The Dish

An exchange on Anderson Cooper’s most excellent CNN show, about the sex habits of Americans:

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN: Men who say they always have an orgasm are 74 percent, women who say they always have an orgasm, 30 percent. Now, faking it, men who say they have faked an orgasm, 11 percent of the population, women, what do you think?

ANDERSON COOPER: I…

MCFADDEN: Faking it?

COOPER: I have no idea.

Me neither, Anderson.

Sorry, the traffic shut it down. Here’s a mirror site. Be patient. It takes a while to transfer.

THE CASE FOR CLINTON: Just for the record, here’s TNR’s editorial endorsing Clinton in 1992. I wrote it. And I feel better about it now than I did a couple of years ago.

ON THE LIBERAL HAWKS: Lawrence Kaplan lays into pro-war liberals (and some conservatives) for blaming all that has gone wrong in Iraq on the Bush administration.

At last, some positive news about the prospects for the elections. The support for Sistani is particularly encouraging. Of course, security is a huge issue; and it’s a little alarming to see that they are contemplating allowing voting in towns controlled by the insurgents. Whether the Iraqi security police can control the election sites is also dubious. But better to press on than give up. The election itself is a form of security. One reason the transition has been so rocky is the lack of legitimacy. Only elections can provide that. In equally encouraging news, we find:

Despite the current strife, about two-thirds of Iraqis do not believe civil war is imminent, the poll found. Asked if their households had been hurt by violence, injuries, death or monetary loss over the past year, only 22 percent of those questioned said yes — a figure that surprised pollsters and U.S. officials.

Desire to vote in the elections also seems very high – another good sign. Of course, the source of the electoral optimism is the U.N. So beware. And the maturation of the insurgency – both financially and in organizational terms – is worrying. There’s also the distinct possibility of religious extremist parties winning the election. What if we get a popularly elected Jihadist government, allied closely with Iran? Gulp.

BTW: If you feel as helpless as I do and still want to help, why not contribute to the Iraq Democracy Project? They need us in the fight against terrorism. And we need them.

Sort of. Here’s what he said in Southwest Michigan:

“We had inconsistent information, and we did not inform others in the community of gaps in our intelligence… The extraordinary men and women who do magnificent work in the CIA are held accountable every day for what they do, and as part of keeping our faith with the American people, we will tell you when we’re right or wrong.”

The Herald-Palladium newspaper then reports: “Tenet called the war on Iraq ‘wrong’ in a speech Wednesday night to 2,000 members of The Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan at Lake Michigan College’s Mendel Center. He did not elaborate.” Not sure what that means or if the reporter is misrepresenting something.

THE COMPLETE TERESA OOPS LIST: A collection of THK idiocies, gaffes and goofs. Heinzisms?

OREGON’S VOTER GUIDE: Check out the arguments for keeping gays out of marriages or legal unions. No, this isn’t a parody. It’s the real thing. Argument One:

Traditional values are under attack, and sexual perverts are attempting to strain the definition of marriage far beyond what God has ordained. The Word of the Lord must be legislated as Oregon public policy.

Yes, a local satirist invented three “conservative” groups – “Defense of Heterosexual Breeding,” “Traditional Prejudices,” and “The Beaver State Defense of Beaver” – and inserted the arguments into the guide. No one noticed. Now everyone gets to read them before they vote.

A new campaign slogan: “Vote for Daschle and Vote for SODOMY.” Unauthorized, of course. But at least it’s honest. The flyer, mailed to 1,000 churches in South Dakota, “urges recipients to vote against Daschle if he doesn’t support a marriage amendment, an act to keep ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance and legislation that would allow pastors to preach on political issues without fear of losing their church’s nonprofit status.” No, this one isn’t a parody. Daschle’s campaign is accusing the Republicans of financing or organizing the elaborate mailing. Thune denies it. (Hat tip: Josh.)

