Funyuns and Mountain Dew

With I. Lewis Libby's indictments on false statements, perjury, and obstruction of justice (and subsequent resignation), we can now shut the book on the Plame Leak non-scandal. As reasonable commentators have held all along, it appears that no crime was committed in the "outing" of Valerie Plame, and no charges will be brought. Instead, the special prosecutor saw fit to indict one member of the administration for attempting a lone cover-up.

Now let's see how the story (such as it is) is framed by the American left and their media enablers. We already know that the Democrats will exaggerate the charges against Libby for political use, as they have throughout the investigation (Howard Dean has already convicted him, no doubt). But will talk of "Bush Administration cover-up" and "Leak indictments" become the new "Plastic Turkey" in the media? Considering that the words of proven liar Joe Wilson are still taken as gospel by much of the media, I'd say that we're not likely to see a lot of context coming out of America's news rooms.

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I haven't said much on the subject of the Miers nomination (because I'm no legal analyst or even a court watcher, and I don't play one on this blog), but I can't say I'm unhappy to see her go. Everything I've read about her raised questions, and the White House's assurance that she was blindly partisan enough just wasn't doing it for me. Short of a dazzling performance before the Senate Judicial Committee (with real answers about her judicial philosophy), I was inclined to oppose her nomination.

Not that that means anything to anyone.

UPDATE: As I've already stated at a couple of blogs, Alex Kozinski is my "dream nominee". But the possibility is just that - a dream.

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If you haven't installed terrestrial repeaters along a freeway, in a valley, in Southern California, where the fuck are you putting the damn things?

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I was lucky enough to be one of the first of the general public to step aboard the new Air Force One exhibit at the Reagan Presidential Library. It was an amazing experience. The new pavilion is awe inspiring, as is the museum as a whole. If you're ever in So. Cal, the Reagan Library is a must.

I got a few pictures, but was limited by the ban on flash photography, so most of what I did snap didn't turn out. I guess I should consider myself lucky, because cameras weren't even allowed on the plane (you'll have to see that for yourself).

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The UN may be massively corrupt, but you can take solace in the fact that they're also massively incompetent. Here's the final report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Open it up in Word, then go to tools > track changes > highlight changes to see what they deleted.

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Serial Rapist Greg Haidl will be sentenced as an adult, and could get up to 18 years instead of the two (!) his attorneys were seeking.

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From Gamespot.com's preview of Civilization IV, by Jason Ocampo:

After your first city is built, one of the first things you'll need to construct is a worker unit, which can construct improvements on the land outside your city. In previous Civs these improvements were limited to a handful (road, farm, and mine), but now there are a plethora of different resources and improvement options at your disposal. For example, you can now build windmills atop hills, watermills on rivers, wineries in vineyards, and much more. It can seem a dizzying array of choices, but thanks to automation, all you have to do is let the artificial intelligence take control of your worker, and it will go about building the best available option on each square, as well as link your cities together by roads. It's such an efficient process, and it improves the pace of the game immensely, since you no longer have to worry about micromanaging all those workers, like you did in previous Civs.

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It's hard to state just how much "faster" Civ plays now that you don't have to worry about little details, like micromanaging workers.

...

These are higher-level decisions, and they are much more interesting than the repetitious tasks of earlier games, where 90 percent of your commands were to workers telling them to build a road or a farm.

Does anybody have the heart to tell Mr. Ocampo how many hours of his life he wasted simply because he didn't realize that worker automation has been a feature of the Civ franchise from day one? I've played games wherein single turns lasted 15 minutes or more - and that was without controlling 50-some odd worker units.

Anyway, the latest incarnation of the greatest game ever made hits shelves in four days. Don't be surprised if you don't see or hear from me for about six months.

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Take a look at the TradeSports market for the Miers nomination:


The strange thing is, I can't find anything specific that brought this on. It's simply a growing sense that Miers will be withdrawn. I certainly have my own doubts, but I'm not sure I wouldn't be a buyer right about now. Never (mis)underestimate Bush's political will.

