Volume 2 Issue 19

February 27, 2003

And then there were Nine...

Why members of Congress don't get elected President, DC is having a worse winter than Chicago, and goodbye to Mr. Rogers

So last night, I was watching the President's speech to the American Enterprise Institute, where he talked about his vision for a post-war Iraq. Except I didn't hear much of the speech, because I was too flabbergasted by the first line, which said:

We meet here during a crucial period in the history of our nation and of the civilized world. Part of that history was written by others; the rest will be written by us.

Um...excuse me? What is that supposed to mean? Is it really good to begin a speech in which you're trying to convince people we're not out to pillage Iraq and rule it as imperialists by saying that we will write the rest of the history for human civilization? Then again, maybe it's accurate, since the way Bush governs, the end of civilization can't be more than a few months away...

So today Senator Bob Graham of Florida becomes the 9th candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States. Two more, Gary Hart and Wesley Clark, are still on the fence as well, and a few more who are long-shots, but may still surprise everyone like Chris Dodd and Joe Biden. So it's time for yet another name for the group of candidates...since there are now 9, I'm going to go with the "Ballclub" for now...since 9 people are on a baseball team. If you don't like it, send me some suggestions, I'll gladly adopt a better one! I was thinking I had one for 9, but I can't remember what it was...if I told anyone, let me know please :)

With the entrance of Bob Graham into the race, of the 9 candidates, 6 are current members of Congress. This is not good. Let me explain why. In the history of the Republic, only 3 sitting members of Congress have ever been elected President. Rep. James Garfield was elected in 1880, Senator Warren Harding in 1920, and Senator John Kennedy in 1960. Oh, and all died in office. What then, is the ticket to being President? Though I haven't worked out the figures, which I'm sure are out there somewhere, the most popular jobs to move into the Presidency have been as Vice-President (obviously), Governor of a state, Secretary of State (in the real early days), and private citizen who's a former something. Of course, that fits everyone running this time except Mr. Sharpton, who as I recall has never served in any public office. Former Senator Mosley-Braun and former Governor Howard Dean would therefore have to be considered the most "electable" candidates historically. While most would agree that Mosley-Braun is likely not a top-tier contender, this fact alone should make the handful of people that don't yet take Dean seriously reconsider.

Oh, and boy John Edwards must have been pissed to accuse Kerry's campaign of looking too much like Gore's. Guess it's finally starting to get nasty...man to be a fly on the wall in the Senate's Democratic Cloakroom these days...

DC folk, enjoy yet another 10 inches of snow tonight, and here's a few facts for you: in a normal winter, the DC area gets 14.7 inches of snow. Last year, it got just 3.2 inches. This year, it has received 34.9 inches. Now, Chicago normally receives 38.7 inches, so we're basically having a Chicago winter. Except...this year Chicago has only gotten 18.5 inches of snow. So we're snowier than Chicago. And Alaska...keep in mind they had to move the Iditarod because there wasn't enough snow! Well, on to the insanity!

It's a Yellow World: The Homeland Security traffic light will be changed back to Yellow today - http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Terror-Alert.html
Oh, and the White House now admits it has under-funded homeland security. So...we're not going to fight this war either? Guess Iraq is more important than protecting against another 9/11. Oh, and now Congressional Republicans are feeling double crossed. Because, of course, they were. -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/politics/27HOME.html

And I don't know how I missed this!
http://www.theonion.com/onion3907/orange_alert_sirens.html

Guess the Bribe Wasn't Enough: What the hell else could Turkey want? We've given them hoards of money, guaranteed them the right to massacre the Kurds, and they still won't let the US troops in?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2805077.stm
Here's more details on how we are going to screw over the Kurds, who have established two democratic small states in the Northern fly-zone of Iraq -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8113-2003Feb26.html

Democracy in the Middle East? President Bush says that a war in Iraq will help bring democracy to the Middle East. Just tell that to some people in Kuwait, where Democracy hasn't really advanced, and what they haven isn't working too well -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8287-2003Feb26.html

Another Original Anti-War Protest: Man, these folks are creative. Yesterday they held a "virtual" march on the Capitol that overloaded the switchboards and e-mail servers -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/26/national/26CND-MARCH.html

Well, I knew they were talking about a draft, but...: An 80-year old British pensioner has received call-up orders to go fight Iraq -
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/02/27/offbeat.iraq.pens ioner.reut/index.html

So Tom, when will you resign? Bill Saletan has a fantastic article about Tom DeLay and his comments about Howard Dean's speech. Make sure you read the whole thing, he plays one heck of a trick on the reader!
http://slate.msn.com/id/2079324/

Speaking of resignations, a 20-year veteran of the Foreign Service resigned this week, saying he couldn't comprehend the US foreign policy anymore -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/international/middleeast/2 7NATI.html
Here's his resignation letter-
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/international/27WEB-TNAT.html

