perused the history section at Borders, picked up his bicycle from a repair shop and even when he bought a jockstrap, among other items, at a local sporting goods shop.

At Borders, he pulled several books off the shelves - including weighty tomes such as 'The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality' by Brian Greene and Walter Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin, slinging them under his arm as he wandered around the store.

At one point, Kerry asked store manager Don Durica if he had a copy of David Cay Johnston's 'Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else.' The book was quickly procured.

As Kerry left - with seven books, including such titles as 'Middlesex,' 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Charlie Wilson's War' - Durica thanked him profusely for stopping by.

“Sir, I recommend you buy these two books. Middlesex is very popular with your young single female base and that book by the Spanish guy is always assigned in every college lit class. Plus it’s on Oprah’s club.”

“Well bring em on, then!”

Then JFK and his entourage bounced on over to the sporting goods store, where . . .

the candidate bought a pair of running shorts, some tennis balls and the athletic supporter.

Duhh. His handlers must be ridiculously clueless.

* Actually, Al Gore's favorite book, Stendahl's Le Rouge et le Noir, reminds me a lot of John Kerry. It's about a cynical, arrogant, ambitious, gold-digging, amoral French prick.

Posted by: annika at 10:24 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Sorry, that's how i feel about lying sack of shit "professor" Kerri Dunn of Claremont McKenna College. CMC is a local, highly rated university, which now has a bit of a credibility issue, thanks to "professor" Dunn.

Dunn claimed that her car had been vandalized while she was speaking at an on campus event about hate crimes.

The windows were broken, the tires were slashed, and the body of the vehicle was spray painted with various racial and homophobic epithets.

Then it was revealed that lying sack of shit professor vandalized her own car and made a fraudulent police report about the incident. This Powerline essay contains the best blog coverage of this outrage, with pictures of the loser. Infinite Monkeys' commentary is also a must read. Ben's money quote is this:

Understand . . . that there really is a war of ideas being waged in the United States and around the world today. The self-styled forces of 'progress' believe that justice is on their side. And they'll lie and cheat to make damned certain of it.

Legitimate hate crimes do occur. Now this bitch just singlehandedly cast a shadow of doubt on all such future incidents, legit or otherwise. i wonder if the KKK and various neo-nazi groups will be sending her a thank you note. They should, she's done them quite a favor.

Posted by: annika at 07:39 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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Spanish troops did not fight alongside the US in the recent war. They only helped us afterwards. Their contribution of 1300 soldiers to the post war occupation is much less than the contributions of Italy (3000), Poland (2500), and Great Britain (8220). Roughly equal to Spain's were the contributions of The Netherlands (1300) and the Ukraine (1650) to the occupation forces.

So why Spain? Why were they chosen for the first big hit? (After Bali, of course, who sent no troops.)

You might say it's because the attack was timed to coincide with the election. i don't believe it. Not with the numerological significance of 911 days after 9/11, on 3/11. i think people are giving the bastards too much credit by assuming they planned to affect the political process.

These terrorist assholes are superstitious, backward and politically unsophisticated. But numbers and dates of historical significance are very important to these pigs. They think they're students of history. They think they understand history. We all know they have long memories. 9/11 apparently has some centuries old significance to them.

This is why i think Spain was chosen for this first big time European attack. It really had little to do with Iraq, despite what the pigs said in their video, and despite what the majority of Spanish voters seemed to think. Spain was at the top of the bastards' list because of the Crusades, and Andalusia, and Ferdinand and Isabella. Long before we went into Iraq, Osama was making repeated references to the loss of Spain by the Moors. They're obsessed with Andalusia, because it was the height of their once great civilization, and a symbol of how far they've fallen.

If the 3/11 attack was solely a retaliation for cooperation in Iraq, why not hit London first? Why not hit Italy or Poland first. It wouldn't have been that hard to hit the Dutch or the Ukranians before Spain. Why go after the country that's number six on the coalition list when there's other easy targets with more "culpability" in the war?

Because the terrorists are pissed off at Spain for a lot more than just having been our friends. They hate Spain for the Reconquista. They will always hate Spain, until it's theirs again.

