April 2003

Why Isn’t Chicago Being Picked On?

ArchPundit April 18, 2003 No Comments

Hispanic Lege Members are divided over a bill to impose oversight over Cicero’s finances.

The question asked by an opponent who sees it as a slap at Hispanics is:

”Why isn’t Chicago being picked on?" Aguilar asked. "When I go to Mexico and I mention Chicago, they ask me, ‘Where’s your machinegun?’ ”

The irony of this statement is that Capone started the view of Chicago as a gangster city and, well, Capone moved to Cicero when he was kicked out of the city.

Then again, the other difference is Cicero is run by the mob, Chicago just pays off the Outfit with overpriced and falsely certified minority contracts.

Perhaps not the Standard You Want to Hang Your Hat On

ArchPundit April 18, 2003 No Comments

The federal government lifted the airspace restrictions over downtown Chicago, thus reigniting the war of words over Meigs Field closure. While I support closing Meigs, I would have preferred it not be done in the middle of the night and for the Mayor to simply say because it is more valuable as park land. The security argument is silly. Friends of Meigs responded by saying:

"I don’t see how anybody can seriously think there’s a security risk if Homeland Security doesn’t think there’s a legitimate threat,"

Well, they have a lot more faith in the Department of Rainbows than I do.

Powell makes a gaffe on Chile

ArchPundit April 17, 2003 No Comments

Via Unlearned Hand

Powell indicates that the US role in the Allende Coup was ‘not a part of American history that we’re proud of‘. This is a gaffe by Michael Kinsley’s standards because it is an example of a politician telling the truth.

The State Department ‘put distance’ between the Secretary and the Department.

In a wonderful bit of doublespeak, former Kissinger underling Williams Rodgers claims:

Rogers said the Chilean military acted not because the United States urged it to do so, "but because they believed that had the Allende regime continued much longer, Chilean liberties would be irretrievably lost."

You see, the Chilean military had to destroy civil liberties in Chile to save them.

Even better:
He called the department legal office to point out that there was a pending law suit against the government and Powell’s comment was not helpful.

So the truth is less important than $11 million? For all of the moral clarity running around these days, perhaps this administration would like to take responsibility for past immoral actions and buck up some compensation. Hey, we could even compensate Nicaragua for the terrorist act of mining their harbor! Let’s go crazy!

Rogers claims the US didn’t instigate the coup. The problem is no one seriously believes that. Even if you accepted Kissinger’s view that this was better because the road to Communism was inevitable under Allende would lead to a Soviet puppet, everyone understands what happened.

I Couldn’t Write This As Parody

ArchPundit April 17, 2003 No Comments

Horowitz is up to his schtick over at Right Wing News

Eric Alterman is a charlatan and a fool and the media is obviously left-wing. I can tell you that personally because there is nobody really that I could call at the LA Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and find an ideological friend. At least no one that I know. Whereas Eric Alterman could call all of them. Let me put it this way; an extremist, a supporter of every American enemy since he was potty trained like Eric Alterman could get editorial support in those venues. Every major metropolitan newspaper in America is written by Democrats in the main. To say, "What liberal media?" Only a blind person could come up with a title like that.

an extremist, a supporter of every American enemy since he was potty trained like Eric Alterman

That just makes me giggle.

an extremist, a supporter of every American enemy since he was potty trained like Eric Alterman

I save language like that for Matt Hale, but it is everyday hyperbole for Horowitz.

an extremist, a supporter of every American enemy since he was potty trained like Eric Alterman

I may keep repeating that line for several days–it really makes me giggle…

Congress and Columbia

ArchPundit April 17, 2003 No Comments

So I’ve been wondering, now that we are getting some preliminary information from the Columbia panel can anyone tell me how Congress in an unindicted co-conspirator?

I’m happy to criticize Congress on how it funds NASA, and the lack of a coherent space policy, but no change in policy would have removed the shuttle fleet from use by now.

Nice Advance Work

ArchPundit April 17, 2003 No Comments

But Smith added: "The timing for the president’s visit couldn’t be worse. On Friday, 238 of my members are getting laid off . . . because of lack of work."

Circle up and Fire

ArchPundit April 17, 2003 No Comments

The Emerging Democratic Majority

The resistance to a larger tax cut by two Republican senators, Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and George V. Voinovich of Ohio, was what caused the budget to be constructed the way it was in the first place, with one tax cut number for the Senate and another for the House. So Republicans, in concert with a re-engaged president and White House operation, will either have to persuade the two senators to change their minds or lean on some other opponents to switch.

The conservative Club for Growth is going the not-so-subtle route, starting a $100,000-to-$150,000 television advertising campaign this weekend in Ohio and Maine that compares Senators Voinovich and Snowe to the French and accuses them of disloyalty to the president for their tax cut position.

And no I don’t think the Democrats will pick up the Senate in this round, but such intraparty feuding isn’t healthy for any party. It is also a good way to scare off someone like Jim Edgar.

Doctor, does he understand why this war took place?

ArchPundit April 16, 2003 No Comments

Atrios points out the utter vapidness of Kyra Phillips.

It is one thing to schill for the right wing, but is it really that hard for one to understand that a kid who just lost his family and his arms is angry and against war? One can, and I do argue, that the war was worth it with the full understanding there are many stories like this out there. But to not understand the impact his actually has people in his position is…well I don’t know, but really, really self-involved and bad. I can’t think of a word for it.

That child is now the responsibility of the United States. And not just to sit there and try and convince him that the war was justified.

Why Was It That We Didn’t Need More Troops?

ArchPundit April 16, 2003 No Comments

Was proving the war could be done with fewer troops really worth losing civilization’s history?

War is unpredictable. We all understand that. However, why weren’t more troops allocated to protecting such sites? Looters aren’t hard to deter so adding cultural sites and maybe even a few hospitals wouldn’t be that hard.

As for the whining about it potentially being Baath Party officials. So what? American tanks and troops deter all sorts of bad people–why not deter them? Actually, wouldn’t we want to deter them especially?

Looting of stores and other types of locations was going to happen. There was no way around that. However, we identified key locations for protections such as the oil ministry. If this is for the Iraqi people as the rhetoric has been claiming, there is no excuse to not protect the Iraqi heritage and indeed the world’s heritage. We have the troops and the hardware–why not use them?

The only rational reason why not to do so is that proving a new war strategy is more important than heritage.

Good Guys Wear Blood

ArchPundit April 16, 2003 No Comments

Coming soon: Mullets and And Blood Night At YOUR COMISKEY PARK!