Decision ‘08 » 2005

Archive for February, 2005

Monday, February 21st, 2005

Candidate Profile Eleven: Newt Gingrich

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is nothing if not smart. He has timed his will-he-or-won’t-he-run press offensive to coincide nicely with the release of his new book, Winning the Future: a 21st Century Contract With America. The subtitle’s reference, of course, is to Newt’s famous Contract with America during the heyday of […]

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Monday, February 21st, 2005

Miscellanea - Special President’s Day Edition

Nancy Hopkins (the woman who got so woozy in the aftermath of the Lawrence Summers bombshell) responds to her critics at Gothamimage…
Speaking of women who are currently in the mountain-out-of-molehill-making business, the Bernoulli Effect comments on the Susan Estrich - Michael Kinsley dustup (I bet Estrich could take him in a fight)…
FOTB (Friend of This […]

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Monday, February 21st, 2005

Hunter S. Thompson, R.I.P.

The iconic writer and creator of ‘gonzo’ journalism is dead; he ended it all with a shot to his head. Thompson was an early hero of mine, believe it or not - I admired not so much his politics, but rather his stream-of-consciousness, say-or-do-anything, scattershot yet brilliant writing. ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ and […]

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Sunday, February 20th, 2005

Did Bush Smoke Pot? Who Knows? Who Cares?

If you haven’t heard by now, an ‘old friend’ of G. W. Bush secretly taped conversations he had with Bush prior to his ascendancy to the presidency. The NY Times listened to a dozen such tapes. Sure to get the biggest play is Bush’s tacit admission that he smoked marijuana. The relevant quote:

Mr. Bush said: […]

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Sunday, February 20th, 2005

Rather Excellent Tales: Heading On Down to Houston Town

1953-1956: After graduation, Danny Boy hightails it to Houston, where he is hired by the Houston Chronicle (print) and KTRH (radio). Rather becomes the news director of KTRH in 1956.
FUN FACT: You may remember a little war in a place called Korea. It took place from 1950 - 1953. Dan didn’t serve […]

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Sunday, February 20th, 2005

The ‘Hey, Maybe Bush Was Right’ Meme

I’m certain I’m not alone in having long suspected that certain of our more leftish brethren would rather see us fail in Iraq than face the prospect of giving George W. Bush any credit for anything good. The fallout from the Iraqi elections has the ‘progressives’ facing just such a quandry. Here, for […]

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Sunday, February 20th, 2005

Miscellanea: Condi is Hot, Hot, Hot! Edition

The Condi for President bandwagon is growing. Here’s a new site that looks promising…
Carpe Bonum wonders why there’s been so little attention to the tort reform bill just passed, then pulls a Lawrence Summers and backtracks. I say you were right the first time, Craig, it has slipped under the radar of most…
I recently […]

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Sunday, February 20th, 2005

Towards the Abolition of Identity Politics

Al Franken has a piece in the Los Angeles Times ridiculing the GOP’s publication of a calendar spotlighting its civil rights efforts over the last 150 years. In typical Franken fashion, it’s a mean-spirited diatribe basically accusing the Republican Party of racism, though without crossing that threshold (meaning Al doesn’t have the guts to state […]

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Saturday, February 19th, 2005

Rather Excellent Tales: The College Years

1953: Dan Rather receives his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX. On October 21st, 1994, SHSU dedicated the Dan Rather Communications Building. That name’s gonna be a real magnet for top-notch applicants now, eh?
FUN FACT: Huntsville is also the home of Death Row in the Texas prison system. […]

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Saturday, February 19th, 2005

Miscellanea: Dissecting Mr. Chomsky Edition

Good conversation on one Noam Chomsky (maybe you’ve heard of him) at David Horowtiz’s FrontPage Magazine (hat tip to Diary of an Anti-Chomskyite)…
The catastrophically horrible Maureen Dowd weighs in on the Lawrence Summers affair (and somehow confuses his statement with a commentary on attractiveness). Dowd tries to show how judging a woman by her looks […]