So if the Spanish socialists and those who voted for them think they can escape future attacks by pulling out of Iraq . . . i'm not so sure. The only way they (or any of us, really) can be safe is to convert now and become an islamic dictatorship under sharia law. That's not my opinion, it's what the terrorists themselves have been saying they want.

Posted by: annika at 09:42 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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My head hurts a bit this morning form a few too many bottles of Pacifico last night. i'm reading stuff on the internet instead of getting to work. There seems to be a lack of good analysis on the Spain thing, which i can understand; i myself can't seem to put together a coherent post on it. The lefties are having no problems though. Guys like fisk are positively gleeful. On the right, NRO is more subdued.

Lesson: terrorism can work. Prediction: therefore expect more of it. Expect more terrorism aimed at the United Kingdom, against Australia, against Poland, and – ultimately – against the United States. For the terrorists must now wonder: If murder can influence elections in Spain – why not in the United States?

In the United States, the terrorists have to make a very fine calculation: Which would hurt President Bush, their supereme enemy, more – to attack or not to attack?

Update: Thank God for the Australians, though.

Posted by: annika at 09:40 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Very depressed today. Looking at lefty blogs will do that to me. Also trying to figure out what the Spain election means.

Everything i try to type about the Spanish election ends up looking trite, so i backspace it out. i guess i'm just not in the mood. In lieu of my own thoughts, here's what i found at Iberian Notes:

What happened? It's clear: the people of Spain are not willing to risk standing up to domestic or international terrorism and would prefer to appease the terrorists in hopes that they will be left alone in the future. . . . A victory for appeasement. A victory for cowardice. The Spanish people demonstrated today that they have no courage.

Too many innocent people died Thursday, but the most Spain will do to right that wrong is maybe throw a handful of conspirators in jail. And hope the terrorists don't blow something else up in retaliation for their friends' incarceration. Meanwhile, we have one less ally as we do the hard, hard work of bringing fundamental change to the region that produces such murderers, so things like this will stop happening.

Posted by: annika at 11:16 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Remember my recent post on Swedish uranium? Here's another tentative Swedish connection. i'm not quite sure what to make of it.

According to the Czech Republic news agency, CTK, Czech police seized "hundreds of tons of imported, military-grade plastic explosives and detained two men on weapon-trafficking charges on March 10." The police, no doubt sensitive to protocol, failed to identify the country from which the shipments originated but a Czech newspaper spilled the beans: The country is Sweden and the shipment was 328 tons of explosives. 328 tons! Might have blown up all of Madrid for all I know.

Link via Little Green Footballs.

Posted by: annika at 09:36 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I was saddened and outraged by the news of the terrible attacks in Madrid this morning. I am horrified at the large number of dead and injured.
--German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder

In these horrifying circumstances, I extend in my name and in the name of the French people, my most sincere condolences.
--French President Jacques Chirac

An end must be put to this. As never before, it is vital to unite forces of the entire world community against terror.
--Russian President Vladimir Putin

The Holy Father reiterates his firm and absolute disapproval of such actions that offend God, violate the fundamental right to life and undermine peaceful coexistence.
--Vatican on behalf of Pope John Paul II

Posted by: annika at 11:55 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Betty and i were in Spain two years ago. i fell in love with the country and the people. Betty's family on her mother's side is Spanish. Ever since then we've been saving to go back. This was supposed to be the year. We were a little worried about terrorism back in 2002, but our worries turned out to be unfounded. Oh there were a few car bombings in Seville for the WTA meeting a few weeks before we arrived, but nothing on the scale of this morning's train bombings.

In 2002, we rode the AVE high speed train from Seville to Madrid. It was one of the most pleasant train rides i've ever had, and we met some really cool people. i remember disembarking at the Atocha Station, which was one of the targets hit this morning. i feel so sad for the people of Madrid. During our visit, we were both impressed by how friendly, not to mention attractive, everybody was. This attack makes me sick.

i could be wrong, but i personally believe this was done by muslim terrorists, if not Al Qaeda itself. The Spanish government initially said that the explosives were the same type used by ETA. But that doesn't convince me. Naturally, Al Qaeda would use the same type, they probably obtained the explosives from the same black market source. And they've been itching to get back at Spain ever since Boabdil got kicked out of Granada back in 1492.

