News of the Day
1. Mice love cabernet, although the occasional mouse prefers zinfandel.
2. Tip for politicians: dying is easy, comedy is hard.
3. Hint to White House: Even if you enjoy reprising SwiftBoat, any mention of Iraq is NOT GOOD for you.
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RE #1: One of my friends swears by peanut butter and a chocolate chip for trapping mice.
RE#2: When Kerry apologized for botching a joke, he said that it's not the first time anybody's done that. I mentally finished the sentence that it's not the first time he's done that. I think that would have been funny -- but only unintentionally.
RE#3: I don't think the White House gets it just yet. They did jettison "stay the course" as a catchphrase, but the implications of that don't seem to have hit.
November 1, 2006 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just did a Google for newspaper letters to the editor with subject "Kerry". Hmmm.....
Overwhelmingly letters to the editor on this are defending Kerry and trashing the "bloodshot and bug-eyed, foam drooling down their chins, arms windmilling like Pete Townshend with a hornet up his butt ... insidious race of right-wing dilettantes" attacking him. They routinely lump Hastert and Tony Snow in with spastic Limbaugh as a cadre of chickenhawks. With the Dem base so energized it looks like Reed's right, any mention of IRAQ has negative results.
Even boy George's flip-flop on "stay the course" is being received as a... well... a flip-flop.
Tip to Kerry, if you're going to do jokes you need a "straight man" like Paul Shaffer or Ed McMahon to help unscrew the screwups as they happen.
November 1, 2006 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The implications of that don't seem to have it yet."
I was driving home from work last week listening to the increasingly unlistenable All Things Considered on NPR & I swear I heard a reporter quote a GOP operative to the effect that "The whitehouse expects Republicans to retain their majorities. The whitehouse hasn't made any plans for a Democratic Senate."
Just as they didn't make any plans for a post-war Iraq. This administration is all about not making plans that don't fit their fantasies.
November 2, 2006 6:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
What Kerry should have said:
"We need to increase our efforts in education,
I’m sure there is another future president who
needs special help."
-----------------------------------------------
Today, are we searching for I deals or Ideals?
-Thinking
November 2, 2006 7:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
What kills me is that they always SAY things and then the media report them, but just because you say something doesn't make it true. I can't tell you how many times a day I have that thought.
Just because you say something doesn't make it true.
The media and GOP continue to pretend that they don't understand this simple statement. Up is down, black is white. Iraq, 9/11, Democrats, terrorists.
November 2, 2006 7:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I once heard a wise person say that plans are nothing, but planning is everything. I think that's true -- one can always revise the plan, but the learning one acquires while formulating it? priceless. So yeah, the administration has lots (and lots) of issues.
Random question for jackrussell: why do you find All Things Considered "increasingly unlistenable"? I catch it occasionally but haven't noticed anything specific. So what'm I missing?
November 2, 2006 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the question. I find more & more of the news pieces are structured by employing the rhetoric of false balance, in which stories conclude with a both-sides-do-it tag line. The other night there was a story about Republicans fighting with each other about election rules in Ohio & the story ended with a remark about "partisan sniping" continuing. And a couple of days before that Guy Raz had a story about internet political ads. He described how Republicans lied about a Congressman by saying he had "voted for attaching sensors to the genitals of teenage girls while they watched pornographic movies" when in fact he had voted to authorize funding for the NIH, along with a whole shite load of Republicans. The story then shifted to Democratic ads saying how a number of Congresspersons had voted to ban stem cell research. The ads were tough, but reported actual votes on an issue that the Republicans have made a centerpiece of their politics. Raz concluded the story by making a joke: "Congressman R, he's also a pornographer. Just kidding." The clear intent was to say "both sides are lying. Except one side was lying & the other side was telling the truth.
I am a big contributor to my local NPR station, giving them about one percent of my annual salary, but I am thinking of deducting a set amount every time I hear one of these phony stories. By next pledge drive, I'll have to find another outfit to contribute to.
November 2, 2006 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink