Killer lines from the movie "Real Genius" starring Val Kilmer

It's a saturday morning.. bear with me.

1. Destiny, I have come for you
2. Have you ever seen a killer body like this? She's my daughter. Oh, then I guess you have.
3. Compared to you, most people have the IQ of a carrot.
4. Do you still run? Only when chased.
5. Your mother puts licence plates on your underwear? How do you sit?
6. Your laborers. You're supposed to be laboring. Thats what you get for not having an education!
7. I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"
8. Can you drive a 6 inch spike through a board with your penis? Not right now. Well a girl has to have her standards.

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: Brian

Observations of Saturday morning TV....

In no particular order....


1. Gabriel Jarret totally looks like a girl in the movie Real Genius.

2. The parents that throw the mega-parties for their daughters on My Super Sweet 16, are seriously mentally deranged. Throwing parties like that should be grounds for ostracization from society.

3. Infomercials have moved from hawking knives and grills to hawking franchise opportunities for Quiznos. What this means for tv, the business world, and for toasted sub sandwhiches can only be speculated on.

4. Dr. 90210 makes being a plastic surgeon seem as shallow as I thought it was.

5. Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County may be the real orange county, but it's like no-place else on earth.

6. How the woman who perpetrated the Wendy's finger in the chili hoax acquired the finger is not appropriate for Saturday morning tv while people are munching on their breakfast cereal.


Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: Brian

St Louis Piece of Trash Post-Dispatch

Well, Little Green Footballs finds a statement by Lee Enterprises which recently purchased the St Louis Piece of Trash Post-Dispatch, stating that the editorial bent of the newspaper won't change... So, since I refuse to subscribe to the P-D and since they refuse to be fairer in their coverage, I can now turn to a more objective source of news & commentary.

For an example of just how lefty the editorial board is, just check out the editorial opinions of the P-D today:

War on the Working Poor

TEN YEARS AGO, Wayne Fry jumped into a swimming pool and landed on Medicaid.

The fall broke his neck, leaving Mr. Fry, then 35, paralyzed from the chest down. His doctors told him he would end up in a nursing home. Only a fierce desire for independence and a helping hand from Medicaid have allowed him to stay in the house in Eureka that he built himself before the accident.

Mr. Fry's decade-long battle for self-sufficiency just got harder. Deep Medicaid cuts ordered by Gov. Matt Blunt and the Missouri Legislature ended the program that allowed him to get Medicaid. About 90,000 others will also lose coverage. Like a swimmer caught in a riptide, Mr. Fry is struggling against powerful forces dragging him where he doesn't want to go: to a life of dependency in a nursing home.

Family Leave: Don't hurt workers

AMERICANS NOW TAKE IT FOR GRANTED that their employers will give them unpaid time off to bond with a new baby, undergo medical treatment or care for a seriously ill family member.

Actually, that one isn't nearly as inflammatory, although it certainly doesn't attempt to look at the issue from the side of business - especially small business.

Yalta & Saigon: Don't forget history (probably the most balanced editorial of the bunch!)

Vietnam, too, was a war fought against a brutal “dictator,” Ho Chi Minh, and the “terrorist” Viet Cong. Vietnam, too, was seen as having broad implications for the future of freedom across an entire region of the world. In Vietnam, too, the enemy could claim to be fighting for a nationalist cause against U.S. invaders. In Vietnam, too, there were predictions of victory around the next corner, even as soldiers fell.

Iraq isn’t Vietnam. Saying so would be engaging in the same kind of mistaken oversimplification as the president. Insurgents in Iraq are much weaker than the Viet Cong. Saddam Hussein was more brutal than Ho Chi Minh. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a nihilist unlike the Viet Cong, which at least had a political program. For these reasons and others, there probably never will be a day when a last helicopter escapes from a Baghdad rooftop.

But during the past two weeks, hundreds of Iraqis have died in terrorist attacks, a score of U.S. troop deaths pushed the American toll over 1,600 and four Afghans were killed as a mob attacked U.S. troops in a protest over interrogation tactics at Guantanamo Bay. Mr. Bush’s flawed vision of a democratic Middle East seems like a distant mirage.

John Bolton: Poster Boy

Brokerages: Into the Woods

There is a lesson here for inexperienced small investors: You’re fresh meat. The small investor looking for a stock broker is like Little Red Riding Hood looking for Grandma. It’s awfully hard to tell the kindly grandmas from the big bad wolves.

It's a good thing I don't have to pay for that content... I'm not sure why anyone would.

***Note - Sorry for the light posting. ***

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

Buchanan Idiocy

Was World War II worth it? I have to disagree with buchanan and say, "Yes." Certainly the post-war realities didn't match the pre-war aims (ie a Free and Sovereign Poland ended up being a repressive state). However, this is the case with most wars - once the die is cast, political objectives are transformed by military realities.

Yes, Pat makes a correct point that it wasn't a good thing to allow Stalin to annex Central & Eastern Europe. I too recognize that Stalin was just as evil as Hitler. But has Pat forgotten that we fought the Cold War? Just because we didn't send Ike on into Warsaw doesn't mean that we didn't fight Stalin and his successors.

This column by Pat is a prime example of why I'm not in his camp... Not to mention his opposition to free trade, his opposition to the Iraq War because he sees it as an operation solely to protect Israel. His thinking is often flawed, making a distinction without a difference. And his writings often have anti-Semitic overtones... such as this:

No Christian peoples of Europe ever embraced their Soviet captors or Stalinist quislings.

I assume he's referring to the large swaths of Muslims in Poland at the time of the Yalta Conference? Or is he mimicking the Nazi-era propaganda pushed by Goebbels that Jews are communists? Frankly, I'm not sure that one's religion had anything to do with opposing the repression of the Stalinist empire. While he makes oblique references to the Holocaust in his article, he is often unable to clearly articulate his thoughts on the matter and the fact that it was worth it to end the evil that Hitler had wrought on Jews in Europe, as well as poltiical prisoners, homosexuals, and Christians.

I missed Pat's verbal comments on the radio and am only able to judge his thoughts based on the article linked above. However, Newsday has a short article on the matter with opinions from a variety of folks.

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

Blame Bush & Hate Radio

H/T - Wuzzadem

I have to say, Liberal Larry (About) just wrote my bio with this post. Although I'm not Catholic and certainly not a member of the Klan, although this RNC Membership card from 2002 probably is good enough for any "Progressive."

Then along came conservative talk radio. Our cro-mag, wife-beating con now flicks on his little Hate Box and hears Rush Limbaugh bloviating about how the city of Santa Monica is imposing a new Eyebrow Tax in order to build wheelchair ramps next to dumpsters so handicapped homeless people can dine in style. He hears Sean Hannity yammering about a new Spam Tax in Seattle to fund free gender modification surgery for Sen. Patty Murray. The repug begins to get the idea that he's not alone, that there are others out there who share his political views and are as insane as he is. He starts asking questions. He gets involved in politics. He buys an SUV and joins conservative hate groups like the Klu Klux Klan and the Catholic Church. He demands lower taxes and less wasteful government spending - the exact opposite of what our Founding Fathers intended. He may even begin to read subversive literature from reknowned fascists like Ayn Rand and Barry Goldwater.

Previously unable to string two coherent ideas together, our cro-mag con now revels in arguing with us - not with knowledge bestowed upon him by brilliant UC Berkeley professors or progressive politicians, but with little soundbites of hate injected into his puny primitive brain by a right-wing demagogue of choice. Desensitized by the trademark animalistic violence of conservative talk radio, he no longer listens to the calming, soothing wisdom of his progressive neighbor. Instead, he knocks the poor man out of his government-issued hammock, calls him "lazy", and tells him to "get a job". If he's especially pathetic, our cro-mag con might start his own conservative blog, and use it as a platform to espouse his twisted political ideals.

