It Really Makes Me Wonder About Winston Churchill Now

Boy, Rudi really laid it on thick last night, didn't he? Are Bush and Churchill really cut from the same mold? Maybe because they were both big boozehounds in their youths.

Way to Miss the Point Entirely

So, I was listening to David Brudnoy on the radio last night. He's more of a conservative leaning Libertarian, but I usually find his show to be more intelligent and thought provoking that the usual cast of lunkheads on the AM dial. The discussion, of course, was about Kerry's military service and was he lying about everything and did he bring all these negative attacks on himself and did he really even volunteer in the first place. Because now, after the original charges about his medals were discredited, and the statements John O'Neill made about Cambodia have now been shown to contradict previous claims he made about his own service, the new story is that John Kerry didn't actually volunteer for Viet Nam service, he tried to get a student deferment first, and then signed up for the Naval Reserve.
So let me get this straight: A guy tries to do what thousands of other guys tried to do (get a deferment so they don't have to go to Viet Nam), gets turned down, signs up for military service in the hopes that he doesn't have to go over there, goes over there, and serves not only honorably, but heroically (according to the official history and eyewitness accounts), and people are giving him shit for that now? Unbelievable. And then Brudnoy tried to equate Kerry's attempt at a deferment with Dick Cheney's. The problem with that is, Kerry was vocal in his opposition to the war, but went anyway and served honorably. Cheney was vocal in his support of it, but due to his "other priorities," got out of actually putting his ass where his mouth was and going over there to serve. And not only that, his willingness to send other people's kids into danger zones when his own instinct was to cover his ass in the 60's is despicable. I don't fault someone for trying to get out of a situation like that. I probably would have. But when your actions and your words directly contradict each other, then I say let the ridiculing commence.

Republicans: Love the Military/Hate Soldiers

I'm sure they'll say that this is just a joke and people should lighten up. But you know what? It's not a joke, it's just mean-spritied, and quite pig-headed to boot. But of course, never let the facts get in the way of a good smear campaign.

Oh to, oh to be, oh to be a-SHAMROCK!

Big congrats the my roommate Sinead Walsh and her Boston Shamrocks for winning the Ladies Senior Finals of the Northeast GAA Gaelic Football tournament. I can honestly say that was one of the most exciting sporting matches I've ever seen live. Also congrats to my landlord Davy Murphy and Wolfe Tones for winning the Men's Junior Final. On to Denver!

It's Just Getting So Frustrating...

To think that when legitimate questions, backed by official military records, were asked about the President's military service, those asking were shunned and ridiculed by the majority of the mainstream media as fringe players, and the matter was largely dropped. But now, when a group of men led by a longtime Republican operative starts making charges that not only contradict the official record, but in many cases their own previous public statements, the newsmedia, no matter how much you want to paint them as liberal propagandists, are rolling out the red carpet and taking what they say as truth without doing ANY research to verify their claims. It's frustrating, it's tiring, and it almost makes me want to say "Alright, fuck it, if THAT'S the kind of man you want to run your country, then welcome to him and let's see how you feel after four more years of this bullshit." Of course, I can't really do that, but sometimes you just want to give up. Maybe that's been the gameplan this whole time. If they just make enough noise and start enough crap, people will eventually just get tired and go along. There's no way in hell I'm going to vote for Bush, but I'll tell you, I'm starting to get tired.

A Minor Enhancement

Or, rather, a correction. Seems I set this site up so that you had to have a Blogger ID to post a comment. I've eliminated that restriction, so post away if you like, in relative anonimity. Although It would be nice if you put your name at the bottom of your post.

All You Need is New Kicks

Nike and Yoko Ono conspire to trash yet another countercultural icon. She has now been removed from the Artistic Roll Call. You can wear them with Jack Kerouac's khaki's.

"The people in our organization have no political ties..."

"...um, except for our lawyer. Oh, and that guy in our commercial who was also a member of the Bush/Cheney Verterans Advisory Board until people found out and he had to resign."
-What John O'Neill really meant

Newsflash: Alice Cooper Still an Opportunistic Sellout

Apparently, ol' Vince thinks that rockers who campaign for Kerry are "traitors" to rock and roll. No word on rockers who play golf with Bob Hope and Gerald Ford.