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Props 73-75

PROP. 76

State spending and school funding limits. Initiative constitutional amendment.

My vote: YES. Limits state spending increases to an average of the previous three years' growth. Sounds great, so that's a "yes." The problem is, who's going to actually cut the spending? Certainly not the Assembly. The amendment does give the Governor power and the leeway to lop-off significant appropriations, but with next year's budget due just a few months before Arnold faces re-election, I don't see him making unpopular but necessary cuts. And God forbid he loses next November! What will Governor Beatty do!?

PROP. 77

Redistricting. Initiative constitutional amendment.

My vote: YES. I'm not going to delude myself into believing that you can actually take the politics out of redistricting. You're never going to make a "fair" system when there are political lives on the line. But at the very least we can cast our vote for "more fair."

PROP. 78

Discounts on prescription drugs. Initiative statute.

My vote: YES. A though one. On the one hand, this is a common sense approach to the problem of prescription drug costs (Common sense? California?). It doesn't cost a whole lot (they claim about $10m, mostly for publicizing the program), there's no "penalize the rich tax" involved, and the drug companies aren't exactly getting screwed either (it's voluntary on their part).

On the other hand, government has no business providing such a service in the first place. Fair-weather libertarian that I am, this one gets a begrudging "yes."

PROP. 79

Prescription drugs discount. State-negotiated discounts. Initiative statute.

My vote: NO. Ah, now here's the kind of unadulterated crazy you expect to see in California politics. Puts a gun to the pharmaceutical industry's head and scraps every sensible, effective program that's already working. This initiative makes profit motive illegal for all intents and purposes.

And it goes without saying that such a plan couldn't get far in the Golden State without the approval of the State Employees' Unions (they get a new bureaucracy to play with) and trial lawyers (who will run wild under a broad new "profiteering" law). A horrible, horrible idea. In other words, it's a state Democrat's wet dream.

PROP. 80

Electric service providers. Regulation. Initiative statute.

My vote: NO. Do we learn nothing in this state? Had we not regulated the industry in the first place, the phrase "rolling blackout" would never have entered the lexicon. Please, let's truly open the industry to competition, and then watch as not only does service improve, but prices fall.

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Jack Thompson has called for the arrest of Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (the minds behind the webcomic Penny Arcade) after the two dared to make a $10,000 charitable donation in his name:

"As you may know, this incredibly violent Rockstar Games product is actually a 'cop-killing' murder simulator. There are a bunch of computer geeks out there who think that the video game industry has a constitutional right to paint a bullseye on your back and on your officers' backs... That is what this criminal harassment of me by Penny Arcade is all about. They're even selling an 'I Hate Jack Thompson' t-shirt, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. These idiots have been so careless as to post on their www.pennyarcade.com web site what they are doing regarding the harassment of me."

"I look forward to working with your fine Police Department to shut this little extortion factory down and/or arrest some of its employees."

"Idiots?" I'd say posting this entire thread was a fucking masterstroke. Go over there and read through the archives for the past few days. Who comes out at the victim? Who's the subject of harassment?

I'm sure there will be some sort of defense fund set up for Mike and Jerry. I'll post that info here when it happens.

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The continuing saga of everybody's favorite fascist... er... continues.

As you knew they would, somebody in the gamer community took Jack up on his offer in order to collect on the $10,000 charitable donation. Mr. Thompson responded as he always does: with a series of distortions, legal threats, and ad hominem attacks. Oh, and he's not going to follow through on the donation, either. It was just a clever "satire":

I'm not interested and won't be commenting on the mod. The satirical piece entitled 'A Modest Video Game Proposal' was intended to highlight the patent hypocrisy and recklessness exhibited by the video game industry's willingness to target cops, women, homosexuals, and other groups with some of their violent games. To be fair, though, you can't expect a bunch of gamers to understand the satire if they think that Jonathon Swift, the author of 'A Modest Proposal,' is the name of a new Nike running shoe...

