Betraying My Own

However, Bill Maher noted (Larry King Live, Monday night) that this does make Dems look wimpy. Righteously taking the high ground over something essentially silly reinforces their image as being unwilling to engage. We’ll huff and we’ll puff and we’ll take our ball home. He brought up Clinton’s taking on Mike Wallace and refusing to make nice. Dixie Chicks rule.

To provide a little more perspective regarding the dropping of the sponsorship of the Democratic debate proffered by FOX “news”, a counter-offer has been made by Air America to sponsor and broadcast a debate between the Republican presidential candidates.

Do you think they’ll snatch this opportunity?

I believe a link to this story can be found at crooks & liars.

Hey Gailkate, good to see you here.

I found it just plain odd that the Dems decided to go with Fox’s offer in the first place. Didn’t anyone say anything? I think Edwards from the get-go was not going to participate in the debate precisely because it Fox sponsored.

I think “Bert Gonzo” is doing a heck ‘uv a job. Heh, heh.

Steve has a good idea. My dudgeon alert status has been Orange for years now. It is tiring. I say we all turn our backs on Fox News, put our fingers in our (collective?) ears, and say “La la la, I can’t hee-eear you!”

David is struggling. He had the same thoughts as Adam from the get go, but there he sits with a way-past-its-prime tomato, and Adam is such a delicious target. Would that Adam would at least once say something dumb so David could launch his vegan missile.

First question should always be: is the joke funny? If so, no apology necessary.

The Australian Federal election campaigning is now well underway with a kindergarten display of name calling and mud throwing. The highlight came last week when the current treasurer and aspirant for the Prime Minister role came out with: “well, he started it”. Global warming has made the high moral ground very crowded.

That’s common knowledge down here on the edge
of the Green Swamp.

waterfowler, I’m still working on the guidance system, which has to be totally organic and as mushy as the vegan missile.

I bet “Lefty Blogger Proposes Burning Tots to Avert Global Warming” appears on the Fox news crawl tomorrow. Jonathan Swift-boating, if you will.

This just in… “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admits guilt in Lindbergh kidnapping! CIA thrilled with new waterboarding results!”

Alvays mit dem baseball, dee?

Fowler, any day with gadwall is a good day.

That said, I hope you’ll forgive me for the following: For years, the energy companies and the car companies used scare tactics, shouting that the whacko enviros wanted to destroy America - we wanted everyone to live in a cave, eat nuts and berries, and give up their cars. We said no, we just want greater efficiency and less pollution and CO2. Oh, and by the way, the rest of the world is interested in these things - so if we get a jump on creating them, there will be a ready market and we’ll have a new booming industry in this country to make up for all the other jobs we’ve offshored.

So what happens? Al Gore wins the Oscar and the next day the right wing noise machine jumps in and starts screaming “Hey! Look! He has a big house! He has a big car! He flies places! HE HAS AN UPPER CLASS LIFESTYLE!!!”, without mentioning that he’s fueling it with green energy, driving hybrids and using carbon offsets. Which is to say, he’s demonstrating that it’s possible to reduce your impact on the environment without living in a cave, eating nuts and berries and giving up your car. In other words, showing that the scare tactics mentioned above are bullshit. How… inconvenient.

I grew up in Detroit, the child of an automobile designer, with our fate tied to the health of Ford Motor Company (and friends/neighbors tied to all of the big 3). The industry never learned from the 70s, and has relied on protectionism rather than innovation, which has caused them to continue to lose market share worldwide. Yet smarter companies like GE (not likely to be accused of crunchy granola thinking) see where things are going and are developing products to address the new realities. The US auto industry oughta follow their example.

This just in: Khalid Sheikh Muhammad has confessed to being on the grassy knoll with an AK-47 back in 63. He also insists that HE is deep throat.

If Ailes joke was funny it would have been hard to tell from the crowd. He serves up jokes like lead pancakes. Even those whose careers depend on yucking it up for the boss had a hard time delivering.

Yes we lefties look foolish when we get offended by something so benign. Our outrage should be focused on the cover Fox News gives to this morally bankrupt and completely incompetent administration. Let’s get our outrage straight.

As an ecologically obsessed lefty, I think that ethanol is a very bad fuel. (Other than in the proper beverage). Even with the new technology it uses almost as much energy to produce as it gives off. Soy Beans are a better fuel. But the best fuel is gas savings. A Chevy Suburban Subdivision gets between 11-15 mpg, the Honda Insight gets 57. So if you are driving the kids to the mall you can do it about 5 times in the Insight for every trip in the Sub. Besides you can park an Insight with out taking up two spaces. http://www.envirofront.org/Publications/Lists_of_Note/Pollution_Lists/ B1List.html

If we all used cars that got twice as much mileage, we would have a glut of oil and way less pollution.

When I grow up I want to be as eloquent as Siobhan.

Also, Ailes’s joke wasn’t particularly funny, but it was aimed at Bush, not Obama.

Khalid Sheikh Muhammed has now confessed to being the father of Anna Nicole’s baby.

Seattle Tammy and I are in Portland,OR. for the regional trade show. If anything interesting occurs, we’ll keep you up to date. After 24 hours, nothing new to report. But I gotta tell you the Holiday Inn here sucks.