This is the Family Behind Republican's Favorite Books

The Regnery's. I know I know, there are lot's of dating services for Latinos, Blacks , Jews, etc. What's so wrong with an all-white dating service? Well, you have a point, I guess, if you can show that the other services are designed to facilitate the eventual domination of the United States by their respective ethnicities. Again, if you're buying books from Regnery Publishing, this is where your money is going.

This is Just Childish...

Kerry supporters in the Florida panhandle are having their signs stolen from their property. So, how much confidence do you really have in your candidate when you're turning to burglary and vandalism? What are you people, nine?

Paul Krugman rocks

Read this. Yeah yeah, I know, it's a subscription required page. But it's worth it and you can just use your spamtrap email address. So this is what it all boils down to for me: The Bush Administration is a group of folks, most of whom were nowhere to be found when it was time for them to serve, who now like to get all Clint Eastwood. John Kerry was a guy who disagreed with the Viet Nam policies of Johnson and Nixon, but went anyway because, I don't know, a sense of duty? Whatever, he went and put his ass on the line. And then he came back and said "I was there, and this is why the war is wrong (not an exact quote, but the gist of his argument, geddit?)." When did it become a Republican tactic to hold genuine war heroes up for scorn? Aren't they supposed to be the party of Real American Patriots? Or are all those Toby Keith and Lee Greenwood songs just a lot of hot air? Kerry has denounced the MoveOn.org ads that question Bush's military service, and has called on Bush to do the same to the Swiftboat Vetrans group. Bush has not done so. Why are people still looking to this guy as a leader. Because he made one or two good speeches during the week after 9/11? I really don't understand it, I wish someone would explain it to me without resorting to bumper sticker philosophy.

John O'Neill: Constitutional Dunce

Okay, so now O'Neill's going on the air and saying that if what he says is untrue, then John Kerry should sue him, and more than one conservative pundit says that Kerry Needs to release his records in order to clear everything up. My question is, why should he? Doesn't the burden of proof lie with the accuser? Why should John Kerry have to devote a single iota of his time to disproving someone else's story? That would be like a prosecutor dragging someone into court and accusing them of stealing, and the court demanding that they either provide evidence of their innocence or admit their guilt. Yeah, I know the court of public opinion works a little differently, but that doesn't mean it's right.

Since he just HAD to jump into this debate...

If Bob Dole wants to talk about the superficiality of John Kerry's Viet Nam wounds, maybe he can e'splain this. Again folks, anyone who thinks Kerry didn't deserve his purple hearts needs to review the criteria for earning one.

Matt Drudge: New Journalist or Same Old Crap?

Okay, here's the paragraph that's running at the top of Drudge's page right now (as of 11:43 EST):

"The Kerry campaign calls on a publisher to 'withdraw book' written by group of veterans, claiming veterans are lying about Kerry's service in Vietnam and operating as a front organization for Bush. Kerry campaign has told Salon.com that the publisher of UNFIT FOR COMMAND is 'retailing a hoax'... 'No publisher should want to be selling books with proven falsehoods in them,' Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton tells the online mag... Developing... "

And then, just below that, in big block letters "Kerry Campaign Calls for Book Ban."

Now, go read the paragraph again. Is he calling for the baning of the book? Well, you can read the article here (yeah, I know you have to watch an ad to view the article, but it takes about 15 seconds tops). According to the article, the Kerry spokesman the says the publisher "should consider" withdrawing the book. He doesn't call on the publisher to do so. Of course, that's not nearly as sexy sounding as Drudge's misleading headline, but hey, that's the liberal media for you.

UPDATE: There is now (as of 3:50pm EST) no reference at all to this story.

The Good News Is, You Wont Have to Pay More Taxes...

Here's a little primer on just how bad the Bush Administration wants to screw working people, courtesy of the AFL-CIO. Why anyone in their right mind believes he's for regular people is beyond me.

F@$%ing Finally!

