January 31, 2008

The Boys in the (Democratic) Hood

I am just back from the Kodak Theatre where preparations are underway for tonight's debate and came back with some (I hope) amusing photos for Pajamas.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:48 PM
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Live in New York on Saturday Night, it's... Hillary Rodham

"Clinton Says She Can Control Her Husband"

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:56 AM
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January 30, 2008

Now the John Edwards has folded...

... the King of All Narcisso-Hypocrites comes lumbering back on stage.

Posted by Roger at 4:37 PM
Comments (9)

January 29, 2008

McCain Derangement Syndrome - It's Here!

What's amusing in one way and horrifying in another, but all-too-human in the final analysis, is how the moment a politician becomes popular and powerful - Bush, Clinton - a sizable percentage of the population starts to hate him. We've seen Clinton reviled. We've had years of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Welcome to McCain Derangement Syndrome - it's happening before he's even elected!

I heard two examples of it this evening - one from my friend Hugh Hewitt, whose rage against McCain today on Wolf Blitzer's CNN show made the hair curl on my bald head and later, on the Larry Elder Show, I listened in as a woman caller excoriated McCain as no war hero even though she knew the Senator had spent five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, was tortured, had his bones broken yet stayed with the other troops when offered a chance to leave, etc. Even Elder was appalled at the woman, though Larry is no McCain supporter.

I won't psychoanalyze this rage for fear of just stirring more up. But I will make a couple of observations. One of the raps against McCain by traditional conservatives is that he opposes waterboarding and Gitmo. On the other hand, he was one of the earliest, strongest and most influential backers of The Surge. I think by any rational comparison the importance of The Surge vs. waterboarding and Gitmo isn't remotely close. The Surge is responsible for the vastly improved situation in Iraq and for our consequentially improved situation globally. The other two are of marginal importance by comparison. McCain, it would seem to me, has his priorities right (not to mention more experience) on the most important issue of our time - the War on Terror.

One other thing: I have no particular dislike of Romney, other than I find him bland (a very personal reaction, which is not that important.) I followed his career as governor of Massachusetts and thought he did a pretty good job. But, to me, he seemed pretty much of a conventional liberal then, in fact vastly more liberal than I ever regarded John McCain, who I saw and see as more or less of a centrist. I recall Romney running to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay rights (an issue on which I am to the left of both).

Romney claims to have changed and "seen the light" on many issues. I have no idea whether this is true, but I am amazed by all these conservatives who totally and almost slavishly believe this is the real Romney yet equally assuredly distrust McCain when he repeatedly says he would build a security fence. It reminds me of that old shrink's thing about the "need to be right," how it always trips us up. I have seen it happen to me a lot. Anyway, I'm not sure McCain Derangement Syndrome has a cure. People love their anger. It's a security blanket.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:47 PM
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In Praise of Bruce Bawer

Bruce Bawer's First They Came for the Gays is one of the best articles we have ever run on Pajamas Media. Do not miss it, if you haven't already seen. I am deeply proud to have published it.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:13 AM
Comments (16)

January 28, 2008

Is China Freezing or Are They Just Trying to Play a Trick on Al Gore?

In the past week, the snowstorms have hit the provinces in central, eastern and southern China -- places that are used to mild winters, not extreme wintry blasts.

"We've never seen such a cold weather lasting for such long a time," said Tang Shan, a man in his 70s in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. "The last time we had one here was over 50 years ago, and not this bad."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:35 PM
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January 27, 2008

Fear of Obama

Much as I am disgusted with the Clintons and the other "monarchs" detailed below, I am more fundamentally scared of Barack Obama because I don't know what he stands for other than "hope," "change" and other truisms. He has done a brilliant job of avoiding the nitty-gritty and now with this welter of big time endorsements and the wind at his back we are not likely to get any specificity soon. He is certainly a charming main. Why not rely on that and not rock the boat with ideas subject to debate or thoughts that might reveal lack of preparation or experience?

But, as we learn from Noah Pollak who has been doing some interesting digging at the contentions blog, we have serious reason to be wary of Mr. Obama's foreign policy advisor Samantha Power, just as we have reason to be disturbed by the idolatrous support of the racist Louis Farrakhan by Obama's minister.

My own suspicion... and at this point it is only that... is that Obama himself actually doesn't know what he thinks in the foreign policy area. He speaks in generalities, claims he was against the Iraq War and then voted to fund it (like Hillary) - the usual hypocrisy that makes for moral and psychological confusion. So all is reduced to slogans or brainless competitions like who will pull out of Iraq faster when everyone knows that when confronted by the reality of decision making all will be different.

And, like most people when getting the approbation of the crowd, I imagine Obama is loathe to alienate it and finds himself agreeing with it as the line of least (temporary) resistance. But Obama's particular crowd is partly a dangerous rabble that has not thought through the times in which we live on any serious level and responds in the most generic peacenik manner. As a single issue voter - the War on Terror - I am more than a little bit concerned.

Meanwhile, there is not much consolation on the Republican side. I just read an interesting article by Fred Barnes in the latest Weekly Standard - How Bush Decided on the Surge. Barnes has good contacts and I imagine much of the reporting here reflects Bush's view on how this occurred. Here's a telling paragraph:

After the bombing [in Samara], NSC officials were increasingly dubious. They weren't alone. General Keane kept in contact with retired and active Army officers, including Petraeus, who believed the war could be won with more troops and a population protection, or counterinsurgency, strategy--but not with a small footprint. At the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, a former West Point professor (and a current WEEKLY STANDARD contributing editor), Frederick Kagan, was putting together a detailed plan to secure Baghdad. But the loudest voice for a change in Iraq was Senator John McCain of Arizona. He and his sidekick, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, traveled repeatedly to Iraq. McCain badgered Bush and Hadley with phone calls urging more troops and a different strategy. Together, McCain, Keane, Petraeus, the network of Army officers, and Kagan provided a supportive backdrop for adopting a new strategy.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:01 PM
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More Academy DVD Mini-Reviews (Watched or Ejected)

Juno - (WATCHED - barely.... This is an Academy Award nominee? It's not 1939 for sure. What 16-year old references "Soupy Sales" in dialog? As one reviewer noted, "What 66-year old??)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:46 AM
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January 26, 2008

End the Monarchy!

Unlike some people, I am not a super-strict constructionist. I have no idea what Jefferson and Adams, among others, would say about the issues confronting us today or whether they would want to amend the Constitution. But I do know this: We are a democracy. As I wrote yesterday in the comments section, it's time to end the Divine Right of Kings in this country. That means no more Bushes, Clintons, Kennedys, Roosevelts, etc. I don't even want to hear from Kennedys for their recommendations. Enough of this monarchical crap and these over-blown, over-important political families. We might as well bring back the Romanoffs.

The recent public display of arrogant, hot-headed Bill hopefully is starting to wake people up to this. Do we really want eight more years of the Clinton family saga, all their lies and self-deception? Suppose this turns out to be true? Do we really want to have to deal with that? And is there anyone out there who is honestly willing to bet it isn't possible?

Even though The New York Times doesn't seem to care and is willing to ignore this noblesse oblige in their slavish and banal endorsement of Hillary the other day, their own Frank Rich is beginning to smell a rat. He writes:

IN the wake of George W. Bush, even a miracle might not be enough for the Republicans to hold on to the White House in 2008. But what about two miracles? The new year’s twin resurrections of Bill Clinton and John McCain, should they not evaporate, at last give the G.O.P. a highly plausible route to victory.

Well, not if the National Review has anything to do with it. They seem hell bent on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. On verra.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:40 PM
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My Fedora's Off to My Colleagues at PJM...

...for their excellent coverage this evening of the South Carolina Primary... That's editors Aaron Hanscom and David Rusin and correspondents Bill "King Pundit" Bradley and Mr. Grey Goose himself... Stephen Green.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:49 PM
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I just signed up for theChevy Volt waiting list

I have no idea whether this site will work, but I'm one of those rooting for the Chevy Volt and the electric car and am ready to buy one. And, no, it's not because I'm overly concerned about global warming. I want energy independence from the religious oil psychos in Iran and Saudi Arabia... And if I can get the equivalent to sixty miles to the gallon in the process, all the better.

BTW, the list has already hit 10,000 members. Click through.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:24 PM
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Bill Scared of McCain

How else to interpret his sudden revelation that Hill and John are best buddies? Given the toxic attitudes to true blue (or should I say true red) conservatives, that's sure to stir up animosity toward McCain - obviously Bill's intention. He's no fool. Of course it remains to be seen if Republican voters are and take his bait. Tuesday will tell. (I wonder if they're doing any push-polling. "On a scale of ten, how do you feel about the close relationship of Hillary Clinton and John McCain?")

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:16 AM
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January 25, 2008

What's the matter? They don't like Tom Cruise videos?

Hackers hit Scientology website with denial-of-service attack.

Posted by Roger at 10:07 PM
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While America Slept...

I'm talking about all those ideologues of the right and left worried about the minutia of our presidential election... Meanwhile, the real action continues. I have said this before and I will say it again - the only operative question in choosing the next president is who is best to lead us in the war on terror. Dream on if you think it is anything else.

Posted by Roger at 9:27 PM
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January 24, 2008

The New York Times Goes Postal on Rudy

The idea that the NYT actually backs a Republican for President seems more likely to be a spoof at The Onion, but it's evidently for real and they are giving the (very weak) nod to McCain. Yawn.... but what's fascinating is that the brief remarks supporting McCain are followed by an attack on Rudy which is virtually pathological:

The real Mr. Giuliani, whom many New Yorkers came to know and mistrust, is a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square.

Mr. Giuliani's arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking.

Posted by Roger at 10:25 PM
Comments (41)

Edgar Nomination Mystery....

The Edgar Award Nominations for 2008 were announced recently and one of the nominees in the Best Juvenile category remains a mystery. In other words - whodunit about this whodunit?

The title is The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch.