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Saturday, February 19th, 2005

Lawrence Summers and the Difference Between Observation and Stereotyping

One good thing that comes out of these periodic controversies is the opportunity they provide to hash out ideas and opinions. On that score, people are having a field day with Lawrence Summers and his suggestion that perhaps innate biological differences account for the relative parsity of women in the sciences.
Suppose I were to say, […]

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Saturday, February 19th, 2005

Bloggers vs. MSM - And the Winner is…

…capitalism. The true beneficiary of the somewhat contrived Texas Death Match between the upstart blogs and the established media titans is the consumer. By adopting the totally arbitrary convention of a top ten list, I intend to show you how. Starting with:

Number Ten: the MSM’s bias problems, and solutions, lie inside their own organizations. Despite […]

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Friday, February 18th, 2005

Miscellanea - Title of the Day Edition

Hands down, this article has the best title I’ve seen in a while: Dems Were Lemmings, Greenspan the Cliff (content’s good, too) (hat to RealClearPolitics)…
News Flash! Rumsfeld Smarter Than the Average Bear (or California Congresswoman) (hat tip to Pejmanesque)…
Speaking of dumb Democratic Congressmen (do I smell a trend?), Betsy’s Page is all over Mel Watt…
Meanwhile, […]

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Friday, February 18th, 2005

Rather Excellent Tales: Birth of a Legend

October 31st, 1931 - Dan Rather born in Wharton, Texas. Dan’s Halloween birth has led to whispering campaigns about ’supernatural’ involvement, but Rather dismisses such talk as ‘wilder than my Aunt Hattie’s billy goat’.
FUN FACT: Wharton was also home to Horton Foote of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ fame, while Rather was often spoken of in […]

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Friday, February 18th, 2005

Miscellanea - Answering the Condi Critics Edition

Matthew May responds to those who frown on a Condi candidacy…
In other 2008 news, the Mark Sanford movement has a new blog up…
More on Harvard’s attempts to brainwash visiting Iraqis here (hat tip to No Left Turns)…
Power Line has a good roundup on that other Harvard controversy…
An article in Popular Mechanics that is essential political […]

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Friday, February 18th, 2005

A Quick One: Biting the Hand That Feeds You

Only have time for a short post now, but wanted to alert you to this absurdity (not the model UN, though some would view that as absurd enough, but the conference) at that little school called Harvard (from Arthur Chrenkoff via Vodkapundit)…

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Friday, February 18th, 2005

Our Long National Nightmare Draws to a Close

In honor of Dan Rather’s imminent departure from the anchor chair, starting this weekend, Decision ‘08 is proud to kick off a series of tribute posts, “Rather Excellent Tales”, celebrating the greatest moments in the career of this national icon. I do hope you’ll stay tuned, it promises to be great fun…

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Thursday, February 17th, 2005

JFK the Sequel - Part Four: Act One, Scene Two

Fade in on a long, imposing staircase covered in snow; as we pan upward the facade of the Massachusetts Supreme Court is revealed. The camera lingers on the motto newly sketched in granite: “Justice? I’d settle for a good haircut…”
In a long tracking shot that will stun the critics, we follow the camera through the […]

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Thursday, February 17th, 2005

Miscellanea - How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Blog the Ways Edition

Peggy Noonan has a virtual love letter to blogs in OpinionJournal (hat tip to RealClearPolitics)…
Speaking of the Wall Street Journal (and we were, indirectly), Bret Stephens and the WSJ editorial board have been behaving very strangely over the whole Eason Jordan thing. Michelle Malkin is all over the story like Garfield on lasagna…The memory-implanting disease […]

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Thursday, February 17th, 2005

Life Imitates Art (or Rich Imitates Dowd)

Frank Rich jumps into a magic time machine and posts his February 20th column today; amazingly, it is an exact replica of the Maureen Dowd piece I referenced earlier…who’s copying who here, and why are both of you covering yesterday’s news today? The Jeff Gannon affair is a complete non-story for those of us […]