Crazy is as crazy does

Hugo Chavez Receives Iran's Highest Honor

Iran awarded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez its highest state medal on Sunday for supporting Tehran in its nuclear standoff with the international community, while Chavez urged the world to rise up and defeat the U.S., state-run media in both countries reported.

The leftist Venezuelan leader also condemned Israel for what he called the "terrorism" and "madness" of its attacks in Lebanon, Venezuelan state television reported.

"Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire," Chavez said. "This (task) must be assumed with strength by the majority of the peoples of the world."

Hat-tip Frank White.

"They claim you never know what you got 'til it's gone, I know I got it, I don't know what y'all on"

Hot summer night, something like 85 degrees despite the fact that the sun has gone down. I'm at a friend's 30th birthday party, a guy named Byk who is one of the most impressive people I've ever met, at the fanciest Russian restaurant in Brighton Beach. There are about 70 people in attendance, three long tables full. The men are in suits, the women in a variety of pretty get-ups. There's food and lots of drinking, bottles of Grey Goose and Petron every few inches on every table, toasting the birthday boy, laughing. One of my friends has abruptly quit smoking, and is also not drinking tonight. We all know what that means but it's too early to say congratulations. Superstition dictates a three-month mark. She's six weeks away, we'll celebrate then. We take smoke breaks on the boardwalk, the men loosen their ties, the women try to avoid getting their heels stuck in the cracks.

We run into old friends. I see the mother of one of my best childhood friends. He was my first male friend, 4th grade, and set the pattern for my way of having mostly male friends even today. He's got two kids now, lives maybe 7 blocks away from me, but we probably had an easier time of seeing each other when we were 11 and had to be driven everywhere. We're still close, I love his wife, but life just always gets in the way. Standing on the boardwalk with his beautiful mom, I promise myself to make more of an effort. I see another friend, from my teens, that I recently discovered again through My Space. She was always the romantic dreamer girl and I'd scold her for living in "Cinderellaland". She seems to be doing ok there, though. We declare our love for My Space, we were meant to be back in touch, I think.

Petitedov, Pretty Numbers and the Ace of Spades himself are in the area, along with another cool but blogless friend of theirs. They stop by and we sit and catch up outside. We discuss the 2008 election. Petitedov is rooting for Romney, Ace is in Giuliani lalaland. I think the ultimate GOP candidate will be someone we're not thinking of right now. I introduce them to my best friend, my Laurie. I feel like she and PN should know each other better--they both mean a whole lot to me.

They leave and I go back inside. My boyfriend is out of town, in preparation for his cousin's wedding that is happening the next day. I'll be joining him deep in Long Island tomorrow. The two other men in my life with whom I spend the majority of my time, SMVP and MR, couldn't make it tonight. SMVP is so sick that I'm actively worrying about him. MR has family obligations. I'm not a dancer at the best of times but tonight the pickings for dancing opportunities are slim. I'm sitting next to Pheeleepok, who I adore but who, when I asked him in advance if he was going to dance with me told me in no uncertain terms that he was not. His plan was to keep his head down and try to make it out of this night alive. The birthday boy is one of his best friends but Pheeleep hates Russian restaurants--the music, the food, the scene is just not his style. My friend Frank's girlfriend, who I like very much not only because I hooked them up and not only because she reads this blog, jokingly says I'm like a guy because I'm not dancing. I don't mind. Like a guy, especially like my guys, I do my own thing, dance when I feel like it, etc.

And then I feel like it. "Ose shalom bimromav, u berahamav yaase shalom alenu veal kol amo Yisrael, veimru. Amen...." Earlier, the guy sitting across from me, Lenny, a real current events buff, asked me what my sources were telling me about the situation in Israel--short or protracted? Um, my sources? I don't actually have any sources, my own feeling is that this needs to happen, that Israel gets smacked around so often and the world just watches and expects it not to react. People call it Goliath but this Goliath lets David take unlimited shots before even thinking of firing back. Goliath has had enough. The band starts the Hebrew music, I look over at my friend Frank, and we head to the dance floor. The place goes wild. We form a circle, clap our hands. People get in the middle and dance like our forefathers must've danced, arms linked, kicking. "Hava nagila, Hava nagila, Hava nagila venis'mecha...." I think, as we're dancing that, so far, the Jews in this room are the luckiest Jews in history. We didn't live through Pograms, Extermination, War. We escaped the Soviet Union, a place were they made sure to note we were Jews, and therefore different and inferior, on our passports. We ended up here, in America, this amazing place, my home, my love. And we all hold Israel in our hearts, as a place we love and must defend, if not with our presence there, then with our words here. If Israel ceases to exist then as a people the Jews have failed. We have come this far, where not everybody is trying to kill us at all time. The security of Israel is just the last step. We don't want war, we never did. The words above "Ose shalom..." mean "make peace". We want to. But they kidnap our soldiers and kill our teenagers. They do it on purpose. We can't survive this way. And for Jews, it's always been about survival. If you've never had to think about not only your own survival but also the survival of your entire people, consider yourself lucky. If you have, remember that there are people fighting for all of us--and that they fight because there are others that want to kill all of us. Even us lucky ones dancing to Hebrew songs on a hot New York summer night.

You will be appalled but you will not be surprised

Click and make sure everyone you know clicks too.

Via Ace.

In case you were wondering

My favorite song this week has been "Underwear" by Magnetic Fields.

Well, that settles that

I was one of them Jews willing to give Mel Gibson the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't a Jew-hating maniac like his father. Big mistake, huge.

I will never watch Braveheart the same way again.