Although the UN was quick to blame ETA, this AJC.com article leads me to believe that the m.o. of this attack is not at all consistent with ETA's style. For instance:

[I]f ETA did conduct such a large and wholesale attack in its quest for independence of the Basque region in Spain and France, it would represent a major shift in its tactics.

'It does not compare with anything they have done . . . This kind of indiscriminate killing is totally unlike them so far,' said Joseba Zulaika, a professor and director of the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada at Reno.

. . .

Zulaika said the group's attacks have usually been marked by advance warning and that the separatists were critical of police in 1987 for what they said was failure to warn the public of a bomb ETA had planted in Barcelona.

(Madrid blogger John still holds that ETA was responsible. His excellent blog, Iberian Notes, is the place to go for news on this tragedy.)

There have already been large anti-ETA demonstrations across Spain, just as there were a few years ago after one of the last ETA attacks.

The Spanish Government has been a solid ally of this country, while it's people have been somewhat more critical of us. If it turns out that this was an islamic terrorist bombing, perhaps they will realize that being anti-US is no protection from these subhuman bastards who simply enjoy killing.

Update: John makes a strong case for ETA as the culprit. The comment thread here is quite interesting.

Update 2: Spanish Prime Minister Aznar still thinks it was ETA. But remember, Aznar was very tough on ETA, and in fact survived an assassination attempt by them. There's an election this weekend and if the bombers were ETA, Aznar's party would benefit. However, if the attackers were Al Qaeda, Aznar's party might not benefit, since he has been severely criticized for his support of the US in the Iraq war.

Posted by: annika at 06:47 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Because he puts it much better than i could, here is Lileks' take on the question of which side is taking the high road and which side the low road in this election.

People say all sorts of things in elections. The underlings and infantry fire the cheap shots, and let the big dogs lope along the high road. But when the top officials of the party start slinging the slander, weÂ’ve entered a different era. And no one seems to notice, because the story becomes the charge, not the nature of the accusation.

Accusing oneÂ’s opponent of treason is a personal attack. Al Gore accused Bush of 'betraying this country.' Reasonable people could say he misled the country, or misruled the country, and make the argument to support the assertion, but 'betrayed' is a word that has a special quality when talking about the President of the United States. IÂ’ve heard General Wesley Clark question the PresidentÂ’s patriotism, and insist that his religious beliefs were misguided, because the Democratic Party is the party that truly hews to Christian doctrines. . . . And of course we heard Governor Dean insert the 'Bush was warned' meme into the body politic.

There’s nothing comparable on the other side. Nothing. I mean, the Bush team runs an ad that has a second of 9/11 footage, and his opponents pitch a carefully staged fit – because that’s all they have.

Posted by: annika at 10:58 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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i'm so disgusted by John Kerry. Four years ago i never would have believed that the Democrats could produce a candidate with less character than Al Gore. But John Kerry makes Gore Look like George Washington. i truly believe Kerry is more dishonorable than Bill or even Hillery Clinton. He's a disgrace.

Just as it happened with Al Gore, at some point the media will not be able to cover for him anymore. His deficiencies will reach a critical mass and he will self destruct. i think it's sad. Edwards would have been so much better for the Democratic Party, but they've made their bed now. They're so consumed with their irrational Bush hatred, that they had to choose a hater, rather than Edwards, who actually had a positive message.

Captain's Quarters is all over Kerry's latest gaffe:

Senator John Kerry revealed an ugly and poorly controlled side of himself when he thought he was off-mike this afternoon while speaking with AFL-CIO union workers in Chicago:

'. . . "Keep smiling," one man said to him.

Kerry responded, "Oh yeah, don't worry man. We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you -- we're just beginning to fight here. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group of people I've ever seen."'

Simply appalling. . . . you can see a Kerry aide hurriedly trying to disconnect the microphone, to no avail, which leads me to wonder what else John Kerry says when he thinks the mikes are off.

Kerry obviously meant the president, the vice president, Karl Rove and the president's re-election campaign. . . .

Now the media needs to call him on it. What's the evidence for 'crooked,' for 'lying?' What's he mean, and in detail. You don't get to walk away from such outrageous charges with a laugh and a wave. Kerry was a defender of Clinton, recall, a president demonstrated to be a liar and crooked. . . . But Bush-Cheney are worse than Clinton in Kerry's world. The president let slip once in 2000 what he thought of New York Times' reporter Adam Clymer, and the world collapsed on him. Kerry's charge is so much more serious that it defies comparison.