By the way, I say we move to change all of the labels that are thrown around (liberal, conservative, progressive, etc). I mean, who wants that, especially considering that the actual meanings of these words no longer accurately desribe the people that get tagged with them. I say, let's right the ship and reclaim our language. Here's the new lexicon that we can employ:

• Instead of Conservative, let's use the term Neo-Liberal (as in Free Market Liberalism). This group thinks that the free market is the best way to allocate scarce resources.
• Instead of Liberal, let's use the term Pinko... not fully communist per se, but definitely not 100% behind the free market.
• Instead of Progressive, let's us the term Commie/Castroite/Stalinist - I mean, come on.. when I hear someone say "I'm not Liberal - I'm Progressive"... I roll my eyes. The only thing they're progressive about is how quickly they can take down the capitalist system and replace it with some five year plan...

comments/modifications/suggestions welcome. I just REFUSE to call Lefty nutjobs "Liberal" because there's a heck of a lot of issues on which they're just not "liberal". And "Progressives" seem to only be want to progress our country all the way back to 1917...

Thus, you'll never see me write those terms (Liberal, Progressive, etc)... it'll be some other pejorative.

:-)

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

Deranged Nutter? Don't worry! You've got a forum here!

It looks like Arianna has created her weblog thingy just to allow the legally insane to post their daily ruminations...

Jim Lampley
The Biggest Story of Our Lives

At 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on Election Day, I checked the sportsbook odds in Las Vegas and via the offshore bookmakers to see the odds as of that moment on the Presidential election. John Kerry was a two-to-one favorite. You can look it up.
[ed - I wonder if the sportsbookies had heard about the early exit polls... I learned of them at 2pm CST]

People who have lived in the sports world as I have, bettors in particular, have a feel for what I am about to say about this: these people are extremely scientific in their assessments. These people understand which information to trust and which indicators to consult in determining where to place a dividing line to influence bets, and they are not in the business of being completely wrong. Oddsmakers consulted exit polling and knew what it meant and acknowledged in their oddsmaking at that moment that John Kerry was winning the election.

And he most certainly was, at least if the votes had been fairly and legally counted. What happened instead was the biggest crime in the history of the nation, and the collective media silence which has followed is the greatest fourth-estate failure ever on our soil.

Many of the participants in this blog have graduate school educations. It is damned near impossible to go to graduate school in any but the most artistic disciplines without having to learn about the basics of social research and its uncanny accuracy and validity. We know that professionally conceived samples simply do not yield results which vary six, eight, ten points from eventual data returns, thaty's why there are identifiable margins for error. We know that margins for error are valid, and that results have fallen within the error range for every Presidential election for the past fifty years prior to last fall. NEVER have exit polls varied by beyond-error margins in a single state, not since 1948 when this kind of polling began. In this past election it happened in ten states, all of them swing states, all of them in Bush's favor. Coincidence? Of course not.

Karl Rove isn't capable of conceiving and executing such a grandiose crime? Wake up. They did it. The silence of traditional media on this subject is enough to establish their newfound bankruptcy. The revolution will have to start here. I challenge every other thinker at the Huffington Post: is there any greater imperative than to reverse this crime and reestablish democracy in America? Why the mass silence? Let's go to work with the circumstantial evidence, begin to narrow from the outside in, and find some witnesses who will turn. That's how they cracked Watergate. This is bigger, and I never dreamed I would say that in my baby boomer lifetime.

Now, I'm sure Jim is a nice guy... But he should seriously seek counseling.

Don't worry.... Byron York sets him straight.

by the way.... sssshhhhh... 2004 was a conspiracy. normally, we elect presidents based on Vegas betting odds after the election has already started. But, Karl Rove worked his magic and somehow... somehow got them to count votes this time around.

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

MSFT

Evan Coyne Maloney at BrainTerminal writes on his hatred for Microsoft. I have to say I agree... and I'm a MSFT user, but only by default.

The strange thing is, Microsoft has the technology to allow its videos to play on a Mac; my Mac has a program on it called "Windows Media Player" by a company named Microsoft. And I know it may sound shocking, but I've even managed to play Windows Media videos with it!

MSNBC.com shouldn't require visitors to use Microsoft's player at all, much less require that they also run the Windows operating system. They have every right to do so, of course, but it's strikes me as short-sighted from a business standpoint. The incompatibility certainly can't be a technological hurdle. After all, if a two-bit punk like me can figure out how to set up a website that serves QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media files to Macs and PCs, Windows and Linux alike, surely the mighty Microsoft can get it done. So why doesn't it? That's a good question...

