Here's an golden oldie from 1998:

Nevertheless it was charm, not politics, that kept [Jonah] Goldberg's media stock running high. "He's an honest, straight-ahead guy," says Newsweek contributing editor Mickey Kaus. "And he's undissembling, even at the risk of saying, 'I made a fool of myself.'"

Via Buzzflash, the Guardian reports that Roger Ailes & Co. have been beefing up their lineup of foreign correspondents with some experienced government hands.

Diplomats and other officers of the former Ba'athist intelligence apparatus claim that the return to active duty of members of Saddam's security services extends to the former head of the mukhabarat himself, Tahir Jalil Haboosh.

They are not the only apparatchiks deemed worthy of rehabilitation. Almost all of the bureaucrats at the information ministry have done very nicely for themselves since the war. The government minders who spent their days reporting to the intelligence services on foreign reporters or doing their best to obstruct their work have gone on to well-paid jobs - for the same foreign news organisations they once hounded.

The second-in-command at the information ministry, who spent his days reading the reports the minders wrote about visiting foreign journalists, has been employed by Fox News.

Okay, it doesn't say that he's been hired as a correspondent. Maybe he'll be a Fox News Analyst instead.

Reading the Bush Blog So You Won't Have To

Big news from the Bush Blog.

[October 10, 2003] Campaign Manager Ken Mehlman will discuss the latest campaign developments at 5:05 PM eastern time today on the Ken Hamblin Show. Click here to listen live in Windows Media.

Ken Hamblin is still alive?

More Crap from Easterbrook

Gregg Easterbrook continues to embarass himself. In Slate, Dahlia Lithwick tears to shreds Easterbrook's comment on rape and sexual consent. And Easterbrook is still letting his hatred of Police Chief Charles Moose get in the way of rational thought. He writes:

Key datum on the latter: After federal investigators deduced the license plate number of the Caprice, they wanted to release it immediately and appeal to the public to watch for the car. They felt that, since news channel helicopters were hovering over John Muhammad's firing range outside Tacoma, it would be only a matter of hours until he realized he had been fingered and abandoned his car; thus the license-plate info had to be used immediately. But Moose wanted to keep the information quiet, perhaps until he concocted a story in which he got the credit. Apparently federal agents released the plate number over Moose's objection; it went out at about 11 p.m. on newsradio, and 90 minutes later the Caprice was spotted. Had Moose gotten his way, Muhammad and Malvo might have seen the reports from their firing range before the license number was released, and left the Caprice in the woods somewhere.

Was releasing car information to the public (and to Malvo) a good idea or a bad one? I don't know. But it certainly wasn't a good idea for the reason Easterbrook claims.

Notice also that Easterbrook assumes, based on zero evidence, that Chief Moose's motive was impure: Moose wanted to withhold the car information "perhaps until he concocted a story in which he got the credit." Easterbrook is actually suggesting that Moose had a unconscionable disregard for human life. And why would Moose think he could take credit for i.d.ing Muhammed when he knew that the Feds had discovered the Washington State residence and the Caprice? Easterbrook attributes not only malice but also extreme stupidity to Moose, without any basis whatsoever.

Another reason to disregard the new new New Republic.

The Democratic nominee would do well to consider Somerby for a position as a senior media consultant (or higher). No one cuts through the B.S. like Bob. Each Howler is like an incisive legal brief, only actually brief. And funny. Somerby is probably too independent to consider such a gig, and not willing to be dragged into endless debates regarding the state of the Dem's shirtsleeves with the media whores.

Whatever Bob does, it will be incomparable.

"This Medicare legislation says that everybody will get free drugs, and somebody is going to be paying for it."

"I'm disgusted by the large number of congressional Republicans who support this massive new government-run entitlement, the prescription drug bill, and I've said so in the past. The whole thing makes me mad." -- Rush "No Generics, Wilma" Limbaugh, October 9, 2003

People who can't afford prescription medications can suffer and die. Sounds like rehab's gonna be a bit more pricey than someone thought.