When Bush made his Adam Clymer comment, at least he was saying it to an aide, not a member of the public. Kerry was walking along a receiving line, shaking hands with the public, when he slandered the president.

You've seen these events on CSPAN. A candidate spends maybe a half hour shaking hands with total strangers, trying to be friendly and trying to make everyone think that he really cares who's hand heÂ’s shaking. ItÂ’s repetitive business, so they always have their standard canned comments, which they repeat at every receiving line.

Usually the canned comments are along the lines of "Nice to see you . . ." "How you doing . . ." or "It's great to be here . . ." When Kerry says "We're going to keep pounding . . . we're just beginning to fight here," i imagine those are phrases he's said hundreds of times at hundreds of different events.

Which leads me to question whether Kerry also repeats, soto voce, that "These guys are the most crooked . . . lying group of people I've ever seen" every time he shakes hands at an event.

What's even more disgraceful is that the guy is a coward. Since he's not fooling anybody when his lackeys at Reuters and AP try to cover for him, why not admit the truth and say: "Yes, IÂ’m talking about this administration!" That would certainly appeal to his base, proving his right to take over Dean's spot as chief hate-monger. Instead, by backing down from the obvious intent of his remark, he makes himself look weak on the single most important issue to his base: Bush hatred.

Kerry wants it both ways. He wants to energize his live crowds by letting them know he's just as irrationally mean and hate-filled as they are. At the same time, he wants to appear civilized and centrist when he's on camera, to appeal to the swing voters who don't normally attend political rallies.

Here's more proof of Kerry's two-faced approach:

The East Bay for Kerry / MoveOn House party on December 7th combined the forces of two grass-roots organizations based in San Francisco East Bay Area. . . .

When Teresa Heinz-Kerry arrived, she handed me a pin that read in the center: 'Asses of Evil' with 'Bush', 'Cheney', 'Rumsfeld' and 'Ashcroft' surrounding it.

The candidate's wife is perfectly comfortable calling the President of the United States "evil" and an "ass," along with the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General. Then the candidate himself expects us to ignore our own ears and believe that he wasn't calling the President of the United States "crooked" and a "liar."

(It reminds me of the Simpsons episode when Side Show Bob was up for parole and the parole board asked him why he was wearing a t-shirt that said "Die Bart Die" on it and he said, "Oh, it's not what you think, that's German for 'The Bart, the.'")

Al Gore had his problems, personality-wise, but he was never this bad. When Kerry loses in November, without a Florida or a Nader as excuses, will the Democrats be honest enought to realize that they have only themselves to blame? i doubt it.

Posted by: annika at 06:22 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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1 I have to say, I find the "asses of evil" thing terribly funny. I haven't got much of an opinion on the rest of it. I certainly don't think that the "Anyone but Bush" attitude is a very intelligent one, but on the other hand I really do not want him re-elected, and the democrats made their choice. Argh. I am just not up for thinking at the moment. But really - Asses of Evil? Funny.

Posted by: other Annika at March 10, 2004 10:17 PM (/cd58)

2 Hey, I'm an older guy who thinks these thoughts, Annika. When you articulate them, it does my heart good. "If you are are twenty and not a liberal, you have no heart; if you are thirty and not a conservative, you have no brain" von Bismarck Annika, whatever age, you are right on on this one. By the way, eight months out, polls mean little; the incumbancy and the funds to send the message are daunting to Kerry, and he is now facing the doldrums (look it up guys). Watch the polls change in the next few months. Kerry is a dead man walking. I don't care if he gets Hillary, Billary or Dock to be his running mate.

Posted by: Shelly S. at March 10, 2004 10:45 PM (rZmE1)

3 Annika, he gets to me too. I said the other day that my hatred for Kerry is reaching bushian proportions lately, and I mean it more and more every day. He keeps doing these things that make me absolutely loathe him.

Posted by: Sarah at March 11, 2004 06:49 AM (efcHv)

4 Do you know where I could hear a clip of Kerry saying this? I can't find one anywhere, and living overseas, we don't get to hear that kind of stuff. (It was a week before I heard Dean's scream.)

