Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Sometimes Life is Funny and Sometimes It Ain't
A few choice scenes from the rich pageant that is the summer of 2004:
Ain't Funny: As I predicted here several months ago (but was not the only one to predict), the Senate Intelligence Committee report on Iraq intelligence failures allows the Bush Administration to claim they were the innocent and trusting victims of CIA incompetence. It also contains the added bonus of proclaiming that nobody pressured the CIA to provide justifications for the war--which nobody paying attention honestly believes. Mother Jones suggests that the Senate looked in the wrong places, and their investigation failed to get at some critical issues that may have revealed how the administration got what it wanted to justify the war it intended to wage.
Funny: Setting up yesterday's celebrity press conference staged by Republicans in support of the gay-marriage amendment, Wonkette noted: "They're fighting fire with fire. Today at 3PM, former Washington Redskin Darrell Green, actor Dean Jones, and Pat fucking Boone will speak out in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment. So it's really more like fighting fire with a stick that's been sitting under a lamp for awhile." And her post-conference take on Pat Boone's appearance is classic.
Ain't Funny: Also from Wonkette this morning: A series of memos--all real, none from Ana Marie's fertile brain--from Fox News executives showing the ways, both obvious and subtle, that reporters are instructed to frame their reporting to benefit Bush and the Republicans. They were released by makers of a new documentary film, Outfoxed, which explores Fox's news management.
Funny: Desperate Illinois Republicans are considering whether to draft former Bears coach Mike Ditka to replace Jack Ryan in the U.S. Senate race. State Senator Dave Syverson, a member of the Republican central committee, says Ditka is "the ideal candidate"--which, if true, says a lot about the tapped-out nature of Illinois Republicans--and then he gets even funnier: "The public is really tired of the slick politicians. They're tired of sound bites. They're tired of trial lawyers running government. The fact that he's blunt and honest and represents ordinary people, I think he could shake up the dinosaurs in Washington." Yep, that's Mike Ditka--an ordinary man who happens to be an ex-pro athlete and TV commentator with millions in endorsement deals. And as we all know, what the Republican Party needs is more bluntness--as if they weren't already stomping around like Godzilla on crack.
A few choice scenes from the rich pageant that is the summer of 2004:
Ain't Funny: As I predicted here several months ago (but was not the only one to predict), the Senate Intelligence Committee report on Iraq intelligence failures allows the Bush Administration to claim they were the innocent and trusting victims of CIA incompetence. It also contains the added bonus of proclaiming that nobody pressured the CIA to provide justifications for the war--which nobody paying attention honestly believes. Mother Jones suggests that the Senate looked in the wrong places, and their investigation failed to get at some critical issues that may have revealed how the administration got what it wanted to justify the war it intended to wage.
Funny: Setting up yesterday's celebrity press conference staged by Republicans in support of the gay-marriage amendment, Wonkette noted: "They're fighting fire with fire. Today at 3PM, former Washington Redskin Darrell Green, actor Dean Jones, and Pat fucking Boone will speak out in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment. So it's really more like fighting fire with a stick that's been sitting under a lamp for awhile." And her post-conference take on Pat Boone's appearance is classic.
Ain't Funny: Also from Wonkette this morning: A series of memos--all real, none from Ana Marie's fertile brain--from Fox News executives showing the ways, both obvious and subtle, that reporters are instructed to frame their reporting to benefit Bush and the Republicans. They were released by makers of a new documentary film, Outfoxed, which explores Fox's news management.
Funny: Desperate Illinois Republicans are considering whether to draft former Bears coach Mike Ditka to replace Jack Ryan in the U.S. Senate race. State Senator Dave Syverson, a member of the Republican central committee, says Ditka is "the ideal candidate"--which, if true, says a lot about the tapped-out nature of Illinois Republicans--and then he gets even funnier: "The public is really tired of the slick politicians. They're tired of sound bites. They're tired of trial lawyers running government. The fact that he's blunt and honest and represents ordinary people, I think he could shake up the dinosaurs in Washington." Yep, that's Mike Ditka--an ordinary man who happens to be an ex-pro athlete and TV commentator with millions in endorsement deals. And as we all know, what the Republican Party needs is more bluntness--as if they weren't already stomping around like Godzilla on crack.
