drat fink

rant a holic

pretty good explanation of the iowa caucus approach to deliberative democracy. i think could be a helpful tool for the democrats because lesser candidates supporters can if they choose move to support more popular candidates once their initial choice has been weeded out. but i could see that those campaigns with the best organization would have a decided advantage which might bias the results. so, theoretically, edwards supporters (about 10%) could tip the caucus if he is eliminated and his supporters decide that gephardt is their anybody but dean candidate.

meanwhile, this flap about dean dissing the iowa caucus four years ago is bullshit. unfortunately i saw him back away from it today. what he said was true, and his interlocuters if pressed would be forced to agree. its the same with his "we are no safer now" remark about saddam. but people can be remarkably obtuse. not that theyre entirely wrong about dean as the more i see the less impressed i am. he has two things in his favor, the movement and his willingness to occasionally speak truth to power. i cant say that he seems all that prepared to "run the country," especially with a howling opposition breathing down his back. if he thinks gentleman john f. kerry plays dirty wait until the conservatives and their nasties in the media dig in.

so, all of the blow dried members of congress are far smoother than dean. as has been stated elsewhere, dean has polled better with women despite his sort of gruff clinical demeanor. i would assume that has more to do with his "liberalism" and opposition to the war. because he should appeal to what are considered a valued block, middle class males. theres nothing sexy about dean. hes very matter of fact and his physical features and posture reflect that. by contrast i would say all of the members of congress possess a certain effeteness. i think that comes from living in the political hothouse and mediaspheric environment that is washington. which is why govenors can do well. their lack of polishcan actually be an asset. as with clark, his public persona is still somewhat clunky. although if maureen dowd mocks him, that should be a good indicator that people in the heartland might respect him. it actually reminds me of The Simple Life. the most interesting thing about the show is the image of middle america which is pretty much airbrushed from or for television. maybe you catch a glance of it here of there, especially if theres something to sensationalize for the news or newsmagazine/tabloid tv. but here is a family living in rural arkansas, more or less just getting by. but im guessing they would have to be fairly liberal minded to have agree to appear on the show. they are somewhat shocked and dismayed by the girls behavior but theyre just as intrigued and bemused at other times.

soooo, im placing them in the soft center. and i guess im playing my version of "who would you rather have a beer with," its "who would you feel most comfortable with in your living room?" now, is this the way to decide who should run the country? probably not, but it is often what it amounts to.

who do i think this family would vote for? i think the mother would vote for edwards and the father could go for clark. in a general election they might pull the lever for bush over dean at this point. nicole richie would vote for sharpton or the marijuana party candidate and paris hilton would either oversleep or vote for kucinich because she thought he was funny to look at.

whoops. lost track of time. missed john kerry on meet the press. i could really use that tivo. and a powerbook. an interior decorator. a trunk full of money.

caught a few minutes of the poobah roundtable on timmys show. they were all genuflecting to the power of the blog. russert even used the line, "are you now or have you ever been a blogger?"

end of rant

grade "a" moron

no need to ask how i did. lets just say, i performed somewhat better than bart did at the national grammar rodeo in calgary.

the threatening spin

been waiting for ken pollacks apologia?

garbage in, garbage out

"Waste Management of Arizona's Painted Desert Landfill, near Holbrook, was transformed into Mars for a NASA test site in 2002, says Vince Murphy, a company official."

and theyre off

this war wasnt about wmds, it was about the freedom to gamble. but dont we call it "gaming" in america, now? those iraqis, when will they every learn. such a backwards people, not even one reputable pr firm in the whole country. and remember, you dont have to eat the losing horses anymore, thats what the mcdonalds are for.

chill out

pretty chilly on this side of my apartment. last time i checked the thermometer said 56. once it gets below 20 outside, my windows basically stop trying. and the radiator is only marginally better. currently 7 degrees for those of you keeping score at home.

fools on the hill

ethel passes along a very potent "what liberal media" anecdote.

dean is to truman as...

"Doing without historical analogy would be like trying to do without metaphor--and in some ways, it would also be like doing without the empirical substance of informed policy making. We can only predict what might happen by thinking about what has happened: it is the only data we have."

dear penthouse nation forum,

"Over the years I have read with avidity various intellectual disputes in The New York Review of Books and other literary journals. But I have never imagined myself being a part of one of them. However, I found Eric Alterman's December 15 "Stop the Presses" column on my recent film, The Fog of War, so devoid of historical scholarship (despite his claim of having worked on his PhD for eleven years) that I feel compelled to respond."

moon unit zapper

"In the days to come, any administration official who says that a Moon base could support a Mars mission is revealing himself or herself to be a total science illiterate. When you hear, "A Moon base could support a Mars mission," substitute the words, "I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about."