Redstate

Posted at 12:35pm on Aug. 25, 2006 A list of WaPo's stories, etc., on Allen and 'macaca'

By jannelsen

In the world of August news frenzies, George Allen and macaca are to Washington Post political writers and editorialists what snakeheads and shark attacks were to past years' feature writers.

Except this summer's splash features sanctimonious "gotcha" journalism and overt candidate favoritism.

Anyway, in reverse chronological order, below you will find the news stories, features, columns and editorials that have appeared in the printed version of the paper. The list excludes AP Online stories, blogs, discussions and some different published versions of the same story. And I'm sure I missed some.

My conclusion: If you're a Republican in the Washington Post's circulation area, don't say dumb things and then, as a first reaction, don't curse the newspaper. Just not worth it.

Still and phew, this is a whole lot of newsprint spilled over "macaca."

List of published articles -- with four page-one pieces -- follows:

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Posted at 11:49am on Jul. 15, 2006 Bush 'aide' kills self; unrelated Claude Allen update

By jannelsen

Ex-Bush Aide Fatally Shoots Son, Himself

The above is the headline from the on-line Washington Post today, a story that appeared on page B-1, The Metro Section.

I don't want to minimize the terrible wrong of the murder-suicide. I have no idea what desperation caused this man to commit this crime and destroy his family.

But the headline is absurd...and misleading. Here's the second paragraph of the story:

William H. Lash III, 45, was an assistant secretary of commerce from 2001 until last year, then returned to teach at George Mason University Law School in Arlington, where he had begun as a professor in 1994.

Criminy, by that measure, as a political appointee in a cabinet ageny, I'm a former Bush aide. 'Cause, you see, I shook his hand once.

I've encountered this kind of newspaper elevation any number of times, a mid-level administration official being raised to some close association with the President as aide or advisor. Yeah, I suppose "Bush aide" fits the headline space, but at the expense of accuracy?

Another example: Ex-Aide To Bush Found Guilty, the front page WaPo story on June 21 about David H. Safavian.

Safavian, a former chief of staff of the General Services Administration, was convicted in U.S. District Court here of covering up his many efforts to assist Abramoff in acquiring two properties controlled by the GSA, and also of concealing facts about a lavish weeklong golf trip he took with Abramoff to Scotland and London in the summer of 2002.

These events occurred while Safavian was at the GSA, so he could accurately be called an "Administration official."

And how do we get to "Bush aide?"

Days before his arrest in September, Safavian had resigned as the White House's chief procurement policy officer, a job he got after leaving the GSA. He had worked earlier as a lobbyist for Abramoff and also as a congressional aide.

So the guy who signs off on paper clips and three-hole punches for the White House is a "Bush aide?" (I note the charges -- he plans to appeal -- related to events long before he came to the White House.)

I guess these are battlefield promotions in the MSM's wars against the Bush Administration. But, they're WRONG!

Suggestion for reporters, editors headline writers. Before calling someone a "Bush aide" in the interest of brevity and punchiness, how about determining whether or not the person was, you know, a Bush aide.

As for Claude Allen, as White House Domestic Policy Advisor, he was a Bush aide. No doubt.

There were speculative stories  last month about Allen reaching a plea agreement with Maryland prosecutors on his shoplifting charges so he could avoid trial.

The latest news suggests no progress on that front.

Claude Allen, the former Jesse Helms protege and White House staffer, has a new date for his trial on charges of swindling Target and Hecht's stores in Montgomery County, Md.

The new date is Aug. 15, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

I have also shaken Claude Allen's hand, so let me provide some deep psychological insight about his circumstances: Boy, I don't know. Sometimes people do weird things. Hope he's OK.

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Posted at 9:48pm on Jun. 25, 2006 Ted Kennedy, canine mathematician

By jannelsen

C-SPAN Book TV this weekend broadcast a recent, half-hour visit of Sen. Ted Kennedy to P.S. 11 William T. Harris School in New York City, where he entertained the children with tales from his new book, My Senator And Me : A Dog's Eye View Of Washington, D.C. The book describes the D.C. life of his Portuguese waterdog, Splash.

Kennedy's apparently unironic naming of his dog has drawn derision from bloggers like Mark Kilmer. Given the watery death suffered by poor Mary Jo Kopechne, the mockery is well-deserved.