The way that MSFT designs everything (and I mean e v e r y t h i n g) is so that if the world (and your IT infrastructure) was totally microsoft, it'd run perfectly (except for all those security holes, but I digress). When I buy a gas guzzling SUV from Dodge... do I HAVE to buy Dodge gas? do I have to get the Mopar add-ons? Or can I trick it out with some 3rd party stuff? What about parts when it breaks... do I have to go to a Dodge certified guy and use Dodge certified parts? or can the local guy with the generic parts do the trick?

I think people are finally getting ticked at this strategy of MSFT's... Of course, Apple isn't exactly squeaky clean in this regard either...

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

DU Validates ARC's 1st Law

H/T WizBang (It seems that looking for mentions of a Rovian connection on DU, DailyKos, et al is becoming quite popular)

It's just so amazing how nutty they are... They continue to provide irrefutable proof of ARC's 1st Law:

Here's my theory: We all know Bush has been treated like the demon he is when he goes overseas, where people with actual critical thinking skills and a real media know who he is and aren't as susceptible to the Pravda-like pro-Bush propaganda we have rammed down our throats on a daily basis.
This latest trip was different -- cheering mobs, large crowds, etc.
What a great visual -- now, Rove must be thinking, how to make it last longer? how to make these glowing images shoot around the world?
Isn't an "attempt" on Bush's life the perfect foil?
It will force the media to ruminate on it, show the positive background footage and have all the pundits marvel at what a wonderful trip this was and how out of place this act of hostility seemed.

Whatever did happen, we do know this: It's not what they're saying. I would believe nothing from this crowd.

Here's a pic that they posted... thought you might like it.

***wooops.. pic removed by PicVault due to bandwidth usage***

I like the way the green tint... and the background with Hitler is just great. Now, my question is this... with nutters like this driving the Democratic party, how in the HECK do you debate them? How can you have a conversation about policy and what's best for the country? I mean, if they won't accept reality... how can you?

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

EU - "Pro-Business"

Read the full article, as additional details are very interesting. (get a subscription... great content from WSJ)

EU Approves Rule On Worker Rights In Merger Deals
By JULIANE VON REPPERT-BISMARCK
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
May 11, 2005; Page A13

BRUSSELS -- European Union lawmakers ended two decades of debate between business and labor, passing a single set of rules for cross-border mergers that attempt to balance the need for such tie-ups with maintaining worker rights.

Under the new rules, companies that are merging must adopt the stricter national labor code if one third or more of the new company's work force comes from that country. The rule applies only to businesses that employ more than 500 workers.

Hmmm.... so, if I'm a French company with 500 employees and am looking to merge with a Germany company with 166 employees, all of a sudden I have to adopt the German labor standards... yeah, that sounds right. By the way, the German labor standards require that representatives of labor sit on the company's board... So, all of a sudden the French company would have to comply with that policy.

This is being spun as a pro-business decision, although the only reason it's pro-business is that after a decade of debating this issue, it's finally been resolved and businesses know what the rules of the playing field are. Unfortunately, the rules are likely to limit mergers & acquisitions which are crucial if the EU really wants to become an economic superpower (by leveraging economies of scale).

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

Conrad the next to be "Daschled"?

H/T Say Anything

Perhaps there's an opportunity here for the GOP to flip a vote on some of the upcoming issues? I'm sure the voters back in North Dakota wouldn't approve of Kent's positions on some of the issues of the day... Otherwise, Kent Conrad (D-ND) is likely to face the same problem that Tom "Two Face" Daschle had - being an über-Lefty in Washington and a centrist back home.

Oh, and just like Daschle's situation in South Dakota, there's a blog out there pushing for a Conrad defeat. BTW, how in the HECK does a guy like Conrad get elected year in/year out in a state that is solidly Republican? (Bush 63%, Kerry 36%) Does he pull a Daschle every time he runs and the local media just hasn't figured out the game yet? Or do the N.D. voters
prefer a Lefty in the Senate but a Righty in the White House?
ND Governor has Highest Approval Rating

A SurveryUSA poll just came out and Gov. Hoeven has the highest approval rating and tied for the second lowest disapproval rating of any governor in the country. 71% of North Dakotans approve while only 20%.
No doubt, Sen. Conrad has seen this one! Now, Gov. Hoeven just needs to run against him!