Thanks, siobhan. I hadn’t seen that one - and do keep those pearls of wisdom coming our way, sis.

http://blogs.chron.com/lorensteffy/2007/02/the_ethanol_chr.html
http://blog.kir.com/archives/002673.asp
Adam, sorry, I’ll try to use it more consistently.
Siobhan, carbon offsets are a ruse. You’re smarter than that. It’s “Do as I say, not as I do”. Don’t fall for that BS, just because he’s a dem. I’m more of an environmentalist than that puke ever thought or tried to be. And I’m a little ticked that lefties have won the “enviro” title. It’s insulting to us wingnut enviros.
Senor Cooper, Que pasa?

March 15, 2007

Dear Diary,

Beware of today. Strange matters are afoot. So far, no shank in the back, but I got the weirdest e-mail from a K. Rove today. He wrote that there is a dangerous bus, careening out of control down Pennsylvania Ave. and was looking for volunteers to step out in front of it. You know, like that Chinese protester in front of the tank - like that. And like the protester, no one will be hurt. Scout’s honor. Really. I forwarded it to 10 of my friends, to ward off the bad karma from chain letters not passed on, but this town is ferblunjit! You like that word? Chuck Schumer’s teaching me a few yiddish words to impress the rubes back home. He’s really not such a bad guy, but if you want to put Cheney into intensive care, just say a kind word about the senior Senator from NY in front of Shooter. You know, that’s not such a bad idea…

siobhan, thanks for that Tom Toles link. Powerful. And thanks for articulate, thoughtful #46.

Repressive regime of Saddam Hussein in Ira….oh no, wait. Didn´t have anything to do with that.

Um, I made that up. My parents loved me enough to have 8 other kids before they had me, so I wasn’t getting no clown. I think I might’ve gotten a Hess toy truck, which my Dad bought at the gas station for $1.95. I’m sure I broke it in under 11 seconds, per my norm.

Also, what in the bejesus are you talking about?

Finally, KSM has admitted to Y2K. He really thought that would work.

Gillian, many of my customers are gay, how can I not love them,,,well not like that,,, you know, uhh, differently, well as customers.

Fowler, You will have to forgive my reaction to your claiming,”I’m more of an environmentalist than that puke ever thought or tried to be”.

Anyone’s idea of being an environmentalist to better kill birds leaves me a bit on the cold side.

Murray, I can’t condone calling Al Gore a puke, but I do have to defend duck hunters and their conservation ethic.

The shear amount of habitat that has been protected by duck hunters over the past century is huge, and that habitat is there for all of the species who need it, not just the duck. (Refuges are great birding areas.) If the goal was just to have plenty of duck meat, it would be easier and cheaper to convert the refuges into farms (and turn the rest of the land into subdivisions) which doesn’t help the other species.

Deer hunters lobby for unnaturally high numbers of deer, who destroy habitat as they overgraze (overbrowse?). Some gamebird hunters put aside land, but not on the scale of duck hunters (and I’ve never heard of a canned duck hunt). Duck hunters eat what they take; they’re not just looking for something on to put on the wall. Waterfowl are plentiful, so they’re not hunting endangered species. Numbers have remained healthy for ducks even as many bird species have declined. It would be great if everyone just preserved the habitat on general principle, but…

Waterfowler is my polar opposite on just about any other issue, but I’ve got no problem with duck hunters.

However, ‘fowler, you really need to reconsider the anti-Gore crap. All of those refuges won’t be enough to save the ducks. Climate change will hit waterfowl hard when it ruins their breeding grounds up north. Don’t let dislike of Dems blind you.

But I will say this about my parents; when I came out, they were surprisingly (to me) understanding and non-judgmental and accepting. That’s showing love, too.

gillian, that’s showing love of the first order, and leaves any material presents in its dust. Closest parallel in my life would be when I told my parents I would go to jail or to Canada before I would accept induction during the Viet Nam War (”My country, may she always be right, but right or wrong, my country”) and found out they backed me completely in refusing to participate in that criminal misuse of American troops. I came to realize that what my mother meant was that she always wanted America to be right, but that America could also be terribly wrong, and that she and my father stood behind my refusal to participate in such a terrible wrong.

Parents can at times be so wonderful in such surprising (to children) ways, and when one least expects it.

Sure Siobhan, attack the bird lover

I agree with most of what you say but come to a slightly different conclusion.

Any thing that increases wetlands and bird habitat is good. That doesn’t mean that they necessarily have good intentions. My issue is not that duck hunters don’t do good work, but that their motives are questionable. Fowler didn’t argue that Ducks Unlimited was good but that he was an enviro because he is a member. Again increasing wetlands to kill their inhabitants is in my mind not a good motive, even if the outcome is good for the environment. As long as he doesn’t use his membership to cloak himself as an environmental hero, I’m fine with him killing ducks.

People killing ducks is not a bad thing. People killing deer is a good thing. People wanting more deer is a bad thing.

As far as deer hunting goes you are completely right that deer hunters want an unnaturally high number of deer despite the tremendous amount of damage they do. My property is surrounded by state game land. Hunting is the number 1 religion in the area, despite my attempts to introduce biking. All of my property has a browse line (the trees have no leaves below 5’) and my woods are completely devoid of normal spring flowers. I haven’t seen a Trillium, Blood Root, Jack-in-the-pulpit, ever on the place. The understory is free of oaks but filled with black locust. I have over a hundred fruit trees and I need to put deer guards around each one. The people who want more deer are those who don’t own land. They feel it is their right to get a buck with in the first hour of open season, even if they’re too drunk to do much more than fire randomly. So they insist on regulations that insure that we land owners will always have damaged property. Oh, and despite careful driving I have hit 4 deer, so having too many deer is not as benign as many make it out.