Circumstantial, Indeed

Why would Colin Powell admit to the world that he had no real evidence of an Al-Qaeda-Saddam link if he had even the slightest reason to defend his speech last winter suggestin just that? Answer - he wouldn't. There is no credible evidence and all he could muster was that "it was prudent" to invade to be sure. When is the Saudi invasion, Colin? We all know there is none coming. Reports out of Gitmo of increased cooperation due to Saddam's cannot be corroborated, though it does give conspiracy theorists and the "defend-W.-at-all-costs" types something to chew on. Both the WMD and Al-Qaeda arguments have proved hollow. David Keyes has quit and won't isn't even planning a final report. But fear not W. supporters - I bring tidings of great joy (for you) - your lying hero will be re-elected to mislead us again. Rejoice, ye bullet-heads, for ye truimph again.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE?

The Associated Press reports that, since the announcement about the U.S. victory in Iraq and Saddam's Dec. 13 capture there has been increased cooperation by al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo during interrogation.

Now why would Saddam's capture affect al Qaeda prisoners this way...unless there was some link?

THIS IS ODD
The website that recently brought us the hate-bush video contest is bushin30seconds.org. What's odd, is the Technorati entry for that website thinks the NAMBLA Journal resides at that address. I wonder why that is. They hate Bush but like little boys? Like I said, that's just plain strange.

A GOOD ONE FOR THE WISH LIST
Capitalizing on the good feelings that the recent success on Mars has (rightfully) generated, Bush has proposed building a permanent station in space and a manned mission to mars. Laudable goals. I'd like to send all of my less wealthy nieces and nephews to college - also a laudable goal; and equally unaffordable. After spending well over a trillion (that's TRILLION) on tax cuts over the next 10 years, over $400 billion on the Medicare bill, and the necessary expenses related to Iraq (necessary only after the hasty decision to rush to war) and the rest of the balooning budget, this is just not affordable. We have a huge deficit and its effects are already making international markets nervous - witness the continuing fall of the dollar. The cost of borrowing from other nations will only continue to rise as the dollar erodes, making the deficit problem even stickier. These space proposals are an election year ploy, a fiscally wreckless and irresponsible proposal, or both. Conservatives will trot out the usual cries for smaller government (without any specific proposals - that would mean they have to defend something) but should direct those whines to the White House that is growing government at record rates.

IT WON'T MATTER
As the new troops rotate into Iraq, the Iraq Survey Group is leaving. This is a tacit admission that no WMD will be found, not matter what spin gets put on it. The ISG had already been scaled back from 1,500 to 400 troops. But not to worry, Bush fans - W. won't be held accountable for this at the polls. Just as the public gave Bill Clinton a pass on the whole Monica mess (including lying to investigators), the average voter does not care about the intel abuses by Bush and his neo-con bosses. They are likely to be pacified by the talk of how terrible Saddam was to his people, although the war was not justified on that basis. (If it had been, we would be planning regime-toppling exploits in Iran, N. Korea, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and almost every nation in Africa.) The voters in the U.S. are increasingly docile creatures and accountability for national leaders is more and more a theory. Good hair, a nice smile and folksy ways are more influential in getting votes, whether you are Clinton or W. Take note, Howard Dean.

YOU MUST BE MY LUCKY FOUR-STAR
That's it, the endorsement I've been waiting for. Madonna (aka Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone Ritchie) has finally staked out her position on campaign aught 4. And she's a Wesley Girl.

I'm supporting General Wesley Clark in 2004 and have committed to do all that I can to help his campaign in the coming months.

Like what, stand on the side of the road, naked (link not safe for work)? Can you find the General in this picture? (really not safe).

WHERE'S THE UNDEAN
The Non-Dean, the Anti-Dean. Who's number 2? Mark Steyn handicaps the Democratic field (not that they needed the help). Steyn says there are a lot of numbers 2:

The trouble is the unDean is different everywhere you look. In the Granite State, Laura and co. reckon the unDean is Kerry. In Iowa, it’s Dick Gephardt, the soporific 1970s union throwback. In Arizona, it’s General Wesley Clark, the pantomime stalking-horse entered by the Clintons. In South Carolina, it seems to be the Revd Al Sharpton, the distinguished race-baiter. And all these states are voting in the next month, which means, no matter how well he does, each unDean could be undone by some other unDean a couple of days later.