Posted by: Sarah at March 11, 2004 07:06 AM (efcHv)

5 Yes, Kerry is looking more and more like a nastier and more odious Gore each day. Inconsistent, contrived and totally transparent. He's also following Dean's path perfectly. Nothing but nasty, no-class venom. He'll have a short lived boost from the moonbats but soon mostly everyone will tire of his shtick and send him to a dismal defeat. A few years from now he'll be an obscure Trivial Pursuit question (next to Paree' Hilton).

Posted by: Radical Redneck at March 11, 2004 07:37 AM (tyrEY)

6 As a 36 year-old whose liberalism should have passed its expiration date half a decade ago, let me jump in with both feet. Annika, leaving aside Kerry's merits (don't blame me, you know full well I voted for and sent money to Dennis Kucinich), it's not as if this kind of invective is new in American politics. By 19th century standards (with the famous low point of the 1884 election between Cleveland, and I think, James G. Blaine), "crooked liars" is tame stuff indeed. Nixon's Watergate tapes revealed a stunningly foul mouth. And I don't think angry words are hate-mongering. Why, some of my best friends are Republicans. I regularly call them "heartless capitalist bastards"; they regularly call me an "effete limousine liberal out of touch with the regular world". Then we all have a good laugh and go grab a latte. Chill, folks. By the way, Kerry loses Florida but takes Ohio and West Virginia. All other states stay the same as in 2000; Dems take the White House. Hugo's personal prediction.

Posted by: Hugo at March 11, 2004 07:41 AM (828RD)

7 Hugo, To paraphrase another Nixon moment, I wear a proper Republican cloth coat and drink proper Republican black coffee....If your GOP friends drink lattes, they should be admonished. At a bar near the MA state house, I notice that Democrats also tend to order single malt scotch with ice...which is like pouring CA Chardonnay into a Bordeaux Cabernet...i.e., insanity. Annika, I share your disdain for Kerry, I live in Boston and know people who have been on the Cape/Islands witnessing Kerry pull his famous, petulant DYKWIA moments, these give deep insight into the man's character. The problem is if you thought the infamous 2000 James Byrd NAACP ad was the worst it could possibly get from the Dems, you ain't seen nuthin' yet. By Memorial day this campaign will be vicious beyond any precedent...and still with 60 days before the convention!!!

Posted by: Jason O. at March 11, 2004 08:37 AM (QyDeG)

8 "you know full well I voted for and sent money to Dennis Kucinich...Then we all have a good laugh and go grab a latte..." Who is this eunuch?

Posted by: Radical Redneck at March 11, 2004 08:56 AM (tyrEY)

9 "Ma, ma, where's my pa? Gone to the White House ha, ha, ha!" No, Hugo, i know "crooked liar" is sorta tame by James Callender standards, but it's the sort of thing that should be spoken by surrogates, not the major candidate himself.

Posted by: annika! at March 11, 2004 09:13 AM (zAOEU)

10 Just to refresh your memories on Republican vulgarity: "We kicked a little ass last night" George H.W. Bush after debating Geraldine Ferraro, 1984... And my dear Mr. Redneck, you are invited out with me and my pals any time for lattes and stimulating, good natured political dialogue. Go Bears.

Posted by: Hugo at March 11, 2004 10:59 AM (828RD)

11 I know Kerry must be loathsome because Annika doesn't even bother to misspell his name. John Kerry's our man! flips-flops in the wind just like Bill Clinton's scrotum Kevin

Posted by: Kevin Kim at March 11, 2004 12:54 PM (amj7F)

12 Hey Kevin, what's your character for John Kerry look like? i think you should transmogriphy the Howard Dean cock into a Kerry lookalike?

Posted by: annie at March 11, 2004 12:58 PM (zAOEU)

13 Ooops, i just checked Kevin's site. Keep the sheep-fucker motif, it works!

Posted by: annie again at March 11, 2004 01:02 PM (zAOEU)

14 Who's Carey? He sounds French.

Posted by: d-rod at March 11, 2004 01:39 PM (CSRmO)

15 Qui c'est, ce "Carey"? une carie = a (dental) cavity Kevin

Posted by: Kevin Kim at March 11, 2004 02:17 PM (amj7F)

16 "Four years ago i never would have believed that the Democrats could produce a candidate with less character than Al Gore. But John Kerry makes Gore Look like George Washington." Classic!

