Oddly enough, Keith Olbermann has little to say about this:

They were a little bit off. They actually had 73,000 same day votes cast. 10,000 voter registration cards could not be sent because they have no addresses or incomplete or inadequate information. Using the same one third return rate that means in Milwaukee alone more than 25,000 illegal votes were cast. You can expect that the cities of Racine, Kenosha and Madison to have similar results.

By the way George Bush lost Wisconsin by 12,000 votes and Milwaukee votes 80% or more Democrat.

Thanks to NickS.

Posted by: Ace at 08:10 AM | Comments (7)
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Ed and Jen write to let me know that Mr. Paul Anka, the only important one on network TV, is on Las Vegas tonight, whatever that is (it's on one of the networks).

It already began in the East Coast, but you might still be able to catch some integrity if you start recording now.

Posted by: Ace at 05:25 PM | Comments (8)
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Have things ever really changed since the days of slavery?

Tavis Smiley rejects a new NPR contract saying he does not do his best work in "chains and shackles," because, among other complaints, they wouldn't spend $3 million to promote his show.

Which, if I recall, is precisely what Harriet Tubman found so pernicious about slavery. It wasn't the forced labor or degredation of one's humanity, or the peddling of human beings as if they were cattle; no, I think her primary complaint with slavery was over "creative differences" with the slave-masters and constant disputes regarding promotional efforts and synergistic marketing.

Posted by: Ace at 10:52 AM | Comments (12)
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My Pet Jawa has the bad news.

Savages.

I can understand animals behaving as animals do. I have more trouble understanding how the rest of the world -- including "enlightened" Europe -- continues to treat these vicious monsters as if they're a legitimate resistance movement.

Kind of like proactive Gandhis.

Posted by: Ace at 10:39 AM | Comments (9)
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Football Fans for Truth runs down recent media fabrications and distortions, and finds that getting fired for major journalistic breaches is usually just a tiny bump in one's career.

As his title urges: Keep your eye on Mary Mapes. She'll be back, somewhere, unrepentant and eager for another "scoop," whether real or imagined.

Posted by: Ace at 09:28 AM | Comments (2)
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Susan Estrich is angry that California Democrats have killed the nomination of a fellow Democrat to Schwarzenegger's administration.

Why?

Because he took the outrageous position that students who don't speak English natively should have two-and-a-half hours of English immersion per day.

The rest of their schooling would continue to be in their native language; he just wanted two and a half hours per day to learn the language of the country they'd be living in, and working in, for the rest of their lives.

From Kausfiles, who has more analysis and links, including this quote:

"We're in serious trouble if Democrats are going to go on a purge and get rid of every single Democrat who has moderate, mainstream views and doesn't adhere to total orthodoxy as members of the Legislature define it."

I think the Republican Party actually has a lot of unpopular positions and relies upon sometimes-unpopular constituencies. But they'll continue to prosper as long as the Democrats keep this sort of nonsense up.

Posted by: Ace at 06:22 PM | Comments (15)
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Never read the comic, never heard that they were making a movie about it, but this trailer looks pretty interesting.

H/t to Petite Dove.

Posted by: Ace at 06:14 PM | Comments (16)
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Germaine Greer takes time out from justifying 9-11 and advocating sex with underage boys in order to launch a new crusade:

GERMAINE GREER, the feminist and academic who walked out of the Celebrity Big Brother reality television show last week accusing it of being a “fascist prison”, now wants it closed down as a health risk.

Greer says the standards of hygiene inside the studio are such that it would face prosecution if it were a restaurant serving the public. She says it was not just the degradation that made her quit, but the dirt.

Writing in today’s News Review, Greer says that when she left the Big Brother “house” the inmates had been without such basic supplies as milk, tea and sugar for 18 hours.

The horror, the horror!

...

