This Is Good

It's a post from Connecting.The.Dots titled "President Gore, Lame Duck." The only thing from the post with which I disagree is the idea that George W. Bush would be the 2008 GOP nominee -- I think PNAC signatory Jeb Bush would have gotten the nod in this alternate timeline -- but other than that it's right on:

As Al Gore faces his final years in the White House, history will view his two terms as disappointing.

After a razor-thin victory over George Bush in 2000, the new President was ultra-cautious.

Republicans labeled him “Al Bore” for failing to pursue a muscular foreign policy and for endless consultations with UN members, NATO allies, even potential adversaries such as North Korea and Iran.

Then he overreacted to such criticism, using an intelligence report in August, 2001, as pretext for striking defenseless camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, arousing protests throughout the Middle East over the death of a populist leader, Osama bin Laden, and his followers.

Even more controversial was Gore’s expulsion of fifteen visitors from our ally, Saudi Arabia, for what Rush Limbaugh sarcastically termed “the heinous crime of taking flying lessons.”

The furor drove oil prices to $30 a barrel, with public protest bringing the President’s approval ratings down to 50 percent.

After that, Gore reverted to consensus by pushing for UN inspections in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction, which were never found. This diplomatic waffling, critics claim, diminished the U.S.’s standing in the world.

On the domestic front, the President refused to stimulate the economy with tax cuts, despite an ongoing budget surplus, and pushed for crippling limits on industrial emissions to reduce the so-called greenhouse effect.

Despite such gaffes, Gore narrowly won reelection in 2004 by reverting to Bill Clinton’s ploy of “It’s the economy, stupid.” His opponent, Malcolm Forbes, never managed to stir voters with his proposal of a flat income tax.

As 2008 approaches, the blandness of the Gore years may end. Vice-President Joe Lieberman, with a lock on the Democratic nomination, favors an aggressive American stance in the world. He will likely face George W. Bush, who claims Gore's election sent the country into a downward spiral.

A major issue will be terrorism which, relatively quiescent in eight years of diplomatic bumbling, may come to the fore again when a new President has America acting like a superpower again.

The question in 2008 will be: How do we let the rest of the world know we can no longer be pushed around?

Gerald Ford (with Update)

There's some good stuff over at Washington Monthly with regard to Gerald Ford. This is interesting (via the Washington Post):

Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified. "I don't think I would have gone to war," he said a little more than a year after President Bush launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford's own administration.

In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney -- Ford's White House chief of staff -- and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief.

"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

And this post by Steve Benen addresses the different styles of Bush and Ford, even though many commentators are now "drawing parallels between Ford's presidency and that of George W. Bush." Ford would "force the strong egos that surrounded him to make their case in person during lengthy White House sessions, where he would constantly question the most minute details."

I have a hard time imagining the Idiot Bush doing the same thing.

UPDATE: The virtuous Bill Bennett isn't all that happy with Gerald Ford these days:

Since "decency" seems to be the watchword of the day and the consensus modifier for Jerry Ford (a view with which I generally concur), may I nevertheless be permitted to ask this: just how decent, how courageous, is what Jerry Ford did with Bob Woodward? He slams Bush & Cheney to Woodward in 2004, but asks Woodward not to print the interview until he's dead. If he felt so strongly about his words having a derogatory affect, how about telling Woodward not to run the interview until after Bush & Cheney are out of office? The effect of what Ford did is to protect himself, ensuring he can't be asked by others about his critiques, ensuring that there can be no dialogue. The way Ford does it with Woodward, he doesn't have to defend himself...he simply drops it into Bob Woodward's tape recorder and let's the bomb go off when fully out of range, himself. This is not courage, this is not decent. The manly or more decent options are these: 1. Say it to Bush's or Cheney's face and allow them and us to engage the point while you're around, or 2. Far more decently, say nothing critical of Bush will be on the record until his presidency is over. There's a 3. Don't say anything critical of George Bush to Bob Woodward at all.

