50-State Landslide

Ann Coulter, in her column yesterday, predicted the outcome of the 2004 election:

I believe the game plan is this: The Democrats will spend the next 11 months ruefully admitting that it's going to be a 50-state landslide for Bush. Republicans will engage in their normal partisan cheerleading, and everyone will seem to be agreed that Bush is going to win a 50-state landslide. Then, if the final tally is anything short of that – if it's a 40-state landslide for Bush – the New York Times will be able to crow about Bush's poor showing and run headlines like: "Americans Still Deeply Divided on War."

Whatever... That is probably the tamest part of her article. The rest is really wild and makes for a fine fiction reading for a tired Friday. Check it out.

How the Angel Came to Be on Top of the Christmas Tree

One particular Xmas a long time ago, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip ... but there were problems everywhere. Four of his elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones, so Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule. Then, Mrs Claus told him her Mum was coming to visit. This stressed Santa even more. Then when he went to harness the reindeer he found three of them were about to give birth and two of them had jumped the fence and were out heaven knows where. More stress. Then as he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked and the toy bag fell to the ground scattering all the toys. Frustrated, Santa went back into the house for a cup of coffee and a nip of whisky. When he went to the cupboard he discovered that the elves had hidden the liquor so there was nothing for him to drink. In his frustration he accidentally dropped the coffee pot and it broke into hundreds of little pieces, all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten all the straw from which it had been made. Just then the doorbell rang and Santa cussed his way to the door, he opened it and there stood a little angel with a great big Xmas tree. The little angel said cheerfully, "Merry Xmas Santa. Isn't it just a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Isn't it just a lovely tree? Where would you like me to stick it?" Thus began the tradition of the little angel on the top of the Xmas tree.

Thanks to Cari for this little gem. And if that didn't tickle your fancy, Mark Fiore shows how Walmart has downsized Santa's workshop.

The Higher Costs of Better, More Efficient Medicine

One big thing the Medicare bill forgot to fix (from PPI):

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished in Medicare Among the many complaints about the new Medicare bill signed into law by President Bush on Monday, one of the most important is seldom heard. The bill fails to fix the penalties on doctors and hospitals that improve care. In a New York Times article last Friday, reporter Reed Abelson explained how Medicare has undermined leaders like Dr. Brent James at Intermountain Health Care, a hospital network in Utah and Idaho. James has saved hundreds of lives each year and prevented costly hospital care by educating doctors on best practices and using computers to make health care more effective. For example, James' efforts help ensure doctors prescribe the most effective antibiotic for pneumonia patients, which in turn avoids complications. But Intermountain loses $14,000 in Medicare payments every time it prevents complications that would otherwise cause pneumonia patients to be put on a ventilator. Abelson summed up the problem perfectly: "Medicare, the nation's largest purchaser of health care, pays hospitals and doctors a fixed sum to treat a specific diagnosis or perform a given procedure, regardless of the quality of care they provide. Those who work to improve care are not paid extra, and poor care is frequently rewarded, because it creates the need for more procedures and services."

We can't possibly expect the incompetent Bush Administration to take the initiative, much less understand how, to fix this costly (in both $ and lives) problem.

HERE is an intriguing interview by AP with a leader of an Iraqi terrorist cell. Snippet:

He said he did not want to fight the Americans when they first arrived in April. "I had always looked at the American government as respectable, until now," he said. "They are educated. They know how to build things, how to think and how to work hard. "They promised to liberate us from occupation. They promised us rights and liberty, and my colleagues and I waited to make our decision on whether to fight until we saw how they would act." But, he said, the crime and chaos in the early days after Saddam's fall convinced him and his colleagues -- all Ba'ath Party members -- that the Americans had come "as occupiers and not as liberators." "And my colleagues and I then voted to fight. So we began to meet and plan. We met with others and have tried to buy weapons. None of us are afraid to die, but it is hard. We are just men, workers, not soldiers." Abu Mujahid said the guerrillas waging dozens of attacks on American forces each day have a loosely organized command structure that prevents any one man from knowing too many specifics about other operations. While some coordination and support exist between cells, most are left to operate independently.