Pseudonymous Bosch? Are you putting me on? [Someone said it was a relative of yours.-ed. Someone was drunk. Someone is always drunk.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:18 PM
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Davos Shmavos: Brother Bono Confesses to Father Gore

Being profiled in the Washington Times and appearing on Laura Ingraham all in one day doesn't mean diddley because I haven't been invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Not only that - the aforementioned two things might insure that I never will be. But no matter, there's plenty of skiing hereabouts these days and I don't need to borrow a Gulf Stream from Bono to get there. [You mean you'd say no if he offered?-ed. Sir, my carbon footprints are clean.]

What's funny in all this is Bono prostrating himself in front of Gore when Al probably uses private jets almost as much as Bono and is far more of a hypocrite. (When have you ever seen Gore engage in the slightest bit of self-criticism? And he can't even rock as well as Huckabee!) But, as I said quite recently, there's a good Al and a bad Al.... like most of us.

Posted by Roger at 12:38 PM
Comments (2)

John Wayne Lives!

I grew six inches for the writing of this article.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:15 AM
Comments (8)

January 23, 2008

The Many Sides of Al

I don't agree with Al Gore on global warming... I'm an agnostic on that issue... but I completely agree with him here.

Posted by Roger at 2:33 PM
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Iran: Reading Norman

If you're not depressed enough today by the roiling financial markets, read Norman Podhoretz's "Stopping Iran" in the WSJ. Actually, I read it last night before going to bed and, if it hadn't been for exhaustion from my lingering flu, it probably would have kept me up.

Look, I don't know if Norman is right or not - that we have no choice but to make a preemptive strike on Iran in order to prevent their religious-crazy regime from going nuclear - but if he is, the world is in a sorry plight. These are not happy times. Few people want to confront reality - and who can blame them? Watching the Democratic candidates blather on about getting out of Iraq you realize how dishonest we have all become. They know and we know that we must stay there as insurance against the very Iran Podhoretz is talking about, but they don't have the guts to tell their constituents. So it goes.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:26 AM
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Tuna Terror - No Wonder I've Been Twitching

Apparently the mercury levels in tuna sushi are worse than we thought and that it can cause "neurological disorders" - bad news indeed for us toro fanatics. The good news, of course, is the saving to the consumer, especially during this testy economic times, the cost of the best tuna sushi being somewhere between a Stradivarius and a Lexus.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:24 AM
Comments (1)

January 22, 2008

Academy Award Nominees Announced - Hollywood Who?

It's not just the Wall Street meltdown or even the Writers' Guild strike that is causing the Academy Award nominee announcements this morning to be met with a yawn. This new group of nominees - though worthy enough artistically - is of very little interest to the public. They didn't want to see them for the most part when they were released and - although some will get something a bounce from the nomination - most will still not see them later. The usual core audience of teenage boys is more interested in computer games and the adult audience has far too much else to do. [Like bicker on blogs?-ed. Bickering is good.]

This is yet another symptom of the overall decline of Hollywood as a force in our culture. If you're looking for a reason so many of the stars continue to stick their well-formed noses in politics, maybe it's because they'd be losing attention otherwise. What's a narcissist without a camera? [Is that a Zen koan?-ed. It is so, if you think so.]

Conspicuously absent from today's nominees - the antiwar films.

In any case, one thing's for sure - when it comes to movies, it's all been down hill since 1939.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:28 AM
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January 21, 2008

The Incredible Shrinking Los Angeles Times

For the second time in slightly more than a year the LA Times has fired its editor for objecting to newsroom budget cuts. It will be interesting to see how the next replacement deals with this phenomenon, which is likely to continue.

BTW, I don't gloat about this. Old Media may be dying, but New Media are not yet prepared to take their place. We'd like to be... we're trying... but we're not there yet. A new method for the dissemination of news must be developed, however. We cannot just rely on the Associated Press, which has been shown repeatedly to be biased, often in the extreme.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:33 PM
Comments (5)

January 20, 2008

Just when you thought all Hollywood movies were from the left

(Well, except for South Park).... something happened.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:18 PM
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Oliver's Back - Watch Out, Bush

Once upon a time, Oliver Stone made some pretty good movies - Midnight Express, Salvador (his best, in my estimation) - but in recent years it's been pretty much straight bloviation. If the man only had a sense of humor... Anyway... now he's got George W. Bush in his sights with supposed real life plot points including "his [Bush's] belief that God personally chose him to be president of the United States." Hmm... interesting. I wonder if Stone has an proof of this or whether it's in the realm of "LBJ killed Kennedy." Why do I tend to think it's the latter? (BTW, who would invest in something like this that only will be appearing after Bush leaves office anyway?)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:54 PM
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Doubting Douthat

Actually, in this case I mostly agree with him (Ross Douthat) when he opines, self-mockingly since it seems so obvious, that "Rudy is toast." He's probably been toast for a while but the success of McCain in SC put an extra level of brown crunch on the sour dough.

Still I wanted to use that headline... more fun... because there's one area where Ross and I don't agree. He thinks the Republican side is evolving into a two-man race between Romney and McCain. I think it's gone further than that. Effectively, McCain has won. And, ironically, that is the worst nightmare for the Democrats and a fair number of Republicans. We Independents just laugh.

