i wonder what the left wing pundits would have said during the height of our country's civil rights movement. Would they have the gall to call African American voters risking their lives to cast a ballot just "an exercise in pretty pictures."

Voting matters. Democracy matters. Back in the sixties there were many people, i'm sure, who said that African Americans didn't want to vote, and couldn't be trusted to participate in Democracy. Those people were called Klansmen.*

Are the nay-sayers in the media, who refuse to see the democratization of Iraq as a good thing, any different than old fashioned racists?
_______________

* You know about the Klan. That's the organization that Democratic Senator Robert Byrd joined.

Posted by: annika at 12:31 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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...iraqi elections are a failure...

...not all iraqis voted...

...turnout was only 60%...

...under saddam 100% of iraqis voted...

...that's a 40% drop-off...

...new government is illegitimate...

...errr...

...uhhh...

...halliburton!!! halliburton!!! halliburton!!! halliburton!!! halliburton!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!...

...abu graib abu graig abu graib abu graig abu graib abu graig abu graib abu graig abu graib abu graig abu graib abu graig abu graib abu graig abu graib abu graig abu graib abu graig abu graib abu graig abu graib abu graig aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!...

...WMDs WMDs Condi lied WMDs WMDs Condi lied WMDs WMDs Condi lied WMDs WMDs Condi lied WMDs WMDs Condi lied WMDs WMDs Condi lied WMDs WMDs Condi lied WMDs WMDs Condi lied WMDs WMDs Condi lied WMDs WMDs Condi lied !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

...gaaaaaa buh buh buuuh ga ga ga...

[head explodes]

Posted by: annika at 08:27 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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1 Ha! That's classic.

Posted by: Micah at January 30, 2005 09:09 PM (v/oTo)

2 Did you expect anything different? I was looking forward to the post election spin. There is nothing like watching "liberals" going crazy over the successful creation of liberal democracy by a Republican. These people would complain that the hot temperature in Philadelphia in 1786 and cost of travel kept the "common" people out of creating the new republic. These people are a joke! And they wonder why they lose elections!

Posted by: lawguy at January 30, 2005 10:15 PM (U0IaD)

3 Anyone catch Joe Leiberman yesterday? I think the guy is either in the wrong political party, or he is just a real, honest to goodness statesman. Come to think of it, probably both.

Posted by: shelly at January 30, 2005 11:40 PM (ywZa8)

4 Leiberman has been amazing since the election. It ocurred to me as well that, at least where foreign policy is concerned he is definately in the wrong party. So sad that some turn the delivery from tyranny into a Democrat/Republican thing. Doubly sad when you consider Republicans are on the side of freedom.

Posted by: Pursuit at January 31, 2005 05:04 AM (VqIuy)

5 Buy these. They should make you feel better. (Found via Manolo, and I can't remember his stupid URL.)

Posted by: Victor and his seventeen pet rats at January 31, 2005 09:29 AM (L3qPK)

6 Heeeeee. This entry made me laugh so hard I...well, it's best that I stop there.

Posted by: other Annika at January 31, 2005 10:56 AM (QvFUG)

7 lol, thanks annika. Victor, does your girlfriend know you're surfing shoe sites?

Posted by: annika at January 31, 2005 11:25 AM (0GJWe)

8 I surf Manolo sites because he's funny as cat piss. Geez, annika, if you didn't like the boots you could've just said so.

Posted by: Victor at January 31, 2005 01:02 PM (L3qPK)

9 Awww Victor, i love the boots. they're gorgeous! When can i expect them in the mail? i scrolled through the rest of that site, did you see these? they'd be great if i ever decide to become an elvis impersonator!

Posted by: annika at January 31, 2005 04:30 PM (zAOEU)

10 As opposed to Democrats who are opposed to freedom? Narrowminded twit

Posted by: Shannon at February 02, 2005 06:50 AM (TM7tZ)

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i've been out all day and i just got in, so i turned on the tv to find out how the elections are going. Geraldo is on a rooftop, waving at the pilots in the Longbows circling overhead. Cameras inside the polling place show a couple of election workers sitting at tables, but no voters. Geraldo is wearing a flak vest. He's talking by remote with Susan Estrich, who's being as pissy as ever: she's happy but, but, but, where are the WMDs? Idiot. And there's a lone voter down below, waving the Iraqi flag bravely as he walks from the polling place.

