Month: July 2004

Kerry’s Foreign Policy

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The only thing I care about in Kerry’s Speech is foreign policy. I think that ought to be the key question in this election, and I think it is important enough to trump almost anything else. (I say almost to forstall the more outrageous but not relevant hypotheticals). I’m not as discouraged by what I … Read more

Brief stopping by…

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My girlfriend is back from her weeklong engineering conference at San Jose, CA; regularly scheduled blogging will resume… later. In the meantime, everyone play nice and only call each other names in a fashion designed to reinforce group-bonding rituals, or to advance the plot, or both. Or you could talk about this, which sounds like … Read more

Pointy Sticks and Vampires

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It seems to me that Stuart Buck has a point, and a good one at that. As evidence that he approaches matters of war in a more “nuanced” fashion than Bush, John Kerry noted that “[s]aying there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq doesn’t make it so.” True! says Buck: For example, Saddam didn’t … Read more

Bermuda Triangles

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When I first heard it, I dismissed as fantasy TNR’s and Josh Marshall’s breathless report of a secret “deal” between the Bush Administration and Pakistan to capture a high-level al Queda operative during the Democratic convention. If it was a fantasy, though, what to make of this?

Off By 20 Years

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Saw “Orwell Rolls in His Grave” the other night. Tackling the whoredom that passes as mainstream media these days, Director Robert Kane Pappas assembles an impressive cast of media experts (including a priceless 1980 interview with Peter Mitchelmore, the New York Post’s former editor, on his way out…to say he was candid is a gross … Read more

Law Blogging

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Taking brief relief from my burdens, I came upon Professor Bainbridge’s comments regarding a recent Ninth Circuit decision: The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that a corporation can acquire a “racial identity” and therefore have standing to sue in its own name and right under federal civil rights laws on grounds that … Read more

Oh, just admit it: lighter blogging for me.

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Nothing earthshattering: I’ve got a creative deadline* looming, non-blogging creative work piling up – and to be honest most of my posts this week have been a bit of a stretch anyway. I’ll no doubt be caught up by the weekend. Moe *Commemorative poem for my old SCA Barony. I was expecting it to be … Read more

Terrorists In Iraq

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I’m not sure if anyone other than Michael Moore is confused about the nature of the Iraqi insurgents, but today’s car bomb ought to dispell any remaining doubts about whether they are fundamentally ‘freedom fighters’ or ‘terrorists’. A suicide car bomb exploded on a busy downtown boulevard in Baqouba on Wednesday, shredding a bus full … Read more

Pre Go-to-sleep Question.

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Does anybody know what the hell this animal is? I’ve been staring at it all evening and I still can’t figure it out. Shoot, if it’s a fake I don’t even know what it’s supposed to be a fake of.

Get your Obama speech text here…

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Just accessed the Obama speech (text here: BugMeNot says charles / cfish@earthlink.net cannedtuna). Good speech. Very good speech, in fact. Disagreement without fear and disapproval without hatred; a clean speech, and one much more about why he thinks that Sen. Kerry is good than why he thinks President Bush is bad (in fact, he never … Read more

Democrats Embrace Failed Foreign Policy

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I’ll admit that I couldn’t stomach actually watching Jimmy Carter speak to the Convention. Reading his words in text later was bad enough. I see that Democrats have rediscovered foreign policy–it is unfortunate that they have learned so many of the wrong lessons. The most sickening thing from Carter is found in this passage: We … Read more

Re-re-inventing

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/political snark on/ There’s an adage in campaigning that notes: It’s better to get out there and define yourself before your opponent does. I thought about that when I saw this headline on FoxNews GOP: Dems Reinventing Kerry Re-re-inventing him, they mean. After the millions of dollars Bush has spent re-inventing Kerry’s record (Oh, keep … Read more

Anti-Americanism Petri Dish: II

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This is a follow-up to the discussion on how American corporations can directly influence anti-American sentiments through their dealings with the governments of unstable countries. The example used was ExxonMobil’s extraction of oil off the shore of Equatorial Guinea. Most of the discussion was based on a report aired on 60 Minutes.

Although Exxon declined an invitation to be interviewed for the 60 Minutes segment, apparently they did send a written response to some questions. They don’t get into specifics (and I’ve scoured their site for information on ROI that might shed some light on whether they took Equatorial Guinea to the cleaners, but to no avail), but they do make this declaration:

ExxonMobil is firmly committed to honest and ethical behavior. We pledge to be a good corporate citizen in all the places we operate worldwide. We maintain the highest ethical standards, obey all applicable laws and regulations, and respect local and national cultures.

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Convention moments that I wished I’d seen #1

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From The National Debate: Later Brokaw freaked out Jon Stewart by saying nothing at all when Stewart, appearing in the NBC sky box said “I saw Teresa Kerry kill a hobo with her bare hands”. If this is going to be his last DNC seems like Brokaw is determined to have fun. Jon Stewart’s good … Read more

Of things that were.

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A brief break from work to remember the important things: If … we prefer to meet danger with a light heart but without laborious training, and with a courage which is gained by habit and not enforced by law, are we not greatly the better for it? … . For we are lovers of the … Read more

Never say that bloggers lack chutzpah.

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(Crossported to Redstate) Jeff Jarvis is casually taking the concept of the modern political convention, disassembling it to its component parts and redesigning it into a shape more aesthetically pleasing to him – and he hopes, the country at large. He’s discussing it in terms of the Democrats, but, really, it’d work for either party. … Read more

Pledge #2

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This is one that everyone can play: the Commissar is calling for people to disagree with a blogger that they respect. Sounds like a plan: I’ll start by disagreeing with… the Commissar, actually. Those were not nice things that you said about the Left in the process, Commissar; not very nice, not particularly fair and … Read more

Pledge #1

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(I don’t normally say this, but the circumstances for once dictate it: this post is strictly for the conservative / Republican readers of Obsidian Wings. I value the comments made by my liberal, Leftist and Democratic readers, but not for this specific post. This is VRWC business – so, please, respect our personal space on this one.)