...I will say this though, the 'video game community' (what's next, 'the necromancy community'?) surely seems exercised about someone who is a 'joke' and who is accomplishing nothing. You all seem rather bothered and worried about a nonentity. God is in this battle, and I am privileged to be a foot soldier. You all should be concerned, not about me, but about Him.

Yeah, because God just loves people who welch on their promises and withhold assistance to the needy. And I know this for a fact, because the man himself told me so over a game of Pong back in the 80's. All that charity and "love thy neighbor" shit? He seriously has no clue who started that. (Of course, that didn't stop him from availing himself of my generosity by cleaning out my fridge. That dude can put away the Mountain Dew, let me tell you.)

Anyway, in steps Penny Arcade once again, making that $10,000 donation - in Jack Thompson's name, no less - to the The Entertainment Software Association Foundation. Those guys rock, so hard.

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Via LGF, Danish Muslims protest some unflattering editorial cartoons, in their normal, peaceful manner (with ample threats of violence):

Several thousand Muslims demonstrated in Copenhagen Friday against the treatment of Muslims in general and the images of Muhammad published by the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in particular. "We fear that this could lead to violence and extremism, and that young people can decide to carry out extremist acts. We call upon the government to ban degradation of religions and hope that Jyllands-Posten will respond to just criticism," [funny, I keep saying the same thing --ed.] said Danish Muslim Katja Hansen on behalf of imam Fouad Al-Barazi from the Hejrevej mosque.

Yeah, because banning free speech isn't the least bit extremist.

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Ed Driscoll on the waxing fortunes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and his reform agenda:

Rather than respond in kind, the governor and his supporters held their tongues (and checkbooks) until about six weeks before the November election. This rope-a-dope aimed to lure Arnold's opponents into a state of complacency; the trap would be sprung in late September when the governor, we were told, would finally go on the offensive.

if that all sounds familiar, it certainly should: that was President Bush's exact re-election strategy. As I wrote early in September of last year, during the week of the Republican National Convention.

And that's not the only similarity to last November: one of the soon-to-be victims of this rope-a-dope is one John F. Kerry, who popped into California today to pick sides.

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Let's take these three at a time, shall we?

PROP. 73

Waiting period and parental notification before termination of minor's pregnancy. Initiative constitutional amendment.

My vote: NO. First things first - I'm a pro-life libertarian. I firmly believe that abortion is murder, the Roe v. Wade decision was poorly reasoned and has no constitutional basis, and I will celebrate the day that we put abortionists put in prison next to all the other murderers for hire. BUT the fact remains, in this country today, as wrong headed as it is, abortion is considered a right. That's why I can't vote to deny it to only a certain segment of society.

I suspect that - if anyone actually reads this blog - I'm going to get some grief for this. Bring it on. I'm open to arguments on the subject, and I'm perfectly willing to change my mind on this one given proper persuasion.

PROP. 74

Public school teachers. Waiting period for permanent status. Dismissal. Initiative statute.

My vote: YES. It's not going to help, but sure, why not? Really, no matter how easy you make it to dismiss teachers, I don't see a great purge coming anytime soon - no matter how incompetent teachers may be. Speaking as someone who was a student in the public school system in the past few years, a purge is one of many steps that is needed to fix our schools. This won't do it, but it's a symbolic step in the right direction.

PROP. 75

Public employee union dues. Restrictions on political contributions. Employee consent requirement. Initiative statute.

My vote: YES. Your modern union is nothing more than a creatively titled PAC, which draws its donations at gunpoint. This is the biggest no-bainer on the ballot.

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Classy as always:

"I will not be a part of the next government -- definitely not be part of it," a tearful looking Schroeder told a rapt audience of union members in his home city of Hanover.

He quickly composed himself, hitting his stride in a passionate defense of a strong German state and lashing out at "Anglo-Saxon" economic policies favoured in Britain and the United States, which he said had "no chance" in Europe.

Good ol' Gerhard - you've got to admire his political focus. Germany is suffering through 12% unemployment and rising inflation, yet he still manages to find away to focus his base on those damn foreigners, no matter the issue!