The Occasional "Today's Quote"

From Atrios:

"...and another thing. Stop ceding the goddamn debate. Who here thinks Howard Dean can beat Bush? Why Ted , you ignorant slut, Fred Flintstone could take Bush with Barney Rubble as his campaign manager. Wesley Clark should stop saying that he needs to be the nominee because someone needs to be able to match Bush at foreign policy. What Clark should say is that Joey Tribiani could match Bush at foreign policy, though he, Clark, has the most experience. Stop acknowledging that Bush is strong on anything. He's a big loser. He's a miserable failure. He's lost 3 million jobs. He got us into a screwed up war. Our soldiers are being killed by terrorists. The Middle East is a mess. Afghanistan is a mess. OBL is alive. Hussein is alive."

Groper's Agenda: Screw 'Em

So, how's Groperzenegger doing? Calpundit summarizes:

Fine, let's just get this out of the way, then: is Arnold the most brazen liar in the history of politics, or what? I say this without a lot of malice, since I genuinely sympathize with the almost impossible job he's taken on. But still, enough's enough. As the LA Times reports today, Arnold was on CNN yesterday and suggested that he might suspend Proposition 98, an initiative that guarantees a certain minimum level of school funding. To anyone who wasn't in California during the campaign it's hard to get across the depth of the deceit this demonstrates. Here was his TV ad on the subject of education: Question: Will you have to cut education? Schwarzenegger: No. We can fix this mess without hurting the schools. For me, children come first. Always have, always will. I'm telling you, this ad ran a dozen times a night on every station in the state. He said over and over that education wouldn't be touched and that he supported Proposition 98. It was a cornerstone of his campaign. But less than a month after being sworn in he casually proposes gutting Prop 98 and then sends out his chief flack to make weasel noises about what the meaning of "cut" is. It's really unbelievable. In the same interview, Arnold also backed off his promise to make sure local communities get back the money they lost when he reduced the vehicle license fee. And he's backed off his promise to investigate the groping charges. This is a joke. He knew perfectly well exactly how bad the state's finances were when he made these promises, and he made them anyway. He knew he couldn't keep these promises without tax increases, and he made them anyway. And everyone believed that he had some magic plan that defied the laws of economics and lined up to vote for him. And now he's just tossing those promises overboard without so much as an apology. It's revolting.

Ask me if I'm the least bit surprised. Here's another "summary".

Eating Dignity

Consider Hesiod's description of why Dems must fight dirty:

"It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game" is ideal for sports. The only thing you "win" is a game, or a title. And the losers can take solace in doing their best and losing to a superior opponent. In politics, the stakes are too high to fight "fair" when the other side has no intention of doing so. As we've seen, moral superiority doesn't prevent unnecessary wars, or the passage of a terrible Medicare prescription drug benefit. Fighting the good fight, only to lose, doesn't protect our environment from rapacious polluters. Or provide health insurance, or jobs for millions of people. You can't eat "dignity." So, if you are not willing to mix it up, and get down and dirty with the Republicans...then move to Canada. You're of no use to those of us who want to take our country back.

But fighting at the level of the opponent only results in a draw, meaning the status quo remains. To defeat the political enemy, you need a revolution.

Making Examples

Regarding the Pentagon's latest foray into Iraq assassination squads developed with the guidance of Israel, here is what a former US army officer said:

Colonel Ralph Peters, a former army intelligence officer and a critic of Pentagon policy in Iraq, said yesterday there was nothing wrong with learning lessons wherever possible. "When we turn to anyone for insights, it doesn't mean we blindly accept it," Col Peters said. "But I think what you're seeing is a new realism. The American tendency is to try to win all the hearts and minds. In Iraq, there are just some hearts and minds you can't win. Within the bounds of human rights, if you do make an example of certain villages it gets the attention of the others, and attacks have gone down in the area."