So much for freedom of the press: The White House was really pissed at CBS for airing Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/international/middleeast/2 7SADD.html

By the way, speaking of CBS...yesterday David Letterman was out sick, only the 2nd time in 20 years he's had to cancel his show, and use a guest host. So viewers were left with the strange situation of Bruce Willis interviewing Dan Rather. Now, in my mind, I would have had Dan Rather host the show...that would have been something. -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8589-2003Feb26.html

That Other Country: North Korea re-starts nuclear reactor, begins building bombs. US ignores it. US proceeds to speak of why we need to invade Iraq -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/international/asia/27NUKE. html

Goodbye to the Neighborhood: TV Legend Fred Rogers is dead at 74 -
http://www.post-gazette.com/breaking/20030227misterrogersweb3p3.asp
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/obituaries/27CND-ROGERS.html

Here comes another one...: Most cities are on the verge of breaking their record for February snows -
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/5271268.htm

Washington's theory of snow removal? It will be Spring eventually. Man...how that mayor got re-elected -
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20030227-25526509.htm

Greg's Pick of the Day:
Tony Kornheiser, sports columnist for the Washington Post, has a great story on what the snow does to you after a while -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7752-2003Feb26.html

Expanding Public Transit: Metro will now open a half-hour earlier all week, and close at 3am on weekends, in an attempt to justify their fare increase -
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20030227-13137904.htm

And perhaps some of that new fare money should be spent on safety, since it seems that Metro failed to follow many of its safety regulations after a derailment last month -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8251-2003Feb26.html

The Bad Economy: With fuel prices increasing, can a slowdown in the economy be far behind?
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/5270587.htm

Oil prices are now the highest since the first Gulf War -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/business/27PLAC.html

New Home Sales also fell by 15% in January. If consumers stop spending...we're in for a bad time -
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-economy-homes.html

Bad Political move of the Day: A speech by Labor Secretary Elaine Chao pissed off the Teamsters enough to destroy any possible alliance they would have had with President Bush, and giving the Union movement more traction in the Democratic nomination battle -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/national/27LABO.html?pagew anted=all&position=top

Look Who's Running for President: Bob Graham is skipping the whole "exploratory" thing, and going right to running -
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/02/27/graham.president/i ndex.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11154-2003Feb27.html

Look Who's Running for President 2: Dennis Kucinich is taking more heat for his abortion stance reversal -
http://www.adn.com/24hour/politics/story/782504p-5609477c.html

Look Who's Running for President 3: Kerry and Edwards continue to slug out the "Shrum primary", with Kerry calling Edwards a poor loser, and Edwards pointing out that Kerry 2004 is looking a lot like Gore 2000. Yikes...that's low -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7847-2003Feb26.html

Look Who's Running for President 4: Gary Hart is still out there...
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E64%257E12076 38,00.html

Look Who's Running for the Senate: 22-year Senate veteran Arlen Specter will have to defend his seat against a GOP primary challenger. Guess he's too liberal for them. I hope this works, because it would again show how the Republican party has become a home for extremists only -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7992-2003Feb26.html

And Look Who may be Running for Governor: Is Condi Rice planning to run for Governor of California?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/27/MN138053.DTL

The New Design: A new design has been chosen for ground zero, though it will likely be years before anything happens -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/nyregion/27REBU.html

Derelict Nightclub owners? Former employees of the club that burned in Rhode Island, killing almost 100 said that the soundproofing material was not the proper type, and was not fire-resistant -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/national/nationalspecial2/ 27SOUN.html

And apparently the club owners routinely oversold the club too, packing it beyond capacity -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/national/nationalspecial2/ 27WARW.html

A fading symbol: The Concorde had trouble again today...it's beginning to look as risky as the Space Shuttle -
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/02/27/concorde/index.ht ml

Speaking of space, the Space Station crew will be reduced to two until the Space Shuttles are running again -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11178-2003Feb27.html

Well, him and President Bush: A New Jersey mayor is getting more flak for taking a month long vacation in Florida while the town has major issues -
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jer sey/5271308.htm

The Horror of State Budget Crises: Nevada is so hard up for cash it's considering taxing it's prostitutes -
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Brothel-Tax.html

Note to Amtrak - Please do not copy this: A Japanese Bullet Train conductor has been suspended after falling asleep at the controls of the 300mph train -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2804349.stm

Get some quick cash! Almost everyone in America is eligible to be part of a class action settlement against CD makers. But time is running out! It really only takes 5 minutes to do it, you don't even need to prove you actually own a CD! (again, b/c almost everyone does!)-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8324-2003Feb26.html

See? You can even make money if you read the Swamp all the way through! Have a great day!