In an apparent reference to Hurricane Katrina, Schroeder castigated Washington for liberal, hands-off policies that left it exposed in times of crisis. The Bush administration was widely criticised for its response to the devastating storm.

"I do not want to name any catastrophes where you can see what happens if organised state action is absent. I could name countries, but the position I still hold forbids it, but everyone knows I mean America," he said to loud applause.

Hurricane Katrina - the strongest storm to hit the US in a generation - claimed 1,260 lives (or at least that is the official count at the moment). In 2003, a "heatwave" (I use scare quotes because I grew up in Bakersfield, California, where we call 100 degree temperatures "summer") killed 40,000 western Europeans. Where was the "organized state action" then, Gerhard? Where was the "European social model" to take them in its warm embrace?

So lets add it up, shall we? Floundering economy + "strong German state" + irrational fear of foreigners + "organised state action". It doesn't take a history major to see where this one is headed...

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Everybody's favorite fascist is at it again. Ambulance chaser, video game crusader, and all-around asshat Jack Thompson has challenged the video game industry to design and market a strange, ultra-violent, revenge fantasy of his own creation (digital projection much?). What point he's trying to make, I haven't the faintest clue (I suspect he doesn't either...), but as incentive he's offered to make the rather lame gesture of a $10,000 donation to an unspecified charity.

Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik has sent Mr. Thompson a reply, noting that the Penny Arcade community of gamers alone has raised over half a million dollars for children's hospitals in the past two years. I'm interested in seeing his response, but judging from his previous correspondence with gamers and free speech advocates, I'd say the chances of Mike receiving anything are slim to none, and even if he does, it won't be fit for publication.

UPDATE (2:30 PM): Mike has received the expected response from Mr. Thompson.

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Remember those SurveyUSA numbers showing Gov. Schwarzenegger's "reform agenda" slate of propositions polling well ahead? I concluded that they were highly suspicious, and likely an outlier. Well, Michael Barone has two new polls (one internal from the Schwarzenegger administration) that would seem to corroborate those impressive numbers. (Via OC Blog)

Good on ya', California!

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Bush Appointee Thinks Bush is "Cool", Good Leader

Related: the Associated Press has officially run out of real news.

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The Register's John Gittelsohn tabulates the batting averages of OC's Sacramento lawmakers. What he finds is hardly surprising; Republicans found their agendas bogged down in the legislature (but when they managed to sneak one through, their bills almost always avoided the Governor's veto stamp), while the three Democrats representing OC felled more trees, but had difficulty getting off the Governor's desk.

What a sorry state California is in when common-sense legislators like Dick Ackerman and John Campbell can't even get the most innocuous bills passed (remember the story behind Campbell's "Million Solar Roofs Initiative"?), while somebody like Joe Dunn (D- Mars) - he of the oil price caps - gets half of his drivel through.

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Agran and his cronies plan a vacation:

The Great Park board decided Monday to delay a decision to select a master designer until January to allow time to travel to Spain, New York and San Francisco to visit the three finalist designers' finished projects.

The decision was unanimous.

Of course it was...

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Here's a website (via LGF) that has taken it upon itself to catalogue every instance of Islamic terrorism since 9/11. Totaling up the columns, I came up with 17,586 dead, 37,916 injured - in just over four years. And I can't imagine this (or any list) could be considered "exhaustive".

Remember folks: "There is no terrorist threat."

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On this day in 1967:

Marxist revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara has reportedly been killed during a battle between army troops and guerillas in the Bolivian jungle.

A statement issued by the commander of the Eighth Bolivian Army Division, Colonel Joaquin Zenteno Anaya, said the 39-year-old guerrilla leader was shot dead near the jungle village of Higueras, in the south-east of the country.

Today, communists from around the world celebrate a life given to the "people's rebellion" by contributing in no small way to the capitalist establishment against which Guevara fought. God bless gullible college students.

