politics, fringe watching, and other stuff





















John J. McKay is a grumpy, aging liberal who lives in a small house with his wife, two cats, and a couple thousand books. To comment on anything in archy, send an e-mail.

 
Blogs I'm reading this week
The American Street
Angry Bear
Balkinization
Bark Bark Woof Woof
Body and Soul
CalPundit
Corrente
Counterspin Central
Crooked Timber
The Daily Kos
Demagogue
The Early Days of a Better Nation
Eschaton
Hulabaloo
The Intersection
Is That Legal?
Liberal Coalition
Mark A.R. Kleiman
Matthew Yglesias
Media Whores Online
Off the Kuff
Omnium
Orcinus
Pacific Views
Pandagon
Pharyngula
Philosoraptor
Progressive Gold
Quark Soup
The Right Christians
The Rittenhouse Review
Roger Ailes
Ruminate This
Shadow of the Hegemon
Skeptical Notion
Slacktivist
Steve Gilliard's News Blog
Talking Points Memo
TalkLeft
Tapped
Tristero
Very Very Happy
Waldchen vom Philosophenweg
Whiskey Bar
World O? Crap




Other good stuff
Americans United for Seperation of Church and State
Common Dreams
The Daily Howler
People for the American Way
Political Research Associates
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Spinsanity

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Saturday, February 21, 2004

The candidate to beat Bush
In primary after primary, polling during the last few days before the vote as the undecides decide, shows that most Democrats are choosing their candidate based on who they think has the best chance of beating Bush. No single issue or broad philosophical stance matters as much as just sending that shallow frat boy back to Crawford in disgrace. Exit polling confirms this.

Therefore, I think we need to reconsider our slate of candidates. It’s not too late for a grassroots insurgency to sweep the primaries. There is only one possible candidate with a proven record of bringing Bush to his knees. There is only one possible candidate that has knocked Bush out before and can knock him out again. We need to nominate a pretzel.

Oh sure, I hear you saying a food product can’t run for public office. Take a look at the Republican House leadership. Don Young is clearly a vegetable, and not the only one. Take a look at your own state legislature. I’m sure every reader can name at least one vegetable, ham, tub o’lard, or big block of stinky cheese that has been elected and re-elected by the informed voters of your state.

Pretzel, being a Central European bread product, must represent the Northeastern urban or steel belt immigrant ethnic component of the Democratic Party. For regional and other constituent group balance, the running mate must be a Southerner and something other than a food product. We are blessed to have the perfect candidate with its hat already in the ring this year. I am talking, of course, about Gay Penguin. Who better speaks (or squawks, as the case may be) for the Southern constituency than a penguin?

There you have it folks, the unbeatable ticket for ’04: Pretzel and Gay Penguin. Once we nominate them there will nothing left to do except plan the inauguration party.

posted by John at 1:27 PM

Thursday, February 19, 2004

More news like this, please
I know it's still very early in the election cycle. I know things can and will change many times before November. But there is something nice about starting the day by looking at news like this:
PRINCETON, NJ -- In a hypothetical presidential contest, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry leads President George W. Bush by 12 percentage points among likely voters, 55% to 43%, while North Carolina Sen. John Edwards leads Bush by 10 points, 54% to 44%.

And it doesn't hurt to keep working on the "Bush is a one-term miserable failure" meme. There's nothing like an aura of inevitability to rally the faint of heart to our banners.
posted by John at 8:40 AM

Monday, February 16, 2004

Follow the Network
David Horowitz has been very busy this winter. He has two major projects in the works to bring the left to its knees. So far he’s gotten the most press coverage for his youth group: Students for Academic Freedom. In typical newspeak fashion, the goal of the group is just the opposite of what the name implies. They aim to muzzle liberal professors and force universities to institute an affirmative action program for oppressed conservatives. The name of their program is the Academic Bill of Rights: which just goes to prove that conservatives do too have a sense of irony. (The Rocky Mountain Progressive Network keeps close tabs on SAF.)

His second project is a massive and expensive database that exposes "labyrinthine networks and layered fronts through which the left is able to carry on its corrosive agendas" called Follow the Network. The beta version is up today (who knows how long it will be up or whether it will stay at this address). Though most entries are just placeholders, there are enough names indexed to see how Horowitz defines “the Left.” Simply put, it’s his personal enemies list. Anyone or anything his disapproves of is de facto part of “the Left.” Thus he manages to lump Communists, environmentalists, liberal college professors, Muslim fundamentalists, supporters of public television, IBM, and adult literacy programs into one category and map out meaningful links to join them all. It really is a masterful work of conspiracy mongering.

Although the completed project should have over 10,000 entries, I see some serious absences in the beta version. First, I’m not in it. This database is sure to become the social register for everyone who is a threat to Western values. How can I be taken seriously if I’m not part of it? I wonder if I could sue my way in. Second, how can you put al Qayda, Act Up, and the American Library Association into one network and leave out the Bavarian Illuminati, the Elders of Zion, and David Icke’s shape-shifting interdimensional lizard men? It defies reason.
posted by John at 9:28 PM

Al Franken is a lying liar
As a bleeding heart liberal, it breaks my heart to have to be the one to point it out. Oh sure, a scoop like this could be the break that elevates me from the ranks of the insignificant bloggers to the dizzying heights of the not-quite-insignificant bloggers. But does that make up for a broken heart? Yet I cannot be silent. The evidence is right here in front of me in black and white, Franken’s own words in—oh, irony of ironies—Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. On page 51 he calls Family Circus “funny and heartwarming.”

Al is a funny man. He knows funny when he sees it. Al knows Family Circus hasn’t been funny since before Spiro Agnew was a felon. How funny can it be to repeat the same two jokes (“not me” and isn’t it cute when kids mispronounce words) decade after decade from one century into the next.

Why would Al do such a thing? Why would Al say such a thing? The only possible explanation is that he’s secretly working for the other side. He must be mole, sent here to discredit the left. I’d like to think that he’s not a willing conspirator. Maybe they’re blackmailing him. Maybe they have his long lost twin sister in captivity somewhere. Maybe this is a cry for help. I’d like to think so.

posted by John at 7:44 PM

 
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