August 25, 2004

Ever wonder what terrorist 'chatter' sounds like?

Freewayblogger has the "tape." T2: I'm on Travelocity - making a bunch of reservations for my uncle "Allah-Akbar Jihadi Al-Tikriti" on El Al. T1: Really? I use Priceline. T2: I've always had good luck with Travelocity. T1: Yes, but on Priceline you get to name your own price. T2: Sure, that's what they say... T1: True, but what the hell: I get a kick out of William Shatner. T2: He's Canadian you know. T1: Everybody knows that... So come on, tell me - what're you doing this afternoon? T2: Me and my cousin Farouk were gonna go shoot down a commercial airliner with some Stinger shoulder-launched ground-to-air missiles supplied to us by John Poindexter and Oliver North in the 1980's. T1: (Stern) Hey!

Posted by tbrown at 11:32 AM

Setting the record straight on Bush

He's no party animal. So say Pleasure Boat Captains for Truth, who would know (via TBogg). Be sure to check out the Pleasure Captains Quotes link.

Posted by tbrown at 11:29 AM

Shorter George Bush, absurder John Kerry

Blogger Mark Kleiman's quick analysis of the prez's "opposition" to so-called 527 organizations: I'll ask my friends to stop lying about John Kerry, if he'll ask his friends to stop telling the truth about me. Then we have the spectacle of John Kerry dispatching triple-amputee vet Max Cleland to the presidential ranch to demand that Bush denounce the ads of one of those 527s, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Can we all just move on (and I don't mean MoveOn) please?

Posted by tbrown at 11:27 AM

Wait – you mean there is a(nother) connection? I'm shocked!

A lawyer for President Bush's re-election campaign disclosed Tuesday that he has been providing legal advice for a veterans group that is challenging Democratic Sen. John Kerry's account of his Vietnam War service. Benjamin Ginsberg's acknowledgment marks the second time in days that an individual associated with the Bush-Cheney campaign has been connected to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which Kerry accuses of being a front for the Republican incumbent's re-election effort. He resigned, just like the Swiftie who was on Bush's veterans committee.

Posted by tbrown at 11:25 AM

Good for Cheney

Has an odd ring, doesn't it? But here's an issue he's at least half-right on: he's parted company with his boss on gay marriage. At a campaign rally in this Mississippi River town, Cheney spoke supportively about gay relationships, saying "freedom means freedom for everyone," when asked about his stand on gay marriage. "Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with," Cheney told an audience that included his daughter. "With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone. ... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to. Cheney isn't calling for legalization of gay marriage, but he says the decision should be left to the states – the opposite of the proposed amendment to the U.S. constitution supported by Bush.

Posted by tbrown at 11:24 AM

Mincing Malkin

Seattle blogger David Neiwert takes on Michelle Malkin, ingenue of the fringe right (and, by the way, a former columnist for The Seattle Times), for her new book, "In Defense of Internment," which attempts to justify the caging of tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans during War 2, and blesses the racial profiling of Muslims in our current wonderful world. Here's David: Malkin, somewhat correctly, is annoyed that some commentators have referred to her as "self-hating": The idea that since I am an Asian-American who has defended the so-called Japanese-American internment, I must therefore hate myself, is absurd. What in the world does my ethnic heritage (Filipino) have to do with the book's thesis? Of course, she's quite right that the presumption that because she's Asian American she "ought to be" opposed to the Japanese American internment is nonsense. However, the fact that she is of Filipino descent in fact has a great deal to do with her book's thesis. Malkin, you see, makes great hay of the fact of "dual citizenship" among the Nisei as a clear indicator of "torn loyalties" and a cause to suspect them of potential sabotage or espionage. But Malkin, as it happens, is a dual citizen herself. Under Filipino law, any child born to Filipino parents, whether living abroad or not, is reckoned a Filipino citizen. Malkin was born in Philadelphia in 1970 to Filipino-immigrant parents. But David -- she's above suspicion.

Posted by tbrown at 11:22 AM