I don't know, he looks pretty confident... dorky, but confident.



:-D

Of course, here's a pic of Hoeven. Unfortunately, I'd call this even at this point... Hoeven must lose the 'stache. Just won't cut it.


***UPDATE***
It seems that the MO voters are believing the press clippings on Matt Blunt here in Missouri...

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Matt Blunt is doing as governor?

33% Approve
57% Disapprove
10% Not Sure

Why do I have the feeling that if there was a hypothetical election in 2005, Blunt would still win? I think people recognize that he's making tough choices and that in the long run, Missouri will be better off for it. I know, those tough choices are killing the organic pecan farmers of Missouri and calling for a 1% decrease in the budget for state government jobs is really, really draconian. Unfortunately, people seem to only read the headlines that blast Blunt - not the underlying facts of the story.



Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

New Women's Resource Center Director at UNC-Wilmington?

H/T Doubleplusgood Infotainment

Mike S. Adams shares with us his application to be the Director of the Women's Resource Center... somehow, I don't think he'll get the job...

In order to address these more specific requirements, I intend to list some specific things I will do if I become WRC Director. That short list
follows:

1. I will immediately ask you, Dr. Berkeley, to sever your ties with the Women's Resource Center. This decision is based upon your consistent pattern of viewpoint discrimination as a leader of the WRC-most recently as the interim director.

For example, since December, the UNCW Pro Life group has been trying to get a link to their website through the WRC website. After weeks of ignoring them, you promised them a hearing in March. You then moved the hearing to April. You then cancelled the hearing. Thinking of silly excuses to ensure that only your views are represented on the WRC website is something you have done with impunity for years. My description of your history of similar discrimination is chronicled in a chapter in my book, "Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel." If you would like, I can provide you with a copy for inspection.

As it stands, the pro-life movement is only mentioned once on your website in a caption below a picture of a man holding a sign saying "Bow to the God of the Bible." Your caption reads: "This pretty much sums up the motivations of the anti-choice movement." In other words, the WRC is saying that pro-lifers are all simple-minded religious bigots. That is as unacceptable as saying "all Jews are penny pinchers" or "all Negroes are spear chuckers." Your stereotypical thinking and willingness to discriminate based on those stereotypes will have no place at a Mike Adams-led WRC.

2. I will immediately ask Elizabeth Ervin, former head of the WRC, to sever all ties with the Center. When Ervin was director, she told the local Crisis Pregnancy Center (Life Line) that they could not be linked to the WRC webpage. Shortly thereafter, she went onto a feminist list serve based at Dartmouth and admitted that she denied the group access to the WRC site because they were "explicitly Christian." The emails sent back and forth between the feminists had a privacy statement attached to them, saying that those of us who received the emails in error must delete them without reading their contents.

I read the emails anyway. But it is now a moot point since one of the feminists accidentally posted the emails on the internet for all to see.
Again, Dr. Berkeley, you can use "Google" to access the whole exchange.
After you do, I'm sure you will agree that anti-Christian bigotry has no place at the WRC.

Heh

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

St Louis Talk Radio

It appears that there are some significant shifts taking place in the realm of talk radio here in St Louis. The main station here, KMOX 1120 is the old standard, with its clear channel spot on the dial. They've got a 50,000 watt transmission and they're branded as "the Voice of St Louis." Unfortunately for them, it should be changed to "the Voice of Rush and the St Louis Cardinal and those over 65 and over."



When Rush Limbaugh was growing up in Cape Giradeau, he used to listen to KMOX for the Cardinal ballgames, as do most fans throughout the Midwest. KMOX's signal can be heard throughout 44 of the 48 contiguous states...

Anyway, I remember when Rush first got picked up by KMOX... it was sometime in the mid-90s and about 4 years later than it should've been. He was so excited to sign the station and said at the time that he knew he had "arrived" when he started broadcasting on KMOX. Well, Rush on KMOX is problematic, because they often pre-empt his show for Cardinal's coverage, sometimes even if the game isn't scheduled to start until well after Rush is over. The rest of the programming on KMOX is just atrocious and I'm unable to listen to it - unless I'm looking to take a nap.