The big knock on Kerry from Democrats has been his near-silence regarding some of the more shrill and vicious critics on the right. I understand the desire to not stoop to their level, it doesn't look very Presidential to get into a verbal food fight with some wing nut who thinks you're a pawn of the Rothschild family. But finally, FINALLY, he's fighting back against the attacks on his military service. Story here. What makes me laugh is that some of these guys are telling stories that, if true, should result in them giving back THEIR OWN medals from incidents in which Kerry got his. Plus, while the Swifty group claims that they alone are responsible for the ads (right, I'm sure this is all coming out of their military pensions), the people financing them have been longtime Bush contributors. I really think this group is doing more long-term damage to Bush/Cheney than they are to Kerry. This is going to backfire on Bush bigtime. And boy does he deserve it.

Ann Coulter Would Have Called Him a Wimp...

...but I'm sure it would just be the coke talking. The experts agree, Jesus would vote for Kerry.

(Thanks to Drew Curtis for the link)

A Good Kind of Crazy

Are you reading Jim Hightower? Well you should be.

Quite Possibly the Longest Ever Run-on Sentence

Tom Tomorrow's website gets a lot more traffic than mine (duh), which means he gets a better class of nut job emails than I do too. This one's a classic. At least he said "Thank you" at the end.

His rap name is Old Cranky Bastard

Rolling Stone has a pretty good article on Bill O'Reilly here. I've worked with this guy when he filled in at WRKO in Boston, and I'm still amazed that people are willing to give this cheap hack so much credibility after all these years. The guy just reeks of a former high school nerd who now has the power to bully everyone else. He's getting payback from the world for the way he was pushed around growing up. I'm surprised he doesn't have a locker on his set to shove people into.

Why isn't anyone pranking these things?

The Washington Post (suscription required) has a pretty good look into just how scripted and fake these Q&A sessions with the President really are. Plus, they're creating an opportunity for Bush to give voice to the smears that the Swift Boat jackasses are putting out there without actually saying these things himself. Check it out:

"Q On behalf of Vietnam veterans -- and I served six tours over there -- we do support the President. I only have one concern, and that's on the Purple Heart, and that is, is that there are over 200,000 Vietnam vets that died from Agent Orange and were never -- no Purple Heart has ever been awarded to a Vietnam veteran because of Agent Orange because it's never been changed in the regulations. Yet, we've got a candidate for President out here with two self-inflicted scratches, and I take that as an insult. (Applause.)
"THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Six tours? Whew. That's a lot of tours.
"Let's see, who've we got here? You got a question?"

Mr. President, I think you're being too subtle.

Is it just me...

Or is the Bush/Cheney campaign just shithouse crazy? Okay, I honestly don't know if this is the work of Jeb Bush on behalf of his brother's reelection bid, but come ON! An investigation no one will comment on that's targeting older black people who just so happen to work as voter registration volunteers? Are any of the major newsmedia even trying to find out what's going on? I mean, we know that they only gave a cursory glance to the fact that thousands of eligible voters were stricken from the rolls illegally last time around. Can it possible be just a coincidence that all this is taking place in Florida? The mind boggles.

I'm sure it's all Kerry's or Tom Menino's fault somehow...

If you plan on heading to NYC during RNC week, please make sure you've never publicly disagreed with the Bush Administration.

Who's on YOUR enemies list?

So what does it say when the President's nominee for CIA cheif is trying to legalize the kind of things Nixon did? Remember this is the guy that the White House insists is the most qualified person for the job, and he's on record earlier this year as saying he's not qualified to work at the CIA nowadays.

Putting on the foil

I know this is tiptoeing into global conspiracy territory, but is anyone else besides me just a little bit uncomfortable about all the GPS devices being so readily available? Not to mention OnStar? The thought that anyone might be able to track my every movement and possibly even control my vehicle from outside if they wanted to just kinda creeps me out. I'm sure it's made some people's lives easier, but it's still a little too Big Brother-ish, for me.

On an unrelated note: A few people have started to email me and give me feedback on this 'blog, which is nice. But what would be nicer (and not that I don't appreciate the support) is if you'd post a comment at the bottom of the post that interested you. That would go a long was towards making it seem like I'm not just talking to myself here. Thanks.

The views expressed are not necessarily those of our advertisers...

For some reason, there are links to conservative 'blogs and writers at the top of this page. I have no idea why this is. It's fine, I guess. This is a free 'blog service, so I guess they get to choose what they link from my page. I just think it's kind of strange. Just thought I'd mention it.