NOW, I’M JUDAS: Here’s an over-wrought attack on yours truly as the Judas of Bush-supporters. Please. Oh, and I’m also “Zarqawi’s microphone.” Actually, I’m even more important that that: “I suspect Andrew Sullivan has done more damage to the president, and more help to Kerry, than George Soros and MoveOn with all their billions.” My power, it frightens me. A simpler explanation is that I’m a blogger who tries to call things as I see them. When facts change, I try and adjust. I never believed the Iraq liberation would be this botched; and it behooves those of us who supported it to be accountable. (God knows, the Bush administration won’t take responsibility.) I’ve learned in life that error is not something to be afraid of. But fear of admitting error is. And so my mounting misgivings about this administration are simply a function of watching and thinking. I could be wrong again – especially about Iraq. (I’ve enthused about progress in Afghanistan and wherever I can find it) All I can say is: I hope to God I am wrong. And if I am, and my worries turn out to be baseless and Bush pulls this off somehow, I will not stint in giving myself multiple retroactive Von Hoffmann awards. Promise. Nothing would give me more pleasure. And if Bush wins the election, I will draw a line below all of this and do all I can to support a war I believe in. But first: accountability. And the truth, as far as I can see it.

Here’s a version of Kerry’s famous Mary Cheney answer from the New York Observer:

“We’re all God’s children. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was. She’s being who she was born as. Which is a lesbian. All of us need to feel comfortable being who we are, even if someone happens to be a lesbian, which is what Dick Cheney’s daughter is. Even if a young woman prefers to have sex with other women, like Dick Cheney’s daughter does, she should feel comfortable. Being a lesbian. This really underscores the problem with the American health care system. It’s not working for the American family. And it’s gotten worse under President Bush over the course of the last years. Especially if you’re a lesbian, like Dick Cheney’s daughter. Let’s say you’re a lesbian, like Dick Cheney’s daughter, and you need to see a doctor because your partner – let’s say she’s a bull-dyke – say one of her cats bit you. So you’re a lesbian with a cat bite – I’m sure at some point in her life, Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, was bitten by another lesbian’s cat – maybe they were having a sort of lesbian party …”

Okay, I’m laughing.

BUT WATCH OUT: If you think I’m the only angry homo out there, you’re not up on your heavy metal:

Goddamn, there are plenty of free-thinking, rowdy motherfuckers that are homos. But the bottom line is that over half of them don’t want to be associated with the mundane existence that is being a homo in whatever city they live in. The majority of out gay culture tends to be the stereotypical, fucking ’70s disco-laden, kinda weird, snap-your-fingers-I’m-gay, girly type of bullshit. There are plenty of people out there that don’t even come anywhere near that stereotype. And I happen to be one of them. Personally, all I’m trying to say is: yes, I’m a fucking homo. And I’m a goddamn motherfucker of a metal guitar player with my metal brother, who’s not a fucking homo. Nobody else in the band’s a fucking homo. And this 25% gay band will kick anybody’s ass! I fucking mean it.

One of his songs is called: “It bled like a stuck pig.” I’ve met a few of them myself.

Yep, there’s a catalog. And Rummy looks spiffing.

Here’s the New Republic endorsement.

WHITE CATHOLICS SHIFT: A new poll shows a huge swing toward Kerry among white Catholics. Money quote:

A Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday has Kerry winning among white Catholics 50% – 43% — a huge change from the October 3 poll which had Bush leading 49% to 33%. By comparison, George Bush beat Al Gore among white Catholics by about seven points.

Other polls have picked this up as well – and it seems to have been particularly strong after the debates. Why? Steve Waldman offers some thoughts. My own hunch is that undecided Catholics have been repulsed by the way in which the hierarchy has intervened in this election, and the outrageous notion that voting for one candidate can amount to a sin worthy of confession. Catholics know what is appropriate in politics, they know how they feel about the moral standing of the current hierarchy, and they can vote freely in a secular democracy. I also feel that the overtly evangelical cast of the Bush campaign is off-putting to some. Karl Rove, who made winning white Catholics a critical part of his electoral strategy, may have flunked. But we’ll see on election day, won’t we?

