Sadly, No!

In a previous post (click here or scroll down,) we quoted a random FoxNews personality who had argued that:

Mr. Secretary, I know you don?t get into politics, but Senator Kerry has been saying if he is elected, he will work hard to strengthen our military. That implies that our military is weak.

And yet here we have President Bush saying:

As he campaigned around the country last week, President Bush asked voters to give him another four years to make the nation “safer and stronger and better.”

That implies the US is not safe, not strong, and not good. Why does President Bush hate America?

(Bush quote via G.A. Cerny.)

FoxNews’ exclusive interview with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was quite an amazing interview… for us to poop on:

Perhaps not since World War II has the secretary of defense been under as much pressure as Donald Rumsfeld. Not only has he been charged with rebuilding the military for a post-Cold War era, but since September 11, 2001, when the Pentagon experienced a direct hit from a hijacked plane, he has been at the forefront of the effort to liberate Iraq and a major player in the war against terrorism.

This was followed by: Mr. Secretary, isn’t it true that you’re incapable of being wrong about something? And then there was more time for serious questions:

Mr. Secretary, I know you don?t get into politics, but Senator Kerry has been saying if he is elected, he will work hard to strengthen our military. That implies that our military is weak[.]

The follow up was: Mr. Secretary, John Kerry says your wife is ugly and that Teresa Heinz Kerry could slap that little bitch clear across the Potomac. What do you make of that?

And then, more serious questions:

Senator Kerry also says if he were president, he would consult more with our allies than the United Nations. But as I recall, you did that, didn?t you?

Fair… and balanced. If you have any FoxNews-type questions to ask Secretary Rumsfeld, feel free to leave them in the comments. Our favorite? Mr. Secretary, isn’t John Kerry a big poopyhead?

Thanks to Blair for the link.

Amanda alerts us to the fact that Amazon took down the customer reviews for My Pet Goat we’d written about here.

Sadly, we only have those reviews we quoted saved. If anyone out there has more, we’d love to put together a post that includes as many of them as possible. The current reviews are in the extended entry.
Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve written (maybe once or twice) about Iraq’ pre- and post-war electrical output. Which hasn’t stopped a certain blogger from Australia from publishing multiple factually challenged [referring to electrical production only, as we have not examined other elements of his posts] good news spinning posts, the latest version of which is now found at OpinionJournal. The latest good news about electricity (believe this is now the good news, if you can) is this:

Regarding electricity, 64 percent agreed to a question that power supplies were worse than under the ousted leader Saddam Hussein.

This according to a poll conducted “in seven major towns.” Knowing the sample size but nothing else, it’s hard to know what (if anything) one should make of this finding. What is interesting is that while we used to be able to compare actual levels of electrical production, apparently we now have to resort to polls to guesstimate whether things are improving. Earlier good news summaries included whoppers such as:

On the electrical front, production has reached 4,100 megawatts, still short of the target of 6,000 megawatts by June 30 [sic,] but with two caveats: it’s still better than before the war, where the production estimates varied anywhere from 300 megawatts to 4,400 megawatts – it is also distributed more evenly across Iraq[.]

Oh my. As we’ve pointed out before, June 30 was the second target set for 6,000 MW, changed from June 1. As for pre-war electricity production, it never was 300 MW. According to the US government:

Since the conflict, available electrical capacity has more than tripled, exceeding the pre-conflict generating level of 4,400 MW. [Then again, 4,400 MW only lasted a few days. –S,N!]

This PDF report published last week states:

Nevertheless, repairs helped boost electricity output above the pre-war 4,000 megawatt level by October, 2003, and dependable power was distributed to many parts of the country for the first time in years. After all the repairs are made, USAID, the CPA and Bechtel expect electricity production to reach 6,000 MW by the summer of 2004.

Last March, Iraq’s Minister of Electricity told us that:

But the Ministry of Electricity and the US-led coalition have now brought electricity generation nearly back to its pre-war level after 11 months of
slow reconstruction efforts and broken promises.

“We are producing right now around 4,200 megawatts,” the minister of electricity, Aihman al-Sammarae, told IRIN in Baghdad. “We have broadly reached pre-war levels.” Prior to the war, power generation was roughly 4,500 megawatts.

The only time we saw this 300 MW estimate was in a Caspar Weinberger column in Forbes based, we have to assume, on information from the bizarro world.

So why do the CPA, Paul Bremer, the U.S. State Department and Iraq’s Minister of Electricity hate Iraq?

If, and we have no reason to believe otherwise, Iraq’s electrical output remains stuck at around 4,000 MW, then all that coalition forces have managed is to restore the situation that existed prior to the war. Does this sound like good news?:

The CPA’s own daily statistics show that power generation was higher on October 1 last year than it is today, and has fluctuated around the 4,000MW mark for the past eight months. (June 15, 2004.)

We’d have to say… Sadly, No!

Typo fixed thanks to Frederick.

What are the other kids writing about today?

Over at Lawyers, Guns and Money, Scott takes a look at Juan Williams’ latest piece of spectacular hackery:

Anyone who looks at the totality of Bush’s policy and then holds up Rod Paige and wonders why Bush isn’t gaining traction is a fucking idiot.

That’s a roger.