And here's his take on the überDean himself:

Dean is the perfect man to drive the party over the cliff. He says Vermont is the way America should be. You mean a land of broken-down farms for the natives and weekend homes for the wealthy? Where everyone in the eastern half drives out of state to shop, work and get medical treatment? Where the only kind of business is boutique mail-order specialities — the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, Ben and Jerry’s Premium Ice Cream, Cold Hollow Apple Cider? Dean seems likely to complete the party’s transformation from a mass movement into an upscale niche business. Whenever he talks about the south, he sounds condescending. Likewise, the religious. Likewise, blacks. The Park Avenue populist is the perfect standard-bearer for an upper-middle-class college-town party.

Hat tip to the rocket scientist.

CONDESCENSION AND SUPERIORITY
Bush is popular because the American people are stupid. Finally, someone on the left admits this world view, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

RIOTOUS HILARITY UPDATE: Iowahawk presents a wonderful parody of the Bush-Supporter-R-Dumb article. As parody, I think it gets more at the truth of what the original author meant -- the conclusion, time to pack Bush supporters into boxcars and send them off to the camps. Thanks to Bush-supporting rocket scientist Chris Hall for the heads up.

A BUNCH OF THOUGHTS, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
- The scumbags who did the ad comparing W. to Hitler - not to mention the sponsoring organizaition who let it slide - are no compatriots of mine. They shame liberalism and demonstrate that the price of free speech is that idiots get the same rights. I'm no W. fan, but a Hitler comparison?!? Kiss your credibility good-bye, assholes (whomever you may be). That's the President of the USA and even if you don't respect him, respect the office. Sheesh.

- Dean, though he has not received a single vote yet, is going to get the nomination. That will be clear by February 4th. Barring a calamity in Iraq or the domestic economy, Bush wins. Get over it Dems and start to plan for the future. Don't cling to polls during '04 that tell you about how Dean is over 45% and approaching 50% of the popular vote. Remember a hapless candidate named Gore? He won the popular vote - and lost. The White House is won by winning the electoral vote, not the popular vote. Dean won't win a single southern state and little if any of the west. He gets the N. East (minus N Hampshire again?)and the left coast, and a few of the battleground states. No otherwise plausible scenario gets him a majority of the electoral college. My fellow Dems: Time to plan for wound-licking and re-grouping and coming back to the center. The whacko-right-wing-social conservatives are the group to contrast yourselves with in '06 and '08. They have some support, but they turn off the middle. Regain the center and you are back in business. Ignore it and you are all the further out to pasture. Get out of denial. You are out to pasture now. Only a centrist named Bill Clinton forced you back for a while. The operative question is was he an anomale or not? Will you have to sink farther before realizing this?

- Nothing federal about this review: Pete Rose is scum. One of the greatest players in the modern era, yes, but scum nonetheless. He should be banned from the Hall until after his death - or at least for another 14 years. That's how long he lied to us all about betting on baseball. He even bet on the Reds - his admission is that he never bet AGAINST them. No doubt a lawyer helped parse those words. Don't let him make millions on this book AND get into the Hall. His baseball achievements warrant his eventual place in the Hall, his crimes and lies warrant his ban until after death. There. I said it. Flame me.

- Bush's Medicare bill was beautiful (ugh!) Morrisian triangulation. Great politics, but extremely costly policy. He set himself to the left of the fiscal conservatives, but to the right of the ultra-liberals and cut the knees out from under a potential Dem issue for '04. He does whatever Karl Rove tells him to do on domestic policy and whatever the neo-cons want on foriegn policy, and believes it was all his own idea. He understands the benefit of this sort of Clintonian chameleon-on-plaid political play, once Karl explains it to him. I shake my liberal head in awe and disgust. I accept the that democracy brings this sort of maneuvering, I just find it easier to accept when I can stomach the outcome better. As someone (Winston Churchill?) said, and I paraphrase, "democracy does not work well, just better than anything else."