Six shot at Seattle Jewish Organization

Who could have done it? And why?

Update: Slight sarcasm that clicking the link will explain.

Odd fact of the day

Hungry men like bigger women.

Hat-tip Allahchka.

Blogroll Update

DC: Mary Katharine Ham- Mary Katharine is one of those DC people I really wish lived in NY. Check out her latest feature, setting her posts to music, here, here and here.

Ways to use your loved one's death to enhance your life

Michael Schiavo, husband of Terri, has started a PAC and is in Connecticut stumping for leftist Ned Lamont. He just wanted peace for his wife, nothing political about it.

Meanwhile, Cindy Sheehan has used insurance money she received from son Casey's death to purchase property in Crawford, Texas. Allah has the run-down including the very interesting interaction between Ma Sheehan and the man who had been letting the crazies use his property to protest.

News that isn't new

There's a brouhaha about Republicans leaving their party label off of campaign ads, implying that the (R) party label has become the political third rail. Nonsense. It's always been the case that party labels are left off in states that generally swing one way or the other. Democrats in Colorado during the '04 election did not mention their party anywhere, even Democrats that ultimately won (like the Salazar brothers, one now a Senator and one a Congressman whose pitch letter appears here sans the "D" word). Bush was leading in the polls there, why would anyone draw attention to their party when it might only be a minus for them?

It makes sense to leave off the "R" word in blue states like Maryland or New York, maybe even in 'purple' states like Minnesota. But the swipe at Mark Kennedy, running for U.S Senate from Minnesota, doesn't make a lot of sense. For one thing, his campaign ad is excellent. It's funny, self-deprecating, and sends the message that he's just a regular guy, an "independent" who doesn't do what the party tells him to. And, as he's running in one of those aformentioned "purple" states, why would he risk alienating voters turned off to labels?

Most annoying about this whole story is that every campaign season reporters treat it as new and unique that some candidates don't use their party labels in their pitches to voters. Working, briefly, on a State Senate race two years ago, a now-fairly-prominent writer of NY politics hammered my candidate for having the word "Republican" appear only after "Independence" and "Conservative" party labels on his literature. Last year, the City Council candidate I worked for encountered the same problem, though mostly from the anonymous commenters on Politicker.

So go on and leave your party label off, Mr. Kennedy. And if you go on to win the election, govern exactly as you said you would. People are electing you, not your party registration.

Update: I found a pic of a John Salazar sign that I took while I was in CO. No mention of being a Democrat there either:

Israel: It damn well better be

Abbas: Soldier's release could be imminent

Though, the article has since been changed to reflect these responses to the Abbas comments: "Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said "from our side there is nothing new." Palestinian lawmaker Saeb Erekat said it was "premature" to say the soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, is about to be released."

Meanwhile, Israel is training 30,000 more troops. Because while it may be premature to say Cpl. Shalit is about to be released, it isn't premature to say that Israel will continue the ass-kicking until he is.

ALERT: Gays Not Attracted to Livestock (by guest blogger Dorian Davis)

There's no substance to the theory that same-sex marriage necessarily results in men and women marrying spiders and chickens. "Extrapolation," explains Thomas Sowell, "is the last refuge of a groundless argument." Gays want kids, not Minotaurs.

Crazy idea

In the next 24 hours, I'm going to buy two CDs. That's 'Compact Disks', not a 'Certificate of Deposit', for those born after 1982. They will be Tom Petty's "Highway Companion" and Johnny Cash's "American V: A Hundred Highways". The fact that both albums have "highway" in their title is completely coincidental. I will then upload them into my ipod and play them all summer long.

It's been over a year since I bought my last CD. It was going to be Damian Marley's "Welcome to Jamrock" (which, by the way, is great) but I got lazy and downloaded the whole thing. But today, Petty and Cash it is.

I'm going drinking with the girl at Pretty Numbers

Bars are where people go to escape the idea of family life, commitment, and responsibility.

-Pretty Numbers on the idea of children in bars.

My parents love telling the story of us living in Ladispoli, Italy (in between Russia and America, most people made an Italy or Vienna stop) and them leaving me outside the bars in my baby carriage because, well, that's what people did in Italy in the late 70's! Kids in bars--bad. Kids in baby carriages outside bars--worse.

Who is Jimmy Dean?

I always thought he was a guy that made sausage. Turns out, he's the brother of DNC head Howard Dean. Jimmy is head of Democracy for America, the group Howard founded before heading to the DNC.

It also turns out, Democracy for America is backing Ned Lamont, Joe Lieberman's primary challenger.

Influence Peddler states the obvious:

(Jim) Dean is not a late-comer, or someone who likes Lieberman but happens to prefer Lamont. Rather, he searched for months to find a challenger to Joe Lieberman, and was one of the people who drew Lamont into the race. Now, Democracy for America has endorsed Lamont.

Now obviously, Jim Dean would not be fighting with such determination to knock off Lieberman, if his brother Howard really thought it was a terrible idea. Howard realizes how important it is to preserve every Democratic Senate seat if they want to win the majority, and ought to be willing to pull out all the stops to prevent a serious challenge to a good incumbent like Joe Lieberman. So you know that the DNC Chairman must really not care for Senator Lieberman.

So, is Howard Dean on crack or what? Why would he risk losing a safe (D) Senate seat? To appease the netroots who supported his failed candidacy? Because he doesn't care about the Democratic party, just about his own personal Howard Dean movement? I don't have a conspiracy theory here, I just plum don't get it.