Posted by: Mark at March 11, 2004 08:47 PM (q1/F4)

17 "Go Bears" No. Raidahs!

Posted by: Radical Redneck at March 12, 2004 08:02 AM (tyrEY)

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Got this offa Sarah's blog.

Posted by: annika at 10:34 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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News from the Norwegian site, Aftenposten:

Large amounts of uranium may have gone missing from a nuclear technology company in Sweden. The American Central Intelligence Agency fears a worst-case scenario where the material has already fallen into terrorist hands . . . .

Swedish authorities raided Ranstad Mineral several times and shut the company down on the grounds of deficient security.

[A] CIA operative claims to know that the little Swedish company has educated Syrian nuclear physicists in the treatment of uranium. He also has information that a Swedish consultancy has sold nuclear equipment to Syria that can be used in the treatment of radioactive material.

Link spotted on Scandinavia's Cross.

Posted by: annika at 10:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Do you remember that kid in school who always ruined everyone's fun by complaining to the teacher. Some idiots ruined a good thing by complaining that the old, time tested punch card voting system was no good.

Now look at all the problems.

And too much money has been invested in the new systems to just throw them out. i voted with the new "felt tip pen" method in L.A. County and i didn't like it one bit. It seems to me there's more of a chance of stray marks than with the old system. The hole in the plastic template didn't line up exactly with the circle on the ballot, making me paranoid that the circle was not being filled in entirely. Voting took twice as long for me as it used to.

But then Democrats want it this way. It makes it so much easier to cry foul if an election doesn't go like they want it.

Posted by: annika at 09:37 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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1 Thankfully, in my county, every one is pleased with puttin' an "X" next to the name of the candidate you choose, but they don't invalidate your ballot if you use a check mark.

Posted by: Tiger at March 02, 2004 12:30 PM (qWgy0)

2 I also voted with the pen thingy, and it seemed to line up fine. Of course, now I am terribly worried. Also, I checked out your voted advice, and seem to have followed it fairly closely. I particularly liked your advice on choosing judges, which is pretty much exactly what I did.

Posted by: other Annika at March 02, 2004 03:15 PM (6Skh9)

3 Oopsie. That should have read voter advice.

Posted by: other Annika at March 02, 2004 03:16 PM (6Skh9)

4 How about an electronic machine that you insert your card into, it prints your vote out on the card (that you can read) which is the confirmation of your electronic vote. Then drop your card (after checking it) into a box to be used in case of recount. Perhaps also a random number assigned to your vote that can be checked online. Is it that difficult to design, or is someone trying to make it more convoluted than it needs to be.

Posted by: Steve S. at March 02, 2004 04:05 PM (SjpDy)

5 i hear the democrats are looking into a voting machine idea where you insert your ATM card and they can wire the "walking around money" directly into your account as you vote.

Posted by: annika! at March 02, 2004 08:08 PM (s5nJt)

6 Goodness, here in the backwoods of Indiana we have voted on computerized voting machines for the last three or four Presidential elections--and in California you're using a PEN?????

Posted by: Susie at March 02, 2004 09:59 PM (W5F4d)

7 It's a special pen. (No, I don't know what's so special about it. I was perfectly OK with punching out chads as recently as October.) And Annika, I don't get your Democrat/ATM joke. Am I really, really dense?

Posted by: other Annika at March 02, 2004 10:23 PM (C8sKR)

8 Bottom Line: Living in a free society requires a minimum standard of intelligence, common sense and self sufficiency. If you can not master the punch card ballot then you should not be allowed to vote: Those who find punch card ballots "confusing" should also have their driver's licenses taken away because clearly they are a danger to large crowds of pedestrians. Even an illiterate can use a punch card ballot...he calmly raises his hand and says to an election volunteer: "I want to vote for X...please show me the hole to punch." Remember, the entire "controversy" about punch card ballots began solely because the Dems lost Florida in '00.

Posted by: Jason O. at March 03, 2004 06:45 AM (QyDeG)

9 No hun, you're not dense, that was one of my obscure historical references. i think it was the first Mayor Daley in Chicago who used to give "walking around money" to bums on the street in exchange for their votes on election day. Greg can correct me if i'm wrong on that.