Meanwhile, Josh Marshall is suffering from FoM. Can't say I blame him because he suspects what most of us do - that the most appealing figures in American politics today to the public (not to the pundits and the party regulars) are the politicians who don't play by party rules.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:29 AM
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January 19, 2008

Independent's Rule - McCain and Lieberman

Endorsements tend to be over-rated in politics, but there's little doubt that the most potent endorsement of a candidate thus far this political season has been Joe Lieberman's endorsement of John McCain. Ever since Joe got behind John, the Arizona senator's fortunes have tended up, almost straight up. Right now, they're looking pretty good indeed, heading into Florida.

And speaking of the Sunshine State, who do you think's already down there stumping for McCain?

Posted by Roger at 9:57 PM
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Hucka-bust

Big winners tonight:

John McCain
Charles Darwin

Big losers:

Mike Huckabee
Sean Hannity

Posted by Roger at 6:33 PM
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January 18, 2008

Mike Huckabee Gives Me the Creeps

I just watched on Hannity & Colmes as he bobbed and weaved on the simplest of questions of whether he approved of the Confederate Flag, hiding behind the states' right dodge in the most pathetic manner. What a moral coward! This is a religious man? The Confederate Flag is a symbol of slavery, as Dick Morris later pointed out, as much anathema to black people as the Nazi flag is to Jews. Mike Huckabee didn't have the guts to condemn it. What a drip.

Posted by Roger at 9:31 PM
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Preston Sturges, where are you?

Or at least Fred MacMurray. Is this a movie or what?

Posted by Roger at 7:19 PM
Comments (1)

The Flu Strikes

Is the following an immutable equation?

No flu shot + no Airborne + one round trip flight LA/Boston + our round trip flight DC/LA + all flights within ten days = influenza

Well, I've got it. And I misdiagnosed myself, thinking the dry hacking cough was just the old reflux acting up (badly), and started mainlining Nexium to no avail. Then I passed out yesterday in the middle of the afternoon. Flu, indeed. We had some Tamiflu around the house I've started taking it, though I suspect I was well outside its 48 hour efficiency guideline. In any case, there's always Greenblatt's chicken soup, of which I have now imbibed a couple of quarts.

Warning: watching cable television is lethal when you have the flu. The Andrew Bynum-less Lakers all seem sick as dogs and the political bloviators... well, enough said about them...

Posted by Roger at 2:54 PM
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January 17, 2008

Where the Writers' Strike is Headed

I have an article up on Pajamas this morning - Apocalypse Now: Will New Media Destroy Hollywood? It's part of my forthcoming book from Encounter Books... in an amended and extended form. Of course you won't get the hyperlinks in the book form - and there are two fun ones: one to the new New Media group 60Frames who are among the first to put their own episodic television online (my advice to them - don't quit your day job) and another to the positively bonkers Tom Cruise.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:41 AM
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Huckabee Not Going for the Latino Vote

That puts it mildly, I suppose, since he has vowed today to "send all illegal aliens home." [Does that include your gardening service?-ed. Shush.]

This seems, shall we say, er..., a bit impractical. Our Mike obviously hasn't spent a lot of time in California lately. Trying to cross the border between San Diego and Tijuana on a normal weekend day takes about three hours. Add half of East Los Angeles into the mix and you might have to wait three months.

Actually, Huckabee is lying (for an obvious reason) and knows it. This ain't gonna happen. Build a reliable fence, sure, but send everyone home? How exactly do you send ten million or more people back to Mexico? And would you like to have the media filming it every day, as they will? What do you think America would look like to the world, to ourselves, shunting poor families back to Guadalajara on buses?

We need a decent and fair immigration system, but we don't need demagoguery. The good news is Huckabee's not getting elected anyway.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:23 AM
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January 16, 2008

What About the Apple Car?

Even though this particular MacWorld keynote was something of a bust (or not), as a loyal vassal of Lord Steve, I immediately downloaded my new iPhone firmware and spent yesterday evening adding icons so I could instantly access lists of wines I'd never drink and such while keeping an eye on the usual cable news campaign blather, the candidates and their porte paroles outstripping each other in Playing the Panderus (hey, there's an idea for an iPhone game for the next update.)

Speaking of which, I think the most disgraceful example of pandering so far was Romney going up to Michigan and promising to bring back the glory days of the auto industry (via subsidies?). Hey, gang, it's 1957 again. Roll out the Chevy Impala. Oh, les beaux jours.

If there's anything more disgraceful than Romney, it's the Michigan voters who believed his nonsense (and there were evidently a lot of them). The one thing you can say for McCain is he told them some of the truth . The old days are not coming back to the Michigan auto industry no way, no how... unless they nuke Toyota (as some wag said).

McCain, however, was too gentlemanly to tell the full truth about the Michigan auto moguls - they are too square. In the modern world, Detroit ... is ... out... of .... it. (I apologize to all Detroiters reading this, but you do have a great basketball team. And, yes, I could be wrong, assuming they get their act together with the Chevy Volt, but that's the last chance.)