The worst part about this fiasco is how Republicans have wholly failed to capitalize on it. We've, sadly, limited ourselves to rooting for the better Dem, because there's no real Republican challenger. My take is that it's the winner syndrome: we're not fighting because we already have everything worth having (presidency, both houses, most of the governorships, etc.). Unfortunately, we fail to realize that having won for so long means that it can only be downhill from here. I wish I saw some passion from my side to stay at the top.

Via Ace.

What's the difference between me and you?

A Norwegian newspaper published a cartoon likening Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert to a Nazi. So, of course, Jews rioted in the streets of a dozen cities, made death threats, burned cars, killed people and generally boycotted all the products of Norway.

Or, actually, the "Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles sent a letter last week to Norwegian Ambassador to Washington Knut Vollebaek to express "collective outrage" over the publication of the cartoon" while the the "Norwegian Israel Center against Anti-Semitism, an Oslo-based organization comprising Jews and Christians, has appealed to the government to speak out against hatred of Jews" launching a campaign to get Norwegians to send letters to the minister of justice to make Norway a safer place for Jews.

Quote of the Day

Or, what not to say after you've been busted for running a multi-state prostitution ring:

"So what? Some of my best girls were minors"
- Jody L. Spears

"There's little things you hide and little things that you show"

George Michael's wedding is off after he is caught, again, scoring anonymous sex in a park:

George Michael and his American lover Kenny Goss have called off their gay 'wedding' after the pop star was discovered having an illicit encounter with a stranger in a London park.

The couple had been looking forward to an Elton John-style 'wedding' ceremony followed by a lavish party to mark their 10th anniversary.

But plans for the nuptials have been called off after the singer was seen emerging from bushes following a sexual encounter with a pot-bellied, jobless van driver.

I wonder if it's the who and not the what that did it.

Answer: Not a whole heck of a lot

Ask Yahoo! attempts to answer the question: "How much money (in US$) would I get if we divided up all the wealth in the world into equal amounts?"

They take all the wealth in the world and divide it by all the world's inhabitants. They come up with approximately $6,685.92 per person.

Uh, no, thanks.

Principles? What principles?

"Everybody knows that I can't stand to see Giant "Super Sized" Trucks being used as daily transportation. That is true, but what happened the other day taught me a valuable lesson.

I was driving to work and I pulled up behind this Huge Dodge Mega Cab with a "W" sticker right on the upper edge of the tail gate. I thought to myself, "Typical Bush Lover driving his 9 mile per gallon Super Truck"

Then as I pulled closer to the big rig, I could see that there was small print below the "W" that said "Worst Ever". Then I quickly forgave the gentleman in his oversized vehicle. Ok, he is driving a pathetic vehicle, but at least he got his politics straight."

-Comment on Huffington Post.

Heehee

"If I was president, this wouldn't have happened."
-John Kerry during a noon stop at Honest John's bar and grill in Detroit's Cass Corridor.

"Yeah, if Kerry were president, he wouldn't spend his days moping around some bar in Detroit."
-James Taranto

It might be the Bloomberg administration, but it's always Giuliani Time

Smoke a cigarette on a subway platform--get deported.

Fakers

On my way to Brooklyn yesterday, my friends and I drove by this billboard:

Turns out, it's a hoax:

But when pictures of the billboard proliferated on Gawker, Defamer and other blogs, readers quickly dug in. One fact soon emerged, thanks to camera phone pictures: the billboard was identical to others in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Chicago. Someone else discovered that Emily was keeping a blog, thatgirlemily.blogspot.com, detailing Steven’s infidelities. More digging showed that one Emily blog entry was oddly similar to a synopsis for an episode of “Parco P.I.," a reality show on Court TV.

Another “source” sent an e-mail to Gawker suggesting that Court TV was behind the signs, pointing out that it was a viral marketing campaign to promote one of its programs. Mystery solved.

The bad news for viral marketers who use these kind of devices: executives at Court TV said they did not really want to be discovered so quickly. The good news is that even after the ruse was discovered, people visited the Emily blog, pushing it to one million hits by the end of Thursday. A fake surveillance video on the blog, supposedly from a private eye capturing Steven holding hands with his paramour, hit YouTube and became one of its most-viewed videos. Did it even matter that Emily was fictitious?

“Emily is really an amalgam of all of us who have been cheated on,” said Marc Juris, general manager for programming and marketing at Court TV. “Clearly, this really resonated with people.”

Damn. And for a minute I had a ton of respect for some girl named Emily.

Contact

Because My Space, Flickr, LinkedIN, Friendster and general Instant Messenger wasn't enough, I now have a ASmallWorld account. It's invitation only and aims to be an internacional cross between My Space and LinkedIN. I currently only have one friend on it. Anyone else a member?

A solitary man

Peter Brown at Real Clear Politics has a really farfetched idea of a McCain/Lieberman ticket in '08--should Lieberman win re-election to the U.S Senate as an Independent.

Brown does, however, bring up an interesting point:

"even if Lieberman loses the Aug. 8 Democratic primary - and the newest polling data says that is a real possibility - he would be a huge favorite for re-election as an independent come November.

And if that is the case, it would not be hard to write a scenario in which the real loser from a Lieberman defeat to anti-war candidate Ned Lamont might be the Democratic Party itself.

I still think Lieberman will pull it off and win the Democratic primary, but if he doesn't, and then does win as an Independent, it will be interesting to see what he does with his non-partisan status. Will we see a more conservative Lieberman, one that doesn't have to placate the loony left at all? Or, will he still be what he is--a conservative Democrat not really fitting in on either side of the aisle?

