2007 archive

It’s interesting: those he talks to disavow their words, hide their lapel pins, and run away.

They have the courage of their convictions–until questioned about them.

With a tip to Andrew Sullivan.

Dick Polman puts his finger on it: Clinton fatigue.

Back at the dawn of their excellent adventure, Hillary would tell voters that she and her husband were a package deal, two for the price of one. And when they found themselves under attack – thanks to his military draft avoidance and bimbo eruptions – they hunkered in their bunker (“the war room,” as Hillary dubbed it) and toughed it out together.

(snip)

But I sense that many Democrats aren’t necessarily sold on the idea of extending the war-room ethos into 2016, and that creates a potential opening for a rival (perhaps Sen. Barack Obama) savvy enough to suggest, without getting personal, that Clinton fatigue should remain a malady of the late ’90s.

However capable either or both Clintons are (and, in tems of competence, either or both run rings around the Current Federal Administrator, who thinks talk is not just a substitute for action, but is, indeed, action, and who thinks things are true just because he wants them to be true), they are together and singly just too damned exhausting.

Oh, my.

One of the great Sherlock Holmes stories is “The Man with the Twisted Lip.”

John Cole reveals twistier twists of NeoCon reasoning.

BooMan takes a look at the accusations.

Tag!

Apparently, I like horses:

With a tip to Suburban Guerrilla.

There are conservatives–kind of like one of the regulars here–who are persons of conviction and compassion.

Then there are conservatives of, well, convenience.

(Aside: Viguerie’s claim, cited in the link above, that the Republicans lost ground in the 2006 Congressional elections by moving to the left is so far divorced for reality as to be, well, just another tiresome NeoCon lie.)

Bringing customer service back home:

Lloyds TSB, the UK’s biggest provider of current accounts, is bowing to customer demands and moving calls back to the UK from a service centre in India.

The bank will even allow all of its current account customers to ring their local branches instead of a call centre in India which unions claim is unpopular.

This marks a U-turn for the bank which has routed its calls through India since 2004.

By allowing customers to call branches directly, Lloyds is also beginning to unravel a policy which began in 1994 when it opened its first call centre.

Maybe it’s a trend.

From El Reg:

An Edinburgh man has obtained damages of more than £1,300 from British-based spammer.

Gordon Dick was granted the order against Transcom Internet Services Ltd of Henley-on-Thames at a January hearing in Edinburgh’s Sheriff Court. Although he hasn’t received any money yet, even after sending a debt collector around to Transcom’s premises, the lawsuit is a landmark in the fight by consumers against UK spammers. This is the first action of its kind in Scotland and only the second so far in the UK.

Jesus General would be beside himself:

Much to the delight of Francophiles everywhere, Microsoft’s Office 2007 switches Outlook Express spell-checkers to work only in French. Those disposed to communicate in other languages are being advised to use third-party programs.

This is a hoot.

From Jon Swift:

I also think you made a good point about being practically forced to give money to the Swift Boat Veterans because the other side was giving money to their 527s. Sen. Kerry’s protest about two wrongs not making a right was pretty lame. We all know that unilateral disarmament doesn’t make any more sense in politics than it does in the nuclear arms race. Just as Mutually Assured Destruction is the basis of our foreign policy, our political system is built on Mutually Assured Personal Destruction, except in the case of politics, each side actually does fire every weapon they have, which may be why most of our politicians come out of elections looking like post-atomic zombies. But, of course, that isn’t your fault. You just pay for the weapons; you don’t fire them. And you seemed very pained when you practically begged Congress to pass a law to stop you before you give away $50,000 to a 527 again.

Anyway, the reason I am writing is because there was something you said that got me to thinking. When Kerry asked you why you gave the Swift Boat Veterans $50,000, you said, “I gave away $50,000 because I was asked to.” Frankly, I had no idea it was so easy to get you to part with $50,000. I didn’t realize that all anyone had to do was ask.

So, I’m asking.

Andrew Sullivan.

A soldier who tortured defenseless detainees for president Bush, vice-president Cheney and defense secretary Rumsfeld tells his story. Tony Lagouranis is a guy who went to St John’s College in Maryland, a great school for reading great books. He speaks fluent Arabic. He joined the military to learn Arabic and to pay off student loans. We were at peace then. At interrogator school, before Bush authorized torture, he went through the normal procedures . . .

Remember, Fellow Americans, this evil is perpetrated your and my name.

Balloon Juice:

. . . people who don’t believe in government do a crappy job when they try to run it. You can look practically anywhere in government today and find the same story – managing the occupation of Iraq, science, women’s health, disaster management. Officials in environmental and corporate oversight always seem to have long histories as lobbyists and short to nonexistent experience in management. Nominating Harriet Miers to The Supreme Court is about the most clear-cut and undeniable show of contempt for government institutions imaginable. They simply don’t care enough about the job, even initiatives that they like, to make sure that it gets done right.

I rest his case.

Here.

I remember seeing chain gangs working during drives to my grandmother’s home in South Carolina.

And, yes, in those days, they were chained and surrounded by guards carrying shotguns.

What is old becomes new.

Brendan.

From Newsday:

Officer Thomas Daley noticed Friday morning that the passenger wasn’t moving. The head was tilted at an odd angle, the face pressed against the side window.

So he pulled over the car and, as he approached it, his suspicions were confirmed.

Timothy Tietjen, 32, of Middle Island, was at the wheel, and beside him was a real dummy, seatbelt fastened.

From everyday.

Plus ca change . . .

It now appears that the White House in 2002 used dubious claims of North Korean uranium enrichment as an excuse to break a Clinton-brokered deal, thereby allowing North Korea’s poisonous dictator to build up a stockpile of plutonium, which in turn led to the building of as many as a dozen nuclear weapons, one of which he exploded in a nuclear test last year.

And consider the incredible irony of the timing.

News about how unfounded those uranium-enrichment claims were may be emerging now because North Korea’s renewed willingness to admit international arms inspectors threatens to expose to public view all the evidence to the contrary.

Something like 140,000 American troops are in harm’s way in Iraq. And the entirely unchastened White House is making familiarly dire — and maybe familiarly unfounded — intelligence disclosures about Iran.

It’s enough to make you scream.

The lies do get tiresome after a while.

. . . plus la meme chose.

Addendum, 3/1/2007

Atrios QOTD.

As my old boss would have said, this is not right:

A firm that advises investors on corporate-governance issues said yesterday that Robert I. Toll, the chairman and chief executive officer of Toll Bros. Inc., a builder of luxury homes, was overpaid.

(snip)

In the February proxy statement, Toll, 66, was listed as making $29.3 million for the year ended Oct. 31. Of that, $10.1 million was exercised stock options, a $17.5 million bonus, and $1.3 million in base pay.

$1.3 million in base pay should be enough for building little–well, big–boxes made out of ticky tacky, little big boxes all the same.