Meanwhile, I say move the auto industry to the Silicon Valley. As you will see in my article in Pajamas for Thursday, I think Hollywood is already headed there. That, more than anything, may be the outgrowth of the current strike.

Detroit should head for Mountain View as well. Time for the Apple Car. (Hey, we've already had Apple Care.). What do we call it? The MacZoom?

Posted by Roger at 9:41 PM
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Ron Paul and the Rise of Mass Movements

I find it quite scary that Ron Paul continues to do relatively well at the polls, despite the numerous revelations about him and his cohorts. Paul is quite clearly a liar, but this continues to be ignored for the most part by the mainstream media - who give Paul a pass and have not really confronted him at any of the debates - and clearly by many of his adherents, who either choose to ignore or not just not hear the allegations against him. This even though the author of the racist and sexist newsletters that went out under the Congressman's name is evidently one of Paul's oldest and closest supporters.

Is this the way mass movements have risen up in the past in other countries? While reading this book review on Pajamas this morning, I couldn't help but shiver.

Posted by Roger at 10:35 AM
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January 15, 2008

The Presidential Election: A Basic Question - Cutting to the Chase

While watching the endless pundit blather on TV tonight after the Republican Michigan Primary and Democratic Nevada Debate and reading the various opinion meisters commentaries online, I had one of those rare zen moments of simplicity. It all comes down to a simple question:

Who would you like to be in the White House if Pakistan fell to al Qaeda and the Islamists gained control of its nuclear arsenal?

Answer that question and you will know your candidate. All the rest, as they say, is commentary.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:25 PM
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Identity Politics in Rigor Mortis

David Brooks has a smart column in the NYT today - The Identity Trap - that almost doesn't go far enough. Identity politics isn't just "dead," in the immortal words of Preston Sturges, "it's decomposed." (Sturges was referring to "chivalry.")

People like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are like woolly mammoths trying to keep their feet out of the La Brea Tar Pits. Everyone knows Colin Powell could have been elected President years ago. And Ms. Magazine is as much an artifact of another era as the original Sears, Roebuck catalog (although of less cultural interest). The idea of a woman President being something extraordinary is an eye-roller in a time when women already outnumber men in law and medical school. The way thngs are going, it's the man President that may be the exception in thirty or forty years.

So Brooks is right - let's hope the candidates can spare us the identity drivel. He throws a bouquet to Clinton when it comes to substance: "When she talks about policy, she will dazzle you." But doesn't mention Obama in that area. I'm not surprised. There isn't much to say. I have no idea what Obama really stands for. He's been brilliant at being evasive. John McCain - whose every policy has been torn apart, deconstructed and spit out by the folks at NRO and elsewhere - should be envious. Or maybe not. McCain, unlike Clinton and Obama, has real experience. Voters may be responding to that. It's a good deal more substantive that blather about "hope" and "change."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:09 AM
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January 14, 2008

Wesley & Me

My reminiscence of my encounter with Wesley Snipes is up on Pajamas - a brief episode in my life and certainly in his, considering what's going on now.

Posted by Roger at 11:13 AM
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January 13, 2008

The New York Times Has NDS (Neocon Derangement Syndrome)

It's been mired in this syndrome (NDS) for several years, ever since it was determined that the UWSPL (Upper West Side Party Line) was that the Iraq War was a disaster. But oops... along comes this Petraeus character and it may not be a disaster after all. Apparently things are looking up, at least for the moment. As Fred Thompson dryly put it, "You can tell that the news is good coming out of Iraq because you read so little about it in The New York Times."

Of course, no one can tell what the verdict of history will be - although if you read Timothy Noah's review of Jacob Heilbrunn's They Knew They Were Right/The Rise of the Neocons in today's NYTBR, you wouldn't know it. Mr. Noah is a true believer in the UWSPL, holding aloft the banner of the NDS with pride. For him, Iraq was a catastrophe equivalent to the flood of that other Noah. And naturally it was the cursed neocons' fault. Though Bush squeaked out a higher grade average at Yale than John Kerry (acknowledged even by the NYT on page 406 or whatever), Georgie-Peorgie never could have thought of invading Iraq by himself. He needed to be drugged by Richard Perle on a moonlit night.

Needless to say, Noah ignores such inconvenient truths - and others including the fact that Iraq is a functioning (albeit limping) democracy with people in the streets and growing businesses, that it is one of our least violent wars (less than five percent the US fatalities of Vietnam) and at the very least we will be left with bases inside Mesopotamia to help control the expansionist fascisms in Iran and Syria. It could be better than that. Who knows? The Iraqis could turn into real allies for freedom, just like those dreaded neocons hoped.

Of course, for the likes of Noah, the fact that it took a few more years than predicted means all is lost. Not exactly the kind of guy you'd like in your foxhole, is it? Ditto the editors of the New York Times. Not all that long ago (September 2002), Bill Keller wrote an article for the New York Times Magazine - The Sunshine Warrior - quite laudatory of Paul Wolfowitz. Not long after that, the real war was on and Wolfowitz became anathema. The slightest inkling of a sinking ship and it was "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!"... everybody overboard.