The New York Daily News had an account of his promotional stop at the Chelsea school:

His Portuguese water dogs, Splash and Sunny, were also present, and Kennedy talked baby talk to Splash, who did a stupid pet trick with a tennis ball in his mouth. The trick apparently was that Splash refused to let anyone have the ball as his master cooed: "Show me the ball! Splash Kennedy, you know I want the ball! Splash! Splashy! Now you know I want that ball!"

Me, I enjoyed Kennedy's use of the Socratic approach with the kids when dealing with mathematics. Consider the following exchange with a questioning moppet.

Q: How old is Splash in dog years?

A: Dog years...Now, you know the answer to that. I think the old...We used to think that they were seven years old, I think is what I learned. Is that about right? So, he's nine. He's nine. So, can anybody figure that out, nine? How about if it was, if he was two years, how old it be then? Thirteen? Er, it's seven years, seven years, right. So, he's for all intents and purposes in his mid-50s. I think.

Baby talk and confusion over simple matters of counting.

I guess he really IS the senior senator from Massachusetts.

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Posted at 10:25am on Apr. 7, 2006 For Sen. Coburn fans/Ending Earmarks Express

By jannelsen

And supporters of the Porkbusters efforts, I commend a news conference today at 11 a.m. at the Rayburn Building.

Please come...

To the kick off of Americans for Prosperity Foundation's

ENDING EARMARKS EXPRESS

with special guests

U. S. Senator Tom Coburn (OK)

U.S. Representative Tom Feeney (FL-24)

U.S. Representative Scott Garrett (NJ-5)

Tim Phillips- President, AFPF

Tom Schatz- President, Citizens Against Government Waste

Allison Fraser, Heritage Foundation

Dan Clifton, Americans for Tax Reform

Lee MacVaugh, National Taxpayers Union

2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC

11:00am, Friday, April 7th, 2006

The Ending Earmarks Express is a nationwide bus tour that will turn up the grassroots pressure for spending restraint in Congress. For more information about this event or about Americans for Prosperity Foundation's Ending Earmarks Express, please call (202)349-5880, e-mail info@afphq.org or visit www.americansforprosperity.org.

And from AFP, a column explaining the Ending Earmarks Express:

Judging by its increasing prevalence the past few years, it would appear that the earmark is the new "it" item - the hottest new thing that everyone on Capitol Hill has to get their hands on. The buzz inside the Beltway is - out with fiscal responsibility and in with waste and greed.

But, as is often the case with anything trendy, the time comes when people realize that the fad really isn't as great as everybody seemed to think back in the day. That's happening across America with wasteful earmarks today, but not everyone on Capitol Hill has gotten the message yet. Some people still think that these special provisions inserted behind closed doors are as cool as grunge rock, not having realized that both have already seen their best days.

That's why Americans for Prosperity Foundation is firing up the Ending Earmarks Express - a nationwide bus tour that will visit places that have received egregious earmarks over the past few years. The goal is to educate and motivate grassroots citizens about how damaging earmarks are to the federal budget, and to help them make their voices heard in Washington. Below is a sampling of some of the places we'll be visiting this month:

Followed by six pretty good examples of pork.

I'll be interested in the reaction in local burgs to outsiders telling them their pet project is bunk.

P.S. I'm not involved in AFP in any way. Know some people there and appreciate this hard-core approach. That's it.

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Posted at 3:46am on Oct. 10, 2005 Kilgore, Kaine battle to a cliche -- Go Kilgore!

By jannelsen

The sole statewide TV debate between the two major-party candidates for governor of Virginia took place in Richmond Sunday. And the winner was....

Stop! I reject that formulation! It was the people of Virginia who won....all those people who skipped the broadcast, that is.

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Posted at 9:10pm on Jul. 12, 2005 The Washington, D.C., weather report

By jannelsen

Escorting an out-of-town guest over to the House side of the Capitol this morning, I squinted in the glare off the Supreme Court building. Then I sweated. And then I offered the bromide, "Some people say the growth of the federal government is the direct result of the invention of air conditioning. Before air conditioning, everyone left the city in summer. Of course, its development coincided with the Great Depression and WWII, which brought more and more folks to work in Washington." Then I sweated some more.

Read on.

