Author: N.Z. Bear

NZB on Northern Alliance Radio

I just called in and surprised Ed, John Hindraker, Scott Johnson, and Mitch Berg on Northern Alliance Radio. I started with a question on PowerLine’s latest news that Big Dan is heading to Dallas, and they not surprisingly had a few questions for me on the Ecosystem.
My first radio appearance, as it turns out, and a most enjoyable experience speaking to the fine Northern Alliance gentlemen. My only complaint is, as far as I know, the Northern Alliance doesn’t offer any online archives, so I can’t go back and listen to how silly I sounded…
Update: The Northern Alliance folks are now talking to Jed Babbin about his book, Inside the Asylum, which discusses the ongoing horror-comedy which is the United Nations. Jed’s position is that the U.N. can’t be saved, as we’d never get the votes needed to kick out the despot states that are the true problem. I’m right there with him; and have said many of the same things:
It would be possible to establish an international body that does not suffer from this flaw, of course. The basic requirement would be simple: to join the club, a nation must be a democracy, with truly free and fair elections, and in particular, membership must be requested directly by the people of that nation through a referendum (no EU-style communities of elites here).
Personally, I

Blogger Jammies: Soon!

No, I haven’t forgotten about actual blogger jammies. With my major work deadline successfully survived on Tuesday, I’ve gotten some sleep and am now more or less caught up with laundry, watering plants, and similar life functions. And I’ll be devoting some attention to the Pajama Project this weekend.
Suggestions on possible vendors who might be able to create such jammies remain welcome…
-NZB

MoveOn’s Quagmire: What could have been

The problem with latest ad, ‘Quagmire’, is not what is shown.
The problem is what isn’t shown. The ad ends with a powerful final image of an American soldier trapped in quicksand, his hands held over his head in a position of surrender.
But that shouldn’t have been the final image. The final image should have been of that soldier being pulled to safety by the hand of John Kerry. And, though it might irk the MoveOn crowd, an even better final image would be that soldier continuing his jog towards battle, intent on completing his mission.
The ad is effective: it creates a deep desire in the viewer to see that soldier rescued. But MoveOn is too obsessed with defeat to take advantage of the psychological payoff their own ad sets up. They aren’t interested in showing rescue for that poor soldier, let alone victory. And by focusing on the soldier’s defeat, they wade into dangerous waters, where the very integrity of their position is dependent on the failure not of George Bush — but on the failure of the men and women who are on the front lines in this war.
This is a deeply unhealthy attitude. It’s not new, but never has been it expressed so clearly (ok, almost never). And it’s not a position that a U.S. Senator aspiring to the office of Commander in Chief should want anything to do with.

What, no cake?

Quick, call Shrum: let Teresa out!
NEW YORK – Teresa Heinz Kerry, encouraging volunteers as they busily packed supplies Wednesday for hurricane relief efforts in the Caribbean, said she was concerned the effort was too focused on sending clothes instead of essentials like water and electric generators.
“Clothing is wonderful, but let them go naked for a while, at least the kids,” said Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news – web sites). “Water is necessary, and then generators, and then food, and then clothes.”
It takes a special kind of lady to generate negative publicity while supporting relief efforts. You go girl!
Hat tip: Drudge

CBS Asking for Defamation Lawsuit?

Conventional wisdom over the past week has been that the actual target of the CBS story — President Bush — could certainly try to sue CBS for slander, but that he obviously won’t due to the political implications of such a move. But observe this passage from from the CBS statement:
“Two of the examiners, Mssrs. Matley and Pierce, attested and continue to attest to their belief in the documents

Deja Vu


“We established to our satisfaction that the memos were accurate or we would not have put them on television. There was a great deal of coroborating [sic] evidence from people in a position to know. Having said that, given all the questions about them, we believe we should redouble our efforts to answer those questions, so that’s what we are doing.”

Nothing to see Move along!