Yep, making examples of some will most surely win the hearts and minds of the rest. That's what he said.

Apparently the word "fear" is not part of Peters' vocabulary.

The Boston Globe on last night's Dem. Pres. debate:

For anyone who is already in Dean's camp -- and if opinion polls are right, that includes 40 percent of New Hampshire Democrats -- there was nothing in last night's debate to change their minds. For the front-runner from Vermont, that was the good news. The bad news is that there was also nothing last night to change the minds of a much larger group of Americans: those who think Bush is doing a decent job.

And bad news is all we'll have until the Democratic Party leadership stops acting like Republicans.

No One Else

First posted on Left is Right in November (slightly edited):

The Iraqis demand that the American soldiers go home. The majority of Americans pray for American soldiers to come home. Nearly all U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq desperately want to go home. 99% of the the world insists that American soldiers go home. So, who wants American soldiers to remain in Iraq? Only the Bush Administration and the no-bid contractors they hired. That's it. No one else. Then for whom are our young soldiers, our sons and daughters, getting slaughtered and maimed? Not for Iraqis. Not for Americans. Not for the Army. Not for the rest of the world. Only for The Bush Administration and the no-bid contractors they hired. That's it. No one else. Do the rest of us really care enough to get off our lazy, liberal asses and do something about it? Apparently not.

Shame on all of us.

Cerritos in the News

Kudos to the mayor of Left is Right's own little town:

(KFWB) 12.09.03, 12:35p -- A tug of war between cash strapped cities and Sacramento is worsening. Cerritos is launching a lawsuit to stop the state from taking extra tax revenues from municipalities to cover California's budget deficit. Cerritos Mayor Gloria Alverez-Kappe (kap-pee) says the state has repeatedly renegged on promises to repay sales tax revenue siffoned-off from cities with property tax revenue down the road. Cerritos is hoping other cities join in its suit. Meanwhile..the other shoe's dropped for municipalities...the state's let it be known cities will only receveive a third of what was promised from car tax revenues..that promise made with the full knowledge that the governor was going to repeal the law that would have tripled registration fees. And it gets worse..the state says cities won't get anything, zilch, from the car tax beginning next month....

Cerritos is a relatively conservative municipality, so it's great to see our little town at the forefront of activism in support of its citizens. Bravo, Mayor Kappe!

Dean

One explanation, by Josh Marshall, of Dean's popularity (snippet):

The Republicans hold the two houses of congress by slender majorities. But they are running the place like they have two-thirds majorities in each house. They are pushing through all sorts of things and the Democrats can't really get their act together to stop any of it. With the exception of holding up some judicial nominations they are virtually impotent. And that doesn't at all reflect the reality that the country remains extremely divided along partisan lines. They're playing by an outmoded set of rules, operating on a defunct system of party discipline, and are generally getting creamed. The outrage this spawns is the wind that is filling Dean's sails. It's one big, collective: Enough! In a sense it goes beyond the Iraq vote which has gotten so much attention in this race. Almost all Dean's competitors in the race are compromised by that collective failure. Fair or not, there's a truth to it.

Yeah, but that's comparing apples (Democratic Congressmen/women) and an orange (President/candidate)

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." ---Steven Weinberg

As the 2004 election approaches and the Rove machine starts to flex its muscles, let's not forget what happened in 2000.

Gee, the DLC STILL doesn't like Dean.