You're a former President Mr. Ford, show a little more decency to the incumbent who is in a very, very tough place and trying to do the right thing....you may recall those days and positions yourself.

Although I wish that President Ford would have spoken up publicly in July 2004, I can understand why he decided not to. Kagro X at Daily Kos sums it up this way:

* * * Ford's comments were embargoed precisely because it was already impossible to have an honest dialogue about opposition to the war in this country before he ever made them.

What does it say about the American political climate when a Republican ex-president -- a 90+ year old man, by the way, who hasn't been moving in DC circles for years -- feels intimidated in expressing his views on the biggest and most important issue of the day?

Yes, there's a tradition of ex-presidents holding their tongues. And yes, Bennett is astute enough to recognize that the terms of Ford's embargo are very pointedly not aimed at preserving that tradition. But if that wasn't the point of the embargo, then what was it? Clearly if it wasn't just outright fear, it was at least Ford's anticipation -- and one that's obviously quite correct given this "administration's" track record -- of the headache of harassment and smearing he'd be in for, for daring to express his doubts and opposition. * * *

I have a question -- exactly how many prominent Republicans were openly criticizing Bush's Iraq policy back in July of 2004? I think two of them were, but it might have been as many as three.

It Begins

From The Independent (via Raw Story):

Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.

As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities.

Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.

It has been officially recorded in a six-year study of the Sunderbans by researchers at Calcutta's Jadavpur University. So remote is the island that the researchers first learned of its submergence, and that of an uninhabited neighbouring island, Suparibhanga, when they saw they had vanished from satellite pictures.

Two-thirds of nearby populated island Ghoramara has also been permanently inundated. Dr Sugata Hazra, director of the university's School of Oceanographic Studies, says "it is only a matter of some years" before it is swallowed up too. Dr Hazra says there are now a dozen "vanishing islands" in India's part of the delta. The area's 400 tigers are also in danger.

Until now the Carteret Islands off Papua New Guinea were expected to be the first populated ones to disappear, in about eight years' time, but Lohachara has beaten them to the dubious distinction.

Matt Davies

Saparmurat Niyazov

Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov, who died yesterday, appears to have been quite the character:

For two decades, Niyazov crushed opposition and pursued an extravagant personality cult, renaming January after himself, April after his mother, and erecting a rotating gold statue of himself in the centre of the capital Ashgabat. * * *

One of the ex-Soviet Union's harshest and also most idiosyncratic leaders, Niyazov tolerated no dissent once he cemented power in an unopposed presidential election in 1990. In 1999 he declared himself president for life.

Watchdog groups accused him of crushing the independent media, rigging elections and committing widespread human rights abuses.

Obsessed with personal power, Niyazov made his presence felt in every corner of the country. His likeness was omnipresent, on billboards, the national currency, and even household items ranging from carpets and vodka bottles to his own brand of perfume.

Aren't Liberal Judges Great!

From the Miami Herald:

A woman did not break the law when she exposed her breasts to protest laws that bar women from publicly going bare breasted, a judge has ruled.

County Judge David B. Beck said Thursday that Elizabeth Book, 44, of Ormond Beach, did not violate disorderly conduct laws.

Book was arrested by Daytona Beach police July 2, 2005, for disrobing in public.

Her attorney, Lawrence G. Walters, said the city is trying to censor his client.

''I've never seen another city or case where the city has shown so much time and effort to shut down one person's First Amendment right of protected speech,'' Walters said. 'They just can't seem to let it go. They need to stop wasting taxpayers' money.''

Beck and the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled in favor of Book for a similar incident. She was first arrested for baring her chest during Bike Week in March 2004.

Deputy City Attorney Marie Hartman said an appeal has been filed for a local court of appeal to reconsider the most recent case.

''We have no problems with her holding up signs, to hold public forums to protest nudity laws, but that does not include the right to go nude,'' Hartman said. ``Any more than you can stand on a podium and snort cocaine to protest cocaine laws.''