Geraldo is in Baghdad, i think. He's very optimistic, but judging by the video, things don't look too promising. Hopefully there are more voters in other parts of the country. i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Update: First off, did you see Condi on the George Stepanopolus Comedy hour this morning? Hott! She looks great in a black suit and my bitch boots. When she asked me if she could borrow them, i was all "i don't know babe, are you sure..." But dayyumm, gurl!!!

Nextly, Ted was right. Stepanoplus says that turnout estimates range from 55% to 70% and Fox news picks a number in the middle, at about 60%. By any standard, this has to be seen as great news.

Now, Evan Bayh is telling George Stepalotomous that he disagrees with the fat senator from Massachussetts, we shouldn't cut and run. Steppopotamus is now asking why the senator voted against Condi Rice. Bayh is talking, but i'm not getting a clear answer from him. He voted no because of her "mistakes in judgment" but that doesn't seem consistent with a centrist position. i think Senator Bayh's vote may come back to haunt him if he meets Senator Clinton, who voted yes, in the primaries.

Update 2: Why does every pundit feel the need to remind us that "just because the elections were successful, doesn't mean that there won't be more violence." Is there anyone in the world who believed that the insurgency would end after the election? Has anyone said that?

Update 3: Let's not forget that today is the Vice President's sixty-fourth birthday. Happy Birthday Dick!

Update 4: Here's an excellent question. i know the answer though. They're a bunch of hypocritical cowards.

Update 5: Moxie posted today: "...for those of us who love America, the beauty and payoff was seeing the joy (of those who previously had to vote for Saddam or face his assassins) vote yesterday for what they believed. Without fear." Nicely put.

Posted by: annika at 11:05 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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See Publicola...? Not every 2A story out of California turns out badly.

A Modesto homeowner who said he's been the victim of numerous burglaries in recent weeks shot a man who allegedly broke into his home Thursday morning.

Greg Collins' home is undergoing extensive remodeling. Collins said he slept in his garage overnight with a shotgun in an effort to protect his property.

At 5:25 a.m., Collins said he was awakened by the sounds of an intruder breaking in to the garage.

'Luckily, I found the shotgun, pointed it at him, told him to freeze ... He chose to lunge at me, so I had no choice at that point but to shoot him. I did use a 12-gauge shotgun so that I wouldn't kill the man,' he said.

Is there hope for Cali yet?

Posted by: annika at 09:28 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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When i first heard about the Glendale Metrolink disaster, yesterday morning while getting ready for school, my first reaction was typically post 9/11. i turned on the tv, saw the helicopter footage of the scattered train cars, then the announcer said, "President Bush will speak to the nation in a few moments." Shit, i thought, another Madrid?! i had jumped to an unnecessary conclusion, thanks to the strange juxtaposition of news stories at the moment i turned on the tv. But it got me thinking how vulnerable our rail system is to sabotage.

The L.A. Daily News headline asks a question that we all know the answer to: "Could any safety procedures have prevented this tragedy?" The short answer is no. The long answer is yes, but making train travel completely safe would make it so expensive that passenger rail could not exist.

Engineers, lawmakers and others engaged the issues of rail safety and security on Wednesday as Southern California reacted to the tragedy.

Some said the main factor is the lack of grade separation -- allowing the trains to operate at street level -- with only small barriers to deter motorists from getting caught on the tracks.

'If you look at our train systems out here, there are many more accidents and deaths here than elsewhere,' Moore said. 'It's 50 to 100 times higher than the national average, just from people attempting to commit suicide. And one of the reasons for that is the tracks are very accessible.

'If they had put through grade separation, they would never have been able to afford the system. If grade separation had been required, there would have been no Metrolink. And, now, maybe there shouldn't be.'

Metrolink officials have said grade crossings cost $20 million to $50 million each -- while the agency has an annual operating budget of $110 million.