Toad to Joy

"Anyway, it's always a joy to be around the Marines (the only thing like it is speaking to a Young American Foundation audience or any audience in Texas). They gave me a Marines hat and t-shirt ("pain is weakness leaving the body"), and many NR fans in the audience had kind words. Special thanks to great patriot and wonderful guy Major Jerry Wiffler for inviting me. (I mention him every year because it gives him a thrill and make his little brother Dan insanely jealous...)"

Rich only refrained from joining the Marines out of fear he would overdose on joy.

Enquiring Minds Want to Know

So who are the fill-in hosts: Tony SNOW? Michael MEDSved? PILLis Schlafly? Will they read from a SCRIP or make do without, as Rush did? Maybe Matt DRUGS can POP in with the latest DOPE.

When will the folks who smeared Wilma and David Cline as unreliable witnesses apologize for their gutter tactics?

Who have you prayed for recently, Rush?

But, seriously -- here's a question. If what Limbaugh claims was true, he originally was prescribed medication by a doctor. This means either (1) Limbaugh reached a point where he couldn't get a doctor's prescription or (2) he was buying unprescribed medication in addition to the prescribed medication. Which one was it? Either way, he had to know that he was engaged in life-threateningly dangerous behavior -- the use of medication without the benefit of proper medical advice. Not too smart.

COMMENTARY:


Holocaust against Christians?
By Joseph Farah

Are there any conservatives left who don't compare themselves to Holocaust victims?

I'll Pay Back

What a surprise! Who turns up on the Predator's transition team but the Predator's second biggest apologist, Susan Estrich.

And his third biggest apologist, Tammy Bruce. That's right, two out of the 65 members of the Predator's transition teams are outspoken apologists for the Predator's decades of vile misconduct. Also: Ivan Reitman, of Ghostbusters fame.

Keep your chin up, Mickey, maybe the Predator will get you a job at the DMV for all of your fine service.

A major scandal is delevoping. George Bush is paying bloggers .... to post crap like this.

Matalin on Imus Now

Mary Matalin is currently on Imus in the Morning on MSNBC and local radio. Be sure to tune in!

Posted by GeorgeWBush.com at 08:46 AM

I'll get right on that.

The New Holocaust

Grover Norquist's meme is spreading. (Am I using that right?) Welcome Judson Cox or, as I like to call him, the Hillbilly Virgin Ben. Young Judson has seen persecution, and has paid a heavy price:

"First they came for the movement conservatives, I did not speak out because I was an establishment republican. Then they came for the evangelicals, I did not speak out because I was a libertarian. Then they came for the neo-conservatives, I did not speak out because I was a paleo-conservative. Then they imposed speech codes and banned conservatives from college campuses, I did not speak out because I was not a college student. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."

And then I pasted together a column full of bogus allegations from right-wing websites, and I became "one of the most popular and influential voices of his generation."

So how do you get to be the victim of persecution and one of the most popular voices of your generation at the same time, Young Master Cox? This dimwit probably thinks he's persecuted because he hasn't already gotten a syndication deal and a slot on MSNBC.

Hillbilly Ben is modest too:

His fiercely independent style and pugilistic wit make for a column that is always entertaining, often inspiring and frequently "laugh out loud" funny. With a humor akin to P.J. O'Rourke and Dave Barry, and a plain spoken southern wisdom that matches Charlie Daniels, his confrontational style lies somewhere between Ann Coulter and Merle Haggard.

Yee-haw! Somewhere between Ann the Man and the Okie from Muskogee lies.... Obsession.

But someone should tell him that Merle's not drinking the Kool-Aid anymore.

I will admit that "Cox" "is" "'laugh out loud'" "'"funny."'"

(Thanks to mw for the link and the VB comparison.)

"Fischbacher spoke inside the 'Jungle Palace,' one of his Las Vegas homes that's dotted with exotic animal statues and filled with magic books.