Referring to an incident in which Big Brother deliberately withheld Diet Coke from John McCririck, the racing presenter, even though he said he could not function without it, Greer says it typifies the programme’s “unreasonable and sadistic behaviour” towards those taking part in the show.

Well, now that we have her standards for "fascist prison," I guess it puts her rantings about Camp X-Ray and Abu Ghraib into perspective.

One time I went a whole week without coffee.

Just like Nelson Mandela. Or Ghandi. Or Andrei Sakharov.

You know, any of my fellow humanitarian martyrs, really.

Posted by: Ace at 04:39 PM | Comments (43)
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Wearing their liberalism on their sleeves:

NEW YORK - After spending 10 days in London with friends who were outspoken about their disdain for President Bush (news - web sites)'s policies, Berns Rothchild came home wishing she had a way to show the world she didn't vote for him.

"I sort of felt ashamed, and didn't really want to be associated with being an American," said Rothchild, who lives in New York City and voted for John Kerry (news - web sites).

A Kerry voter? Not wanting to be associated with "being an American"? Shocking.

Her mother had a suggestion: bracelets, inspired by the Lance Armstrong Foundation's popular "LIVESTRONG" bands, that would signal opposition to Bush.

Thousands of miles away, two women in Idaho had the same idea. So did a woman in Kansas. The result? At least three separate bracelet ventures targeting left-leaning citizens who want to wear their political affiliation on their wrists — and at least one competitor bearing the opposite message.

Rothchild, 35, is selling blue bracelets that say "COUNT ME BLUE," while Laura Adams, of Fairway, Kan., offers blue bracelets that say "HOPE." The McKnight family, of Moscow, Idaho, is even more direct; their black bracelets proclaim: "I DID NOT VOTE 4 BUSH."

"It's kind of like saying, 'This is my tribe,'" said Adams, 43, a Kerry supporter, who was inspired by her 14-year-old stepson's yellow Lance Armstrong band.

Kind of.

I know conservatives do a bit of this too-- the W buttons, etc. Even a simple American flag lapel pin, I suppose, is counted (these days at least) as being a potentially-controversial statement of poltical conviction.

But honestly, I cannot fathom many liberals' compulsion to adorn their Volvos with political bumper stickers and the like.

And now the need to proclaim their political tribe with silly blue bracelets. Why? I don't get it.

And yes, in two weeks, there'll be red bracelets available; and then perhaps some purple ones to indicate independence. Rainbow-colored ones for gay rights, gold, red, green and black ones for black solidarity.

Why?

Politics is sometimes important, sometimes not so. Sometimes it can be fun.

I've said it beore, and I'll say it again: the Democratic Party is not the f'n' Indianapolis Colts. It's not a team whose jerseys and paraphrenalia you're supposed to be buying. It's just... goofy.

And to me it's just misplaced priorities. We're human beings first. We're political creatures second (or preferably third, fourth, or fifth).

It's one thing to have a few t-shirts that make a political point. You wear them every now and again, sometimes when "among friends," sometimes when puttering around the house.

But this bracelet thing, to be worn day-in, day-out, announcing to a world (which largely could give a shit) that you're a liberal and you voted for John Kerry...

Again, why? I hope I'm not being arrogant when I say that my political beliefs are one of the less-interesting things about me, as a person. As a blogger-- sure. People come here, I guess, for some chuckles and some right-leaning analysis.

But as a person, the fact that I voted for George W. Bush just isn't something I'm proud of. Yes, I voted the right way, in my mind, and I'm glad I did it, but it's not as if I did something so wonderful that I ought to advertise it to the world. When I pulled the lever for Bush, no one offered me a cookie or a gold star.

There's just something very weird about investing so much of your sense of personal worth in what stupid party you belong to.

Again, there are conservatives whom I consider a little too wrapped up in politics-as-personal-identity. But this seems to be a very broad and deep phenomenon among liberals.

I don't know. Seems there are two sorts of liberals in the world-- the ones who won't admit it, like Dan Rather, and the ones who just won't shut the fuck up about it.

