From The Swamp - The World According to Greg | December 12, 2002 (Vol. 1 Iss. 22)

Very Bad Things

World War Three, In a Lott of Trouble, and 23 Trillion Bribes of Viagra

First, I just want to thank all the dumb people in the DC region who were too scared to go outside last night because of the "freezing" roads (please note it never got below freezing in DC...). You allowed me to get a lot of Christmas shopping done with no one on the roads or in the stores. Next time it snows, I'm going to the mall! To the two or three places I tried to go yesterday that had closed early because of the "weather"...I really don't know what to say.

So, today we're going to discuss Trent Lott. I had started this out in that section of the e-mail, but every hour it keeps getting better so I guess it has to be the main rant of the day. First of all, the man is obviously an idiot. I don't think anyone can really believe that he doesn't actually believe what he said the other day, considering his record, such as saying it once before in 1980, as well as saying, in an amicus brief Lott filed in the 1980's defending Bob Jones University's racist policies, the lovely quote "Racial discrimination does not always violate public policy." The Republicans seem to be in a tough spot now, as some rally around their leader and others decry him (see below). If they keep Lott on now, then he becomes a Gingrich-like character, empowering the Dem's base, as well as giving Democrats reasons to hold stuff up in the Senate. If they replace Lott with someone like Bill Frist, then they seem to be abandoning him, but rob the Dems of their demagogue. But, some would also say that sends a bad message to the "quiet racist" portion of the GOP, if one does indeed exist. Hate to be a Republican strategist right now! If they keep him on, its going to be really hard to convince moderates there's a place for them in the party...

Whoops, we only wanted 2 wars at a time: Looks like George is going to have to go for the trifecta, as North Korea is getting really pissed off. Just a thought here on the crazy conspiracy theory tangent...what if Iraq and North Korea have really formed an "axis of evil"? Then maybe North Korea's just trying to take some heat off Iraq, and then they'll reciprocate, but always being just short of where the US would not get flak for going in. Hmm...oh, also, if there is a war in Korea, I assure you there will be no, "best case, takes us 48 hours" scenarios like in Iraq, actually there'd probably be close to a million Korean casualties within the first week. -

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/12/international/12CND_KORE.h tml

The Lott Affair: Boy oh boy, this gets worse by the day for ol' Trent. Harold Raines and his boys at the NY Times have decided to drive the story, calling for his removal as majority leader. BTW, this is the first day the Lott story has been front-page fodder in both the Times and the Washington Post -

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/12/opinion/12THU1.html

Lott's hometown newspaper also called for him to step down as majority leaders as well. Considering all the money a majority leader can funnel to his hometown, that's quite a statement -

http://www.gulflive.com/mississippi/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf /html_standard.xsl?/base/opinion/1039691715104290.xml

A WSJ columnist debates GOP options -
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110002756

The Times article today has a headline that just explains how absurd this thing is..."Lott Apologizes Again on Words About '48 Race." That's right folks, we're fighting about something that happened 50 years ago. -

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/12/politics/12LOTT.html

Bob Herbert has a column for the Times discussing why the GOP is racist. Man, when Harold gets going... (BTW, a colleague pointed out that the Times today put on the front page the Lott story, right next to a story about cross burning. Ouch!) -

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/12/opinion/12HERB.html

Charles Krauthammer called on Lott to resign! (a note, obviously most liberal writers have called on him to step down, and I will put some of there stuff in if its good, but I mainly will try to highlight the conservative and Republican writers, so show how big this is getting). He makes good points about the civil rights movements legacy, mainly non-violence -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42987-2002Dec11.html

Howard Kurtz discusses why Lott went to Sean Hannity for his first post-Thurmond party interview -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44270-2002Dec12.html

The Mississippi Republican Party is panicking -
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/politics/article/0,1426,MCA_149 6_1603674,00.html

LATE BREAKING NEWS: President Bush today denounced Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott...sorry buddy, looks like its time to go -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45560-2002Dec12.html

The End of the Resurgence? The NY Times reports friends of Al Gore have said he will not run for President in 2004 -
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/12/politics/campaigns/12GORE. html

But ABC notes that Gore apparently has $7 million stashed away somewhere if he does decide to run -
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/Gore_0 21212.html

By the way, polls in Iowa show Gore leading there, and if Gore doesn't run...Gephardt leads by 8% (over Kerry in both cases).

NJ Corruption gets stranger: Today's NJ corruption arrest is a Hudson County freeholder, who is accused of taking bribes from a doctor looking for a county contract. What bribes? Well, cash and Viagra of course! I'm sure this will be featured on The Soprano's next season...-

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1039678269213620.xml

New Bush Administration Nature Plan: Just chop down all the damn trees already -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42732-2002Dec11.html

Maybe that's why all the cruise passengers are getting sick: National Geographic explores the Bermuda Triangle. Strange fact: The "triangle" (formed by Bermuda, Miami, and Puerto Rico) is one of only 2 places on earth where a compass will point to true North instead of magnetic North. Not that the article explains why this is... -

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1205_021205_ bermudatriangle.html

A Toast to the Chairman: Today is Frank Sinatra's birthday, he would have been 87. I recall that when he died in 1998, it was the first time I can remember the network news devoted to only one topic (other than catastrophic events like 9/11 when there really was no network news, just "continuing coverage"). In fact, as I recall, ABC didn't use their set, just Jennings sitting on a stool on a soundstage, and they actually ran their first 8 minute story before the opening credits. Here's his obit from the Times -

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1212. html

Headline Confusion: Associated Press, 12/12/02, "Snow and Ice Storms may be portent of winter to come"
Reuters, 12/12/02, "El Nino to bring Warmer Winter"
(both on the same NOAA report...)

A One in 23 Trillion Chance: Wow...a California couple won 2 lotto drawings on the same day! Odds of that? 23 Trillion to one...about the same as Trent Lott getting the NAACP Man of the Year award. (if they give out such a thing, I don't know) -

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/double_jackpot02 1212.html

Science Watch: Some people have waaaay too much time on their hands. No, even more than me -
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/10/science/10LACE.html

France Watch: Correction. The French have too much time on their hands -
http://wp.netscape.com/inserts/news/12.html

McDonalds new ad campaign: Pander. -
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,45496,FF.html

Mascots Gone Bad: Someone needs to fire US Track and Field's marketing people -
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2075293

Aiyeeeeeee! That's right kids, MGM's getting ready to do Rocky VI !!! -
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=91& ncid=91&e=1&u=/bpihw/20021212/en_bpihw/mgm_puts__rocky_vi__in_ring

Special thanks to Mike Mazzacco, who provided some of today's insanity while working the overnight shift! You can always feel free to send in suggestions, by the end of the year we'll probably have an e-mail for them. The votes are being tabulated, and tomorrow or Monday we'll reveal the new name of this rag. After that, look for some fantastic improvements in the next few months as "we'll" be moving to a new e-mail domain, and possibly a website among other things. Stay tuned!

Have a fantastic afternoon!

Gregory S. Gadren