A couple of years ago, 97.1 FMTalk started up in St Louis, with a refreshing blend of nationally syndicated show and local programming. I now listen to this station almost exclusively... The local personalities on 97.1 are always talking about how the avg age of the KMOX demographic is somewhere north of 60 and I have to say that this is highly likely. Without the Cardinals and Rush, KMOX would be at the bottom of the ratings.

The news here is that Glenn Beck's first hour, which airs at 1.00pm here in St Louis, has beaten Rush in the same timeslot. Oh, and did I mention that the GB show is on tape delay and is the only hour of the program that 97.1 carries?

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

Ahh, the French

Who thinks that the EU is economically and politically sustainable, given situations such as these?

By the way, if you don't have a subscription to the WSJ (on dead tree or online), you really should get one... here's a link to their subscription page.

At French Utility, Union Wages War To Guard Its Perks
Plan to Privatize Giant EDF Spotlights a Costly Bloat In Europe's Public Sector

By JOHN CARREYROU
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 10, 2005; Page A1

PARIS -- Last June 15, two masked men marched up to French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's private home in western France, removed the electric meter and cut off the power.

They weren't vandals or robbers. They were employees of Electricité de France SA, protesting the government's decision to sell as much as 30% of the giant state-owned power utility on the stock market this year.

The raid was just one among hundreds of power cuts organized by EDF employees affiliated with France's powerful Confédération Générale du Travail union amid a broad strike last year. Among their other targets: the presidential palace housing Jacques Chirac, which had to switch to a backup generator, and two Paris train stations -- stranding 300,000 commuters for several hours on June 28.

The sabotage was both a testament to the CGT's clout and a sign of how much the union stands to lose if EDF, the world's largest power utility in terms of production capacity, becomes a publicly traded company. The communist-leaning union commands the allegiance of more than half of EDF's 110,000 French workers and controls the company's social-benefits council.

The council is a vast welfare machine that subsidizes meals, vacations and cultural events for EDF employees, and provides them with free health care -- all paid for with a huge budget funded by electricity consumers. EDF employees also enjoy lifetime employment, early retirement, subsidized housing and 90% discounts on their power bills, among other perks. The CGT has closely guarded these advantages for decades. If EDF is listed on the stock market, the union fears, investors will promptly put an end to them.

France's attempt to partially privatize and skinny down EDF over the objections of unions like the CGT is a test case for one of the biggest challenges facing Continental Europe: whether it can trim its costly welfare states and shed the structural impediments that have long clogged its economy. [ed - I won't hold my breath]

Across Europe, countries from Italy to Spain have for years wrestled with bloated public sectors. In France, the problem is especially acute. The country has 6.4 million public-sector workers -- more than a quarter of its work force. Like EDF employees, they enjoy gold-plated benefits and are less productive than their private-sector counterparts. The result is a bulging state budget deficit that has breached European Union rules for three years running, and an economy, the world's fifth-largest, that grew at a rate of 2.3% last year. By contrast, the U.S. economy grew at a 4.4% rate in 2004.

Hey, let's implement what the French do here!

Read the entire article... it's amazing some of the other perks that the French utility workers get (cafeteria meals priced according to their incomes, vacation resorts around the world, etc). Of course, it all comes at the expense of the French taxpayer and economic productivity, but what the heck...

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

Dean is pro-socialist....

Looks like ol' Howie didn't ask for your advice, St. Howard endorsed Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) today for Senate in Vermont.

"A victory for Bernie Sanders is a win for Democrats," Dean said in a telephone
interview Monday.

Cause you know, Democrats are all socialists at their core. But I'm sorry its not a "win". Its a stalemate. Jeffords had already jumped ship, so if Bernie wins (and he probably will) its a seat they were expected to keep.

Weaver said the campaign will lean heavily on Democratic volunteers and supporters, but also on groups not necessarily aligned with a political party. He mentioned working families, farmers, senior citizens and veterans.

"This is going to be in many ways a historic grass roots campaign for Vermont," Weaver said.

The old tried and true. Get out the grass-roots! Well, thats supposed to be Dean's forte. But honestly, who doesn't get out the grass-roots?

I still don't see how this is good for the Democrats as a whole. They keep VT, which they were likely to keep anyway, but by making this a national issue they potentially sacrifice red-state Senate seats.