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Posted at 2:08pm on Jul. 8, 2005 Roemer bows to reality, won't challenge Lugar

By jannelsen

Former Indiana Congressman Tim Roemer will forego a defeat at the hands of septuagenarian Senator Richard Lugar, R-IN, in 2006. Dems were hoping to parley Roemer's service on the 9-11 Commission into a legitimate challenge and a long-shot victory in Indiana, despite Lugar's unabating popularity. All they got out of it was a few marginal hits against the Bush Administration's foreign policy and a few more marginal hits against Roemer for appearing to politicize the high-minded, oh-so-objective 9-11 Commission. And for trotting out suspect poll results -- it was a push poll -- that pumped up Roemer's prospects, a bit of deception that damaged Roemer's reputation for seriousness.

That reputation for seriousness also takes a hit with his soccer-mom shtick in Thursday's announcement (reprinted in the Howey Political Report and below). Peanut-butter sandwiches in tow?

UPDATE: Oh yes, elsewhere on the Indiana politics front, boy, is Senator Evan Bayh running for President. He's chosen the "Who Lost China" platform. Not a bad theme, really.

UPDATE II: We'll make this a Hoosier round-up post, I guess. The White House just announced that President Bush will be speaking at the Black Expo in Indianapolis on Thursday. "I think it's stupendous," says Rep. Julia Carson, D-IN. She's right.

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Posted at 2:41am on Jun. 27, 2005 Capital Gang, RIP

By jannelsen

Agronsky and Company begat Braden and Buchanan, which begat the McLauglin Group, which begat The Capital Gang, which misbegat a bunch of other CNN talk.

Agronsky is gone, Braden far gone, Buchanan scuttles on, the McLauglin Group drones on, and CNN goes on and on.

But on Saturday, June 25, 2005, The Capital Gang ended its 17-year reign on cable. (Transcript here.) The final show distilled all that is the Capital Gang -- cross-talk, self-congratulation, outrage and all-in-good-fun bashing of Bob Novak.

When it started in the late '80s, Capital Gang was an entertaining and half useful addition to the still generally sparse menu of Washington, D.C. gab panels. For those of us on basic cable, out in the hinterlands, 6 p.m. Saturday Central Time was an opportune time to catch up on political gossip you could rarely find elsewhere. (The McLaughlin Group on local PBS affiliates being the exception.) The trademark "Outrage of the Week" was usually good for one grunt in response (out of the four outrages offered).

Now, of course, the Capital Gang is supernumerary, and its founder, Novak, superannuated. So, CNN's new programming leaves the show superseded.

As for Novak, being outside the Beltway, one point I never realized until recently was that the show was a Novak operation, originated and managed by the Journalist Formerly Known as the Crown Prince of Darkness. He let Al Hunt -- a pompous purveyor of the liberal conventional wisdom -- and Mark Shields -- a liberal purveyor of the pompous conventional wisdom -- host the weekly episodes, but the show was his gig.

I'm a Novak fan, because at heart he's a reporter. He works the phones still, and helps turn the usual gossip into a scoop now and then. With Crossfire also going away -- as CNN revamps itself to become jazzier, or something -- we'll have less Bob Novak to keep us entertained, and that's too bad.

But otherwise, I bid it farewell with no sense of loss. The Capital Gang was a diverting hour that had its moments, pre-Internet, pre-FOX. I won't miss it, but neither do I regret the hours I spent watching it.

Well, except for the parts where Al Hunt talked.

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Posted at 12:13am on Jun. 21, 2005 Mama said Steve Earle is the Devil's left hand

By jannelsen

Ah, state fairs. The midway, sugar-fried food, farm machinery, odd-looking chickens, the sawdust and shows.

And left-wing agitprop. Yes, nothing like a tedious, if tuneful, recitation of America's ills to bring out the sense of agrarian community.

So Steve Earle is set to strum his song about Taliban John, do his death-penalty dirge, and curse the F.E.C. this July in Haines at the Southeast Alaska State Fair. Put down those corndogs, and rebuke yourselves!

But some Alaskans are telling Earle to stay away...stay far, far away.

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Posted at 2:55am on Jun. 14, 2005 On Huckabee: Yes, he can. Really. Not kidding. Honestly.

By jannelsen

On Wednesday, June 15, the Senate Finance Committee will convene to consider two important topics.

The first: The future of Medicaid.

The second: Political ambitions.

Appearing on the hearing's first panel are Democratic Governor Mark Warner of Virginia and Mike Huckabee, the Republican governor of Arkansas.

Come 2008, the two could be together again, only this time on stage at a presidential debate.

Read on.