Posted by: annika at 01:37 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 I loved travelling by train in Europe, too, and I do think there's a place for it in heavily-traveled areas of the US. Amtrak has been a disaster for passenger rail in this country, as have, to a lesser extent, most of the local commuter rail systems in places that have them: what's needed is privatization and competition. That much said, whenever I hear "high-speed rail," it brings out the cynic in me now: it's yet another costly policy boondoggle in the far-too-easily-amended Florida Constitution, alongside mandatory maximum public-school class sizes, toys and space for pregnant pigs, etc., etc., ad nauseaum.

Posted by: Dave J at January 27, 2005 07:34 PM (CXTdL)

2 & exactly who will pay for this mass transit system that I won't ever use? The problem with rail in the u.s. is there's just not a viable market for it over long distances. There could be if the gov stepped the hell back & let the market do its thing - but America is not europe. We're more spread out & we have different cultural attitudes towards travel. Rail works fine in densely populated areas surrounded by more densely populated areas. It doesn't seem to work as well over big gaps in populated areas. Taking a train from say madrid to seville is one thing. Taking a train from denver to L.A. is another. & since your boy Arnold has been so on the job bannin bolt action rifles to prevent any sort of disaster, think he'll ban SUV's? After all they've caused more deaths in a single day than a whole group of rifles have ever caused (through criminal misuse that is). Anyway, it's not because of the attacks of september the 11th that rail may not be viable - it's because the government is really all wet on most of its rail proposals. The market could pull it off perhaps, but the gov will just make a theft-subsidized mess of things. Did I mention its not to late to leave Cali?

Posted by: Publicola at January 27, 2005 09:27 PM (zTap3)

3 "Taking a train from say madrid to seville is one thing. Taking a train from denver to L.A. is another." Let me make it clear that I agree with that completely. The one place in the US where passenger rail currently actually turns an operating profit is along the Northeast corridor from DC up to Boston, which, of course, Amtrak and Congress then use to susbsidize routes elsewhere that should be allowed to wither and die. But private rail systems in other densely medium-length transit markets could probably fill a niche where a lot of people would rather not drive that long, nor pay as much to fly. Of course, Amtrak is currently MORE expensive than flying quite frequently, which makes it completely useless, but multiple private passenger operations would change that. And rather than obsessively build high-speed lines, they could certainly at least start with the preexisting infrastructure to keep their costs down, either by "renting" the tracks from the freight railroads or being operating divisions of those railroads themselves. After all, unlike passengers, a sizeable percentage of the country's long-distance cargo still does move by rail.

Posted by: Dave J at January 28, 2005 07:16 AM (CXTdL)

4 As DaveJ points out, rail freight is very important, much more so than passenger rail. I think it's correct that the US makes significantly more use of rail for freight than does Europe (although water transportation in Europe does carry some of the goods that would move by rail in the US.) Those who talk about Europe's "superior" railroads tend to neglect this factor.

Posted by: David Foster at January 28, 2005 07:28 AM (l0XTT)

5 There's a reason why there is no private rail mass transit in the US. You do the math. Anything that will drive perfidious govvie tit-suckers from the field works for me.

Posted by: Casca at January 29, 2005 07:35 AM (cdv3B)

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Here's more evidence for my theory about violence and the left wing. From The Associated Press:

The sons of a first-term congresswoman and Milwaukee's former acting mayor were among five Democratic activists charged Monday with slashing the tires of vans rented by Republicans to drive voters and monitors to the polls on Election Day.

. . .

The activists — all employees of the John Kerry campaign — are accused of flattening the tires on 25 vehicles rented by the state Republican Party to get out the vote and deliver poll watchers Nov. 2.

. . .

A criminal complaint said the defendants originally planned to put up Democratic yard signs, placards and bumper stickers at the Republican office in a scheme they called 'Operation Elephant Takeover.' But the plan was dropped when they learned a security guard was posted at the GOP office, the complaint said.

One witness told investigators the five defendants, dressed in 'Mission Impossible' type gear, black outfits and knit caps, left the Democratic Party headquarters at about 3 a.m. on Nov. 2, and returned about 20 minutes later, extremely excited and talking about how they had slashed the tires.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Seth Boffeli said the five were paid employees of Kerry's campaign, but were not acting on behalf of the campaign or party.