Now, ironically, some people will have to climb back in again or they will have to - horror of horrors - look at something as frightening as a McCain presidency. So it goes.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:54 PM
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Annals of Liberalism - Ms. Steinem Meet Mr. Soros

In the last few days we have yet two more examples of the tawdry hypocrisy of modern liberalism popped up on our screens: 1. Ms. Magazine has refused to run a benign Israeli advertisement showing powerful women in their society like Tzipi Livni (although they have been perfectly happy to display the likes of Nancy Pelosi on their cover). 2. The now widely discredited Lancet study of deaths in Iraq has been revealed to have been financed in large degree by George Soros.

What's interesting to me is how completely predictable both of these revelations are. Phyllis Chesler - who was there at the founding of Ms. - tells us the magazine is now back and shuffling, looking to cover their ass. Again, no surprise. George Soros will undoubtedly make no comment. Billionaires don't. He didn't have much to say when he famously shorted the British pound either. Who knows how many people he put out of worki? The word "progressive" has turned into "newspeak."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:24 AM
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January 10, 2008

Ron Paul - one more time

I don't like writing about Paul because, frankly, he creeps me out. But he did appear on the Republican debate tonight, rising again like some nightmarish deluded phoenix, so I feel constrained to comment briefly on his interview with Wolf Blitzer, linked earlier by Glenn Reynolds.

I was fascinated that, under questioning by Blitzer, Paul could not remember the names of any of the people who might have composed the many egregious racist and sexist (and wretchedly written) statements on his Ron Paul newsletter during the nineties, which Paul claims not to have written himself. To be blunt, I think he was lying, trying to cover something or someone up, unless he is suffering Alzeheimer's or some other form of dementia. Even in my most senior moments, I remember perfectly well the people I worked with in the nineties for any significant period of time and I was a busy fellow, if not completely as busy as the Congressman. If anyone does something that might reflect on me (for instance, these days publishing, on Pajamas) I pay special attention.

Now if.... by some remote chance.... I mean very remote... Paul paid no attention to these people actually writing and publishing under his name for years, he is a remarkably slapdash leader. The idea someone like that would be President of the United States is ludicrous.

If I were a libertarian, I would stay as far from him as possible. In fact, I'd do my best to excommunicate him from the movement. And yet, on Fox News tonight, there they were again, the Ronulans, text messaging their post-debate votes for Ron Paul and thrusting their Dear Leader once again to victory. It's at once absurdly comic and frightening.

Posted by Roger at 9:58 PM
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Good News for Hillary!

Kerry backs Obama.

Posted by Roger at 10:55 AM
Comments (7)

LAT: Hometown Paper Playing the Propaganda Game

Annie Jacobsen's piece on Pajamas nails the Los Angeles Times for some truly bogus reporting. The paper made the ridiculous statement that sixty million Americans live on seven dollars a day. Annie's article will give you an idea where they got this "information." Eyes will roll.

And yet this is not in the slightest a surprise - just another nail in the mythological coffin that the mainstream media is superior to blogs and new media in the realm of fact-checking. Although the MSM continues, Khruschev-like to bang their shoes about this, the echo of those heels is sounding increasingly hollow. In fact, in many ways they are worse, because the firewall between themselves and the audience that we don't and indeed can't.

I've published this before, but it bears repeating. My personal experience with LAT fact-checking a few years ago went like this: I had written an article about a Siberian film festival at which I had been on the jury. After I submitted my piece, a woman called and asked me, "Is everything you wrote true?" I said, "Yes." She thanked me and hung up. That was fact-checking.

Of course, my experiences in Siberia were not as important as assertions about the level of poverty in America.... but their fact-checking on that appears to have been even worse.

Posted by Roger at 10:27 AM
Comments (5)

January 9, 2008

On the Road Again

Headed for DC this mornign for a couple of days to... among other things.... tape the "Tim Russert" show on MSNBC. Since we are taping tomorrow for Saturday airing, I have to be careful what I say. Suppose Ron Paul jumps in the polls fifteen percent between now and then?

Posted by Roger at 9:55 AM
Comments (4)

Obama: who lost New Hampshire?

Andrew Sullivan suggests it's race: "liberal" voters under cover of the secret ballot went for the white woman. Odd for Sullivan, since he so ignores race in another context.

I think Tom Bowler has it about right: it's the War on Terror, stupid. Democratic and Republican voters went for the person they perceived the strongest on security issues. And why shouldn't they? Let's be honest - the economy isn't so bad and everybody knows it. The GNP continues to grow and an unemployment is low. No reason to panic - unless we don't get our oil gluttony under control... which is all about national security, isn't it?

Posted by Roger at 6:19 AM
Comments (14)

January 8, 2008

Pauling the Paulites

There has been a fair amount of internet activity today around a New Republic article on Ron Paul. Author James Kirchik has unearthed a fair amount of ugly new material from the Paul archives that is more than a little racist and sexist. Some of this we have seen before, as Paul himself points out. Some not. Whatever is new or isn't, it is undeniably real. Paul's rebuttal argument seems to be - it may be bad, but I didn't write it.