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Posted at 12:30am on May 26, 2005 This home at HUD is empty

By jannelsen

Walk into the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and you encounter the standard agency decoration, photos of the president, the vice president, and secretary, in this case Alphonso Jackson. Over by the metal detector you spy a photo display, depicting the top officials at HUD.

It's striking. The places where all those portraits should go? About a third empty.

HUD's directory of top staff reveals the extent of the void: 11 of the 35 positions are vacant.

General Counsel

Assistant Secretary for Housing/Federal Housing Commissioner

Assistant Secretary, Public and Indian Housing

Assistant Secretary Policy Development and Research

General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research

Assistant Secretary, Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity

Chief Financial Officer

Assistant Secretary for Administration

General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs

President, Government National Mortgage Association

Director, Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control

All vacant.

This is a problem. While several of these positions have replacements pending - Assistant Secretary for Housing, for example  - such a number of institutional vacancies cannot help but hinder operation of the agency.

In the case of HUD, conservatives may well respond with a hearty: Who cares? HUD is one of the poor relatives of cabinet agencies, assigned with duties the free market could perform more efficiently, at least most of the time.

But the president has expended much time and energy talking about home ownership, making housing the cornerstone of his Ownership Sociey. So many vacancies at HUD indicates that, for a White House that usually believes personnel is policy, something has gone awry.

Unfortunately, friends in federal service tell me this is an Administration-wide problem. Top posts go unfilled, as officials from the first four-year rotate out and no one else rotates in. True, the White House has worked assiduously to find Administration jobs for a new batch of campaign workers, the class of 2004, but those tend to be politicals in their 20s and early `30s with no previous experience in government, that is, not up to the demands of an assistant secretary or other top position.

True, the problem of widespread institutional vacancies is a common Washington phenomenon, one that occurs in every lame-duck administration.

But usually only when the third or fourth year rolls around. The administration's current vacancies are a problem only four months in.

It's striking. And, for Republicans, it's worrisome.

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Posted at 1:29am on May 18, 2005 BRAC: No. 1 with a .... oh, you know

By jannelsen

Reading the articles about the Pentagon's recommendations to the Base Realignment and Closing Commission, I noted an odd rhetorical consistency:

"I look at it as Virginia kind of dodged a bullet." -- Republican Sen. George Allen.

"Looking back on prior base closure rounds, California dodged a bullet," Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein.

"We dodged a bullet. I think we did a tremendous job." - Tim Johnson, executive director of the Yuba Sutter Economic Development Corp. (Calif.) on Beale Air Force Base.

"When you consider impact of Keesler Air Force Base, when you consider the impact of the Air Guard, the Seabees, Camp Shelby, Stennis Space Center, the truth of the matter is, overall, we dodged a bullet." - Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi.

"We hate to lose any jobs at all, but with these recommendations, the Adelphi area really dodged a bullet." - Democratic State Sen. Giannetti of Maryland.

"This is not a bullet we just dodged with Crane, it was a mortar shell." - Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana.

"We dodged an atomic bomb, not just a bullet." Tom Waggoner, mayor of Clearfield, Utah, on the Hill AFB.

"We have dodged a major bullet in the Lowcountry, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief." - Beaufort (S.C.) County Council Chairman Weston Newton.

"We dodged a big bullet, that's for sure." -- Don Johnson, a member of Air Force security at Volk Field, Wisconsin.

And if you want to reload, check here for more!

P.S. For some reason, I keep thinking of Jet Li.

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Posted at 12:12am on May 18, 2005 Saw the President tonight .....

By jannelsen

and boy, are my feet tired.

The event was the GOP Freedom Tour Presidential Gala at the Grand Hyatt, downtown Washington.

More than a thousand contributors to the RNC, celebrating a fundraising drive that collected $15 million this year, a record of some sort or another. (AP article here.)  Full disclosure: I was not one of the contributors - this time, I mean -  having cadged a ticket from a certain confidential Newsweek source. No, I won't tell you his name.

Random observations from the grand ballroom, located subterraneanly:

Shrimp! Shrimp everywhere! Jumbo shrimp at the Ice Bar! And something called a Crudite. I thought a crudite was Laura Bush's routine at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

And speaking of bars, I count six, that's six open bars, pouring .....liberally. (Picked a bad week to give up drinking.)

National Anthem, oh, there's the stage over there, and The Spinners! Nice four-part harmony acapela version. Ah, a key change. And another. That'll show all you patriots trying to sing along. (Pretty, respectful rendition of the song, though. Hmm. If you rendition The Star Spangled Banner, does that make it Les Marseilles?)