Click for me

If you like my blog, or as I've said before--even if you don't, please do visit my advertisers. They keep me in the lifestyle I've become accustomed and also let me bring you the very best in rightwing perspective out of NYC, as well as occasional updates on 50 Cent and Britney Spears. So, click, visit, buy. Thanks.

Choose life

Via Batesline comes this article in Opinion Journal about a woman pressured to let her father "die with dignity".

A medical resident--we called her "Dr. Death"--at the Intensive Care Unit at Long Island's North Shore Hospital chased us down the hallway.

"Your husband wants to die," she told my mother, again. Just minutes before I had asked her to leave us alone.

"He can't even talk," I reminded her.

"He motioned with his hands when we tried to put in the feeding tube," she said.

Not exactly informed consent, I pointed out as we turned our backs on her and walked down the hallway, trying to avert our eyes from the other patients in the ICU that night, each of them at various points in the so-called "twilight zone" between life and death.

....

"Dr. Death" was just one of several. A new resident appeared the next day, this one a bit more diplomatic but again urging us to allow my father to "die with dignity." And the next day came yet another, who opened with the words, "We're getting mixed messages from your family," before I shut him up. I've written extensively about practice of bioethics--which, for the most part, I do not find especially ethical--but never did I dream that our moral compass had gone this far askew. My father, 85, was heading ineluctably toward death. Though unconscious, his brain, as far as anyone could tell, had not been touched by either the cancer or the blood clot. He was not in a "persistent vegetative state" (itself a phrase subject to broad interpretation), that magic point at which family members are required to pull the plug--or risk the accusation that they are right-wing Christians.

The family ends up pretending they are religious Jews in order to fend off the people eager to kill the patient. The man, of course, survives--with dignity. Read the whole thing.

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times--should fate find me unable to communicate my wishes, always make them error on the side of keeping me alive. I believe in G-d, but I don't believe in an afterlife, to me this is all I have and I want to make sure I'm given every chance to enjoy my life here.

As a culture, we have to examine how it is that we have this amazing technology to allow people to survive longer, yet the instinct seems to be that the technology shouldn't be "wasted" on some. It isn't just Christians who believe we should always err on the side of life.

Suicide bombers in pizzerias and discos--still ok

UN envoy: Israel bombing breaks humanitarian law

"Everytime that flag's unfurled..." (bumped to add pic)

There's something about America.

As has been noted by many people before, you can move to China and never be Chinese, France and never be French, Brazil...well, you get it. But move to America and a few years later you're American, just like everyone else.

And so it was 28 years ago today (since this post has been bumped, it's actually yesterday, July 20th) that my mom and I arrived in the U.S. Five years later we were citizens but almost immediately we were Americans.

I was raised with a strong sense of my unbelieveable luck to end up in America. It would've been so easy for that not to have been the case. Today I celebrate that luck and if you live in the greatest country in the history of the world, do join me in that celebration.

Previous anniversary posts:

July 20, 2005

July 20, 2004

July 20, 2003

UPDATE: By, uh, no demand at all, the picture of me getting my citizenship (the story of why I'm on stage with the judge is here):

Joey McKeown, superstar

Joey McKeown has started a magazine: Joey Magazine. If there is anyone that should have a self-titled magazine, it's Joey. And now he does.

Quote of the Day

"Are you kidding? I'd be there right now if I knew I was getting a free trip back"

-My father when asked if he thought it was ok for the government to charge for the evacuation of Americans from Lebanon.

Because it's Friday

What is the deal with the cornrows, white boys?

Charles Star of Stay Free Daily:

Husband of Britney Spears:

Star pic via some girl.

Why there will never be peace in the Middle East

Go read this right now.

Via Mary.

Dark in NYC

Parts of Queens have had a blackout since Monday:

Forgive our cynicism, but Con Ed has developed a track record for short-circuiting the truth when the truth is embarrassing. It has only hardened its reputation for glossing missteps by peddling a completely bogus count of how many people are sweating it out in the dark.

With straight faces, the company's public relations crew insisted yesterday that only 1,900 customers were without power. However, that refers to buildings with absolute zero voltage; many, many more might have some minimum voltage - but not nearly enough to restore full service. Worse, Con Ed defines "customer" in a rather devious way. A single, large apartment building containing, say, 100 units and several hundred tenants, is counted as one customer. One. Uno. One. See, the blackout isn't as bad as you think, New York!

One of the people affected is Allahpundit. He hasn't had power in several days and isn't expected to have it for several more. During the big blackout of a few summers ago, we didn't have power for 24 hours and it was a nightmare. Hope you're doing alright there, Allah, we all wait for your powered return.

Hot trash

Rightwing Trash reviews love-of-my-life Vincent Gallo.

Top what now?

Maybe Rudy can redefine himself in time for '08 after all (just kidding, Ken, don't go crazy now):

"Despite the backing of top conservatives including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, Reed failed to win Georgia’s GOP nomination for lieutenant governor Tuesday. He lost to little-known state Sen. Casey Cagle of Gainesville."

To all the boys she's loved before

Ari has an awesome ode.

Point and laugh

Glenn Greenwald once wrote something nasty about me earning him a place on my "would spit at him if I ever saw him" list as well as my "will take joy in bad/embarrassing things happening to him" list. Turns out that the self-obsessed loser didn't know that leaving multiple comments under different names from the same IP address was a bad idea. Whoopsy.

Ace writes:

Several commenters, it appears, have appeared on several different blogs, under several different names, all defending Glenn Greenwald in not-so-different language, making not-very-different-at-all points about Mr. Greenwald's accomplishments and career and all-around fabulousness.