I'm beginning to have a whole new appreciation for Dan Rather.

Posted by: Ace at 04:47 PM | Comments (67)
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It's a serious charge, and I'm not really comfortable making it, at least not in those words.

But LTC Tim Ryan of the 1st Cav apparently is fed up:

I just read yet another distorted and grossly exaggerated story from a major news organization about the "failures" in the war in Iraq. Print and video journalists are covering only a small fraction of the events in Iraq and more often than not, the events they cover are only the bad ones. Many of the journalists making public assessments about the progress of the war in Iraq are unqualified to do so, given their training and experience. The inaccurate picture they paint has distorted the world view of the daily realities in Iraq. The result is a further erosion of international public support for the United States' efforts there, and a strengthening of the insurgents' resolve and recruiting efforts while weakening our own. Through their incomplete, uninformed and unbalanced reporting, many members of the media covering the war in Iraq are aiding and abetting the enemy.

The fact is the Coalition is making steady progress in Iraq, but not without ups and downs. War is a terrible thing and terrible things happen during wars, even when you are winning. In war, as in any contest of wills with capable opponents, things do not always go as planned; the guys with the white hats don't always come out on top in each engagement. That doesn't mean you are losing. Sure, there are some high profile and very spectacular enemy attacks taking place in Iraq these days, but the great majority of what is happening in Iraq is positive. So why is it that no matter what events unfold, good or bad, the media highlight mostly the negative aspects of the event? The journalistic adage, "If it bleeds, it leads," still applies in Iraq, but why only when it's American blood?

As a recent example, the operation in Fallujah delivered an absolutely devastating blow to the insurgency. Though much smaller in scope, clearing Fallujah of insurgents arguably could equate to the Allies' breakout from the hedgerows in France during World War II. In both cases, our troops overcame a well-prepared and solidly entrenched enemy and began what could be the latter's last stand. In Fallujah, the enemy death toll has already exceeded 1,500 and still is climbing. Put one in the win column for the good guys, right? Wrong. As soon as there was nothing negative to report about Fallujah, the media shifted its focus to other parts of the country. Just yesterday, a major news agency's website lead read: "Suicide Bomber Kills Six in Baghdad" and "Seven Marines Die in Iraq Clashes." True, yes. Comprehensive, no. Did the author of this article bother to mention that Coalition troops killed 50 or so terrorists while incurring those seven losses? Of course not. Nor was there any mention about the substantial progress these offensive operations continue to achieve in defeating the insurgents. Unfortunately, this sort of incomplete reporting has become the norm for the media, whose poor job of presenting a complete picture of what is going on in Iraq borders on being criminal.

...

This war is not without its tragedies; none ever are. The key to the enemy's success is use of his limited assets to gain the greatest influence over the masses. The media serves as the glass through which a relatively small event can be magnified to international proportions, and the enemy is exploiting this with incredible ease. There is no good news to counteract the bad, so the enemy scores a victory almost every day. In its zeal to get to the hot spots and report the latest bombing, the media is missing the reality of a greater good going on in Iraq. We seldom are seen doing anything right or positive in the news. People believe what they see, and what people of the world see almost on a daily basis is negative. How could they see it any other way? These images and stories, out of scale and context to the greater good going on over here, are just the sort of thing the terrorists are looking for. This focus on the enemy's successes strengthens his resolve and aids and abets his cause. It's the American image abroad that suffers in the end.

I don't think most of this is actual deliberate -- well, it's deliberate for most of the foreign press, of course, which actually wants America to lose -- but the American press is largely convinced that the war was a mistake, is and always was unwinnable, and that George Bush should be punished, by means foul or fair, for prosecuting it.

They don't intend to aid the enemy, but, once again, you can't cover a war like this and expect any other result.

Thanks to JimW for the tip.

Posted by: Ace at 02:16 PM | Comments (24)
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