POLITICAL ADS
Have you noticed how dull political ads are these days? They all follow the same formula. Some words on the screen, splashes of newspaper headlines taken out of context, grainy slow-mo video of the opponent, ominous music. It all seques into uplifting music of our candidate, sleave rolled-up, grinning and shaking hands. Boring. Not creative.

Here are some ads that are more fun, once you get by the fact that they are disconnected from reality. They are Bush haters, but they are creative. The best, in my opinion, are the children running for president, entitled "What are we teaching our children?".

And when was the last time you saw a good, creative national political ad? Probably not since 1984's Reagan ad about the bear in the woods.

Now, anyone know where I can find the conservative version of this site?

MORE ON EDWARDS' CHANCES
We've analyzed the Edwards campaign a few times here, recently guessing that he may be finished -- see Who's Number 2?. Here's an excellent comment left on one of our comments pages that nails the Edwards problem, and reprint what Jeff had to say:

I thought Edwards was the guy to watch earlier as well. Because he is from the South; because he can claim to be a moderate(despite his actual voting record); because of his reputation as this multi-million dollar award pied piper, velvet-tongued, Svengali trial attorney; because he is tall without any major appearance flaws, and because he has supported the very just war on terrorism, I thought he could pull ahead in the rest of the country once we they got to some of the red states. Now after seeing him in several interviews, newsclips, & debates, I think he is just an empty suit. His responses to questions are weak and usually meaningless, and his attempts to stand out in the debates were "full of sound and fury signifying nothing". His feigned outrage at Dean's Confederate flag quote got everyone to look at him and then he failed to finish with a point. His interviews show him just agreeing with softball questions and avoiding difficult answers. Edwards will go nowwhere with Clark(although I think he is an empty uniform) as a Red State alternative to Dean. I just wonder where they dug up those juries that made Edwards so rich.

DEAN'S MIDDLE CLASS TAX HIKE

As Howard Dean appears closer and closer to locking up the Democrat nomination for President, an increasing number of people are starting to question his fiscal policies, and concluding that Dean would significantly raise taxes on the middle class.

This fear is based on an analysis of Dean's proposals by the anti-tax group "the Club for Growth," which argues that the Dean tax proposals would:

Raise taxes on 109 million Americans by roughly $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years;
Roughly double federal income taxes on the middle class;
Raise taxes by $2,472 a year on a typical middle-income family of four;
Raise the small-business tax rate from 38% to 55%.
Add greatly to the complexity of the tax code

Based on their analysis, the Club has began running TV ads on this topic in New Hampshire and Iowa.

Dean has reacted as he typically does...with anger. The Club for Growth described Dean as having "howled in protest" over the ad, while the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that "Dean responded with his own ads saying he was falsely attacked by conservatives."

Unfortunately, for Dean, it's not just conservatives who are attacking his plan. Dean's fellow democrat, John Kerry has also stated that Dean's plan would raise taxes on the middle class, with candidates, Lieberman, Edwards and Clark expressing similar views.

Furthermore, the "nonpartisan, nonprofit, 'consumer advocate'" group FactCheck.Org has weighed on in Dean's proposals, and finds that the Club for Growth is correct:

independent, nonpartisan calculations show that Dean's call to repeal the Bush tax cuts really would mean big tax increases, often exceeding $1,000 even for middle-income families. The increases would be especially severe for those with children under age 17.

The last time the Democrats nominated a candidate who everyone knew would raise their taxes, it was twenty years ago, and the candidate was Walter Mondale. In fact, Mondale--unlike Dean--admitted that he would raise them....and lost forty-nine out of fifty states to Ronald Reagan.

Given recent events in Bush's favor--the economic recovery and the capture of Saddam--and the specter of a tax-hiking Democrat running against a Republican incumbant with strong national security cache, one has to wonder if it isn't going to be 1984 all over again.

FOURTH ROCK
Good news from NASA and from Mars. Check out the JPL website here, complete with pictures from the Gusev Crater. This is a great success, will expand our knowledge of the universe and the origins of life and is an example of one of the highest purposes of government.

I only hope that one day we'll return to human exploration.