There Will Only Be 100 Million Blogs Next Year

From the BBC:

The blogging phenomenon is set to peak in 2007, according to technology predictions by analysts Gartner. The analysts said that during the middle of next year the number of blogs will level out at about 100 million.

The firm has said that 200 million people have already stopped writing their blogs.

Gartner has made 10 predictions, including stating that Vista will be the last major release of Windows and PCs will halve in cost by 2010.

Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer said the reason for the levelling off in blogging was due to the fact that most people who would ever start a web blog had already done so.

He said those who loved blogging were committed to keeping it up, while others had become bored and moved on.

"A lot of people have been in and out of this thing," Mr Plummer said.

"Everyone thinks they have something to say, until they're put on stage and asked to say it."

Last month blog tracking firm Technorati reported that 100,000 new blogs were being created every day, and 1.3 million blog posts were written.

Technorati is tracking more than 57 million blogs, of which it believes around 55% are "active" and updated at least every three months.

You Will Never Find A More Wretched Hive of Scum And Villainy

People are actually living in old Star Wars sets:

I have never been a "Star Wars" aficionado, to tell you the truth. The closest I ever came to appreciating the movie was singing along to the "Star Wars" ring tone on my colleague's cell phone.

That is, until I took a trip to the planet Tatooine itself — a real place in the middle of the north African desert, a well-kept secret of Tunisia.

While ruthless Hollywood knocks over the set of each movie as soon as the director shouts his final "Cut!," Tunisia, where George Lucas shot most of the "Star Wars" scenes, still keeps the original set from the '70s, protecting it from the burning sun and the evil winds of the Sahara. * * *

Frat Boys Win Lawsuit Against "Borat" . . . Not!

JB, it looks like you might be able to see "Borat" on DVD after all (from Reuters):

As the esteemed Kazakh television journalist Borat Sagdiyev might say: "High Five. Sexy Time. You Lose."

Two college fraternity buddies shown guzzling alcohol and making racist remarks in the "Borat" movie have lost their bid for a court order to cut the scene they claim has tarnished their reputations, court papers revealed on Monday.

The students sued the movie's distributor and producers last month, saying filmmakers had duped them into appearing in "Borat" by getting them drunk and falsely promising the film would never be shown in the United States.

At the time the suit was filed, a judge denied the pair's request for a temporary restraining order that would remove footage of them from the film, but the plaintiffs were given a another chance to seek an injunction at a hearing last week.

The South Carolina college students lost again when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Biderman ruled they had failed to show a reasonable probability of success on the merits of their case or that money damages alone would be insufficient to resolve their claims.

Arguments on the latest motion focused mainly on the future DVD release of the hit movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association gave Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Borat, the award for Best Actor (Forest Whitaker shared that particular award with Baron Cohen).

Toles

Good News Regarding Hobbit Movie

From TVNZ:

It looks like Peter Jackson will direct the movie version of the Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit after all.

There was uproar last week when New Line Cinema told the director he was no longer needed.

But Jackson been thrown a lifeline by film producer Saul Zaentz who holds the screen rights to Tolkien Enterprises.

Zaentz has told The Sun newspaper the rights to The Hobbit fall back to his company next year and when that happens, Jackson will be back on the project.

They better get a move on this, or else Ian McKellen will be too old to play Gandalf.

New Evidence Regarding Bobby Kennedy Assassination

This is interesting:

New video and photographic evidence that puts three senior CIA operatives at the scene of Robert Kennedy's assassination has been brought to light.

The evidence was shown in a report by Shane O'Sullivan, broadcast on BBC Newsnight.

It reveals that the operatives and four unidentified associates were at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles in the moments before and after the shooting on 5 June, 1968.

The CIA had no domestic jurisdiction and some of the officers were based in South-East Asia at the time, with no reason to be in Los Angeles. * * *

The BBC report claims that Sirhan Sirhan was in a "trance" at the time he allegedly shot Kennedy. That sounds like a great idea for a movie, except for the fact that such a movie has already been made made and remade.