Enjoyed it so much the first time

Kerry’s supporters have apparently decided that since focusing on Vietnam worked out so splendidly for them in August, like to do it all over again in October:
Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, a new documentary by George Butler, hits theaters in the United States on Oct. 1. The film, which had its world premiere here Tuesday evening, is sure to land the Swifties in the news again. For one, the movie is based on Tour of Duty, the Douglas Brinkley hagiography that the Swift Boat vets say incited them to action in the first place.
Brilliant. It’s times like these that the value of our political system shines through . If you run a stupid campaign, there’s a good chance you’d run a stupid Presidency as well.

Proposal: Blogger Jammies!

“Bloggers have no checks and balances . . . [it’s] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas.” — Klein
This is, of course, far too delicious a statement to simply ignore. Already, bloggers have taken it up as a badge of honor.
A modest proposal, then:
1) We find a clothing producer willing to custom make pajamas for sale.
2) We produce a special run of “blogger’s pajamas” for sale over the ‘net.
3) We donate the proceeds to some worthy cause; perhaps Spirit of America, Operation Give, or the latest Strengthen the Good cause, under the banner of the CBS News “We got our asses kicked by guys in pajamas” Fund.
I’d buy a pair. What say you?
We’ll need an appropriate design, of course. I’m thinking Mr. Klein’s immortal quote goes on the back, and some kind of thingy on the front chest pocket, maybe as follows:
“Blogosphere Truth Squad: We can fact-check your ass without even getting dressed.”
Anyone have suggestions on a) where we could get such garments made (CafePress, sadly, doesn’t seem to do jammies), and b) appropriate designs?

Three Years On

I’m under some extreme deadline pressure at work (just got home from a 14-hour weekend day), so I’ve been a bit absent.
And I’ve missed all the fun! What is the frequenthy, Kenneth, indeed.
I also didn’t have time to compose any sort of an anniversary post for today. But my sentiments and thoughts have changed very little in the past three years, so feel free to read Turning Point (9/11/2002) if you didn’t do so way-back-when. I’ll only add what I stated on September 11, 2003:
This is not the anniversary of a “tragedy”. It is the anniversary of an attack; planned and carried out by men who conciously and deliberately inflicted the death and suffering of that day on the citizens of our nation — and many others.
I believe that September 11th, 2001 represented one battle of a larger war — not the first, by any means, and as much as we might regret it, not the last. You may disagree with my use of the word “war”. But what you think, and what I think, doesn’t matter: because it is clear that the remnants of those who attacked us two years ago are quite clear-minded, and they have no doubt that it is war — ask them yourself.
We forget this at our peril.
I wish the best for all who lost loved ones two years ago on this painful day. And for all of us, I wish safety, and more to the point, victory: for we will never, ever find the former if we do not achieve the latter.

I don’t like him when he’s angry, either.


“KERRY HULK SMASH PUNY BUSH!!!”
Kerry Hulk Update: “Unless it not smashing at right time. Then KERRY HULK NOT SMASH PUNY BUSH!!!”
Kerry Hulk Update Some More: “When Kerry Hulk say Kerry Hulk smash, Kerry Hulk mean Kerry Hulk should have authority to smash. Actually smashing was not what Kerry Hulk meant at all.”
Kerry Hulk Again Updating: “Unless Kerry Hulk allies approve. Kerry Hulk need allies for smashing. If Kerry Hulk allies approve, then Kerry Hulk smash.”
Kerry Hulk Getting Tired of Updates: “But not these allies. Those allies bad. Not good enough to approve smashing. Not like these allies. Those allies good. If those allies say Smash, then KERRY HULK SMASH!!!”
*In other Hulk-related news, Real Hulk doesn’t care much for Real Kerry’s foreign policy solutions…