At My Blahg, Robert provides some useful debunking of the claim that the CRTC (Canada’s equivalent of the FCC) has allowed Al Jazeera to broadcast but has banned Fox News:

Well, it’s a funny thing, but apparently the CRTC has no recollection of any attempt on their part to block Fox News from broadcasting in Canada. In fact, it would seem that a licence was issued in 2000 for Fox to start up, in conjunction with Global TV, Fox News Canada. It also seems that there is currently a proposal on the CRTC’s list of cases for this year to allow the actual Fox News to broadcast in Canada.

Tim Lambert reports that John Lott isn’t the only pro-gunner who makes shit up:

Back to Kevin Baker?s post. He conceded that British law allows self-defence, but argued that prosecution of self-defenders means that it is not legal in practice. I challenged him on this, pointing out that he didn?t have a single case where this had occurred. In his latest post Baker tries to find “just one example of the government prosecuting someone for an obvious case of self defense”. […]

There is a pattern here. In the obvious cases of self-defence, the ones where the fatal wound was inflicted in the front, the killer was not prosecuted.

And lastly, SullyWatch offers his thoughts on F9/11:

The soldiers, and indeed all the regular Americans shown in the film, really stand in stark contrast to Bush, Rice, Powell, Wolfowitz and all the other officials. It?s hard to imagine that even the most partisan red-state Republican is not going to feel at least some empathy for Lila Lipscomb, the deeply religious conservative Democrat who, in the most painful scene, reads her late son?s last letter, urging her to vote Bush out, from Iraq. Piss on this movie and you piss on her.

The Dark Window goes where few bloggers dare: to the latest Wilson C. Lucom column at NewsMax:

You could be dead right now from additional terrorist attacks if President Bush had followed the dangerous policy of Sen. John Kerry and continued delaying the fight against terrorism.

And Wilson’s just getting warmed up!

And it’s because of posts like this by Andrew Sullivan:

THE NYT COMES CLEAN: Nope, there was no bounce from Edwards. Mickey gloats.

Which links to an entry that begins thusly:

Rare Rasmussen bounce (for Kerry) nearly all gone.

Nearly all gone. To go, don’t you first need to be there?

Jim Pinkerton provides data point # 25,383 as to why TechCentralStation is a waste of web server space:

The actor Rupert Everett is here in Bangkok; at a press conference on Monday, he was asked about ABC. His answer was that it was “kind of criminal” for anyone to argue that condoms don’t work. Of course, the ABC-ers have said no such thing. [Emphasis added]

Let’s go to the video tape:

The new CDC regulations, published in the Federal Register, are mandatory for any AIDS-fighting organization that receives federal money for HIV prevention, and they finish the job of gutting effective, disease-preventing safe-sex education that has been a goal of the Bush Administration since it took office. Far from trying to “learn” from the Ugandans, the regs demand that any sex-ed “content” include information on the “lack of effectiveness of condom use.” [Emphasis added] link

and:

There are groups of American missionaries working in northern Uganda, but many of these are opposed to condom use, telling villagers that condoms don’t work and to simply wait to have sex until marriage. link

CNS News reports:

Internet instant messaging is one of the most popular methods for teens and even adults to stay in touch with friends and family. One of the better known messenger programs, AIM, offers the feature called Smarter Child, a robot programmed to provide automated responses to those with whom it chats. […]

But when Erin told the robot that “George Bush is awesome,” she was shocked by the response. “No way. George W. Bush is way uncool,” the reply stated. She asked, “Do you like George W. Bush?” and the program replied, “I’m a Kerry supporter myself.”

Testing the waters, she typed in “John Kerry rocks.” The robot’s response: “Absolutely. John Kerry rocks.” […]

Not satisfied with that answer, Erin persisted in getting the robot to open up. “I have my reasons, believe me. I really, really don’t like George W. Bush,” the robot explained. [Emphasis added]

Later, Erin tried to find out if the robot likes her or really likes her, followed by a lengthy discussion about her friend Paris who has a big secret to tell his parents.

(Via Hairy Fish Nuts.)

Added: Victoria Herring points out that the robot has been fixed.

(Update: Following Amazon’s deletion of the reviews, we are happy to offer a copy here.)

Alan (the anti-Blair) sends us a link to these Amazon customer reviews of My Pet Goat:

I’m sure historians will look back and say, gosh, the goat could’ve done it better this way or that way. […]

See, I’m of the belief that the goat will find out the truth on the weapons. That’s why the goat sent up the independent commission. The goat looks forward to hearing the truth as to exactly where they are. They could still be there. They could be hidden, like the 50 tons of mustard gas in a goat farm.

and:

I never like to read – I don’ like to make my brain work that hard. But I think this is the most wonderful book in the world. When I was sittin’ in that class, and Andy told me the US was under attack – why, I just had no idea what to do! I sat for a while waitin’ for somebody to come and tell me what to do, but they did’n. Then I decided I just better do somethin’ to make me look busy and like I knew whut I was doin’. So I picked up this book and acted like I was readin’ it. I think the kids where real impressed that I was readin’. But what I don’ understand is why that teacher was zoomin’ that camera in on my face the whole time.

as well as:

I just couldn’t put it down! Certainly much more interesting than Richard Clarke’s memo of August 6, 2001 entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States”.

or even:

A riveting story that keeps you glued to the page until the stunning climax. Even a notification from your staff that the nation you lead is under attack can’t keep you from reading the gut-wrenching final words.

Read the whole thing — and be sure to tell Amazon whether those reviews were helpful to you.