Vegas Trip 2006

Vegas is getting more difficult for me every year. When I first visited that town about 15 years ago, I had no problem staying up most of the night and operating on four hours of sleep a day. Not anymore.

We arrived in Vegas at around sundown on Thursday, November 9. I wanted to play in a poker tournament at 7 pm that evening over at the Sahara, but both Linda and I were catching a cold and I was tired from the trip down so I took a nap instead. Todd and Erika arrived about midnight, so I rallied and joined them on a trip to Casino Royale to play craps. I had some luck there last year, but it was slow death this time. Several rollers got right up to the beginnings of a nice roll, but would then seven out right when things were ready to get profitable. My dice rolling was pitiful -- I would seven out immediately after establishing a number.

Todd and Erika had enough of craps after about forty minutes or so of losing, then switched to blackjack. I stayed at the craps table and continued losing. After having a late meal at the Caribe Cafe at the Mirage, we returned to the Casino Royale to play some Blackjack Switch, which is a variation of blackjack wherein each player is dealt two hands (and must therefore make two bets of equal size) and is then allowed to switch the second card dealt to each hand. This option, of course, gives the players a big advantage, so the dealer is allowed to hit on a soft 17, blackjacks only pay even money, and a dealer 22 will push against any player who has 21 or less (that push on 22 rule is brutal, by the way). I'm not sure what all this means with regard to the house advantage, but Todd, Erika, and I got crushed at this game, so I switched back to craps and continued playing into the wee hours and ended up losing about $160 for the night.

Linda's Skydive

I made it back to the hotel room at about 6:00 am. Linda was just waking up as I was going to bed. She had to meet a shuttle bus to take her skydiving. At right is a picture of Linda as she's about to leave the airplane.

At left is a photo of Linda in freefall. As you can see, the weather was perfect that day. She said that they really didn't give you much of a chance to change your mind once events started in motion. If I were to try it, I have this image of me acting like that young soldier in Apocalypse Now who wouldn't get out of the chopper and kept yelling "I'm not going -- I'm not going . . ." until someone finally forced me out of the plane. Linda said that nothing like that happened with her.




At right is a picture taken after the chute has opened and they are approaching a landing. Linda got to take control of the parachute for a while after it opened and she put them in a power spin that Linda said made her feel a bit sick.



Here's a photo taken right at the moment of landing, which she described as being very soft.

And here is Linda back on the ground and unhooked from everything. The images seen here are actually still shots from a film which her instructor made on the way down. It's pretty fun to watch. Linda says she'll probably do it again one of these days.

Those of us who weren't skydiving wanted to get some gambling in, except for Todd, who wanted to do the scary rides at the Stratosphere; so Erika and I went over to the Sahara to see if we could get in a no-limit ring game. We put our name on the list, then started playing blackjack (the normal kind, not the switch blackjack I played the night before). There wasn't enough interest at the Sahara in a no-limit money game, so we continued to play blackjack for a while, and we had a great time. Both Erika and I won money.

After a short afternoon nap, Linda and I joined Todd, Erika, Mike, and Mike's Linda for dinner at The Bellagio's Jasmine restaurant (after a fairly lengthy wait for a cab). The food was great and the table we had was one of the best settings I've ever been in for a meal (it was right up there setting-wise with the lunch Linda and I had last May in Maui at Mama's Fish House). We had a killer view of the Bellagio Fountains as well as the Eiffel Tower mock-up at Paris. It was very nice. Todd, Erika, Mike, and Mike's girlfriend Linda then went to see "O" and my Linda and I did some shopping. I had all these big plans to gamble late into Friday evening, but I was tired from only getting about 3 1/2 hours of sleep the "night" before that I went to bed instead and actually got eight full hours of uninterrupted sleep, a first for me in Vegas.