"No exotic animals were visible, just some house cats, a black palm Cockatoo and a 10-year-old French bulldog named Piaf." -- Associated Press

Can there be any worse job in journalism than having to write an article about the content of a television interview with Siegfried?

Rosh, Rush

Update:Uh... Jesse Taylor has already disemboweled Mary Rosh. Read him instead, or first.

Mary Rosh and Rush Limbaugh share something more than screwing themselves through the use of e-mail. They are both mortified that P.C. America no longer allows for uninhibited discussion about race in sports.

And even though Rush never defended Mary when s/he was under the gun, Mary has leapt to Rush's defense. Sure, it's a stupid defense, but what else would you expect?

Here's Rosh on Rush, in National Review:

To measure positive news coverage, I quickly put ten research assistants to work on a Nexis search, which is a computerized search of newspaper stories across the country. They looked at the coverage received by the 36 quarterbacks who played during the first four weeks of this season. (The articles were from the day of their first game to the day after their last game during the period.) To try to make the categorization of news stories objective, 23 phrases were picked to identify positive descriptions of a quarterback and 23 phrases for negative ones. Positive phrases included words such as "brilliant," "agile," "good," "great," "tough," "accurate," "leader," "intelligent," or "strong arm." Negative phrases included "overrated," "erratic," "struggling," "bad," "weak arm," or "mistakes." Obviously the media involves more than newspapers, but this is measurable and it is not clear why newspapers would be so different from the rest of the media.

Right away, the stupidity is stunning. Rosh has 10 researchers s/he can quickly mobilize to run Nexis searches on adjectival descriptions of quarterbacks? What conservative idiots financed this boondoggle?

Then there's the insipid premise of the survey -- that selecting 23 adjectives of praise and 23 adjectives of condemnation at random will yield an objective or accurate result of press attitudes. Certainly there are hundreds of other adjectives of praise and criticism, even in the vocabulary of sportswriters, and those articles go uncounted with no way of knowing whether more pro articles or con articles were omitted.

We then identified news stories where these phrases appeared within 50 words of a quarterback's name. Each story was read to check that the phrases were indeed used to describe the "quarterback" and to make sure that the word "not" did not appear before the different phrases. Depending on whether positive or negative words were used to describe the quarterback, stories were classified as positive, negative, or falling into both categories.

If you're going to read all the stories anyway, and only take a four week sample, why not read all stories addressing quarterbacks and see if they include a positive or negative characterization?

The evidence suggests that Rush is right, though the simplest measures indicate that the difference is not huge. Looking at just the averages, without trying to account for anything else, reveals a ten-percent difference in coverage (with 67 percent of stories on blacks being positive, 61 percent for whites).

We also collected data by week for each of the first four weeks of the season on a host of other factors that help explain the rate at which a player is praised: the quarterback's rating for each game; whether his team won; the points scored for and against the team; ESPN's weekly rank for the quarterback's team and the opponent; and whether it was a Monday night game. In addition, I accounted for average differences in media coverage both in the quarterback's city and the opponent's city as well as differences across weeks of the season.

Accounting for these other factors shows a much stronger pattern. Black quarterbacks' news coverage is 27 percentage points more positive than whites. And that difference was quite statistically significant � the chance of this result simply being random is the same odds as flipping a coin five times and getting heads each time.

The quarterback ranking, scoring, winning, and higher-ranked teams playing against each other all increase the percentage of positive stories.

Huh? What the hell does that mean?

For example, each additional point scored by the quarterback's team raises the share of positive news coverage by about one percentage point. Being in the only game played on a particular day lowers the how positive [sic] the coverage was by about 12 percentage points, as more newspapers outside the home area cover the game the next day.

Without giving this stupid article more time that it deserves, it is sufficient to say that Rosh's statistical gibberish doesn't show that "the media" overrates any black QB, let alone that it overrates any black QB because of his race. And that was Limbaugh's claim. In the end, Rosh provides Rush zero vindication.

I sure hope Rush gets a better defense from Roy Black.