Whoa. The only name on those newsletters is Ron Paul, no matter who wrote the actual articles. We all know that most politicians do not write their own speeches, but we certainly hold them to the contents. Why not Paul? And this creepy stuff went on for over ten years. It's not like one week slipped by.

It's hard to imagine how his many acolytes countenance this. Would they allow statements like that to made under their names for year after year? Maybe they agree with stuff like: "I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city [Washington, D.C.] are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

I don't know, but I would like them to explain. No, scratch that. I think we've heard enough from them. I don't want any more obscene email. Pajamas Media has gotten a ton of it from these fanatics - and most of it while Ron Paul was in our Straw Poll, even though they insisted that he wasn't, telling us so in so many brain dead four-letter words. (They just port over like lemmings from their websites without bothering to read.)

But Paul shouldn't be alarmed with these revelations. He has the support of Andrew Sullivan. Perhaps Andrew would also favor Le Pen, who similarly insists he is not a racist. (And, no, Andrew, all those anti-gay slurs were not written by Paul. Somebody tricked him while he was asleep.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:38 PM
Comments (23)

January 7, 2008

Obama: "Change" Changes

Maybe I missed something, but the "Change" poster behind Barack Obama seems to have, well, changed. (There's that word again.) The words "We Can Believe In" have been added to the bottom, for the first time acknowledging, pace Orwell, that not all changes are equal (although some changes are more equal than others). Nazi Germany, for an example, was a change. So was Stalinism (although less of change from Leninism). In the I-Ching it is written: "Change/Opportunity." Were they referring to car salesman... for whom change is indeed a big opportunity. So far Obama is doing a brilliant job of being vague about what "change" he is referring to. "We Can Believe In" is a masterpiece of obfuscation. He has some good writers.

Posted by Roger at 1:04 PM
Comments (17)

Interviewing the Candidates

Through a mixture of effort and good luck, I have ended up interviewing three of the major candidates this year (Giuiliani, McCain, Thompson) with possibly more to come. Some people have asked me what I thought of them personally.

I don't have much to say about that, since the amount of social time around these interviews would total up to about ten minutes. These men are clearly scheduled down to the second. During the most recent interviews (McCain, Giuliani) I was being signaled constantly by their handlers off camera to wrap it up. The PJM WoT interviews, which are in depth and run over fifteen minutes, are not exactly what the candidates (or their handlers) are used to doing. The candidates love it - and have told me so - the handlers less so, although some have told me later that they also liked them.

But back for a second to the personalities of the candidates. I was impressed with all of them as men and politicians. They all seemed informed and, as I noted, enjoyed what they were doing, which makes it fun for the interviewer. Regarding Thompson, I am puzzled by the lack of voter support. I saw no evidence of the laziness charge and he appeared a prepared and knowledgeable candidate. Perhaps this is a media myth that has been adopted by the public.

We are also interested in your comments about the high definition format. To our knowledge, no one else is doing high def political content on the Internet (certainly many will the near future). We're trying to get this right. Let us know your reactions either here our on the Pajamas posts.

Posted by Roger at 10:03 AM
Comments (13)

January 6, 2008

Is George McGovern Senile?

Or perhaps it's Alzheimer's. I can't imagine any rational reason anyone would want to put America through an impeachment trial in the last year of Bush's presidency. Actually, senility is the most benign explanation. The other is a desperate plea for attention on McGovern's part. Pathetic.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:06 AM
Comments (23)

January 5, 2008

Debate Review: Goodbye to "Change"

If there is one thing we learned from tonight's debates on ABC, it is that the word "change" - formerly so useful - must now be banned from the English language. I will regret losing it, but the poor parole has been put been in disgrace and rendered meaningless by a collection of nitwit politicians and pundits, so sayonara to "change." It's been nice knowing you. We give you your gold watch - bye bye. From here on in, when we hear someone say that he or she wants "change" or that he or she, worse yet, is a "change agent," the offending "c-word" user shall be sent to Siberia - or Iowa.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:45 PM
Comments (9)

Good News - No Golden Globes this Year

Well... no Golden Globes with actors, which means no Golden Globes with audience. They might as well put up reruns of "Welcome Back, Kotter."

This is probably the best thing to come out of the Writers' Strike so far. With luck they'll never have it again. For those of you who don't know (and you are to be congratulated for not), the Golden Globes are given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a rag tag assembly of semi-employed stringers filing for the Bucharest Bugle or similar out of their local Starbuck's. You can get their vote by paying for the Chai latte.

If you're looking to put an end to "Awards Inflation," this is the place to start.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:27 PM
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Bill Does Not Want Hill to Win - Part II

You don't have to be Sigmund Freud to see this. Last night in NH, he grinned into a TV camera and introduced Hillary and his daughter as "My girls..."