Ricky Skaggs, alas, sans mandolin, to perform the invocation after a few words in praise of teen-agers praying 24 hours a day. For Keifer Sutherland? No, for America. OK.

Anyway, Ricky likes President Bush because he's willing to stand up as a Christian. I like the President for other reasons, and I really like Ricky Skaggs because he kept traditional bluegrass in the public eye during the `70s and `80s. And he has a wonderful voice.

But Ricky, man, you must be on the same diet I'm on, which is to say .... Stay away from the shrimp.

News photographers arrive and gather in front of the stage. They seem unusually clean today.

Introduction, move toward the stages ladies and gentlemen, names of organizers/money raisers who helped make tonight's event a success, lining up behind the lectern. Recognize some of them, sure, that's Al Cardenas. Now who's Al Cardenas? Oh, right, Super-Ranger. And, what, what was that Tom Wolfe phrase, Social X-Rays? Well, why not look nice if you've got the money, time and self-discipline. And there's Susan Molinari's husband, Bill Pullman, no, Bill Paxton, no Bill Paxson, uh, Paxon. Whatever. And Don King waving small American flags, just like his former boxer, Virgil Hill.

Sorry. Just have to mention Virgil now and then.

Ken Mehlman and the President come on stage. Together. Would have though Ken would have warmed up the crowd first. Quick remarks, mentioning Lincoln, and the President speaks. It's a little before 7 p.m.

"Thanks for coming. Please be seated, heh, heh." Good one, Mr. President.

Pleasantries, thanks, Ken's a great RNC chairman. "The Comedian-in-Chief is tied up. But she sends her love....She is a great mother and a fabulous First Lady for the United States. If you ever want to get a laugh, all you have to do is poke fun at the President and his mother. (Laughter.)

Crowd likes the lines. I do too.

The President then gives your basic stump speech (text here), why we're Republicans, what we believe, here are the Administration's priorities, and freedom is on the march. Good night everybody!

Well, gee. That was, not perfunctory, really, because it was about 20 minutes and he gesticulated and orated and certainly the crowd appreciated the remarks. But, the speech was basic, generic, you've heard it all before. The week of the filibuster fight, and you don't rev up the crowd with anything more than the usual talking points?

This party of ours will continue to promote a culture of life, and we will defend the institution of marriage from being redefined forever by activist judges. (Applause.) And speaking about judges -- (laughter) -- in the last two elections, the American people made clear that they want judges who faithfully interpret the law, not legislate from the bench. (Applause.) I have a duty to nominate well-qualified men and women to the federal judiciary. I have done just that, and I will continue to do so.

The Senate also has a duty to promptly consider each of these nominees on the Senate floor, discuss and debate their qualifications, and then give them the up or down vote they deserve. (Applause.)

Well, right, but ....c'mon, Mr. President. Let's rock `n roll. And just one line for John Bolton? Why, I oughta.....(shaking fist).

Before heading off on a wacky tangent about polling, Reuters got the lead right, I think, citing the President's contention that the Republican Party is the party of ideas and reform.

Otherwise, ownership society, making American safe, more people are working and more people own homes than in any time in history (minorities too), and well, as said, you've heard it all before. Good stuff, to be sure, and I'm with him....except on that horrible energy bill....but I should have had the roast beef instead of the shrimp, `cause it's the only red meat on tonight's menu.

What an ingrate, I know. Free ticket, free food, you get to see a great American president, and you're kvetching?

Not a lot, really. This is the well-dressed, well-heeled, well-tempered crowd, out for a relatively formal (business attire) evening, and I imagine most have seen the President a time or two. They're excited, but not too excited.

So the President and his advisors must have determined to give the audience a generous but not undisciplined amount of time, remind us of Republican principles, and let us know we are greatly appreciated. (Well, the people who gave the money are REALLY appreciated. I'm tolerated, I guess.)

Besides, it's 7:30 p.m., the night's young, the bar is still open, and back on stage, The Spinners! "Could it be I'm falling in love?" Ah yes, the soundtrack of my awkward years. (Or was that Feargal Sharkey?)

Funny. This is the second Republican bigtime event where I've seen The Spinners perform. The last time was in December 1999 in the French Quarter, part of the Republican Governors Association winter blow-out.

Spinners and politics. I don't get the connection.