More Anti-Catholicism in Hollywood

I don't see much difference between what Gibson, Bozell and their ilk wants the Catholic Church to be and what the title character of this film fought against.

Ah.... Apparently, Brent is too busy transcribing shock jock bits to take note.

p.s. 1: My favorite scene from the film: "Dammit, these off-campus housing listings are all weeks old!"

p.s. 2: Bozell's column demonstrates the absurdity of FCC censorship regulation of radio content. Bozo prints the offending material verbatim, paraphrasing only one word. (That word is almost certainly used every day in evry newspaper in the country.) Shouldn't Bozo then be fined 55K as well?

Governor Predator

Here's a campaign promise that the Predator can keep before he's sworn in.

"Schwarzenegger said he would go into the specifics of the allegations 'as soon as the campaign is over.'

"'I can get into all of the specifics and find out what is really going on,' he said. 'But right now, I'm just really occupied with the campaign.'"

Campaign's over, big guy; it's time to step up to the plate. (You too, Brokaw.)

I had a detailed post on this Mark Kleiman analysis of Bush Administration delay tactics in the Traitorgate investigation. Fortunately for lovers of brevity, the post lost when my computer froze, and it's too late in the evening for me to recreate it.

In short, I had two questions about the position taken by the White House in the article Mark cites:

1. How does the White House claim executive privilege with respect to documents pertaining to leaks if the putative executive, Bush, knew nothing about the leaks and still claims ignorance of the leakers' identities? Executive privilege applies to communications between the executive and his or her advisers, not leaks from presidential advisers, no matter how senior, to third parties. (Not to mention the fact that if Bush truly wants the "criminals" (his word) caught, he could simply waive any claimed executive privilege in the interests of justice.)

2. According to this report, a White House counsel cannot invoke the attorney-client privilege "to withhold information relating to a federal criminal offense." Doesn't that mean Gonzales and his staff can be forced to testify about any information in documents withheld which identify the leakers, since those identities are neither a matter of executive privilege (as stated above) nor of national security?

Those seem like good questions, although I could just be loopy from the lack of sleep.

What's Going on for Wednesday, October 8, 2003

President Bush is at the White House where he will make remarks on domestic violence prevention at 3 p.m. and sign a Proclamation for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In the evening, he will attend the 2003 Republican National Committee Presidential Gala at the Washington Hilton Hotel.

Mr. Bush will be introduced at the afternoon event by Don Sipple, a former campaign adviser to Mr. Bush.

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice will deliver remarks at the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations at 12:00 p.m. (CDT) in Chicago, Illinois.

Ms. Rice will read an executive summary of her remarks after delivering them, time permitting.

Around the administration, Secretary Ridge is in St. Louis, MO, for a Council of Excellence town hall meeting to highlight a new initiative designed to involve citizens in homeland security. John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, is in Boston, MA, to host the New England Governor�s anti-drug summit.

John Walters will be introduced at the meeting by Rush Limbaugh. Mr. Walters will deliver the keynote address: "Why the Bush-Cheney Campaign Staff Believes New England Has Only One Governor."

Congratulations, Governor-Elect S.

Now you can make the case for all those reforms you care so deeply about and have thought about for so long. No more of the frustration that comes with being a critic on the sidelines; you've got actual responsibility now. You'll have ample time to address the numerous sexual battery allegations, as you promised. You'll get to spend much more time with Maria. And no more movie sets -- or post-production facilities, restaurants, hotels, gyms, offices, etc. -- where people expect you to behave like a vulgar and abusive cretin, in violation of your dearest principles.

And you can make Mickey Kaus bark like a dog whenever you want.

California Recall Election Thread

Post any comments, observations or opinions in the Comments box below.

To kick things off, here's a comment from annie, in response to an earlier post.

"I can see the North is going to save the sorry ass of the South again. I just voted in and out -five minutes in fabulous downtown Guerneville along the beautiful Russian River. Good turn out and I did a little exit polling -no on the recall all the way around. Polling here already indicated opposition to the recall but with a large block of undecideds -it looks like they have all said ok Gray can stay. I think the no on recall will exceed 70% in Sonoma County. We use optical scan counting and expect no problems[.]"