Couldn't have happened to a bigger douche.

Read Ace's whole, hilarious post and check out Patterico too.

Where am I? What year is this?

Leeches used to treat injured New Orleans evacuee

Defying the stereotype

According to a new poll, a typical blogger will be a white, suburban male. I'm white, fer sure, but not suburban or male. Dawn Summers is none of those things.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

President to Address NAACP Tomorrow

Baby's first veto

Advice for the ladies

Women of the world, I have some serious information: Aerosoles shoes are incredible.

They are totally adorable, dirt cheap (I got a pair yesterday for 29 bucks) and, by far, the most comfortable heeled shoe I have ever worn. It's amazing. I'm a huge fan and am mad at myself for resisting their allure for as long as I have.

They're not trying to make the world Muslim, they just want to live in peace

Oh, wait:

Price

In February of 2005, a car bomb killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, along with 22 others. The U.S State Department then issued a travel warning for the country and updated the warning in November to this:

This Travel Warning is being issued to update information on threats to American citizens and interests in Lebanon. It supersedes the Travel Warning for Lebanon issued April 21, 2005. The Department of State urges U.S. citizens to carefully weigh the necessity of their travel to Lebanon in light of the risks noted below. U.S. citizens in Lebanon are encouraged to register with the U.S. Embassy in Beirut where they may also obtain updated information on travel and security in Lebanon. See registration details below. Recent events in Lebanon underscore the need for caution and sound personal security precautions. Former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated February 14, 2005, in a car bomb attack in which 22 people were killed and many others seriously wounded; the potential for violence remains. Since March, there have been 13 separate bombings in Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of nine people and injuries to more than 78 others. Americans have been the targets of numerous terrorist attacks in Lebanon in the past. The perpetrators of many of these attacks are still present and retain the ability to act. American citizens should thus keep a low profile, varying times and routes for all required travel. Americans should also pay close attention to their personal security at locations where Westerners are generally known to congregate, and should avoid demonstrations and large gatherings. U.S. citizens who travel to Lebanon despite this Travel Warning should exercise heightened caution when traveling in parts of the southern suburbs of Beirut, portions of the Bekaa Valley and South Lebanon, and the cities of Sidon and Tripoli. Hizballah has not been disarmed and it maintains a strong presence in many of these areas, and there is potential for action by other extremist groups in the city of Tripoli. Dangers posed by landmines and unexploded ordnance throughout south Lebanon are significant and also exist in other areas where civil war fighting was intense. Travelers should be aware of posted landmine warnings and strictly avoid all areas where landmines and unexploded ordnance may be present. Tensions remain in Lebanon's southern border with the possibility of Hizballah and Palestinian militant activity at any time.

Now, maybe they didn't spell out "your dumbass is on your own if you choose to go into a war zone" but surely they made their concerns about Americans traveling to the region known. So how is it the government's, and by default our, responsibility to pay to get these people out? We'll help, sure, but you have to pay for it. And, much as we try to make it Alarming News policy to never agree with Dawn Summers, this is one of those issues where Right and Left meet:

First off, the fact that we are bearing the costs of a $300 billion war suggests that we cannot afford to ferry these people across the Mediterrean for free.

Second, her suggestion pretty much amounts to a subsidy for people wealthy enough to travel around or for corporations that have relocated their employees to the area.

Would she also have the government pay for their food and lodging in the new place?

Blame Bush

Howard Dean blames the current Mideast violence on...wait for it....George W. Bush's inattention to the region during his 6 years in office.

Sickos

Doctor, 2 nurses held in Katrina deaths
Arrest order says morphine used, second-degree murder charges filed

Hat-tip Frank White.

But since his last name is "Cohen", it's obviously ok.

Washington Post columnist calls Israel "a mistake".

But at night it's a different world

I've actually linked to this before, but anyone spending the summer in NY should reread Manhattan Transfer's awesome ode to the NYC summer. I plan to make mine as close as possible to his vision (though probably with less drinking).

Word up

"There's something positively American about people turning a word formerly used to oppress them into something celebrating their brotherhood."

-Tom Elliot on the use of the word "nigga". Read the whole thing, it includes Snoop Dogg lyrics and everything.

I refuse to get excited...

....but the U.S Senate race in New Jersey has really tightened up.

Anti-Anti-Israel Protest?

While I think protesting is dumb, I think counter-protesting is kind of cool. Here's an idea for something to counter-protest, if you're into that sort of thing.

Bush is not from Brooklyn

Although I would enjoy it very much if it were so, I don't think Bush said "yo, Blair" at the beginning of the now-infamous video. It sounds like "yeah, Blair" to me.

UPDATE: The semi-retarded British press is calling Blair Bush's "poodle" because of the friendly way they spoke. Idiots.

I don't think of you in that way

Um?

Oprah Winfrey Says She and King Not Gay

The saddest days are the ones when James Taranto is on vacation

Quote of the Day:

Some have criticized Israel for not responding proportionately to the attacks, but we'd counsel patience. After all, the Israelis aren't done yet.

-James Taranto

Awfully familiar

James Carville has some issue suggestions for Democrats running in '06: tax cuts, opposition to gay marriage, regulating sex and violence in kid's games, tv shows and music, opposition to any amnesty and opposition to withdrawal from Iraq.

Oh snap

"Well, I think Mellencamp's performance was not very good to begin with, and the comment put it over the top."

-Dan Quayle after walking out of a John "Cougar" Mellencamp concert following an anti-Bush remark.