Tournament At The Sahara

I played poker only once on this trip, and it was in a tourney over at the Sahara on Saturday morning. It started out great for me. I won the first three hands at my table, mostly from positional play (I started on the button), then things quieted down for me until I got dealt pocket tens in late position. The waitress was bringing me a drink when I was dealt the pocket tens, so when the action got to me I was a bit distracted and I simply called with the tens instead of raising. The flop was all low cards with a possible straight draw but no flush draws yet. A player ahead of me raised it up, and I called and everyone else in the hand folded. The next card was also a low one, and this time the guy ahead of me checked and I put in a bet of about 1/2 the pot. He called. The last card was also low, but there were still no flush draws on the board. The guy ahead of me checked, and I put in a nice bet. He then raised me all-in, and I immediately called because I felt that my pocket tens were still good. They were, and I took down a nice pot.

A few hands later, I got dealt pocket sevens and limped in from early position. A player ahead of me went all-in short stacked. The guy across the table whom I pegged as a good, solid player called the all-in, as did I. A 5-7-9 hit on the flop, with two spades in the mix. The guy I pegged as a good player checked to me, and I moved all-in with my trip sevens because the board looked pretty scary to me. The guy across the table thought about it for quite a while -- he was clearly on a draw and a call would have used up all his remaining chips. He decided to fold then told the dealer that he better not put an 8 on the board because that would have given him his straight. Well, an 8 hit on the turn, and the guy was mad at himself for folding, and I thanked God that he folded because I would have been crippled had he stayed in the hand. I ended up taking down another good pot, and it gave me a chip stack of well over 10,000 as well as the chip lead at the table.

I decided at that point to do a little bullying, and I managed to take down a few more smaller-sized pots. But pretty soon, some of the shorter stacks started moving all-in, and I started calling them. A guy with about 2000 in chips moved all-in when I had an A-8, so I called him. He had a Q-J, meaning that I was ahead in the hand pre-flop. Nothing hit on the flop, but he ended up getting a jack on the turn and beating me. The same thing happened a couple more times, and pretty soon my chip stack was cut in half and the blinds were going up fast.

My cards went dead for an appreciable amount of time, and the guy two players to my left started going on a nice roll. He took a player out with pocket kings, then a few hands later took two players out when he got pocket aces. Two hands after he got his pocket aces (and about three hours into the tournament), I got dealt KQ suited on the button -- which was the best hand I'd seen in quite a while -- and everyone folded to me. Although that's a pretty good hand to raise with on the button when only the blinds are left, I decided to simply limp in (the big blind at that point was 1000). The small blind folded, but the guy in the big blind who had just got dealt pocket aces a couple hands earlier raised with enough chips in to put me all-in if I called with my KQ suited.

I thought about it for a long time, and concluded that he was weak and was simply trying to play the rush. I called and he turned over yet another pair of aces in the pocket! It was his third big pair in about ten minutes and his second AA in the last three hands. When he turned em over, I said "again?" in a tone of disbelief. His aces held up and I was out of the tournament. I probably shouldn't have called him with just a KQ suited, but my gut told me he was weak and hold 'em is a game where you oftentimes have to go with what your gut tells you because that's all the information you have. Oh well. He made a nice move because he probably figured that I wouldn't have put him on yet another high pair, and he was right.

The Last Night In Vegas

I went back to the hotel room, then we all made our way to Caesar's Forum. We stopped in a Fat Tuesday's, and I got one of their orangy drinks which featured Everclear as the booze. In fact, I ordered an extra shot of Everclear -- they put the extra shots in test tube-like things and then place them upside down in the slushy drink so you can "release" the extra shot at your leisure. Anyway, the drink got me fairly intoxicated (good Everclear will do that, you know). Linda and I went back to the hotel room -- we waited in line for a cab for about 40 minutes -- and took a little nap prior to the Tenacious D show. Given our problems with getting a cab, we went down nice and early, but the line in front of the hotel was very long and very few cabs were showing up. We ended up waiting 55 minutes for a cab, which is nothing short of an outrage. Vegas really needs to do something about the taxi situation. I've been going there since the early nineties, and catching a cab used to be a pretty easy thing to do.