"Free the Memphis Three," my ass

Say a prayer for BA and Face. At long last, they can stop running.

And THEN what did you do?

Yet again, Bush declines an opportunity to yank the leash on the Swiftboat attack ads. But of course, why should he? His friends in Texas paid damn good money for them. What really confuses me is why McCain continues to work for him. I really want to like McCain (he is, after all, the Democrats favorite Republican), but to go back and shill for a guy who so blatantly smeared him last time around? For all the posturing from the right on how strong they are on military, etc., it's amazing that they don't seem to like actual soldiers very much.

Gary Gulman got robbed

Well, maybe not really, but I still think he had the best set on Tuesday's finals. Honestly, I think this season, with all of the attendant squabbles about whether or not it was fixed, was pretty good, even better than last year. It does seem like the folks in the cattle calls got hosed. At the very least, the producers cherry-picked the final 10 from the prearranged "private" auditions, not from all the folks who froze in the street waiting for their three minutes of stagetime. In a way, I'm almost glad Gary didn't win. I've worked with him and hung out with him in Boston, and I think he was certainly good enough to win the whole thing. But his manager, Barry Katz, is also the Executive Producer of the show, and I'd hate to see all the snarky comments about how he only won because of his manager. Gary's a good guy and a damn fine comic. At any rate, congrats to John Heffron.

Oh, and speaking of Flip-Floppers

Who the hell voted for this guy (thanks to Eric Alterman for the link)?

This Just In: Choosy Terrorists choose Jif

Plenty of other places are covering this story, but no one's really ever answered the question: If, as I understand it, these are basically the same drugs that are available in the US, only cheaper, then why is the Federal Government so hot to make people pay more? Why doesn't the FDA just admit that they are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry? The other irony about all of this is that, while Republican politicians (and quite a few Democrats too) get large amounts of money from big drug companies, Conservative pundits are always the ones who bemoan the culture that encourages so many people to take all these drugs. And they call US the flip-floppers.

Why I'm a lapsed Catholic (reason #439)

Boy, the Vatican really knows how to create some good will, don't they? Following this to it's logical conclusion, I think the next step would be to air Pay-per-view where each member of the College of Cardianls gets to slap a crippled child in the face.

Clearly, this was worth getting 1,000 US soldiers killed

Iraqi soccer is BACK, baby!

Taking the Redeye

People have been asking me lately why I'm always so tired. The answer? Gunfire isn't quite as relaxing as the Sounds of the Ocean.

Nyah nyah

Just entering this in order to prove I can update more often than The Reverend Tim McIntire. I'm sure he'll reply with a comment about having a fuller life or something. Whatever, dude.

We have liftoff

Okay, here we go. The test post apparently worked, so now I start posting in ernest. Welcome to my new 'blog. I used to have (actually I still have) another 'blog-like site that you can still read here:http://comedyjc.diaryland.com/. As you can see from that page, I'm a real stickler for timely, thought-provoking updates. This will be a combination of personal observation and political commentary, salted with what I hope will be sharp, pointed comedy. The reason I say hope is that, even after several years of traveling the professional stand-up comedy circuit, some things are still only funny to me.
Something you'll notice as you read my posts is that I'm rather left-leaning. What does that mean? Well, it certainly doesn't mean what talk radio would like you to believe it means. One thing that's always bugged me about conservative commentators and their respective adoring publics is that they've decided to frame the national debate based on what THEY say people like me believe, and then try to force us to defend it. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, we take the bait. The one thing I can promise you about this board is that you'll know I believe something WHEN I TELL YOU I DO. Nevermind what Rush and Hannity and O'Reilly tell you. When I say something, that's when you know.
I also promise to call bullshit when I see it from my own party. I'm more than willing to admit that there are folks on the left that can be just as hyper and shrill as some of those on the opposite side, and I'm sick of people trying to make me defend them too.
So there you go, about as much of a manifesto as I could muster at this point. I'll prolly change my mind more than once, but it's my damn 'blog, so I can do what I want. I can't imagine I'm talking to anyone but myself right now, but if you're reading this, I hope you enjoy it

Let's get this party started...

Wow, here I go stepping ever so gingerly into the blogosphere. Okay, just testing the new toy. Nothing else to see here.