Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Alternate Points Of View On Dru Sjodin These folks (and especially these folks) didn't like what I had to say about sex offenders in my Dru Sjodin post.  Liberal propaganda, they call it.  The gist is that I support the offender.  Yeah!  Go, rapists! I don't know these people, don't know how they found me.  None of what they say is particularly persuasive to me (though Julie has some nice artwork on her site).  Just thought I'd post an alternate point of view. 3:57:49 PM    Say what?[]

Saletan's Bitter About Dean William Saletan's having a pity party over at Slate today over Gore's Dean endorsement. His grievance is essentially that Gore's position during the Great Vote Recount of 2000 that "politicians should not intervene" and that the "people's votes should count".  Now Saletan is accusing Gore of hypocrisy because his early endorsement effectively means our votes don't count in the Dem primary, since it seals it all up for Dean. Sounds like sour grapes to me, and I'm not anywhere close to a part of the Dean Brigade, or whatever they are calling themselves.  Gore is endorsing Dean, not systematically disenfranchising voters through a bogus ballot and counting process.  Big difference there.  Saletan's problem with Gore seems to be that he didn't wait till the primary season was over, i.e., before people could cast their votes.  Problem is, not everybody gets to vote in primaries, and often the race takes shape well before the primary season is done, effectively rendering many votes moot, in the sense of importance that Saletan ascribes to them, anyway.  So, if Saletan is speaking literally about everybody getting their opportunity to vote in a wide-open race, he's advocating something that never exists anyway.  It makes me wonder which Dem Saletan was hoping would get Gore's nomination; would we have heard this diatribe then?  And why didn't we hear it when Clinton very openly supported Clark?  Hmm... 1:52:56 PM    Say what?[]

Quick List: Five Cool Things About "Jaws" The Theme Song-Has more ever been done with essentially two notes? Quint's Speech At The Town Meeting-You know the one, right after he runs his nails down the board.  Check it out: Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll catch this bird for ya, but it ain't gonna be easy... Bad fish. It's not like going down to pond chasin' blue gills or tommy cots. This shark - swallow ya hole. L'il shakin', l'il tenderizin', down ya go. Now we gotta do it quick, that'll bring back the tourists, that'll put all your businesses on a payin' basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant! I value my neck a lot more than 3000 bucks chief! I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him... and kill him... for ten! Now you gotta make up your minds. Gonna stay alive and ante up? Or ya wanna play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don't want no volunteers; I don't want no mates. There's too many captains on this island. Ten thousand dollars for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing. The Shooting Star-I still don't know if it's real or not (this site says it's real), but there is a scene of the boat at night, and in the cloudlight of the night you can see a long, slow shooting star streak across the screen.  Like the mouse on the steps of Dean Wormer's building in "Animal House", I see it every time. The Scar Story Scene-The only real moment of commeraderie on the boat that doesn't involve a large fish with big teeth, the assorted one-upsmanship of the scar stories comes to an abrupt halt when Quint tells the story about being on the U.S.S. Indianapolis after it was sunk by the Japanese.  1100 men went into the water, and only 316 came out due to shark attacks.  Quint, who shows no fear whatsoever during the entire movie, says his worst fears came as he was waiting to get on the rescue plane as he sat in the water, sharks circling.  According to the site linked above, Shaw wrote the scene himself. Quint on the Catwalk-Well, I don't really know if it's a catwalk or not, but it's the railing that extends out over the water off the nose of the boat.  After they first battle the shark, and it pulls down two barrels, they are all just sitting around freaking out about it.  And there is a scene looking down the catwalk at Quint, leaning against the rail and smiling.  It's an eery shot, and Robert Shaw's Ahab is spot-on. 11:42:13 AM    Say what?[]

Bribes and Recantations Timothy Noah has been doing great work on the Nick Smith Bribe Story over on Slate.  As you may know, Nick Smith is an outgoing Republican Senator from Michigan who didn't want to support Bush's Medicare bill.  Smith's vote was seen as critical for the bill's passage during an all-night vote in the House.  As it turns out, Smith's son is going to be running to fill his father's seat.  And so, rather than being a legislator in his way out who could vote his conscience with nothing to lose, GOP leaders targeted Smith as someone who did have something to lose if he didn't vote the party line.  According to several different accounts provided by Nick Smith and other observers who saw the vote's machinations in the wee hours of the night, Smith was subjected to heavy "arm twisting", and at one point he indicated that he was told that his son's campaign would enjoy a $100,000 contribution if good ol' dad voted for the bill. Bribery, be thy name, and that's against the law.  Smith's various accounts were fairly detailed, and cast suspicion on both the House leadership and the pharmaceutical lobby.  Serious business, this.  Only now it seems that Smith has recanted his original (various) statements.  Tim Noah doesn't buy the recant, and suggests further investigation is necessary.  I agree.  Certainly, this is a GOP strong-arm tactic, but we all know this happens on Dem bills, too.  Less so, I like to think, but this is how our process works, and it's wrong.  While I believed generally that this kind of thing went on, to see such a blatant example (and the subsequent hush-up, wonder how much was offered for that?) really tears at my faith in the system, whatever there was left of it.  This kind of junk needs to be prosecuted and exposed fully.  Maybe if we saw more of how it really goes down, we might get fed up enough to really try to do something about it. 10:34:49 AM    Say what?[]

"It's Dean" That's a quote from a recent TPM post about which candidate would ultimately receive the Democratic nomination, and that was before he garnered the endorsement from Gore. Frankly, I'm stunned that Gore is supporting Dean, especially at this juncture of the primaries.  I figured Gore would end up supporting either Clark or Gephardt, or possibly Lieberman if his campaign ever showed anything resembling life.  (And how bad did Gore diss Lieberman by not even telling him beforehand?  Brutal.)  Dean and Gore don't seem to mesh at all on their previous policy stances, and so I wonder if this is just a case of Gore throwing his weight behind the candidate that he feels has the only real shot of beating Bush. No question, the endorsement helps Dean immensely, getting him out of the Starbucks crowd a bit and into the general populace.  I have a friend who routinely refers to Dean as "49 State Loser".  I think it's early to say that, though I think the possibility of that kind of defeat is very real. I just look at this country right now, and even as ineffectual and battered and beatable as Bush is, I can't see this country electing a guy who is a hard-line anti war guy, who also happens to be from a non-populous state that allows homosexual marriage.  I just don't see that happening.  But at the same time, he's pro-gun, he's a huge fiscal conservative (and he'll be the only one in the race who can say that), and he's got a real grass-roots support base.  Dean might be able to cross enough boundaries with enough groups that he can begin to enjoy a broader support as the election rolls around. And there's Dean himself.  I don't know what to think about the guy.  He seems smart, on the ball and edgy, and edginess that sometimes feels uncomfortable.  I wonder how that will play in the debates?  He's not an affable guy; he's very serious, and he's got a chip on his shoulder.  Who knows?  There's a lot of time between now and then.  A ton of time.  But if Dean gets the nomination, rest assured, I'll support him strongly.  No doubt about it. 49 State Loser?  No way.  He can win Vermont and New Hampshire, and if you get them Maine is in the bag.  No problem. 10:14:26 AM    Say what?[]

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