We missed the opening act of the Tenacious D show, but got to our seats just as Jack Black and Kyle were starting their performance. We almost didn't make it, though. Linda and I, after gaining admittance to the venue, got lost in the bowels of The House of Blues trying to find our seats. As we were looking around for the door to the concert area, I felt like we were in that scene from Spinal Tap -- the one where the group couldn't find the stage and wandered around back stage for quite a while. We went through one set of doors and actually ended up outside the theater. According to the staff at the House of Blues, that should have been impossible and nobody there believed that we had actually presented our ticket, submitted to the search, and gone inside. Anyway, we finally convinced them that we had, in fact, already gone inside and they let us go back in.

The concert was a lot of fun. Tenacious D has some hysterical songs, and I was pretty much laughing all the way throughout the concert. And the House of Blues is a truly great venue. I definitely want to catch more shows there on future Vegas trips.

After the show, Todd, Erika, Mike, and Mike's Linda went to play hold 'em at the Mandalay Bay poker room. I, however, wanted to play more craps, so I went in search of a cheap craps table, which was kind of a bummer because I missed Jack Black. He showed up at the Mandalay Bay poker room and Linda and Erika got a picture with him. They had some trouble operating the camera, and Jack Black said something like, "You don't know how to operate your own f#%king camera?" Linda replied, "You use the 'F' word way too much." Black's reply was "You're f#%king right."

I regret that I missed that whole exchange, but, as I noted, I was on a quest for a cheap craps table and I ended up back on a $3 table at the Casino Royale. I decided to play more aggressively than usual since it was our last night there and since I did very little gambling the day before, but after four hours of play I was down $200 so I decided to call it a night. I did, however, finally have a halfways decent roll with the dice at one point. I actually hit three numbers before sevening out.

Except for my double Everclear drink, I laid off of the booze pretty much all that last day and evening. So even though I was out until 4 am that night and was tired for the trip home on Sunday, I wasn't hung over and that made the trip home bearable despite the two hour delay at McCarran, the two hour delay at PDX, and the fact that they lost my luggage.

Last year I stayed up all night on the last evening there and I drank a lot, so I felt like crap on the trip home. But not this year, which made a big difference in my attitude. After the last trip (Nov. 2005), I figured I needed a whole year to recover. Now I'm ready to go back immediately.

Harold And Kumar Aren't Going To Amsterdam

Don't worry -- a new Harold and Kumar movie is definitely in the works, and although it sounds like they will try to go to Amsterdam, it doesn't look like they're going to make it (from Production Weekly):

John Cho and Kal Penn are set to reprise their roles as stoners in the sequel to “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.” The screenplay is by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who penned the original script and will co-direct the sequel. Production is planned for a late January start date in Shreveport, Louisiana. “Harold & Kumar 2,” follows the cross-country adventure of the pot-smoking duo as they try to outrun the authorities after being suspected as terrorists when they try to sneak a bong on board a flight to Amsterdam.

This sounds like a good way to go. I originally assumed that the second movie would take place in Amsterdam, but I wondered how they'd build any tension if the film was set there (given that pot is legal in Amsterdam).

Of course, they could still call the movie "Harold and Kumar Go To Amsterdam" and have them actually reach that city at the end of the film -- just like they finally made it to White Castle at the end of the first movie.

And speaking of Kal Penn, it looks like he has a role in the new season of 24.

Back From Vegas

As expected, the trip to Vegas was a blast, even though I lost about $400 gambling. I didn't play as much poker as I usually do -- I played in one tournament, and lasted about three hours before I lost all my chips. I spent most of my gambling time at the craps tables, where I couldn't really get much going.

