Taking a brief hiatus for personal issues- should be back in form by Thursday. Remember to vote in the Blog Awards, and I might point out that despite the fact 19 people linked to the awards, I do not have THEIR submissions. Hrmm. Below are the categories.
John Cole started Balloon Juice early in 2002. Those who have followed along know that this has been quite the journey.
Coulter Stories
I like Coulter’s writing style, bombastic and in your face, but I realize EVERYTHING she says should be taken with a grain of salt. If you dislike Ann Coulter, however, you are going to love Radley Balko’s story of a luncheon with her. A teaser:
I already have one great Ann Coulter story:
I
Blog Nonsense
For a writer and a historian, Tom Spencer seems to be having a helluva time tracking down this recent historical timeline and is calling me to task for not sufficiently ‘condemning’ the 9/11 commission. For Mr. Spencer’s edification, here is a quick review of events.
– On Wednesday, 6 August, at 7:53 pm, Dwight Meredith posted a piece titled ‘Blue Ribbon Panel’ in which he discussed the various Saudi ties of six of the members.
– On Thursday, 7 August, at 1:21 AM, Mark Kleiman wrote a post titled ‘WHOSE SIDE ARE THEY ON, ANYWAY?,’ in which he asked the question:
How hard is it to figure out that the former Secretary of State of the United States shouldn’t be carrying water for the foreign power responsible for the largest massacre of Americans ever carried out?
– On Friday, 8 August, at 12:05 AM, Dwight Meredith responds to Mark’s question about Baker in a post titled ‘Gorelick Must Resign the 9/11 Commision.’ Dwight’s response:
The same can be asked of each of the
Michele’s Questions
Michele wants some answers to some basic questions:
1. If you were a tree, what kind of dog would piss on you?
Who cares? I just wish the birds would stop crapping on me.
2. Do these pants make my ass look fat?
Why don’t you take them off so I can compare?
3. What’s your stance on sporks?
I prefer to stir my vodka tonics with a straw, but in a pinch a spork will do.
4. You’re the presidential candidate for a viable third political party. What’s it called and who’s your running mate?
“I’ll be honest- We are going to lie to you” and my veep would be PJ O’Rourke.
5. Why do birds suddenly appear?
To eat the worms that fattened up on Karen Carpenter.
Ibot
I saw this Hockenberry piece about Dean Kamen’s IBOT tonight on NBC (I remember it being on MSNBC a while back), and it is just as amazing the second time around.
More on the Recall
As if there were not enough reasons to be against the recall in California (which I am not going to state again), my comparison of future California politics to the Italian government in the 1990’s does not seem to be so far-fetched:
Elected officials, political analysts and professors say the upshot of this effort may unleash recalls against other candidates and spur more initiatives.
“That’s a danger here,” said state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, a Democrat who opposes the recall effort. “Once you use it, it could be likely to come back again.”
Some Democrats, in fact, have already issued the threat that they will try to recall any Republican who wins the Governor’s Office.
“The recall petition would be handed to that Republican at their swearing-in, absolutely,” said Bob Mulholland, a political adviser to the state Democratic Party.
The article notes that recall has been tried 31 times before, all unsuccessfully, but this certainly is not something I look forward to, and I live nowhere near California. If I owned a business I would probably look for a state with a more stable political climate, and all Californians should keep that in mind.
The 9/11 Commission
The other day, Dwight Meredith noted the following:
Let