. . .

Rick Wiley, state GOP executive director, discovered the vandalism on the morning of Election Day.

'It was unbelievable that people could stoop this low in a political campaign,' he said. 'I figured it had to be someone from the opposition. But I didn't think someone on the paid Kerry campaign would do this.'

Wiley didn't say whether the vandalism prevented anyone from voting, but said poll watchers were about two hours late.

Posted by: annika at 08:50 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Two prominent Democratic senators today announced that they are against the confirmation of the first black female secretary of state in our nation's history. When confirmed, Condoleezza Rice, Ph.D. will be the highest ranking African American woman ever. A milestone achievement by an admirable and deserving woman.

But two Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer of California and John Kerry of Massachussetts, do not want to see it happen. Today, these two senators placed on the record, for all to see, their announcement to the world that they are indeed bigots.

Oh of course Boxer and Kerry would deny such an accusation vehemently. They would insist that they've always fought on behalf of minorities and women. But using the same twisted logic that senator Boxer used to call Dr. Rice a liar, i think it should be clear to all that John Kerry and Barbara Boxer have something against the advancement of women and minorities.

i'm just pointing out the contradictions in their public statements, that's all.

At this historic moment in the history of feminism and civil rights, John Kerry and Barbara Boxer stand together at the doorway of the Harry S. Truman Building like twin modern day Orval Faubi.

More: Steve at The Black Republican has more on Sheets Bird's opposition to Dr. Rice.

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Since the Pope has such influence, why doesn't he just get in his popemobile and go down to Iraq and ask the terrorists to stop killing people? It couldn't hurt.

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It takes me about 20 seconds of watching network news before i get into a bad mood. NBC News this morning: "With the Iraqi elections only two weeks away, the Bush administration appears to be engaged in a campaign to lower expectations." WTF? Whose expectations are they talking about? The mainstream media has been on their own campaign to lower expectations about Iraq for the last two years.

The NBC reporter also made a point of saying that Bush's approval ratings are currently lower than Reagan's or Clinton's at similar points in their presidencies. Now, Bush is certainly not "the great communicator,"* but i have an idea how Bush can get his approval ratings to match the spike in Clinton's ratings after January 21, 1998. Bush should get a blow job!
_______________

* U. S. Grant or Andrew Johnson might have been less articulate than Bush . . . but only when they were drunk.

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Peggy Noonan, whose grip on reality i thought was becoming a bit shaky based on some of her recent columns,* has rehabilitated my opinion of her with her latest piece, "MSM Requiem." i think it's the best post-Rathergate commentary i have read, or will ever hope to read.

Now anyone can take to the parapet and announce the news. This will make for a certain amount of confusion. But better that than one-party rule and one-party thought. Only 20 years ago, when you were enraged at what you felt was the unfairness of a story, or a bias on the part of the storyteller, you could do this about it: nothing. You could write a letter.

When I worked at CBS a generation ago I used to receive those letters. Sometimes we read them, and sometimes we answered them, but not always. Now if you see such a report and are enraged you can do something about it: You can argue in public on a blog or on TV, you can put forth information that counters the information in the report. You can have a voice. You can change the story. You can bring down a news division. Is this improvement? Oh yes it is.

Via Lopsided Poopdeck.

Update: Check out this Krauthammer piece too. Link via commenter Shelly.
_______________

* Like when she suggested that Steven Spielberg could singlehandedly solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Come on! If Jason Alexander and Richard Geer can't do it, what chance does Spielberg have?

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Hallelujah!

Asked to resign were Senior Vice President Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; and HowardÂ’s deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Mary Murphy. The producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, was terminated. [emphasis mine]

. . . once serious questions were raised, the defense of the segment became more rigid and emphatic, and . . . virtually no attempt was made to determine whether the questions raised had merit

'Had this directive been followed promptly, the panel does not believe that 60 Minutes Wednesday would have publicly defended the segment for another 10 days,' the report said.

i wonder if the words "blog" or "Powerline" appear anywhere.

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Matt Laueur is interviewing Amber Frey... again?! Dude, if she's worth a half dozen interviews, do ya think you could have mixed in at least one swiftboat veteran interview last year?