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Posted at 1:11am on May 12, 2005 Steve Nash, Most Valuable Putz

By jannelsen

Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash was voted the NBA's Most Valuable Player for the 2004-2005 season. He edged out Miami Heats center Shaquille O'Neal. Nash is white. Shaq is black. Therefore, Nash's selection was racist.

So suggested, ever so carefully, Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard:

There is no good way to do these measurements with science or math. And I, too, am tired of seeing racism thrown like a Molotov cocktail into discussions where racism doesn't exist.

But don't you have to ask these questions when confronted with something unprecedented?

Or do we just continue laughing and making noise at our playoff cocktail party while ignoring the pinkish elephant standing in the middle of the room in a Nash jersey?

No one who looks or plays like Steve Nash has ever been basketball's MVP. Ever. In the history of the award, a tiny, one-dimensional point guard who plays no defense and averages fewer than 16 points a game never has won it. But Nash just stole Shaquille O'Neal's trophy, even though O'Neal had much better numbers than Nash in just about every individual statistical measurement except assists, so it begs the question:

Is this as black and white as the boxscores that usually decide these things?

Etc.

Rather than properly chiding Le Batard for misusing the phrase beg the question, columnists lashed out at him for daring to even raise the issue of race. Rick Telander of the Sun-Times provided a handy summary of the criticism in his own piece, one of the few defending Batard

Rocky Mountain News columnist Dave Krieger called Le Batard's race question "irrelevant."

The Washington Post's Michael Wilbon, himself an African American, wrote that "the notion that Nash rode some wave of racial prejudice and is overrated is nonsense."

Jim Mashek of the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun-Herald said of Nash's whiteness: "So what."

And the ever-thoughtful Peter Vecsey of the New York Post wrote that Le Batard was "dealing from the bottom of a deck obviously not full."

Calling Le Batard's writing "drivel," his logic "stupid'' and his thinking "pathetic," Vecsey said he had "much loathing" for people who tried to rip someone down "in order to endorse someone else."

My first take on the controversy went something like this: Blah, blah, blah, Bob Cousy, blah, blah, blah.

But then I got to thinking. Shaq - U.S. citizen, son of a military man, honorary sheriff's deputy, coached in college by rock-solid Republican Dale Brown - versus Steve Nash, left-coast Canadian, Guevara aficionado, and doltish opponent of overthrowing Saddam.

From Pacifica's Democracy Now:

And in sports news, the NBA has named Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns the league's Most Valuable Player, edging out the Miami Heat's Shaquille O'Neal. Nash has spoken out publicly against the occupation of Iraq. At the 2003 All-Star game, Nash wore a T-shirt that read, "Shoot baskets not people." When questioned about the shirt, Nash said, "I think that war is wrong in 99.9 percent of all cases." He went on to say that the invasion of Iraq "is more about oil than it is about nuclear weapons."

Well, great Steve. Thanks for the insight. Glad that sociology degree is coming in useful.

Sports commissar/commentator Dave Zirin offers a similar left-wing interpretation of the award, intimating some anti-war sentiment among the beat writers who voted for Nash.

I doubt it. Although it pains me to say, Nash would get my vote too. He turned a talented but disorganized group of players into a brilliantly organized, fast-paced team that jumped from 29 wins to 62. They will, I predict, beat San Antonio to take the West.

So yes, Steve Nash for MVP.

But Miami for the championship.

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Posted at 5:42pm on May 2, 2005 North Korea's school lunch program and CSPAN

By jannelsen

Winner of the moral equivalency quote of the day goes to the caller from New Bloomfield, MO, this morning on CSPAN's call-in wacko show, "Washington Journal." North Korea's nuclear ambitions were one of the newspaper topics. About 38 minutes into the first hour, we hear a denizen of the Show Me state declare:

I think that the Bush administration ought to, you know, tone down their rhetoric. I mean, it's a case of look who's calling the kettle black. When I heard him talk the other night about Kim Jong Il being such a dangerous person because he starved his people and had concentration camps, then I'm thinking, hmm, we've got Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, and we're cutting off school lunch programs for poor kids, I really don't see a whole lot of difference in some ways.

No point in directly rebutting this poor, lost soul, but perhaps a letter to the editor of the local paper will do.

I might cite a few passages from last weekend's reading, "Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea."

The debate does linger - One million dead? Two million? Three million at the hands of Kim's murderous regime?

All because of cuts in the school lunch program.

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