Posted by: annika! at March 03, 2004 09:17 AM (zAOEU)

10 I still vote in my neck of redneckland (rural Pennsylvania) with a pencil, and I have to fill in the dot. What's so hard with that? You should at least be smarter than a bar of soap to be able to vote.

Posted by: Tom at March 03, 2004 09:50 AM (+1ZQW)

11 Perhaps it's not surprising that the Dems have gotten cheaper since Mayor Daley's era in Chicago...I recall a local news crew in Wisconsin caught some Gore volunteers passing out packs of cigarettes to Milwaukee's homeless on election eve. Tourist tip: Don't ever try to give anything other than currency to bums in downtown Boston...they pull uninformed tourist bodies out of the Charles River a few times a year....It's not exactly a mugging in that they only want 10 or 20 bucks and they don't take your wallet: think of it as an evening pedestrian toll on the Charles River Esplanade.

Posted by: Jason O. at March 03, 2004 10:31 AM (QyDeG)

12 Well, like I always says: Just because you can do something with a computer doesn't mean you have to. 'Round these parts we still use lever booths. You close the curtain with a handlebar, flick the levers next to the names of your choices, pull the handlebar to open the curtain and reset the levers for the next guy. The votes are registered on a mechanical number dial. No electricity required. Just the way I like it!

Posted by: Tuning Spork at March 04, 2004 05:11 PM (7ySQn)

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Hey all you California voters. Tomorrow is Super Tuesday! Now that California has changed it's primary election date from June to March, we get to take part in the festivities. Not only that, but we all get to use newfangled "modern" voting methods. Like here in L.A. County, where we'll be using a pen and paper. That's progress!

Here are my instructions for tomorrow's vote. Feel free to print out this post and take it into the booth with you.

President of the United States: If you're a Republican, as i am, vote for George W. Bush. He's the only one on there, so that should be easy. If you're a Democrat, vote for John Edwards. i would, if i were a Democrat.

United States Senator: Republicans, vote for Bill Jones. Democrats, i don't know what to tell you. Since Barbra Boxer is your only choice, leave it blank.

United States Representatives, State Senators, State Assemblymen: You're on your own with those.

Judges: Vote for judges with the most republican sounding occupations, like "criminal prosecutor," "police sergeant" or "victim's rights advocate." Stay away from any civil attorneys and professors.

Los Angeles County District Attorney: After Reiner and Garcetti, hell, anybody looks good. Vote for the incumbent DA, Steve Cooley.

Proposition 55: Yet another school bond. This time it's for kindergarten all the way through college. Twelve billion dollars for the same old shit they hit us up for every year: repair old schools, relieve overcrowding, build new classrooms, yada yada yada. i'd be more sympathetic if i didn't see a school bond measure on every single election ballot. This one is huge, though. Arnold is begging us to pass Prop 57, which is a 15 billion dollar bond just to pay the bills. There's no way we can afford another 12 billion on top of that. And anyways, i always vote no on all bond issues (except prison bonds). Vote no.

Proposition 56: This one makes me laugh. Currently our legislature must have a two thirds majority vote before they can raise our taxes. It's one of the bedrock requirements of the tax reforms enacted in the 70's. And the liberals hate it. Prop 56 will lower the two thirds requirement to 55%. Are they nuts? There's no way i wanna make it easier for the California Legislature to continue their spending spree. Vote hell no.

Proposition 57: This is Arnold's baby. He didn't have the guts to fix our budget the way McClintock suggested, with hard cuts, workers' compensation reform and tax relief. So Arnold decided we needed to borrow a little money instead. "Little" in this case is the aforementioned fifteen billion dollars. Well, i voted for Arnold because i wanted to see some drastic spending cuts made. He warns us that if Prop 57 does not pass, he will be forced to make "Armageddon" spending cuts. Yeah! That's music to my ears! Tough love, baby! Vote an emphatic no!

Proposition 58: This is the California Balanced Budget Act, version 2.0. It seems we passed what we thought was a balanced budget proposition a few years ago, but it didn't work. So this is the newer version, with new patches and updates. Hopefully it will work better than the latest Windows updates. Vote yes.

Posted by: annika at 08:19 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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