Can it get any worse? Tom Tomorrow reports:

The stupidest thing I've seen on cable news...

...since the reporters in the hurricane: Chris Matthews and his guests are sitting around one of those talking head desks--out on the beach, with the Santa Monica Boardwalk in the background.

See, it's the California recall. So they're out on a beach. Get it?

Lord.

Are there any dolphins in the vicinity? This could be a ratings bonanza for MSGOP.

Fuck it. I'm not screwing around with hotmail any more. I've had it up to here (indicating) with e-mail from Mr. Madu Johnson, Esq., Bigger Willy and AZuwm1bPObrKdt. I don't need to wash away pounds, eliminate credit card debt or gain three more inches. The junk mail is now consistently exceeding the legitmate e-mail.

Any recommendations for a good, net-based free e-mail other than hotmail or Yahoo! would be appreciated.

I'll keep the hotmail address. Once I get the new address, I'll set the hotmail account to delete all junk mail immediately, which means some legitimate mail will get lost if it's sent to that account. (And that most of the junk mail will still get through.)

The Day Of The Locusts

The biggest group of pests since the 1980s Medfly invasion is set to infest the Golden State:

CHRIS MATTHEWS returns for all night coverage of the vote at 9 p.m. ET, with live reports from the leading candidates� campaign headquarters and will be joined by a panel of expert political analysts including: former Reagan speechwriter and MSNBC analyst Peggy Noonan, Newsweek�s Howard Fineman, MSNBC Senior Political Analyst Lawrence O�Donnell and former Nixon speechwriter and comedian Ben Stein.

And they're set to start two hours before the polls close, unsurprisingly.

Does anyone have some Malathion handy?

Torture Ward Connerly

California residents only, please.

"He didn't beat them."

- Peggy Noonan, on Schwarzenegger's crimes

Not black and blue. That would be Arnie's media strategist, according to both of his ex-wives.

BushBlog Brands Cheney A Liar

As to Saddam�s nuclear program, the report says that �the testimony we have obtained from Iraqi scientists and senior government officials� makes clear that �Saddam Hussein remained firmly committed to acquiring nuclear weapons. These officials assert that Saddam would have resumed nuclear weapons development at some future point.�

[Russert:]....Documents that purportedly showed Iraqi officials shopping for uranium in Africa two years ago were deemed �not authentic� after carefully scrutiny by U.N. and independent experts, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the U.N. Security Council. Also, ElBaradei reported finding no evidence of banned weapons or nuclear material in an extensive sweep of Iraq using advanced radiation detectors. �There is no indication of resumed nuclear activities,� ElBaradei said.�

Eight days after that, you were on MEET THE PRESS, and we...

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Right.

MR. RUSSERT: ...talked about that specifically. Let�s watch:

(Videotape, March 16, 2003):

MR. RUSSERT: And even though the International Atomic Energy Agency said he does not have a nuclear program, we disagree.

VICE PRES. CHENEY: I disagree, yes. And you�ll find the CIA, for example, and other key parts of our intelligence community, disagree.

And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. I think Mr. ElBaradei, frankly, is wrong. And I think if you look at the track record of the International Atomic Energy Agency and this kind of issue, especially where Iraq is concerned, they have consistently underestimated or missed what it was Saddam Hussein was doing. I don�t have any reason to believe they�re any more valid this time than they�ve been in the past.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Reconstituted nuclear weapons. You misspoke.

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Yeah. I did misspeak. I said repeatedly during the show weapons capability. We never had any evidence that he had acquired a nuclear weapon.

Even with Pumpkinhead Russert spoon-feeding Cheney his "correction," Cheney still asserted that Saddam had a "reconstituted nuclear weapons capability." According to the BushBlog, Saddam "would have" attempted to develop nuclear weapons "at some future point," presumably right after he cleaned out the garage and alphabetized his CD collection.