(And I sincerely regret having to say that none of the above is a request.)

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Opening night jitters . . . .

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UPDATE — INSTA-REACTION: Who woulda thunk they’d send Clinton, not Gore, on offense. Not I. But it’s smart, I think. … Yes, yes — I think it’s smart. There’s a bunch of open threads for the convention, but not this one: Here’s your opportunity to snark. I caught parts of Al’s opening speech; honestly, not … Read more

Of course it’s petty…that’s why it makes me smile

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Via the incomparable Harley on Tacitus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Drudge is running a story re Ann Coulter’s column for USA Today. Seems they spiked it for being ‘unusable’ and ‘not funny.’ This should not come as a surprise. Drudge does offer a nice photo, tho’. Contemplative, martyred, almost, dare I say it? Human. But you gotta give … Read more

Anti-Americanism Petri Dish

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Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo rules the relatively tiny African nation of Equatorial Guinea like any other dictator. He denies freedom of expression. He has had announcers on the state-run radio station declare that he is a “God.” He does allow elections (in which he gets 97% to 99% of the vote), but he regularly jails his opponents and plasters his own face on nearly every surface in the country (including clothing worn by his nation’s poverty-stricken citizens).

Yes, most of Equatorial Guinea’s population lives in squalor:

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Meatloaf Recipe Slam!

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The Glittering Eye had earlier made a request for a meatloaf recipe slam; frankly, I could use the input myself. The Meatloaf Maven of the house is at an engineering conference: all I know how to do is to mix an egg, onions, breadcrumbs and meat together, add ketchup (yes, Heinz) and bake. Extra input … Read more

Get Ready to Get Your Democratic Convention Freak On…

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…well, no, but the title amuses.

A day before the convention, and the last bits are coming into place. Last minute negotiations have seemed to have cleared away the possibility of a union picket line (which is very good news for Sen. Kerry*). There’s also a rumor that USA Today, in a move that is stunningly, cruelly beautiful in its sheer evil-mindedness, has contracted for Ann Coulter to cover the Democratic Convention and Michael Moore to do the same for the Republican Convention (Command Post). And, finally, if you were worried that Boston’s existing prostitute supply would be unable to handle the influx of delegates, worry no more: they’re flying in reinforcements even as we speak (Command Post). Normally, I wouldn’t post such a salacious bit of news – we’re oh-so-respectable, here at Obsidian Wings – but I keep hearing a voice in my head (sounding not unlike one of my relatives) saying “Bahb, more hookers just got delivered! Bahb! BAHB! You deaf, or something? We got another crate of hookers here. Whereya want me to stash ’em?” in a Allston accent, and I just lose it. Besides, it’s not like they aren’t going to turn around and make a beeline for NYC afterwards.

Sounds like it’s going to be… well, no, political conventions aren’t really exciting any more, huh? But at least they’re going down swinging… er, right.

Moe

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Hmm.

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What an interesting little site BugMeNot is (FAQ here). UPDATE: (Whoops! Thanks to The American Digest)

Gee, you think?

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(Crossposted to Redstate) Front Runner for today’s And Water is Wet: This is News? award: Democrats bar Nader from convention BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) — Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader was rejected Friday in his bid to try to attend next week’s Democratic National Convention. “Given that Nader is running on the Pat Buchanan Reform Party … Read more

You know, I could have sworn…

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…that somebody had already noted here that Dave Weiner’s new aggregator for all the Democratic convention bloggers was up and running. But if they did, I couldn’t find it. So it goes. (Via Command Post)

The O’Irony Factor

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If we’re graphing things out, my political views are probably as close to Bill O’Reilly’s as they are to any telepundit. This political accordance, however, should not be confused with actually liking, trusting, or respecting the man. Lawrence Lessig provides the latest support for my view: On February 4, 2003, Jeremy Glick was your guest … Read more

Hello Sperm Bank? I want it all back, NOW!

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Surely this will be overturned on appeal: A state appeals court ruled that a verbal agreement between a woman and her sperm donor was invalid, and ordered the man to pay child support for the woman’s twins. The three-judge panel ruled Thursday that the deal between Joel McKiernan and Ivonne Ferguson — in which McKiernan … Read more

100K Hit Pre-emptive Memorial Thread

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…because I have to be up in six hours and counting to drive the girlfriend to the airport – oh, yes, honey, me finally getting a driver’s license is turning out to be such a convenience* – so watch the SiteMeter tick, tick, tick. We’ve already informally passed 100,000 – but what the heck, a … Read more

Gagging on the Donkey, Not Yet Ready to Swallow the Elephant

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Does the Democratic Party take African-American votes for granted? That’s the question President Bush asked during a refreshingly blunt address before the Urban League: “I know, I know, I know,” Bush added. “The Republican Party has got a lot of work to do. I understand that,” prompting laughter and louder applause and apparently provoking a … Read more

Icky Thoughts, Possibly Paranoid

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WARNING: this post may be a result of hanging around with too many lawyers for too long–an experience which may have made me too quick to word-parse. We now know that Berger took whatever documents he was taking at least three separate times. One of his major defenses (as expressed through his lawyers) has been … Read more

Katherine R Memorial Request Comment

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(Crossposted to Redstate, umm, last week) It’s just a random Friday observation, but the Beastie Boys could do great and terrible things with GK Chesterson’s Lepanto.  In fact, hip-hop/rap/whathaveyou and Chesterson would be a fascinating mix in general… (pause) Good to get that thought out of my brain.