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Category: Grave
By way of the Associated Press’ breaking coverage of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat’s death-but-not-death, it’s come out that:
French television station LCI quoted an anonymous French medical official as saying Arafat was in an “irreversible coma” and “intubated” – a process that usually involves threading a tube down the windpipe to the lungs. The tube is often connected to a life support machine to help the patient breathe.
In other words, “brain dead, but not physically shut down.”
Cursed word games! It’s much like trying to pick apart the distinction between, say, a “security fence” and an “imprisoning wall“.
From Bush Wins Second Term: Kerry Concedes Defeat; Both Speak of Need for Unity, Washington Post, November 4, 2004:
An elated President Bush claimed a reelection victory yesterday after a tumultuous night of vote counting and a gracious concession by challenger John F. Kerry, and he pledged that he would seek to earn the trust of those who did not back him during the long, contentious campaign.
In an explicit appeal to those Americans who voted for Kerry, Bush said: “To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust. A new term is a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation.“
From For Bush and GOP, a Validation, Washington Post, November 3, 2004:
President Bush, his fate for winning a second term still officially uncertain, commanded the popular-vote majority that eluded him in 2000. And in an impressive run of battleground states, he seemed to win validation for a campaign that unabashedly stressed conservative themes and reveled in partisan combat against Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.
[…]
Although final judgment is still to come, yesterday’s balloting did in several instances validate important elements of the Bush political model. This strategy has been based from the outset of Bush’s term on carefully tending to the Republican Party’s conservative base, and a governing strategy based more often on trying to vanquish political adversaries rather than split the difference with them.
TOTALLY DECONTEXTUALIZED FUN WITH ELECTION MOTIFS: John Edwards and his campaign’s “Two Americas” theme
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Welcome Back
Four More Years: Powell, Cheney, Bush, Rice, Card, Tenet (resigned), and Rumsfeld
I can’t believe we almost lost you guys. It would’ve been a shame for you all to creep back into the primordial military-industrial ooze from which you came, but luckily for America—and the world!—you kept the band together and the hits will just keep on coming. (POP STAR. That’s rich. Why not THE BOSS?)
Here’s to another fun-filled term. We promise to keep doing our best if you promise to keep doing your worst.
P.S.: Ladies, have your abortions now. Even if you’re not pregnant, have a few while you still can.
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Welcome to the New World You’ve Created
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Conspiracy-A-Ga-Ga
It’s such a powerful revelation, The New York Post had to bury it in its gossip page where it pushed aside the latest on Pharell and Mick Jagger’s daughter. While the blurb itself is larded with legalistic caveats, the headline says it all: CONSPIRACY THEORY: KERRY ‘TIE’ TO OSWALD.
Conspiracy theorists are buzzing about John Kerry’s connection to Lee Harvey Oswald and the JFK assassina tion. While no one in the lunatic fringe has gone so far as to suggest Kerry helped kill Kennedy – yet – they make much of the fact that a cousin of Kerry’s, Michael Paine, was a close friend of Oswald who frequently had the assassin as a house guest.
Whoa. Do you really want to play this game, Page Six? Crumple up that tin-foil hat before someone reminds you that “conspiracy theorists” have been “buzzing” for years that John Hinckley’s brother, Scott, was allegedly scheduled to have dinner with Bush’s brother, Neil, the night John shot Reagan in 1981!
If we are to believe these shoddily-designed websites from people with even shoddier worldviews, the Bushes and the Hinckleys were supposedly best friends forever! (Imagine the barbecues at the Bushes: Hinckleys, Saudis, the Oak Ridge Boys: “Pass me another Coors Light, Poppy. More Ribs? You know it!”)
Some dude even went so far as to tie Hinckley’s attempt on Reagan with Kennedy’s assassination by claiming that Reagan was “shot from the Bushy knoll“!
Wow. See how fucking stupid I sound saying this stuff? Elevating these wackadoos to even the most carefully vetted legitimacy, lowers a writer to, well, a fucking idiot.
Let’s all learn from the recent obituaries for Kennedy Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, whose otherwise impeccable career in public service was marred by his late life promotion of a conspiracy theory he’d learned on the internet—that TWA Flight 800 was shot down by a missile.
If the foolish promotion of an unfounded conspiracy can cling like the smell of shit to a smart man with integrity, what do you think it could do to the writers of a gossip column for a ridiculous, unprofitable newspaper?
Nothin’. You’re probably right.
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Denver Waffle
What follows are excerpts from the Denver Post editorial page, endorsing George W. for president. Kind of.
…Since 2001, Colorado has lost more jobs than we’ve gained, and the ones we’ve gained pay less than the ones we’ve lost. We pay less in taxes, but our household and medical expenses have skyrocketed. Ninety thousand of us have lost our health coverage. Washington is ringing up record deficits and sticking the next generation with the bill. In Iraq, Colorado-based military units and reserves are deployed in a hostile environment for questionable purpose and uncertain result…
…So the president has our endorsement for a second term, even as we call on him to steer a more moderate course that is in keeping with his campaign appearances, but not his first-term performance.
It’s no secret that we part company with the president over many issues. Two glaring sore spots are his obsession to cut taxes even while piling up record deficits, and his mishandling of all things Iraq. He squandered global good will by taking a “my way or the highway” approach to matters of global warming, international law, Iraq weapons inspections and ultimately the Iraq invasion. He bows to corporate preference in matters of energy and environment, and his education funding levels leave far too many children behind.
Kerry has infused the 2004 campaign with energy and gumption, offering fresh ideas on health care and sensible plans for our tax structure. His are the superior proposals on environmental protection, on stem-cell research and judicial nominations. Sure, we’ve seen Kerry bend to the political winds over his long career, but we wouldn’t mind one bit if more Washington politicians would reconsider their past judgments and ideological certainties. Kerry’s growth on the campaign trail gives a glimpse of his potential.
Our support for Bush is tempered by unease over the poor choices and results of his first term. To succeed in his second-term, Bush must begin by taking responsibility for U.S. failures in Iraq, admit his mistakes and adjust U.S. strategy. Big time, as his running mate might say.
…But respect for his leadership was sharply diminished by U.S. missteps in Iraq and evidence that the president had ignored frequent warnings of Osama bin Laden’s murderous ambition. Even so, there is opportunity for Bush to make adjustments that will validate the sacrifices of coalition forces and Iraqis themselves.
We believe George W. Bush is up to the challenge.
Well of course, that couldn’t make any more sense, now could it? Oh wait, it could – the Denver Post’s parent company, MediaNews Group, is owned by William Dean Singleton, a major donor to the Bush-Cheney campaign.
[via, yes, fine, I admit it, The Al Franken Show]
Hey, fellas: What’ve you been listening to lately? Brian Wilson’s newly-revised and -released SMiLE? We thought so.
Frankly, it’s rather impressive that Arafat was able to get ahold of a copy of this album after being holed up in his compound by Israeli tanks for two long years. You see, there is a practical application for those smuggling tunnels everyone’s always going on about.
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Crooked Letters Flock Together
“W” at a Saginaw, Michigan campaign rally… The good people who drained your 401(k)
Earlier: We’ve Been Hammering Away at His War Record, But Let’s Not Forget Enron, Okay?