Month: May 2010

Press Censorship At Gitmo

Some disturbing developments. Four reporters are thrown out of the Gitmo court-room for publishing the name of an interrogator witness. Horton:

There is more to this than meets the eye, because the identity of the interrogator is already a matter of public knowledge, and more than these four publications have already disclosed the name.

Ackerman:

[Carol] Rosenberg of the Miami Times is the single most diligent, consistent and experienced Guantanamo Bay reporter in the world, having carved out the Guantanamo beat steadily almost since the detention facility here opened in 2002 and traveled here more frequently than any other journalist. (I personally heard complaints about her from public affairs officers here five years ago — and those complaints amounted to whining about how dogged an investigator she was.) Koring and Edwards have also been invaluable resources about Khadr and Guantanamo to their colleagues these past two weeks.

Dissents Of The Day

Sullivan-banner-beard

A reader writes:

I love you and understand your fascination with beards/bears, but your current bushiness is not flattering. I say this as a fan and one who thinks you are pretty sexy looking (even though I'm a girl). Manscape!

I'm sorry but manscaping is a dirty word to me. Another writes:

OMG. Just saw you on Colbert.  If I lived near you I would break in to your home and pour out all of your Just For Men. Go natural!

I just watched the video. It's not that bad. When it's thick it always looks darker. And my beard is actually pretty dark anyway. Am I sounding sad? Desperate? Another:

It was a little disconcerting not seeing your mouth while you spoke.

Three words: get over it. Another:

Was that a beard, or did a beaver die on your face? 

What am I saying?  You'd never let a beaver anywhere near your face.

Another:

That bush on your face is now completely mono-coloured and no longer looks 3 dimensional.  In fact, that singular coloured beard of yours now looks like a giant black hole has consumed the lower half of your face.  Haven't you always winced when you saw old men with solid black or brown hair without a single shade of contrast rippling throughout that head of hair — which of course is the instant tell-tale sign that they've had their hair dyed — and obviously dyed by a non-professional??   It looks unreal.  And forced.

You looked waaaaaay cooler and hotter with the grey streaks here and there.  You can still dye it, but lose the Just For Men stuff.  Let the beard grow out all the mono-dark hair until the grey returns and then go to a PROFESSIONAL who will touch up your beard to diminish the grey and even replace it with colours and tones belonging to the same family as your original hair colour.  

And Andrew, I know you're a bear and I celebrate your beardom, but you have a beautiful and cheeky smile, and there's nothing less appealing than to not be able to see someone's lips. Your upper lip is now gone, having been been consumed by hair above your lip which seems to be residing partially over your lip and inside your mouth.  

For the love of gawd, trim that shrub down a little!

What have I? What have I? What have I done to deserve this?

And where do I find a professional beard colorist? Has beardom managed to create that market?

Starving The Beast (Not)

Bruce Bartlett examines one of Alan Greenspan's worst ideas. Remember when Republicans were the fiscally responsible ones, especially in wartime:

Dwight Eisenhower kept in place the high Korean War tax rates throughout his presidency, which is partly why the national debt fell from 74.3% of gross domestic product to 56% on his watch. Most Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against the Kennedy tax cut in 1963. Richard Nixon supported extension of the Vietnam War surtax instituted by Lyndon Johnson, even though he campaigned against it. And Gerald Ford opposed a permanent tax cut in 1974 because he feared its long-term impact on the deficit.

Do the tea-partiers really represent the solid conservative truths of the past – or just the discredited fads of yesterday?

Voting Drunk, Ctd

A reader writes:

I’d like to point out to the previous reader about the most recent change to Indiana’s Alcohol laws.  As of just recently, we can IN FACT purchase alcohol on an Election Day.  Still on the books, however, is a ban of purchasing alcohol at grocery stores, convenience stores, and drug stores on Sundays.  That one comes around every couple years or so, and continually gets rejected.

Another writes:

Bars actually were open on Tuesday for the Indiana primaries.  Sorry he missed out.

A scene from the 2008 election:

Poll workers [in Albuquerque] called police after the woman began yelling and screaming at them. When the officers arrived, she had lost consciousness with a bottle of vodka tucked into her waistband. A little checking determined that it was not illegal to be drunk when casting a ballot, but election laws do prohibit liquor at voting sites and creating a disturbance. […]

Because the woman passed out before inserting her ballot into an electronic tabulator, her vote will be hand-counted.