Anyway, I'll post more on this trip later (including some photos of my wife skydiving).

Harold's Blog Signing Off (Politically Speaking)

It's been fun, but my days as a political blogger have come to an end. I was going to continue doing political posts in the event the Republicans retained control of both branches of Congress, but that didn't happen, so my job here is done.

Many thanks to all my readers for their support. I'll continue to do the occasional post on fishing, backpacking, poker, travel, and perhaps a few other non-political pursuits, so tune in now and then if you have any interest in that stuff. And I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a very occasional politically-tinged post appearing here if something really major happens (e.g., Bush fleeing to Paraguay or something like that).

We're leaving tomorrow morning for a long weekend in Vegas, so check in early next week if you want to know whether I won any money or not. I plan on playing a lot of Texas Hold 'Em -- both tournaments and money games -- as well as a lot of craps. We're also going to the Tenacious D show at the House of Blues on Saturday night, which should be interesting.

If this year's trip is half as fun as last year's Vegas vacation, then we're going to have a great time.

Well, So Much For America's "Permanent Majority" Party

I missed most of the election coverage tonight due to a poker game, but am beginning to catch up now (my wife and Slic[k] kept me up to date on the major developments via cell phone while I played). It is certainly a great night for America and a very bad night for Amerika.

And speaking of Amerika, here are a couple of quotes that will bring back some memories:

DeLay himself drew the line sharply the day after the 2004 elections. "The Republican Party is a permanent majority for the future of this country," DeLay declared. "We're going to be able to lead this country in the direction we've been dreaming of for years."

Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and a leading figure in both the DeLay and Bush political operations, chose more colorful post-election language to describe the future. "Once the minority of House and Senate are comfortable in their minority status, they will have no problem socializing with the Republicans," he told Richard Leiby of The Post. "Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant. But when they've been 'fixed,' then they are happy and sedate. They are contented and cheerful."

Oh what a difference two years make.

Perhaps the most shocking thing that happened tonight is that it looks like the Democrats have a real shot at taking control of the Senate. It all comes down to Virginia, where the Democrat James Webb currently leads the Republican George Allen 50% to 49%.

CNN is really pushing the idea that Webb would have been the clear winner in Virginia if it wasn't for the fact that the Green Party candidate picked up 25,000 votes. I look at it a little differently. The Senate race in Virginia came down to one word, and that word was "maccaca." Had Allen not said that word on the campaign trail, then Webb wouldn't even have come close.

A single word might determine control of the Senate. Amazing.

MSM Finally Reporting On GOP Voter Suppression Tactics

From MSNBC:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the possibility of voter intimidation in the U.S. Senate race between Sen. George Allen, a Republican, and Democratic challenger James Webb, officials told NBC News.

State officials alerted the Justice Department on Tuesday to several complaints of suspicious phone calls to voters who attempted to misdirect or confuse them about election day, Jean Jensen, Secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections, told NBC’s David Shuster.

Jensen told NBC that she had been contacted by FBI agents. The FBI in Richmond refused to comment.

State Democratic Party counsel Jay Myerson said in a written statement issued by the Webb campaign that he believed Republicans are behind an orchestrated effort to suppress votes for the Democratic challenger. * * *

In the Washington, D.C., area, NBC affiliate News4 reported on its Web site that it had received e-mail from a viewer in Virginia who said he received a phone call from so-called volunteers threatening voters with arrest if they cast ballots.

News4 reported: “The viewer's e-mail stated after he had voted, he received a call from an unknown caller who said they knew the voter was registered out of state and would be arrested if they voted today. The viewer's e-mail stated he's been registered to vote in Virginia for the last three years and has the Virginia Voter Registration card to prove it.”

There is, of course, a lot more to this story that the Mainstream Media are not reporting. Josh Marshall has an excellent summary of what is really going on here:

There are two basic issues about the calls. And to understand what the fuss is about, you need to understand the two together.

First, the calls themselves.