That's my Bush

Bush Curses Hezbollah's Actions at G-8 Lunch:

A microphone picked up an unaware President Bush saying on Monday Syria should press Hezbollah to "stop doing this [expletive]"

And then in the gay part of the exchange:

In the chummy conversation between long-time allies, Bush teased the British leader about a sweater Blair had apparently given him.

"Thanks for the sweater, it was awfully thoughtful of you. I know you picked it out yourself," Bush said.

"Oh, absolutely," said Blair.

UPDATE: Allah, of course, has the video.

Something for American Jews to remember in '06 and '08

Ben Smith reports on the disappearance of the pro-Israel left:

But the anti-war, anti-Bush, pro-Israel "progressive" political space occupied by the likes of the upper West Side's Rep. Jerrold Nadler and national Democrats such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is shrinking.

Israel's American allies are increasingly in the Republican Party, and leading journals of the American left have been skeptical of Israel's aggressive military response to the kidnapping of its soldiers.

Gannon in NYC

Jeff Gannon spoke to the NY Log Cabin Republicans this week. Robert George has the report. Among other things, Gannon denied that he had been "outed" saying "I was no more in the closet than Valerie Plame was a covert CIA agent." He also said:

"There are Democratic members of Congress who play with their boys in D.C. - then go home to pose for pictures with their wives. I know who they are, but they are safe from the gay mafia because they vote the right way."

One of the most commented-on posts on this blog involved outing. You can read it here. My post on the first time I've ever heard of Jeff Gannon is here.

Google hit of the day

I may be #4 but Gib is #1.

Today's prayer

G-d, today please grant me the serenity to not call people 'morons', 'losers' or 'pathetic wannabee hanger-ons who lack lives', even though they clearly are all those things, because my mama taught me better than that. (The fact she taught me to wait and then go for the quiet kill is neither here nor there.)

Ahem

Whenever I write anything about Europe, I get my European friends commenting "not everyone in Europe thinks like that", etc.

Well, Jacques Chirac is speaking for you all:

"I find honestly -- as all Europeans do -- that the current reactions are totally disproportionate," he said in a live television interview on France's national Bastille Day.

And I'll tell you, honestly, that the day Israel cares even a little about what France thinks is the day they can completely surrender to the terrorists.

I can feel myself getting heated when I think about European reaction to what Israel is doing. What part of survival do they not understand? How do they want Israel to live this way? I can imagine if missiles were being lobbed from time to time into various European countries. What would they do? What if their soldiers were kidnapped, tortured, killed? And don't tell me about what Israel does wrong. Israel gave away Gaza and was prepared to give away more. In exchange, the Palestinian people elected Hamas as their government, the same Hamas that refuses to recognize the existence of Israel and whose goal is Israel's destruction. What would you like Israel to do? There is no more talking, any more than there could be for us with bin Laden.

People commented that I sounded glib in my last post on this and that it may have sounded like I was rooting for war. I see that Israel has two options: fight or die. I want them to fight. What does Europe want them to do?

Question

Should Lieberman win the primary, and my guess is that he will, are all the newspapers that are joyously calling the election for Lamont going to feel stupid or are they going to pretend they never did any such thing? And, on a sidenote, are they going to feel like idiots for falling for the whole "Daily Kos is all knowing and all powerful" again (see 2002, 2004)?

UPDATE: As someone who works in the political campaigns field, I think it's really gross when someone interviews with a candidate, doesn't get the job, then trashes the candidate. There's a few wannabee consultants in NY who have done that and it's just so classless. Have some self-respect, losers:

For example, over the July 4th weekend, the Hartford Courant published an op-ed from a young operative and blogger named David Sirota, who told Connecticut Democrats like me that Lieberman didn't represent us. In fact, Sirota went a step further, and ludicrously argued that Lieberman was not just outside the mainstream of the Democratic Party, but of the American people.

Now what standing and credibility does Sirota have to make either claim? Well, he spent most of his limited adult life working in Washington -- including a stint with the lone socialist in Congress -- before moving to Montana. To my knowledge, the closest he's come to spending any meaningful time in Connecticut is interviewing for a job in Joe Lieberman's Senate office (with yours truly) and in his Presidential campaign in 2003.

Yes, that's right: the same guy who is viciously attacking Joe Lieberman as the great Satan of the Democratic Party actually sought not one but two jobs from the target of his hatred, and did so at time when all of the supposed sins that Sirota is attacking Lieberman for now were well known. The polite term for that would be chutzpah. Some one less charitable might call Sirota a fraud.

Quote of the Day

"Karol grew up in the neighborhood I gentrified."

-Ben Smith.

NY needs new Senators

Yes, both of them.

Really

Had an insanely busy day. Back soon.

What's happening over there

Israellycool has the full report on "Operation Summer Rain".

Make me sicker!

"Americans have a severe disease — worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex," he [Mikhail Gorbachev] said.

Yes, much worse than AIDS.

Son of a terrorist whore?

Ragged Thots and Pretty Numbers examine the Zinedine Zidane headbutt mystery.

It is so on

Hezbollah captures 2 Israeli soldiers

Israel launches raids on Lebanon

Blogroll Update

NYC:

I see J.R. Taylor at various rightwingish parties around town and love his column in the NY Press (he's actually much nicer than he comes off in his writing). Now he's started a blog called Right Wing Trash which will be "a daily celebration of popular culture that doesn't insult its potential audience. Each weekday features a short essay celebrating a film, TV show, book, comic, or rock album that isn't trying to insult conservatives." Check him out.