Cheney's office might want a little more input in the BushBlog in the future.

Evenflow

Via Jesse Taylor at Pandagon.net, news of a blog that's presumably more to Dave Winer's liking.

It even explains what a blog is:

A blog is a free-flowing online journal that�s constantly updated with the latest news from throughout the Web. This blog will serve as your personal guide to the campaign to re-elect President Bush, with breaking news, grassroots updates, and posts from campaign leadership.

And here's the latest news from throughout over upon the Web:

Campaign Manager Ken Mehlman is traveling to Pennsylvania to announce the state's Bush-Cheney '04 campaign leadership. (Campaign staff hopes he returns with an ample supply of Hershey bars.) Joining Mehlman will be Senator Rick Santorum, the chairman of the Bush-Cheney '04 Pennsylvania leadership team. Serving as co-chairs will be Senator Arlen Specter and David Girard-diCarlo. Check www.GeorgeWBush.com later today for event highlights.

President Bush is scheduled to meet with his cabinet at 10:45 AM.

Flow on, oh mighty blog.

Vote Early, Not Austrian

Official results here.

The New Republic's reputation for crappy blogs with crappy names is intact. First, &c.; now, Easterblogg. I guess it's a good thing that TNR doesn't try to match the sheer volume of crap put out by National Review's The Corner.

A Sudden Change of Heart

Some news organizations received a chilling letter from the FBI last month telling them to preserve their notes, files, e-mails and photographs involving one Adrian Lamo. "Failure to comply with this request may subject you to criminal penalties," the letter said.

Lamo is a 22-year-old charged with hacking into the New York Times computer system; he has acknowledged this in interviews, including one with the Web site SecurityFocus.com. And even journalists who have merely written about the case, but never interviewed Lamo, have received such requests.

A Justice Department official says the FBI agent "acted out of turn" by not seeking approval from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and Attorney General John Ashcroft's press office. "The agent did not follow standard procedures," the official says. "We're just not going to pursue it. It is the policy of the Justice Department to exhaust all other means before seeking information from members of the media."

I'd like to think it's the attention that this blog brought to the story last week. But I'm guessing there was a different motive at work.

Crap Blogger Of The Month

Locating a blogger who's worse than Kaus or Sully is hard to do, but I think I've found a good candidate: Dave Winer.

Here's Winer on Howard Dean and his presidential campaign:

Several times, in different contexts at BC, I said that I don't care for the Dean weblog. I explained, when I go there I don't find anything that interests me. I see stuff that probably makes sense to people who support Dean but I'm not one of those people. I think the guy's an actor, and he tweaks a certain kind of person's optimism, but not mine. And get this, even if he did, after what I've seen in politics in my 48 years, and especially this year, I'm not believing anyone without a lot of questions answered in a way that add up for me. I think Dean's supporters, many of whom I admire, are selling out too soon and for too little. Dean is taking their money and giving it to Viacom, Disney, General Electric, Clear Channel, Fox and Time-Warner, just like all the rest. That's who owns him, not you. Now tell me something new on that blog, something honest, or even interesting, and I'll say so. But so far, zzzzz.

And get this, if Winer finds the Dean campaign blog boring, who I am to argue? But to criticize Dean for using campaign contributions on broadcast and cable ads is just moronic. Like every other candidate, Dean needs to buy television time to run a viable presidential campaign. He can't get his message heard on a whistle-stop train tour or by painting his name on the sides of barns. And he can't compete with Bush through buying blogads and with webchats.

Find me one internet contributor to Dean who thought Dean was going to plow his or her entire donation back into the web. That person doesn't exist. Suprisingly enough, Whiner, the people who contributed to Dean did so because they want him to become President. They know what Dean needs to do to get his message to the most voters -- national advertising. And they know that Dean (if he gets the nomination) needs to fight Repubican smears in the same forum they are made.

Of course, whining about media conglomerates while handing the election to Bush will just get you four more years of Michael Powell or his equally vile replacement, and more outlets in the hands of Murdoch, G.E. and Clear Channel. But you wouldn't want to use the power of the media to solve that problem, now wouldja Saint Dave?

p.s. to the Dean campaign: Of course, the internet is a valuable tool for getting information to supporters, bypassing Republican hacks like Tim Russert and, yes, raising contributions. And Roger Ailes, the weblog, is part of any savvy -- and thrifty -- pol's new media buy. E-mail me, Howard, and I'm sure we can do some business Davey will look upon with great favor.

p.s. to Dave: What the hell does a photo of a nurse have to do with the New York Times? And if campaign blogs are so fucking boring, why would the Times want or need a blog to cover them?

I'm Going to Rehab, I Swear

Just one more on Rush, and then I quit. I promise. I want to go out with a bang, if you get my drift. Hee hee hee.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you one giant sack of shit, from his forthcoming book "I Want To Tell You":

"Based on some things that I have read, things that people have written - and I understand it, what people have said - let me try one more time, ladies and gentlemen, on the story about me and drug use. When I said Friday that I didn't yet know what I was dealing with and that when I did I would tell you everything, I meant exactly that. Some people are interpreting that to mean, well, in fact, let me just be blunt. People are saying that I'm being Clintonesque, that I'm waiting until I know everything I have to deal with so that I can figure out what I have to lie about. That's what I said that Bill Clinton always did when we were waiting for him to come forth.

"Ladies and gentlemen, that's not what is going on here at all. I am waiting to find out just exactly what I am facing legally. And until I know that, I'm not going to say anything, I can't. But as I said Friday, I asked you to trust me, and I'm asking you again to trust me now and today. When such time comes, fear not; what there is to be known will be known, and I will tell you. But until it is permissible and makes sense for me to tell you that, I can't, and I won't. But I'm not holding anything back, and I'm not determining what it is that down the road I'm going to have to lie about. Believe me, I don't even have any desire to do that, and I haven't. So this is simply a matter of waiting until it is permissible. And when - as I say - until I know what I'm dealing with, I mean exactly that." (Quoted in full; I'm not linking to this sack's website again.)

Of course, not a single word of this is true. If you're not going to lie, Flush, why wait to find out what you're "facing legally?" If you're going to tell the truth, what does it matter what the legal consequences are? You're not holding anything back? -- you're not saying anything! Nothing is stopping you from telling the truth. Silence is the smart move legally, but even your dildoheads know you're lying when you say you can't talk.

You're not Clintonesque; you're Limbaughesque.

Find Your Polling Place

If you're a Californian, that is.

Tomorrow I will have an open thread for California residents (and anyone else, really) to discuss personal experiences, observations and news about the recall election.

"The court has also accepted cases that raise other civil rights and civil liberties issues.... An Arizona case turns on the rights, under the Americans With Disabilities Act, of an employee fighting drug addiction. By the time the court is done filling its docket, it may add term-defining cases on civil liberties in post-Sept. 11 America." -- New York Times editorial, October 6

Maybe Rush could file a friend of the court brief, accusing the employee of "find[ing] some greedy lawyer to buy [him or her] a ticket for the big-money lawsuit gravy train." And send it up to his friend on the high court, Clarence Thomas, tucked inside some porno mags.

I wonder if Bill Rehnquist will recuse himself on this one.

Brother, Can You Paradigm Shift?

"I told Doc tonight at dinner that I think we're at the cusp of a communication revolution with shifts in power as great as those at the end of the 1980s."

And then Issac brought me another Sex on the Beach, and I tried to feel up Captain Stubing's niece, you know, the one from Annie. I think I saw the Landers sisters too.

Anybody know anything about him?

"All [Maureen Dowd] has now is bourbon for mouthwash, and it's showing on her columns." -- October 21, 2002

"To Ted Kennedy, whose liver is said to be shaped like a Chivas Regal bottle, what Bush said and what's best for America and the Iraqis doesn't matter." -- September 23, 2003

"In the audio link below, I go into detail about these non-thinking talking points that 'you can't tell people what to do with their bodies' and 'you can't legislate morality.' First of all, we tell people what they can do to their bodies all the time - no cocaine, no prostitution, no throwing yourself off a building. Second, laws are nothing but defining morality!" -- June 27, 2003

"In a recent speech to the American Bar Association, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy complained about mandatory-minimum sentences. He claimed that sentences are too long and punishments are too severe.... [Paras.] Someone needs to remind Justice Kennedy that it's the legislative branch, not the Supreme Court, which makes law. Mandatory minimums are totally constitutional. And these tough sentencing laws were instituted for a reason. The American people, including liberals, demanded them. Don't you remember the crack cocaine epidemic? Crack babies and out-of-control murder rates? Liberal judges giving the bad guys slaps on the wrist? Finally we got tough, and the crime rate has been falling ever since, so what's wrong?" -- August 18, 2003

From the official campaign sites, I can only locate official blogs for Clark, Dean, Edwards, Graham and Kerry. If there are any good unofficial blogs for the remaining candidates -- or if I am mistaken -- please let me know.

Offer void in Canada and wherever Lyndon LaRouche is located.

Choose the Headline

A. "Schwarzenegger Bus Named 'Predator One;' Kaus Praises Arnold's Refreshing Honesty"

B. "Arnold Says: I'm Not A Nazi, I Just Admire Their Tactics"

I lean toward B, based on this quote:

As they were handing them out, the emcee revving up the crowd for Schwarzenegger asked the audience to welcome the media to town. With one exception:

�Who�s the guy with the LA Times?� the host asked. �Find him and beat him up, will you?�

And if she's a woman, grab her breasts and shove her up against a wall. For Sully's sake.

Kaus's Hero, Andy's Eagle, Deb's Old News

From the Los Angeles Times:

A 51-year-old woman who said Schwarzenegger pinned her to his chest and spanked her shortly after she met him at a West Los Angeles post-production studio in 2000.

Tamee Smith, 46, who said Schwarzenegger followed her into a bathroom on a studio lot and grabbed her breast during work on the movie "Predator" in 1986.

Jan Prinzmetal, 50, who said Schwarzenegger reached under her skirt and grabbed her bare buttocks outside a Venice gym in the mid-1980s.

Elizabeth Rothner, 45, who said Schwarzenegger lifted her sweatshirt at a popular Santa Monica bar in 1979, exposing her bare breasts before a crowd.

The Times provided details of each of the new allegations to Schwarzenegger's campaign Saturday. The candidate's spokesman, Sean Walsh, said Schwarzenegger had said that the accounts of three of the women were untrue. Walsh said Schwarzenegger had no recollection of the alleged Venice gym incident.

Jesse Taylor at Pandagon features a Glenn Reynolds post that is 10 times more stupid than the one featured below. And he dissects the hell out of it.

Here's the sum and substance -- or nub and nubbin -- of what passes for coherent thought in Tennessee higher education:

One comment that I made in passing earlier, and that seems more and more relevant as I think about it, is that the White House has a lot to gain by subpoenaing reporters who know about the Plame leaks. Doing that serves several useful purposes. First, once the press clams up and starts going on about protecting sources, it becomes extremely hard for it to claim that the White House is covering things up. "Who's stonewalling now?" can be the response.

Second, the press's complaints will look like special pleading (which they are). "If you leak this you're a traitor, but if we publish it, we're being great Americans," won't wash.

Jeez! And Jesse just annihilates Reynolds.

For Reynolds' sake, one can only hope that there was a severe carbon monoxide leak in his Cambridge hotel room, or that he was doing 'shrooms and angel dust with Dave Winer and Chris Lydon.

Also, I must apologize to the Cranes. Compared to this, you folks are Nobel prize winners.

Fischbacher & Horn

Certified public accountants?

CIA front company?

Abercrombie & Fitch without the pseudo-porn?

Submit your guesses in the Comments section, but don't reveal the answer if you know.

(The answer is here.)