Most of the call's script is a fairly standard attack robocall, a series of Republican talking points aimed at the Democratic congressional in a particular district. Nothing particularly noteworthy. The key is the introduction. The lead into the call starts with the speaker saying 'I'm calling with information about' Dem candidate X. Then there's a short pause.

At this point, you know it's an annoying robocall, so a lot of people just hang up. If you hang up then, you think it's a call from the Democratic candidate.

Second, the repetition. And this part is the key. If you don't listen through the whole message, the machine keeps calling you back, often well in excess of half a dozen times with the same call. It only stops if you listen all the way through.

As you can imagine, that's driving a lot of people through the roof.

In other words, the Republicans behind the calls win either way. If you keep hanging up, you think you're being harassed by the campaign of the local Democratic House candidate. If you give up and listen all the way through, you hear the political attack. The true source of the call, the NRCC, the GOP House campaign committee, is only revealed at the end of the call.

(Federal regulations dictate calls be identified at the top of the call.)

Third, and for this there is as yet only anecdotal evidence, many of the calls seem to be going out overnight or during, say, a major sporting event in the given district.

One final note: JB -- I owe you five bucks. BushCo did not attack Iran during the run-up to the Mid-Term Elections as I predicted they would.

Karl Rove Is The Anti-Crist

From ABC News:

The television travel pool producer says they shot Karl Rove on camera reacting to Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist bailing on the Bush appearance in Pensacola today so that he can campaign in other parts of the state.

Asked what the Crist cancellation meant for Bush, Rove said "Let's see how many people show up in Palm Beach on 24 hours notice versus 8 or 9,000 people in Pensacola." Rove also said to ask Crist's people why they cancelled. The pool producer noted that Rove was "a little uppity" in his response.

After saying this, Rove tried to say it was off the record but the pool producer pointed out to him that the camera was rolling (and had been as he spoke earlier about GOP polling) and there were recorders in his face.

President and Mrs. Bush have are scheduled to appear at a campaign rally in Pensacola, on Monday afternoon for the entire Florida GOP ticket. During a briefing of White House reporters last week, a senior administration official said that one of the reasons the President was traveling to Florida today was to campaign for Charlie Crist.

The fact that Jeb Bush is currently the governor of Florida makes this whole episode even more hilarious.

A Sign Of The Times

Some interesting news from Florida (from Fox):

Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist decided Sunday to skip an appearance with President Bush in favor of crisscrossing the state in the final hours before Election Day .

Crist, the state attorney general, is in a close race with Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Davis to replace the president's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush , who can't seek re-election because of term limits.

Crist's chief of staff, George LeMieux, said that the decision to skip the Monday rally with Bush in Pensacola wasn't a snub of the president, but a choice to appear in seven other cities where Crist has a chance of gaining ground.

Crist, you might remember, was the guy who claimed he spoke up against government intervention in the Terri Schiavo situation when he actually did not (at least not in public). So I can understand why he wants to avoid Bush like the plague -- Crist has enough problems already.

One would think that Bush, once he heard that he was being snubbed by Crist, would find some other state to visit, but very few GOP candidates seem to want him around.

Our president is one strange dude -- he stays on vacation when he is truly needed (like after being warned in August 2001 that bin Laden is determined to strike inside the U.S. or during the Katrina Catastrophe), but doesn't go on vacation when he probably should be staying as far away from a situation as possible. He certainly doesn't seem to be very popular with the voters right now, if the new CNN poll is any indication (from Political Wire):

President Bush's approval rating dipped to 35% in the final CNN poll before the midterm elections. A stunning 41% of likely voters say their disapproval of his performance will affect their vote in Tuesday's elections for control of Congress.

In the generic congressional race, the poll gives Democrats a 20 point lead, 58% to 38%.

This election season is definitely a strange one. Usually, I can't stand to watch Bush talk on TV, but now I love seeing him get lots of screen time and it's the Republican candidates who would love to see him go away.