Why did the crazy guy who blew up a building in Manhattan have to have Republican-leaning politics?

No, really, why?

From his farewell letter:

Though they've taken it to an artform

Russians are fakers.

Hat-Tip Yelena.

We love Peru

Peru elects non-crazy, non-Communist leader:

Mr Garcia polled 53.1% of ballots to 46.9 % for nationalist rival Ollanta Humala, with 93% of votes counted.

The two men had fought a fierce and aggressive campaign.

Mr Garcia, who served for five turbulent years from 1985-1990, told cheering supporters: "We thank the people of Peru."

He said the result was a blow for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had strongly supported his opponent.

"Today, the majority of the country has delivered a message in favour of national independence, of national sovereignty," he said.

"...They have defeated the efforts by Mr Hugo Chavez to integrate us into his militaristic and backwards expansion project he intends to impose over South America. Today, Peru has said no."

That's right...NO.

"Shine on, you crazy diamond"

Syd Barrett, Co-Founder of Pink Floyd, Dies at 60.

Why protesting is dumb

Stephen Spruiell and Nathan Goulding at National Review and Suitably Flip at Hot Air, all report that the anti-NY Times protest was sort-of embarrassing. The problem with protesting is that complicated thoughts have to be summed up in soundbites shouted through a megaphone. As Spruiell and Goulding note:

Sadly, both the protesters' and counter-protesters' vitriolic "rhetoric" was nothing short of embarrassing. Chanting "Osama Bin Keller" on one side of the street is no different than wearing a shirt with "Bush is an international terrorist" on the other. George Bush is the President of the United States, and Bill Keller is executive editor of the NYT. Both are individuals that deserve better than the label of a terrorist.

Protesting is dumb, I wish the right would leave it to the left to noisily jump around in the streets. We're better than that.

"This is the sound of someone losing the plot"

Dick Morris: PRESIDENT MIKE [BLOOMBERG]? YES, HE CAN WIN

Rest of America: NO HE CAN'T.

Morris goes deep into fantasyland (deeper than his idea that it will be Condi vs. Hillary in '08) with the idea that Mike Bloomberg can win the presidency. For one thing, Morris suggests Mike run as an independent. Sure, independent candidates frequently win the presidency. Why, it happens all the time. The last time a third party candidate won was....oh that's right, never. Put aside that he's a gay-marriage supporting, gun-banning, abortion-loving liberal from the northeast and even then one can't suspend reality long enought to believe Mike Bloomberg has a snowball's chance in hell at the presidency.

UPDATE: Robert George writes that "It's not out of the realm of possibility that Bloomberg could be competitive at the national level". I say "Yes it is, in a big way."

Quote of the Day

Diane Gordon is a state legislator who was caught on videotape demanding that a developer build her a $500,000 dream home in exchange for using her influence to steer a city-owned vacant lot into his hands. She is now facing 5-15 years in prison:

The Brooklyn Democrat "dreamed of living in a gated community, but not the one she bargained for when she abused her authority as a public official," Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said at a news conference.

It's the culture of corruption, I tell ya.

Write

One of the best books I've ever read is "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" by Toby Young. Via Cathy Seipp I learn he's got a new book out, "The Sound of No Hands Clapping". I'm definitely going to go to one of the NY readings (probably the one on July 17th). Let me know if you want to attend too.

Yay Italy!

"Hurry up, I want to beat the World Cup traffic in Bensonhurst."-My brother on driving me somewhere.

"If I was Italian, I'd care. If I was French I'd care. But I'm not, I'm American, so go Yankees!"- Gruff biker dude at Jordan's Lobster Dock in Brooklyn, Saturday afternoon.

I spent the weekend in Brooklyn and I can report that Brooklyn decidely favored Italy in yesterday's World Cup Final. There were Italian flags flying on many of the houses in my parents neighborhood of Bensonhurst and there were noisy crowds packed into tiny cafes all along 18th Avenue. The reasons were three:

1. Pro-Italy- There are lots of Italians in the borough.

2. Anti-France- There is not a lot of love for the French in "real" Brooklyn.

3. Pro-America- The U.S had tied Italy in a previous match, therefore their win means we're not so bad. Though, of course, we are.

Ace has a funny post on the match.

The left and Jeff Goldstein

In case you haven't been following the story, a liberal academic (she has since resigned her position) named Deborah Frisch left a comment on Jeff Goldstein's blog (which is down right now due to a DOS attack) hoping his kid gets sexually molested and murdered ala Jon Benet Ramsey . And it's only gotten uglier from there. Michelle Malkin relays the story in her latest Hot Air video.

I think the reason that Jeff seems to inspire the most rabid hatred of any rightwingish blogger (save Michelle Malkin) is that liberals naturally are compelled to like him--he's one of the funniest people on the planet and seems to be a genuinely nice, cool guy--and that makes them crazy and challenges their kneejerk rightwing hatred. Frisch obviously went way too far. She deserves everything she gets.

UPDATE: When this whole thing began, Jeff Goldstein promised to turn Frisch's name into a verb. Well, that's been done:

To Frisch: Writing something on the internet so creepy and offensive that you are forced to quit your job before getting canned. Ex. Deb really frisched herself when she threatened that blogger's 2 year old child with death and sexual molestation.

Michelle Malkin also sums up some of Frisch's crazier moments (including happiness at the 7/7 bombings in London, her defense of Ward Churchill and her 9/11 conspiracy theorizing.

Today, noon, NYC.

I've written before how I think protesting is sort of dumb, but if you're into that sort of thing, this might be a good one to check out.