Let's face it, Bernie was likely to win. He already runs state-wide for his congressional seat, so changing the title on the ballot shouldn't affect him much. So what benefits does the DNC get by endorsing Bernie? None that I see. Unless Howie feels he can get more fundraising dollars from the whack fringe-left by doing the endorsement. But if they need that money that badly (at the risk of sacrificing a red-state senate seat that they need to keep) then they are in worse shape than I thought.

Oh wait, they are.

The DNC has raised nearly $9.6 million in 2005 - less than half the total raised
by the Republican National Committee in that time.

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC:Brian

Light Posting Today

There'll be few posts today, as two of the conspirators here will be busy at a charity golf tournament.

Unless Penelope decides to gets her posting-groove on.... Nah, she's got a life.

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler

Joe Klein (aka Anonymous) on HRC

Joel Klein has this article in Time Magazine... While he's a true believer in Bill, he doesn't seem to have the same affinity for Hill... (You could almost sense that in Primary Colors as well... he saw that there was something... "off" with Hillary.)

Welcome to my life. In airports, on checkout lines, at the doctor's office: "What about Hillary?" (Everywhere except in Washington, where everyone "knows" she's running.) I shrug, I try to avoid the question, I say it's too early—and it is. But you want to know too, right? So here it is. I like Senator Clinton. She has a wicked, ironic sense of humor (in private) and a great raucous belly laugh. She is smart and solid; she inspires tremendous loyalty among those who work for her. She is not quite as creative a policy thinker as her husband, but she easily masters difficult issues.
[...]
Still, she has some very real political limitations. She has a clenched, wary public presence, which won't work well in an electorate that prizes aw-shucks informality; she isn't a particularly warm or eloquent speaker, especially in front of large audiences. Any woman running for President will face a toughness conundrum: she will constantly have to prove her strength and be careful about showing her emotions. She won't have the luxury of, say, Bill Clinton's public sogginess. It will take a brilliant politician to create a credible feminine presidential style. So far, Senator Clinton hasn't shown the ease or creativity necessary to break the ultimate glass ceiling.
[...]
[ED - Hmmm... I'd have to say that Condi could pull that off...]

And then there is her husband, a one-man supermarket tabloid. A few weeks ago, the New York Post ran a photo of Bill Clinton leaving a local restaurant with an attractive woman, and the political-elite gossip hounds went berserk. Prominent Democrats—friends of the Clintons—were wringing their hands. "Do we really want to go through all that again?" one asked me. I don't know—should the sins of the husband be visited upon the wife? Absent any evidence, the former President should be considered guilty until proved really guilty. But there is another problem: What role would the big guy play in a Hillary Clinton Administration? Would he reform health care? Does anyone believe that a man with such a huge personality would have a less active role in her Administration than she had in his?

"You mean she can't run just because her husband was President?" a Hillary supporter yelled at me. "That is the most incredibly sexist thing I've ever heard." Yes and no. My guess is that Hillary Clinton would roll into Iowa with an incredible, Howard Dean-like head of steam in January 2008, and then the folks—yes, even the Democratic base—would give her a very close look and conclude that a Hillary presidency would be slightly dodgy. The Clinton line in 1992 was, Buy one, get one free. We've already had that co-presidency—for its full, constitutional eight years. What's more, I suspect there would be innate and appropriate populist resistance to this slouch toward monarchial democracy. There is something fundamentally un-American—and very European—about the Clintons and the Bushes trading the office every eight years, with stale, familiar corps of retainers, supporters and enemies. Bill Clinton was a good President. Hillary Clinton is a good Senator. But enough already. (And that goes for you too, Jeb.)

Well, I think he's completely wrong... if there isn't a single Democrat that can come up with a VISION and a PLAN for the Democratic Party and where it wants to take these United States, Hillary will be the nominee... Unfortunately for the Dems (and the rest of us), Howard Dean has been the only Dem politician with any vision (or perhaps his passion obscures the fact that he has no vision?), and he's so nutty that he couldn't make it through a Dem primary - despite what the Kossacks and Ollies would ilke you to believe.

One thing that Klein totally misses is the monolithic support that Hill will get from the MSM... You thought Kerry coverage was a lovefest... just wait.

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler