“Monsieur Arafat n’est pas mort” affirmait l’officier ? la fin d’un communiqu? laconique lu devant les m?dias dans la cour de l’h?pital.
Vice President Dick Cheney, back home after a brief hospital visit, has nothing more than a cold and his heart is fine, an adviser said Sunday.
Thanks to Rob for the link.
Thanks to Atrios, we caught this David Brooks “correction:”
Not that it will do him much good at this point, but I owe John Kerry an apology. I recently mischaracterized some comments he made to Larry King in December 2001. I said he had embraced the decision to use Afghans to hunt down Al Qaeda at Tora Bora. He did not. I regret the error.
Brooks did that, and so much more. Here is the multi-paragraph screed that Brooks built on the basis of a quote, he now writes, didn’t mean what he thinks it meant:
Even in this shocking moment, this echo of Sept. 11, Kerry saw his political opportunities and he took ’em. There’s such a thing as being so nakedly ambitious that you offend the people you hope to impress.
But politics has shaped Kerry’s approach to this whole issue. Back in December 2001, when bin Laden was apparently hiding in Tora Bora, Kerry supported the strategy of using Afghans to hunt him down. He told Larry King that our strategy “is having its impact, and it is the best way to protect our troops and sort of minimalize the proximity, if you will. I think we have been doing this pretty effectively, and we should continue to do it that way.”
But then the political wind shifted, and Kerry recalculated. Now Kerry calls the strategy he supported “outsourcing.” When we rely on allies everywhere else around the world, that’s multilateral cooperation, but when Bush does it in Afghanistan, it’s “outsourcing.” In Iraq, Kerry supports using local troops to chase insurgents, but in Afghanistan he is in post hoc opposition.
This is why Kerry is not cleaning Bush’s clock in this election. Many people are not sure that he gets the fundamental moral confrontation. Many people are not sure he feels it, or feels anything. Since he joined the Senate, what cause has he taken a political risk for? Has he devoted himself selflessly and passionately to any movement larger than himself?
We are revealed by what we hate. When it comes to Osama bin Laden, Kerry hasn’t revealed whatever it is that lies inside. [Emphasis added.]
Hack is as hack does.
Let’s hope that the answer is yes:
Oh, this is going to be good. Let’s give it up for Renew America guest columnist, Helen M. Valois:
“That […] was a loss for Illinois, and for the Republican Party, and for the country as a whole, not for Dr. Keyes.”
That Dr. Keyes sure is a big winner.
We got to wait in vain for Dr. Keyes to be invited to give the keynote address at the Republican National Convention, counterbalancing Obama’s role on the Democratic side. Wouldn’t we want to show the world that we, too, are a diverse party, graced to have within our midst an orator capable of moving hearts in our platform’s direction?
We hate to break it to you Helen, but we think you’re gonna be doin’ a whole lot of waitin’ in the future.
If Alan Keyes were truly “unelectable,” America would be no more. But Alan Keyes isn’t “unelectable,” just unelected for the time being, as divine providence would have it. And that is something to be hopeful and not humiliated about.
Keyes isn’t unelectable, he’s unelected. The reason that he’s unelected is that, well, God didn’t want him to be elected, preferring instead that socialist Osbama. And that, of course, is a good thing? God works in mysterious ways after all.
Listen to Tony Snow some time, talking about how we conservatives happen to be “winning in the marketplace of ideas” at the moment ? as though truth itself were a commodity to be traded along with soybeans and hogs. Perhaps we should assign it a point value, and upgrade its status daily on the NASDAQ.
We’ll tell you this much Helen: if you ever attempt to have your idea of truth listed on NASDAQ, you better be prepared to see your stock delisted pretty quickly.
We now bring you the worst joke ever on Sadly, No!: While the web site is called Renew America, its columnists too often write like the one thing they haven’t been renewing is their prescription.
Thank you.
President Lookin’ Into Souls speaks:
“Well, I’m confident when people realize that there’s a chance to vote on a president, they will participate,” President Bush said Wednesday when asked whether the participation of Sunni Muslims would be necessary to make the elections free and fair. […]
As I reminded our citizens prior to the Afghanistan elections, there’s a deep desire in every soul to vote and to be free, and to participate in the presidential elections,” he said.
In fact, Iraqis will not choose their president directly. They will be voting to choose a National Assembly of 275 members, which will elect from its members a president and two deputies and write a constitution. [Emphasis added, stupidity in the original.]
The article’s headline is “Confusion in White House on Aim of Iraq Election,” which seems to be a polite way of saying “President unaware of any facts about the upcoming elections in Iraq.”
(Thanks to Blair for the link.)
Apparently, full disclosure isn’t spelled Gonzales:
Alberto R. Gonzales – the White House declined to release his middle name, saying that Mr. Gonzales prefers the initial – was born on Aug. 4, 1955.
This post is dedicated to the use of extremely obscure references as titles.
Added: Do you know Mr. Gonzale’s middle name? Leave your answer in the comments. By email, Blair suggests it is Ru Paul.
That we didn’t make some very obvious (and obviously bad) pun about this rather stunning story.
Germany’s most popular newspaper published a front page story yesterday that we know you (if by you, one means Frederick) are going to be interested in: the first official German orgasm study! (You know they have good editors at that paper because right below the orgasm story here is an article titled “10 important questions about hemorrhoids.”) But we digress.
According to the study’s author, it’s “difficult for men to tell the difference between a real and a fake orgasm,” while a sex therapist added “women can act very well.” Given that 9 out of 10 women have faked it, the problem is obviously widespread. So what is a man to do? Read the “how to recognize a deception in bed” of course. [You’ll have to translate it yourselves though.]
There were more disturbing results: German women’s orgasms over the course of their lifetime will last a combined 1.4 hours, while men will spend 9.3 hours on the job during their lifetime. But some German men aren’t taking this report lying down. According to this guy, his girlfriend spends more than 1.4 hours a month having orgasms. Given that the study reported that the average woman’s orgasm lasts 20 seconds, that works out to 256 orgasms a month, slightly more than 8 per day.
Hmm, we bet this guy finds himself saying Yeah, and if i catch the guy who did it! quite often.
Just in case the answer is sadly, no!, here it is:
Added: ok, so everyone else knew about it. The company is TOM BIHN. (Thanks to Mnemosyne.)
There’s nothing good to say about the Monica Lewinsky affair, but frankly it’s a bit stunning to read such stuff in Jeanie Boulet Star Parker’s column:
What does it say when Bill Clinton of Monica Lewinsky fame continues to get the warm welcome he does in black churches?
Right, Bill Clinton is “famous” because of the Monica Lewinsky stuff, not because he was elected to the White House. Twice.
Star continues:
One reason Bill Clinton gets the affection he does from blacks, despite the truth that he represents everything destructive to our community, is that blacks sense that he cares.
If the black community’s biggest problem is the threat posed by blow jobs from unattractive white women, we’d say they don’t have much to worry about.
Every single black in America should have voted for George Bush. His social agenda and economic agenda are precisely what black America needs.
We’re gonna need some help to handle that one. See you in ten whiskey sours everybody!