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For the first time, polling data suggests that all of Gov. Schwarzenegger's "reform agenda" slate of propositions look set to pass - and quite easily. This is a big shift from all previous polling, which suggested everything other than Prop. 75 (paycheck protection) going down to inglorious defeat.

                OCT. 4        SEP. 29
           YES  NO   UND   YES  NO   UND
Prop. 74   55%  44%   2%   43%  47%  10%
Prop. 75   60%  37%   3%   n/a  n/a  n/a
Prop. 76   58%  36%   6%   26%  63%  11%
Prop. 77   59%  36%   5%   33%  50%  17%

*note that these were two different polls, by different firms.

Are these numbers outliers, or are they connected to the long-awaited flood of pro-Schwarzenegger advertising after months of bashing at the hands of labor unions? The new pro-Schwarzenegger TV spot is particularly well made, I feel (with the woman looking straight into the camera and making the indisputable statement "Let's face it - Sacramento is screwed up!") but I doubt it could account for these massive shifts in public opinion. More likely one - or both - of these polls are bad samples. The small number of undecideds a full month before the election in the SurveyUSA poll gives me pause.

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes with child:

Either one of those crazy bastards is coming out with a movie and they've jumped the publicity stunt into overdrive, or things have gotten terribly out of hand and Katie Holmes is actually pregnant. Although I could've sworn Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman adopted children because he couldn't get people pregnant. Something about not having any sperm or preferring sex with men. Whatever the reason, it doesn't make sense that he would suddenly be able to start knocking people up. I don't know what's going on here, but it's freaking me out, man.

Great. Just what the world needs: more Scientologists.

Also from the files, Nick Cage has named newborn son Kal-el (as in Superman):

Because Clark, or Lex, or Man-Lois would have been too subtle. Because Gwyneth Paltrow's kid is going to need a friend in the nurse's office every recess. And because Bizarro Superman Copola Cage is just too many letters to monogram on tiny feety pajamas.

Damn celebrities.

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John Campbell will win the 48th district primary easily, though not with the 50% + 1 required to take the seat. That means we're going to see a runoff come December 6th.

John Campbell (R)   46.0%
Marilyn Brewer (R)  16.7%
Jim Gilchrist (AI)  14.4%
Steve Young (D)      8.9%
John Graham (D)      4.1%
Bea Foster (D)       3.3%
Don Udall (R)        1.6%
John Kelly (R)       1.2%

What a pitiful showing by Marilyn Brewer (that should be the last we hear from her... thank god). I know a lot of people were expecting better from Gilchrist, but this is about as well as I felt he could do. He would have finished a solid second had he run as a Republican, but his AIP tag gets him an easy spot on the general election ballot (not that it matters). Also, it's rather amazing that in Orange County, the sole Libertarian candidate (Bruce Cohen, 0.8%) can't even muster 1% of the vote.

BTW: The runoff participants will be Campbell, Gilchrist, and Young.

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"Very quiet," according to the volunteers at my polling place. On the other hand, I did come across the packed parking lot of a polling place on El Toro Blvd. If you've been down El Toro between the 5 and Jeronomo in the past year, you know that's no small feat.

You can grab results here as they come.

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It's the final day for direct mail in the 48th District primary, and we get the first signs of life out of Jim Gilchrist:


Nice work. He comes right out and puts the focus on his issue (literally - your eyes can't help but go right to the yellow sign). I've been quite impressed with his team's design work all along - he has easily the most visually pleasing and iconic logo in the campaign, which works very well on yard signs, stickers and such. The inside of the mailer is a little cluttered and provides several news clippings which have no relevance to his campaign (Mr. Gilchrist has been in the news plenty in the past year - he couldn't have used any of those?), but other than that, it's a nice piece of work.

Still not going to vote for him, though...

As for the David Crouch mailer that arived on the same day: I don't vote for people who use clip art.