Lots of Our Money, Right Out the Window

Received the following from MoveOn.org today (excerpts):

Congress is now considering President Bush's gigantic, 820 billion dollar spending bill. The bill is full of giveaways to giant corporations, including many that would never pass if they were considered on their own... The House is scheduled to vote on this bill today, Monday December 8th. The Senate may follow suit soon afterward... Here are some examples of the pork in the Omnibus spending bill: $50,000,000 to build an indoor rainforest in Iowa. $2,000,000 for the First Tee Program, to get young people into golf. $405,000 for industrial lubricants research in Iowa. $338,000 for the Alabama Beef Connection. $225,000 for the National Wild Turkey federation, a hunting concern. $4,000,000 for the International Fertilizer Development Center. $595,000,000 for Trilogy, an FBI information technology program. $397,700,000 for prison buildings and facilities. $6,000,000 for a Police Athletic League. $30,000,000 for the Southwest Border Prosecutors Initiative. $7,105,000 for construction of an international narcotics control law enforcement academy in Roswell, NM. Up to $120,000,000 for a classified Defense Department project. $250,000 for the General Patton Museum of Cavalry & Armor, in Kentucky. $225,000 for a shopping center in Adelanto, CA. $500,000 for the "Exercise in Hard Choices" at the U. of Akron, which attempts to replicate House and Senate meetings in which congressional members review a budget, and vote to include or exclude various options.

D.U. Redo

Haven't heard much of anything for several months about this deadly problem that Iraqi civialians are facing.

WASHINGTON (NFTF.org) -- U.S. forces unleashed at least 75 tons of toxic depleted uranium on Iraq during the war, reports the Christian Science Monitor. An unnamed U.S. Central Command spokesman disclosed to the Monitor last week that coalition forces fired 300,000 bullets coated with armored-piercing depleted uranium (DU) during the war. “The normal combat mix for these 30-mm rounds is five DU bullets to 1 -- a mix that would have left about 75 tons of DU in Iraq,” wrote correspondent Scott Peterson. Peterson measured four sites around Baghdad struck with depleted uranium munitions and found high levels of radioactive contamination, but few warnings to this effect issued among the populace at large. While the Pentagon maintains that spent weapons coated with the low-level, radioactive nuclear-waste are relatively harmless, Peterson notes that U.S. soldiers have taken it among themselves to print leaflets or post signs warning of DU contamination. "After we shoot something with DU, we're not supposed to go around it, due to the fact that it could cause cancer," said one sergeant requesting anonymity. On a group of abandoned burnt-out U.S. munitions supply trucks, Peterson saw signs U.S. troops put up warning in Arabic, “Danger -- Get away from this area.” A local vendor said that soldiers in masks warned him and others to keep away from the site. These were the only warnings Peterson found. He wrote that despite the military’s attempts to bulldoze the surrounding topsoil, the Geiger counter readings on remaining piles of radioactive DU dust registered at hundreds of times the average, and a DU dart from a 120 mm tank shell emitted radiation over 1,300 times normal. Two other sites visited were randomly selected Iraqi armored vehicles destroyed with DU bullets. The remains of these tanks sit near a produce vendor on the outskirts of Baghdad, and have become popular playthings for children; the Geiger counter reading from “a DU bullet fragment no bigger than a pencil eraser” near one child registered 1,000 times normal. There were no warnings posted informing the populace of the radioactive emissions coming from the tanks. "Radioactive? Oh, really?" was the response of a former director general of the ministry, when Peterson presented a Geiger counter registering emissions of 1,900 times normal from spent DU-coated bullets amongst the grounds at the Ministry of Planning. "Yesterday, more than 1,000 employees came here, and they didn't know anything about it," he said. "We have started to not believe what the American government says. What I know is that the occupiers should clean up and take care of the country they invaded." YellowTimes.org correspondent Lisa Ashkenaz Croke drafted this report.

FRIDAY FUN

ASCII Movies (just weird)
Ask The Fish (funny advice)
Bad Fads Museum
Big Bang (how it sounded)
Eyes Have It (freaky)
FilmWise (test your film knowledge)
Foot-in-Mouth Award (this year's winner: Donald Rumsfeld)
Get your own Glofish (fluorescent fish you can buy)
Gollum Raps
Grinning Planet (environment-leaning jokes and info)
Idioms
Max Lyons Digital Image Gallery (some incredible photography)
PicassoHead (create your own)