Archive for May, 2007

Journey to the Edges

Posted by: Ion | May 31st, 2007 · 7:17 PM

I’ve always loved the Dayvan Cowboy song from Boards of Canada, but I’d never seen the video until now. It’s quite good.

I believe the opening video of the extreme high altitude parachute jump is USAF Captain Joseph Kittinger, jumping in Project Excelsior. Kittinger still holds the world altitude record for a parachute jump at over nineteen miles straight up.

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Two Americas After All?

Posted by: Ion | · 6:51 PM

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Indiana Jones As Film Noir

Posted by: Ion | May 30th, 2007 · 11:16 PM

A clip from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, converted to grayscale and filtered with deep tenebrist contrasts, to resemble a true 1930s era film noir. It’s almost completely convincing. Had they released the film in this form, it would have improved it considerably.

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I’m Against the Red Pickup Truck

Posted by: Jason | · 12:26 PM

(image: janus)

From Politico:

Thompson’s formal announcement is planned for Nashville. Organizers say the red pickup truck that was a hallmark of Thompson’s first Senate race will begin showing up in Iowa and New Hampshire as an emblem of what they consider his folksy, populist appeal.

I don’t like this idea, at all. Even as a northeasterner, my roots are all southern from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, so I can appreciate a “folksy” quality in people. But I’m suggesting to the Thompson campaign that America does not want folksy. George W. Bush was folksy, and if Republicans are to win we need to be un-Bush this election season.

Thompson can use his southern charm as a prerequisite for the type of guy America likes, but it would be a grave mistake to start breaking out that damn pickup truck again in a presidential campaign. That isn’t the campaign that I want, and I’m sure many others agree with me on this. I want a serious candidate, someone who can participate in persuading the world stage that they should side with America in future conflicts.

If Thompson goes with this marketing gimmick, it will be a mistake in my opinion, adding ample room for jokes and his expense.

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Thompson To Enter Presidential Race on June 4th (sort of…)

Posted by: Jason | · 11:17 AM

From MSNBC’s political reporter Chuck Todd:

Fred Thompson makes it (more) official. According to a campaign source, Thompson will file his FEC papers officially on Monday June 4. In FEC parlance, Thompson is opening a “testing the waters” committee, a technical term that allows Thompson to forgo filing a detailed report on June 30 — though once he’s an official candidate, he’ll have to file retroactively. The June 4 filing will be coordinated with a first-day fundraising blitz with 100-plus “First Day Founders” raising a significant one day sum in order to send a we’re-in-the-first-tier message. The campaign tells us the “first day” blitz totals they report will be “cash” actually raised, not pledges. The source didn’t dispute the notion that the one-day goal would be north of seven figures.

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Defunding the Democrats

Posted by: Ion | · 4:28 AM

It’s no secret that the Leftblogs are more than a little disappointed with their congressional leadership over the supplemental Iraq funding bill. Jonathan Kaplan picks up a clever comment at Kos:

“Unlike our Democratic leaders, I am a Democrat who has backbone and conviction. I am hereby defunding YOU!” wrote
Jayden.
(The Hill)

It still seems odd to me, that Leftists are surprised when their leaders who wish to withdraw from Iraq in large measure due to fear of the violent resistance, prove equally timorous when faced with inflexible political resistance in Washington. The two reactions seem rather homologous to me, if not to the Leftroots.

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Paulists Notice Something

Posted by: Ion | · 1:54 AM

It appears the Ron Paul acolytes have begun to finally recognize what we’ve long known: Ron Paul supporters generally aren’t Republicans. In another leap of atypical insight, they also seem to have realized that this presents a challenge for their candidate in the primaries.

So, Paulist sites have begun begging their visitors to switch their party affiliation to GOP before the primaries. Others have put together a little viral video clip exhorting the Libertarians and Leftists who do support Paul, to switch:

If the very nature of this appeal wasn’t demonstrative enough of how non-Republican Paul’s support is, consider that the author of the video used a particularly obnoxious Rage Against the Machine song as the background music.

As a recap, Rage promotes a militant socialist/communist political ideology in almost all their music. They use Che Guevara as an icon and in the past have called for the death of the president and the overthrow of the government by Marxist revolution. To say the band is universally despised in the Republican Party, is an understatement of vast proportions.

In future, Paulists should at least try to learn a little something about the GOP, before they try to pick a candidate for it.

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McCain’s Cracked Campaign

Posted by: Ion | · 1:35 AM

The question remains with us, whether John McCain will be able to develop a single issue that will please Republicans, before his increasingly absurd presidential campaign totally collapses. The much despised Senate immigration bill is only the latest example of how out of touch McCain is with Republican voter views. But in McCain’s defense (relatively speaking), Dick Morris points out that the bill doesn’t exactly please anyone:

The right hates the idea that 12 million people who came here illegally can stay and work. The Hispanics hate that they have to pay $5,000 each, can’t become citizens until they return to their country of origin, and cannot bring their famlies in. The left hates that the border fence and increased guards are prerequisites for the bill’s implementation. The Democrats hate that the 12 million illegals won’t be able to vote for a decade more. The Republicans hate that they will be able to vote eventually.
(The Hill)

There’s truth here. McCain should have an easier time of it in the GOP than the Democrats. Polling has revealed that 51% of Democrats have an unfavorable view of the bill, while the figure is only 47% for Republicans.

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The Green Party and National Security: An Interview with Alan Augustson

Posted by: Ion | May 29th, 2007 · 11:55 PM

A few weeks back I posted a facile little rebuke aimed at the national security implications of Green Party presidential candidate Alan Augustson’s political platform. Alan responded to this in such a way that I realized I had little idea what the Green Party’s position on security matters was, relative to its environmental policies. Indeed, rarely have I seen anyone even ask Green Party figures questions about this subject.

In continental Europe, Greens are expected to have a broad agenda on all conventional political issues from foreign policy, to funding for the humanities. However in the United States, Greens seem to have been ghettoized into answering questions solely on subjects like global warming or genetically engineered foods. This has the natural effect of marginalizing them into niche political interests within the broader Left. A Left that the media seems quite content to have dominated by the Democratic Party alone.

So, toward a better education in the broader politics of Greens, Alan was kind enough to sit down with us for a short interview on security policy.

From the outset, it should be noted that Alan is a fierce critic of current US security policy and naturally his ideas won’t find much agreement with me, or among postpolitical’s predominantly conservative audience. But I think you’ll agree with me that we managed to ask some fair questions and the interview turned out to be an interesting and instructive exploration of a radically different political perspective.

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Learning From Arnold

Posted by: Jason | · 11:36 PM

(image: whitehouse.gov)

If you can’t beat em, join em! Lee and I often joke about the success of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the 2006 election season –one which was horribly sour for Republicans across the land– Governor Schwarzenegger’s campaign was one of the rare success stories in right-wing politics.

At the surface, many on the right have criticized Arnold for what looks to be pandering to the left-wing base of his state of Khaleefornia. This is trivial. Have you ever noticed that the governator will talk about global warming or stem cell programs, and then severely underfund them? Wake up folks… This guy is tricking his opposition into believing his liberal enlightenment while essentially deregulating the entire state.

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The New Socialism