MoveOn.org PAC FEC Filings

MoveOn.org recently made a million dollar ad buy for ads to run during the Republican convention, and you can now see their filing data showing up on the FEC web site. (This is the MoveOn.org PAC; not the MoveOn.org Voter Fund 527)
Seeing such a large ad buy led me to start poking around further on MoveOn’s filings, and I found one interesting note. The FEC appears to be keeping an eye on MoveOn.org: you can see a MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENT which reads:
This submission is in response to the Commission’s letter of August 18, 2004 regarding the committee’s 2004 July Quarterly Report.
Please note that all media expenditures disclosed on Schedule B were not allocable to any federal candidate and were properly reported on Schedule B, Line 21(b).
So it sounds like the FEC questioned some expenditures, perhaps suggesting that they should have been listed as supporting a particular candidate.
If you trace back to MoveOn’s July 2004 Quarterly Report, you can see that the section in question, SCHEDULE B ITEMIZED DISBURSEMENTS Line #: 21B shows a bunch of expenditures for things like Internet access, Health insurance, Political Consulting, and others. I guess MoveOn’s contention is that these expenditures — which seem to represent the bulk of their operating expenses — aren’t directly related to supporting any candidate. But the FEC appears to be questioning that categorization, in particular for “media expenditures.” There are some line items for “media consulting” and “media production” — and then there is one line item for a “media purchase”:
Media Strategies
1580 Lincoln Street
Denver, Colorado 80203
06/11/2004
Media Purchase 1147414.00
So that particular item — which looks like a $1.1M ad buy — might be the one that is puzzling the FEC. And there doesn’t seem to be a corresponding detailed filing (like the one for the $2.9M buy above) for this expenditure.
Hard to tell anything definitive, and it is worth noting that it’s unclear whether this level of scrutiny is unique to MoveOn.org or if every PAC is getting similar memos. But interesting…

Dukakisization: Kerry Strikes Back!

Kerry is moving to address danger of creeping Dukakisization by shuffling his campaign staff yet again:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, under pressure to bring new focus to his campaign, added a veteran political strategist to his travelling campaign entourage, rounding out changes to his senior staff.
Democratic National Committee General Election Manager John Sasso will become the senior campaign staffer aboard the Kerry campaign plane, a key role in the final weeks leading up to the election.
Excellent!
Sasso’s r

Navy Decides to Meddle in Kerry’s Medals

So the Navy is an investigation into John Kerry’s medals:
“Even if it was the Navy’s fault,” one source following the story told NewsMax, “surely Senator Kerry knew the citations were wrong. Why did it take a formal Navy probe for him to correct records he had to know were fraudulent?”
Kerry received five medals during his four months in combat in Vietnam, including a Silver Star with a “Combat V” designation. A Navy source confirmed last week, however, that in the entire history of the Navy, no Silver Star has ever been awarded with “Combat V.”
Happily, Kerry has already staked out his first position on this issue, which means we’ll get to his second position all that much sooner:
In 1996, Adm. [Jeremy] Boorda committed suicide after he was accused of wearing medals he hadn’t earned.
At the time, Sen. Kerry told the Boston Herald that the error was “sufficient to question his leadership position.”
“If you wind up being less than what you’re pretending to be, there is a major confrontation with value, self-esteem and your sense of how others view you,” Kerry told the Boston Globe.
I have a simple explanation for this whole medal flap. Kerry obviously must have confused the medals he won in Vietnam with the medals of two other Vietnam vets that he threw back in protest.
An easy mistake to make, really; could happen to anybody…
More at:
Instapundit
Steve Verdon
Beldarblog
Powerline
dislogue
DailyPundit
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
JustOneMinute (part of a fine Kerry reprise post)

GPS Stalking?

Quick thought: It’s late, and I’m heading to bed, but story about a man who “stalked” a woman “with GPS” seems technically wrong to me.

Campaign Finance Reform 60-day window is here

In case y’all hadn’t noticed, we’re now within 60 days of the election, which means that in theory, groups are now prohibited from running television and radio ads:
Restrictions on “Phony Issue Ads” Run by Corporations and Unions (The Snowe-Jeffords Amendment). First adopted as part of McCain-Feingold during the Senate

God Save The Queen!

Ok, now this is just a bit, er,
Top Politics sites in the UK by market share of visits, for the week ending August 28th
1. British National Party (5.60%)
2. Guardian Unlimited Politics (5.30%)
3. YouGov (5.21%)
4. Petition Online (3.56%)
5. The Truth Laid Bear (2.45%)
6. Conservative Party (2.43%)
7. JohnKerry.com (2.34%)
8. Free Republic (2.31%)
9. Indymedia UK (2.27%)
10. Michael Moore (1.79%)
(13) Jib Jab (1.57%)
(23) George W. Bush (0.99%)

And also see this news piece on the report:
UK interest in November