I'd Rather Not

I don't pretend to know whether or not the documents alleging President Bush's failure to meet his requirements in the National Guard, presented this week by 60 Minutes, are real or fake. And I don't really pretend to care.

But I will say that I don't care at all for Dan Rather's demeanor in defending the story, practically daring detractors to prove them wrong, as if the burden of proof was on the people rather than the media.

It's not that hard to prove whether or not documents are, or even could be, genuine - and if you can't do that, maybe you don't have enough credible information to report the story to a trusting public.


Did Rather justify every Bushie's paranoid fantasy of "Liberal Media"?

Nobody wants Bush out of office more than I do. But if you're going to throw accusations of this nature at a sitting President of the United States, particularly in an election year, the burden of proof is squarely on YOU.

Is this how lazy our news gathering has become? Are all of the outlets just so eager to "outfox" Fox News these days (let's remember that Fox was initially responsible for prematurely declaring Bush as President on Election Night in 2000, causing all of the other outlets to follow suit long before the final numbers had actually come in?

Screw you, Dan. It's your job to prove it to us.

============================
As always, your comments are welcome.
============================

The Odds, Volume 1

As a semi-regular feature on this blog, I will now be posting odds and over/under dates for various things, just because I have too much time on my hands.


Britney Spears poses nude before turning 30 (she's 22) 12:7
Over/under number of ex-husbands she'll have at 30 3.5
Zell Miller curses publicly before election day 3:1
Bush wins the White House 2:1
More than 50 percent of the electorate votes 4:9
Red Sox catch the Yankees to win AL East 1-15



Britney: Only a matter of time?


========================================================================================
Got something to say? E-mail me at worldaccordingtomontyblog@go.com. I'll do my best to answer all respectful mail and will periodically answer the best messages on the site.

Football Forecast

Just to get on record so we can all have a good laugh at the end of the season...

AFC East
New England 12-4
*N.Y. Jets 10-6
Buffalo 8-8
Miami 7-9

AFC North
Baltimore 10-6
Cincinnati 9-7
Cleveland 8-8
Pittsburgh 6-10

AFC South
Indianapolis 13-3
*Tennessee 9-7
Jacksonville 7-9
Houston 7-9

AFC West
Denver 10-6
San Diego 9-7
Kansas City 9-7
Oakland 7-9


NFC East
Philadelphia 13-3
*Dallas 10-6
N.Y Giants 8-8
Washington 8-8

NFC North
Minnesota 11-5
*Green Bay 10-6
Detroit 7-9
Chicago 4-12

NFC South
Carolina 11-5
Atlanta 10-6
New Orleans 8-8
Tampa Bay 7-9

NFC West
St. Louis 10-6
Seattle 8-8
Arizona 7-9
San Francisco 7-9

AFC Championship: NY Jets over Indianapolis
NFC Championship: Philadelphia over Carolina
Super Bowl Champs: Philadelphia

========================================================================================
Got something to say? E-mail me at worldaccordingtomontyblog@go.com. I'll do my best to answer all respectful mail and will periodically answer the best messages on the site.

Short-Term Culture Shock

I know... I haven't updated in 5 months or so.

I've been fairly busy since then, and looked at this summer as an opportunity to shut up, try to ignore politics/current events to the extent that it was possible (I did pretty well aside from the amount of convention coverage I watched for both parties), and come back fresh this Autumn for the election sprint.

So after approximately 50 hours of convention coverage under my belt and 5 months away, I clearly have some things to get off of my chest. So without further ado, here is the current laundry list...

-You've got to hand it to the Democratic Party. Just when we thought we'd seen the end of charisma as we knew it when Al Gore ran in 2000, John Kerry actually seems to have invented what I'd like to call "negative charisma". Not good times. To demonstrate this theory, here are the charisma quotients for some recent U.S. politicians...


Love him or hate him, Clinton was the master

(scale from 1 to 100, 100 being most charismatic)
Bill Clinton 97
Ronald Reagan 90
John Edwards 75
George W. Bush 70
George H.W. Bush 40
Al Gore 30
Dan Quayle 20
John Kerry -25


I'm sorry, but Kerry just seems like kind of an asshole.


-One thing that is particularly disappointing is that neither candidate seems to have a workable position on Iraq. Seems like "stay the course" is pretty much out the window these days, mostly because there was never really a course to begin with. Furthermore, seems like John Kerry's subliminal promises to charm our old allies like France and Germany into providing some financial and/or military relief in this quagmire greatly overestimate his actual ability to do so.


-On the whole "what the candidates were doing in the late 60s/early 70s" front, why won't the democrats take off the kid gloves in order to permanently bring this issue to an end?

It's pretty well accepted in both parties that John Kerry went to Vietnam, came back, and testified about his experience in congress when he returned. The worst that you could possibly say about what he did is that he may have hastened anti-war furor. But those who place a lot of stock in this, people you might expect to look at the situation emotionally rather than cereberally (such as the POWs who have spoken out that Kerry "lengthened our stay" in the latest attempts to smear Kerry's record), seem to ignore that Vietnam was bound to end up as an unpopular war.

Meanwhile, George W. Bush seems to have spent the late 60s/early 70s snorting cocaine and drinking whiskey while not showing up for his duties in the Air National Guards of three states - Texas, Alabama and Massachussets. Now he's spent the last roughly 5 or 6 years lying about it.


It's just too damn easy

That is precisely the kind of bullshit that Bush pretended was below him in the 2000 campaign.

At any rate, I can understand why the GOP would want to hide from the truth on this issue, and thus far they've done an excellent job. What baffles me is why the Dems have been running away from it.


-Is Sean Hannity really serious? I mean really, who the fuck does he think he is?



-I'm not much for betting, but I'd put the odds that Georgia Senator Zell Miller curses while campaigning in public in support of a GOP candidate before the election at about 3:1.



-Why in god's name did the GOP allow Alan Keyes to contest Barak Obama in the Illinois Senate race? All told, he's been perhaps the most quotable politician of the summer. Just Keyes stated that Christ would not vote for his opponent, Barak Obama. He has also referred to Dick Cheney's daughter, a lesbian, as a "sinner", as well as accusing Obama of holding the "slaveholder's position" in regard to his views on abortion.

I have to admit, the Christ endorsement is some heavy shit.



You know it's a big election when Jesus enters the fray

========================================================================================
Got something to say? E-mail me at worldaccordingtomontyblog@go.com. I'll do my best to answer all respectful mail and will periodically answer the best messages on the site.