Month: October 2007

Cracked.com kinda rips off the Dish’s ’80s video contest. (I’m thinking of running a contest, like the movie lines, by the way. The only problem is that Viacom has yanked a lot of the best videos from Youtube. Should we try?) Not that riveting, but it’s a great excuse to run one of the biggest crowd pleasers of the series: Pat Benatar’s "Love Is A Battlefield." Hey, it’s Friday, I’m in LA, and I’m off to lunch with Arianna:

The American Spectator parts from the emerging CW:

Fourteen times, the state ethics commission — a respected body, not a partisan witch-hunt group — investigated claims against Huckabee. Five of those times, it officially reprimanded him. And, as only MSNBC among the big national media has reported at any real length, there were lots of other mini-scandals and embarrassments along the way.

He used public money for family restaurant meals, boat expenses, and other personal uses. He tried to claim as his own some $70,000 of furniture donated to the governor’s mansion. He repeatedly, and obstinately, against the pleadings even from conservative columnists and editorials, refused to divulge the names of donors to a "charitable" organization he set up while lieutenant governor — an outfit whose main charitable purpose seemed to be to pay Huckabee to make speeches. Then, as a kicker, he misreported the income itself from the suspicious "charity."

It’s worth a read.

(Photo: Stephanie Kuykendal/Getty.)

Ottawa, Canada, 11.30 am.

"For the Bush Doctrine to survive Bush, it will have to incorporate all we have learned since he formulated it. Much of it comes down to this: the Middle East is not Europe, Iraq is not Germany, and Afghanistan is not Japan. (They are not Vietnam either.) The road to hell is paved with bad analogies, which are no substitute for lived experience and specific knowledge. According to the Greek poet Archilochus, “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” The hedgehogs have taken the Bush Doctrine as far as they can. Now it is the turn of the foxes," – Martin Kramer, Commentary.

My only quibble is that seeing the fight against Islamism as a subtle, multi-pronged effort that requires more than brute force – i.e. restraint, unseemly alliances at times, diplomacy, etc. – is essentially the end of the Bush doctrine. And can you imagine Rudy Giuliani being able or willing to adopt any such strategy? And yet Kramer is advising him.

After Elton has compiled Stewart’s greatest hits on the gay issue. I should say I feel an enormous debt to Stewart and his writers. To hear and watch a straight guy consistently and passionately defend the rights and dignity of gay people, and to see him skewer so much of the pompous, irrational and hateful blather that comes out of today’s degenerate GOP is a mitzvah. He does it better than our often-lame gay groups. And he doesn’t have to do any of it. Thanks, Mr Stewart. History will be kind to you.

My bet is she’ll be calling him soon enough:

Much to my amazement, I found out that she certainly could have found 10 minutes for the voters of Harrison County at some point in the last four months.

According to the Washington Post, since July 30 Hillary Clinton has missed 42 votes in the U.S. Congress. That’s right. Forty-two votes. Her job right now is campaigning to be the next President of the United States. It’s not serving the people of New York.

Since January, 18 people running for President of our great country have granted me time over the phone – some, like Barack Obama, Tom Tancredo, Joe Biden and Tommy Thompson have even met with me in person. Sen. Clinton, my number is 712-216-0012. Call any time.

Heh. She’s not president yet!

Maybe everything else is just make-work:

A split-second glance at two candidates’ faces is often enough to determine which one will win an election, according to a Princeton University study.

Princeton psychologist Alexander Todorov has demonstrated that quick facial judgments can accurately predict real-world election returns. Todorov has taken some of his previous research that showed that people unconsciously judge the competence of an unfamiliar face within a tenth of a second, and he has moved it to the political arena. His lab tests show that a rapid appraisal of the relative competence of two candidates’ faces was sufficient to predict the winner in about 70 percent of the races for U.S. senator and state governor in the 2006 elections.

"We never told our test subjects they were looking at candidates for political office — we only asked them to make a gut reaction response as to which unfamiliar face appeared more competent," said Todorov, an assistant professor of psychology and public affairs. "The findings suggest that fast, unreflective judgments based on a candidate’s face can affect voting decisions."

But couldn’t this be an indicator of already-formed views of politicians? Nah. Americans even predicted unknown Mexican politicians as winners:

"Political scientists have spent 50 years documenting only modest and conditional effects of the media on voting behavior, but Todorov’s research suggests we may have been looking in the wrong place," said Chappell Lawson, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Most of these previous studies have relied on transcripts or printed records of what the media say, with much less attention to visual images."

Lawson, who called Todorov’s work "pioneering and seminal," added that some of his co-authored work with MIT’s Gabriel Lenz corroborates the new findings. Their research shows that American students could predict the outcome of elections in Mexico based on the same gut reactions.

"The findings surprised us, because Mexican politicians often emphasize very different aspects of their appearance — for instance, by sporting beards and mustaches, which American political figures avoid. But Americans could still pick out the Mexican winners. Our data show effects at least as strong as those Todorov’s team found."

You think Newark sucks? Try Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport:

Location: Dakar, Senegal

Firsthand account: “There is only squalor, an unnerving sense of confinement, and to some extent danger.” —Patrick Smith, Salon.com, May 25, 2007

Why it’s so bad: Because it’s standing room only. As a regional hub, an ordeal at Senghor is often unavoidable for travelers to West Africa. Once you’re in the terminal, don’t plan on relaxing: There are no seats, and guards will advise you to stop loitering if you hang around in one spot too long. Immigration lines can take up to three hours. And in any event, it’s best to keep moving since you can expect to be surrounded by vendors selling counterfeit goods and unofficial “porters” who will pressure you into hiring their services if you happen to come to a standstill.

Foreign Policy tells you where else to avoid here.

This is interesting:

Thompson agreed that he didn’t share the views of Vice President Cheney when it comes to the supremacy of the executive branch. "No, I think the constitution in times of war, especially, is very definitive about that," he said. "The president is the commander in chief, but the Congress has the power of the budget. The power of the purse. So everything has to go through that prism. So it’s divided power in the constitution. Our founding fathers divided that up. Divided it up at the federal level, the idea being that things like Watergate should be made very difficult to happen. So no one branch of the government can misuse power."

Thompson described checks and balances as "a constant tug and pull. Controversy and differences of opinion over legitimate national security concerns is not a bad thing. Every branch needs to stand up for itself. And I saw that as, in effect, an attorney for the executive branch, and then as a legislator."

And this is what a humble Christian sounds like:

"I think that when a man has been through the heights and depths of life, and when he’s had the tragedies and the blessings of life, as I have, I think you develop an even greater sense of what’s important and what’s not. A person has to realize at some point in his life it’s not about him. It’s about higher things, and the need to be right with God. And to be right with those who love you. And if you’ve got that, none of the rest of it matters."

I have to say: he’s growing on me.