July 10, 2006, 12:00 noon: American Friends of Likud invites you to a RALLY TO SAVE GILAD SHALIT. The order to Hamas to kidnap IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit came from Damascus. The order to Hamas to free him must come from there, too. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad plays a critical role in this hostage crisis, since Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal operates in Syria under his protection. Join the Ad Hoc Coalition for Justice in front of the Syrian Mission to the United Nations to send a message to Bashar al-Assad and Palestinian leaders. Demand the immediate and unconditional release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, and an end to Syrian support for the terrorists of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. Call on the international community to act against those who harbor and support terrorist groups. Demand that the Palestinian Authority halt the ongoing firing of rockets and mortars into Israel. In front of the Syrian Mission to the U.N., 820 Second Avenue between 43rd & 44th Streets-Rain or Shine. Subways: 4, 5, 6, 7 to Grand Central Station. Sponsored by the Ad Hoc Coalition for Justice.

UPDATE: Over a dozen groups will be protesting the NY Times tonight, 5-8pm, over its insistence in publishing classified information. Michelle Malkin has the info.

"There will be no more videos of me kissing the bellies of small boys!"

Russia further curtails press freedom.

Via Allah.

Anniversary

It is the one year anniversary of the bombing in the London Underground. Nothing could depress me more than reading this. Blaming the victim is just not ok--even when you are the victim and you're blaming yourself. I wrote as much last year when the bombings happened and I feel the same today. Anger is good, a defeatest 'why do they hate us?' is not. Stay strong, Great Britain.

I enjoyed rereading what I wrote about the attacks when they happened, maybe you will too:

I love Britain.

We are all infidels now.

Remember to hate them back.

I am an artist

And you can be one too. Or just waste time like one.

Hat-tip W.O.

Joe Biden's M.O

Open mouth, insert foot. (Via Ben Smith)

Previous Biden gaffes:

I love having sex with my wife while my children are sleeping.

Condi is a but a woman, a black one at that, gotta protect her.

Michael Moore's a little what?

(There's some cursing so it's not entirely work safe).

Via my My Space friend Swoose.

Thanks to Allah for the his cool help with the vid.

Weird story of the day

Putin stops a little boy in a crowd and kisses his belly. Wack-o.

UPDATE: Allah has the video. Beyond bizarre.

Me, me, me

If you care about what I did last weekend and/or like reading poker stories, part 1 of my Atlantic City trip report is now up over on the poker blog.

Update: Part 2 is now up.

Gay marriage nixed in NY

Court decides court can't decide.

Tough

I'm not sure what to root for in Connecticut's August Democratic primary. One one hand, there's no doubt that Joe Lieberman is as sane a Democrat as they come. On the other hand, he's still a Democrat. On the other hand, the Republican candidate in the race says things like ""We want (voters) to know early on, 'Hey, there's a nice alternative out here. He's a mainstream Republican, not some right-winger, off-the-wall conservative,' " Schlesinger said." On the other hand, a so-so Republican is still better than a good Democrat. On the other hand, I've run out of hands.

It's a little strange, this obsession with America

Breitbart:

"It's a little strange, this obsession of the flag," French author Bernard-Henri Levy wrote after traveling across the country.

"Everywhere, in every form, flapping in the wind or on stickers, an epidemic of flags that has spread throughout the city," Levy wrote in "American Vertigo" of the riot of banners he saw.

On a different note, while googling some of Levy's other writings, I came across something he wrote for the Nation back in February called "A Letter to the American Left". In it, he investigates the failings of the American Left and offers solutions. There was a tidbit in there that I hadn't seen before. Apparently, John Kerry said to Levy: "If you hear anything about those 50,000 votes in Ohio, let me know". Hi-lar-ious.

"If you continue to burn down the herbs, we're gonna burn down the cane fields"

The above headline is a line in a reggae song by John Holt called "Police in Helicopters" about the govmint cracking down on the Rasta's "herb" growing. I got into a discussion with my friend MR about this song: 'who are they hurting burning down the cane fields? They're just destroying the livelihood of the people working in the fields. The people that own the cane fields will survive, the regular people will suffer.'

I feel sort of like that about the shutdown of New Jersey. Having just returned from 4 glorious days in America's playground, I can tell you that Donald Trump isn't going to be the one feeling the pinch of the casinos being closed down. The dealers, waitresses and general staff in the casinos--all of whom will not be paid-- are the ones who are going to suffer. It's bad for the state too, they're losing $1.3 million a day from casino revenue. Corzine may be acting like a businessman in shutting the state down to force through his tax hike, but he's acting like a callous, stupid businessman.

UPDATE: Enlighten NJ is all over the shutdown.

I'm never getting married

From an article on swinging sent to me by Allah:

But in an era where at least one partner will have an affair in approximately 80 percent of all marriages, rigid monogamy is as outdated as homophobia.

80%! Jeeeeeezus.

Welcome to Communism

Nevermind the starving people, spend the money on free sex-change operations on demand!

Happy Birthday, my love

Audience Participation

My favorite chick flick of all time is "A League of Their Own". What's yours? C'mon Allah, I know you've got one.

Non-American Superman Sucks

Apparently, the Superman of Superman Returns is no longer American, despite Superman's previous patriotism. That's ok, I wasn't planning on seeing it anyway since my friend Pheeleepok saw it on opening day and proclaimed the movie 'strashnih oozhas' or 'a scary horror'.

Why John Kerry lost the election...

....encapsulated in one awkward comment.

3:24am

Call me crazy but I think Britney looks better in her pregnant, naked pictures than she's looked in some time.