Maybe some of you saw this – Triumph in Spin Alley after the debates. He makes Jon Stewart on Crossfire look like a marriage counselor. Hilarious.

CONSERVATIVES AND THE WAR I: “Conservatives profess to care deeply about the outcome in Iraq, but they sat silently for the last year as the situation there steadily deteriorated. Then they participated in a shameful effort to refocus the country’s attention on what John Kerry did on the rivers of Vietnam 30 years ago, not on what George Bush and his team are doing on the rivers of Babylon today, where some 140,000 American lives are on the line. Is this what it means to be a conservative today?

Had conservatives spoken up loudly a year ago and said what both of Mr. Bush’s senior Iraq envoys, Jay Garner and Paul Bremer, have now said (and what many of us who believed in the importance of Iraq were saying) – that we never had enough troops to control Iraq’s borders, keep the terrorists out, prevent looting and establish authority – the president might have changed course. Instead, they served as a Greek chorus, applauding Mr. Bush’s missteps and mocking anyone who challenged them.

Conservatives have failed their own test of patriotism. In the end, it has been more important for them to defeat liberals than to get Iraq right. Had Democrats been running this war with the incompetence of Donald Rumsfeld & Friends, conservatives would have demanded their heads a year ago – and gotten them.” – Tom Friedman, telling it like it is. I’m guilty as well. I was so intent on winning this war and so keen to see the administration succeed against our enemy that I gave them too many benefits of the doubt. Well, I have tried to reassess. I may be proven wrong. I hope I am. But ignoring reality in a situation as vital as this is not an option.

CONSERVATIVES AND THE WAR II: Here’s an interesting take from Mark Schmitt:

If Bush loses, serious conservatives, with the possible exception of extreme social conservatives, will have to ask themselves what they gained from four years of unfettered power, and ten years of domination of American politics. Government is “bigger” by every measure, and more intrusive. A pet idea, Social Security privatization, was actually discredited by their president’s incompetence. Younger voters are increasingly turned off by the social conservatism, so the movement is not expanding its base. A huge new entitlement was created. The federal role in education expanded. And poor planning and dishonesty over Iraq weakened our defense, our credibility, and made it impossible to set a clear standard for when we would intervene and when not.
All the tax cuts have done is to postpone the day we pay for these things.
And if Bush wins, all this will still be true.

And after four more years of Bush, it will be even truer.

Let’s review where we are. There aren’t even faintly enough U.N. troops to prepare for a legitimate election in January. The reason is the security situation. Will it improve enough by December to goad the U.N. into sending the hundreds of experts to make it work? The odds must be massively against it. The one major obstacle is Falluja, and a successful incursion there seems to be prompting some in the Sunni leadership to threaten to boycott the elections entirely. Could we simply police the elections ourselves? First question: with whom? We don’t even have enough troops to retake Falluja and keep Baghdad from blowing up. And if we did, our troops are now so unpopular they would themselves undermine popular legitimacy for the elections. What is Bush’s answer to this? He simply asserts that elections will take place. That’s it. Say after me: if Bush says it, it must be true. If Bush says it, it must be true. Feel better yet? This is what Republicans have to do every day. Faith, not facts. Faith, not facts. Believe … and you will be healed. All will be healed.

MORE ROBERTSON: Yet more proof that he has said this before:

CHUNG: Because I’m wondering if you believe the United States should invade Iraq without U.N. backing.

ROBERTSON: Connie, I have, over the last year or so, been quite concerned about entering into this war. We should have gone in after him in the Gulf War I.

This thing is fraught with danger. And I think we need to understand that. I told the president that just recently, that we have got to prepare the American people for civilian casualties, for possibly our casualties, for gassing, for various chemical weapons against them.

No reference to Bush’s response there. But this was before the invasion. Look, this isn’t a huge deal. I think it merely shows what we know already: that Bush believed the Iraq war would be a push-over. The president was and is responsible for criminal negligence. And yet some believe he should be given a vote of confidence.