For cryin out loud, Laouer just teased yet another segment with Frey and Allred later on in the show. After Kiki interviews Michael More, of course.

This is why i never watch the Today Show.

Update: My God, he's huuuuuge! They're avoiding any long shots that expose the gigantic-ness of his body, but i think his seat is about to collapse.

Update 2: First he explains the Democratic loss by admitting that the Republicans got out the vote better. Then later he complains that Congressional debate about alleged Ohio vote irregularities will be stifled today. Inconsistency? If so, Kiki didn't notice.

Update 3: Tim Graham at The Corner watched it too.

Leftist filmmaker Michael Moore was awarded seven and a half minutes of air time in the 7:30 half hour of ThursdayÂ’s 'Today' show to offer his political analysis of why the Democrats failed to oust Bush. Katie Couric felt that wasnÂ’t enough, so she invited him back an hour later for another eight minutes and forty seconds of air time, or 16 minutes, 10 seconds overall. While Couric tried to suggest that maybe Hollywood liberalism hurt the Democrats (and even noted the 'vitriol...you seem to embody'), she also inaccurately promoted MooreÂ’s latest book as 'new' and 'currently on many bestseller lists' when it came out in October and is ranked #1,547 on Amazon.com.

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i feel i must make an effort to comment about Amber Frey's interview by the very annoying Matt Laueur of NBC.

i'm somewhat impressed by Amber Frey. She was a brave girl. But i'm also amazed at how naive she was before that crucial telephone conversation with the Modesto PD, which opened her eyes.

The Dateline Special did a pretty good job of capsulizing the circumstantial case against Scott Pederson. i would have convicted him too. There were just too many lies and too many eerie coincidences. Justice was done.

And as long as i'm feeling generous: i have to say that i can't not like Gloria Allred. Sure, she's a wacko feminist and a grandstander, but she was on the right side of the Clinton fiasco, and she represented Amber Frey amazingly well throughout the ordeal.

Now can we please close the book on this whole story? It'll soon be time to obsess about the next Trial of the Century: Jocko.

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We're out of wine. The Orange Bowl already looks like a blow-out. (Shelly's right, USC is a pro team.) And i'm too pissed to even come up with a coherent rant about the Columbia Journalism Review's huge insult of a lie.

Volokh and Wizbang have dissected the truth best on this one. Shit like this makes me so spittin' mad, i could just... uh... spit. Just know that the name Corey Pein is easy to remember and i will be watching his career. Any organization that hires him will immediately stain its own credibility. A fucking hack in training. They'll just adore him at big media.

Time to go smoke and watch some more of 24.

Pein résumé via LGF.

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From RatherBiased.com [quoting Broadcasting and Cable magazine]:

. . . CBS News president Andrew Heyward, along with Washington bureau chief Janet Leissner, recently met with White House communications director Dan Bartlett, in part to repair chilly relations with the Bush administration.

CBS News's popularity at the White House—never high to begin with—plunged further in the wake of Dan Rather's discredited '60 Minutes [Wednesday]' story on George Bush's [Air] National Guard service.

An incentive for making nice is the impending report from the two-member panel investigating CBS's use of now-infamous documents for the '60 Minutes' piece.

Heyward was 'working overtime to convince Bartlett that neither CBS News nor Rather had a vendetta against the White House,' our source says, 'and from here on out would do everything it could to be fair and balanced.' CBS declined to comment.

More than likely, one of the most prominent topics at the alleged meeting was some CBS begging to let Dan Rather, who has been banned from the Bush White House, interview President Bush before the older Texan retires from the CBS News anchor desk.

Does anyone remember the Simpsons episode where the news anchor Kent Brockman mistakenly thinks giant ants from space are going to invade earth, so he begins his broadcast in front of a banner that says: "All hail our new ant overlords!"

In their hubris, CBS really thought they would have a president Kerry by now. Instead, much to their chagrin, they have to go kiss up to their ant overlords.

Grovel away you bastards!

Posted by: annika at 09:05 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Only do or not do.

We do.

Update: The Marines have arrived in Sri Lanka too.

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