Wow. The feminist movement has now been turned on its head. Prediction: disaster for Hillary Clinton.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:48 AM
Comments (11)

January 4, 2008

Climate Change: The Hydra-Head of Hype

Now I'm getting more confused than ever about global warming. First the Russians, via the great former KGB outlet Novosti Press, are telling us that cooling is the real problem (be sure to hurry up and buy plenty of that Siberian heating oil!) and almost simultaneously, that great environmentalist George Monbiot is informing us the real global warming culprit is... Al Gore!

So what is a poor boy to do (or even a Street Fightin' Man) with such contradictory information? Is nothing sacred?

Just follow the money, you say. Okay, sure, normally good advice. But the sun still has plans for us and the sun isn't interested in our money. So what's next? Hot, cold... or do we care?

Lately it's been in raining in California. More proof of global warming or just a reprise of an old song? ("Hate California, it's cold and it's damp... that's why the lady is a... " but you know the rest.)

Posted by Roger at 1:37 PM
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January 3, 2008

Tales of Hillary: Seeing a Ghost in New Hampshire

It was a windy and cold night in Manchester, NH (and I mean really cold - somewhere between zero and minus one) when Roger Simon and Claudia Rosett emerged from the WeDu PR firm where they had just completed a video interview of a surging John McCain. Earlier in the day, at the nearby Segway Plant, they had interviewed the redoubtable Rudolph Giuliani (look for forthcoming video footage of RS aboard a Segway - no he doesn't fall off). It was time, they agreed, to attempt the trifecta of high profile American politics and head off to...

Hillary Headquarters.

Yes, this would be the same headquarters where not long ago some delusional lunatic had attempted a kidnapping. And, yes, we realized that Hillary would not be there, but what else is there to do in Manchester NH at ten o'clock at night on a Thursday in subzero temperature? With the help of some frozen fingers on a rented GPS we were soon at the door.

The lights were on, as luck would have, it, but the place was not jumping, even though La Hillary would soon be there (the next day). No, perhaps three dozen young volunteers were huddled around the largest TV screen we had seen thereabouts (60 inches or more - this campaign was well financed), heads bowed as if they were attending a wake.

Dominating the giant screen was Hillary herself, making a speech and trying to make a third place finish in Iowa sound like a victory for Democrats. Looking around the room, the volunteers shuffled nervously, not knowing how to react. On screen, Madeleine Albright looked glum. Bill tried to force a smile and clapped perfunctorily. I imagined what he might be thinking: What will I do with the rest of my life if she loses? How long will this marriage last? Do I want it to? Something like that.

A young volunteer came up, asking who we were. "From Pajamas Media," I said and presented my card. "We've been doing interviews with the candidates. Giuliani and McCain today. We'd very much like to interview Hillary."

The volunteer smiled pleasantly and took the card.

Posted by Roger at 8:46 PM
Comments (21)

January 1, 2008

Thin-blooded Californian Headed East into the Freezing Land of Electoral Madness

More specifically, New Hampshire- where the predicted high for Manchester Thursday has gone up from a frigid 11 to a balmy 15 (low of 2). Reason this spoiled California brat is making the migration: on that very Thursday (simultaneous with the Iowa caucuses) Claudia Rosett and I will be conducting video interviews in NH for Pajamas Media with two presidential candidates in one day - Messrs. McCain and Giuliani. The subject, as it was with Fred Thompson, is the War on Terror. Andrew Marcus, as usual, will be doing the producing.

If the smart readers of this blog have any questions they would like asked, feel free to leave them below. I could use your help. Tomorrow I will be on the plane, trying to think up a few of my own. At this point in the campaign, it's not easy to come up with fresh ones.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:20 PM
Comments (46)

Come with me to Hollywood, Katha Pollitt

Via James Taranto, I had the pleasure of reading the "belle-lettristic" Katha Pollitt on William Kristol:

What ever happened to meritocracy? For Kristol to get a Times column--after being fired from Time magazine no less--is as meritocratic as, um, George W. Bush becoming the leader of the free world. A pundit, even a highly ideological one like Kristol, has to be (or seem) right at least some of the time. But what's striking about Kristol is that he's has been wrong about everything! . . . And it's not as if he's a great prose stylist, either. At least David Brooks can occasionally turn a phrase. Kristol just churns out whatever the argument of the moment happens to be, adds jeers, and knocks off for lunch.

Ohmygod - fired by Time Magazine and then hired by The New York Times... Meritocracy problem indeed! But if Ms. Pollitt is concerned with the NYT, she might be even more distressed spending a bit of time in yet-more-liberal Hollywood where seven-figure screenwriters are fired on a daily basis. And some of them even have Academy Awards. What is the world coming to?

(Pot to kettle, Ms. Pollitt is no S. J. Perelman herself when it comes to turning a phrase, but she does put me on The Road to Miltown.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:22 AM
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Hitch on Huck (and undemocratic Iowa)

So, once you subtract the breathless rhetoric about "surge" and "momentum" and (oh, Lord) "electability," it's finally admitted that the rest of the United States is a passive spectator while about half of 45 percent of 85,000 or so Republican caucus voters promote a provincial ignoramus and anti-Darwinian to the coveted status of "front-runner" or at least "contender."

Word.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:43 AM
Comments (4)