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I know nothing about Harriet Miers. Then again, no one does. No decipherable political ideology on that one. But if she's a close personal friend of the President (supposedly his most favored subordinate at the White House) then I'm sure he's "looked into her soul" and seen... something. For that reason I'm willing to put it on faith that she's a social conservative, but that gives us very little to go on where she stands on personal privacy and economic issues.

From a purely political standpoint, one thing jumps out at me: how badly the Bush administration was knocked off its stride by the death of William Rehnquist in the middle of a confirmation battle. They had the perfect candidate to replace Justice O'Conner - conservative, unknown, eminently qualified, unblockable. But after elevating Roberts to the position of Chief Justice (thereby replacing a conservative with a conservative and wasting their "perfect" candidate in a relatively easy confirmation fight), the administration is forced to take a gamble on yet another "stealth candidate" if it wishes to effect change in the court. Had Roberts been confirmed to replace the wobbly O'Conner, the battle to replace Rehnquist with a fellow conservative would have been far easier.

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Last time I heard such whining about the entitlement of the masses, it was in reference to Rearden Metal and railroads:

The European Union insisted Friday that governments and the private sector must share the responsibility of overseeing the Internet, setting the stage for a showdown with the United States on the future of Internet governance.

A senior U.S. official reiterated Thursday that the country wants to remain the Internet's ultimate authority, rejecting calls in a United Nations meeting in Geneva for a U.N. body to take over.

EU spokesman Martin Selmayr said a new cooperation model was important "because the Internet is a global resource."

A stalemate over who should serve as the principal traffic cops for Internet routing and addressing could derail the summit, which aims to ensure a fair sharing of the Internet for the benefit of the whole world.

The EU's spokesman went on to say that "the EU ... is very firm on this position," which I found to be particularly hilarious. You can be as firm as you want, Jacques, but don't mistake firmness for leverage. You want control of the web? You can march your armies on over here and take it. Until you're willing and able, you're pretty much shit out of luck. And until then, your Thought Police will have to keep their feet on the ground and their noses out of our business.

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Jonah Goldberg:

Please read this post by Garance Franke-Ruta over at Tapped on what "movement-building" demands of liberal bloggers. It certainly reads to me like she's upset that liberal bloggers are being too intellectually honest. The upshot of Franke-Ruta's position seems to be that deliberately distorting Bill Bennett's intent and meaning is a small price to pay to villify him unfairly and for the added bonus of angering-up southern blacks in order to get limousine liberals like John Edwards elected. And if Matt Yglesias or Brad DeLong see it differently, they should just be quiet -- for the sake of the movement.

I find this very illuminating. We get a lot of grief around here from time to time for supporting conservative politicians or figures -- including Bennett -- when liberals insist the only intellectually honest position is opposition and outrage. Therefore we must be operating in bad faith. And here we have someone at The American Prospect all but declaring that intellectual honesty is corrupting liberalism and its nakedly partisan ambition to attain political power.

Nice movement she's working on.

If you'll recall, this is the second time in as many weeks that we've seen the "ends justify the means" club used to beat down dissent from within the progressive movement. Last week it was the eminently resonable Mickey Kaus, who caught a world of shit (from Matthew Yglesias, ironically enough) for having the gall to suggest that the Dem's focus should be sound policy, rather than pandering to a specific constituency (a strategy that Kaus rightly notes has spelled electoral disaster for the party).

The American Left - so far removed from electoral success - no longer the party of Bill Clinton, but rather of Marcos Zuniga and Duncan Black - has reverted to it's old tricks: distortion, race-baiting, and pandering. And what's more, they're open about it. After all, they're taking us to a better place, and the ends justify the means. We'll all see that someday.

And while we're somewhere near the subject of Bill Bennett, be sure to check out Jeff Goldstein, who's been on f'n fire. At first I felt that Bennett was guilty only of being impolitic, giving the race baiting left an opening. But after reading Goldstein's comments, I have come to realize that Bennett is guilty of nothing. Any moral code that condemns a man for speaking his mind and stating undeniable facts is a sick and twisted morality. Let the pathetic Left attack - but we should not flagellate ourselves on their behalf.

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