Sarah Palin's critics are a bunch of wimps

Ann Althouse even calls them "candy-asses." The Huffington Post is having an attack of the vapors because Governor Palin is answering questions from reporters while turkeys (you know, next Thursday's dinner) are getting slaughtered in the background.

I think Sean Hackbarth may have a small point about needing a Mike Deaver to better set these photo ops. But the fainting spells are just a little silly.

I've never understood squeamishness. How do these people live their lives the rest of the time?

Why did he scratch a "B"?

We've all heard the story about the woman in Pennsylvania who was allegedly attacked by a robber who then became irate at her bumper sticker and scratched a "B" in her face. Put me down as a skeptic, along with Ann Althouse and Michelle Malkin.

Aside from the reasons they gave, why wouldn't the attacker make an "O"? The Obama "O" is as ubiquitous as a Christian crucifix* these days. Why would someone choose the other letter, especially when it is harder to do?

*yes, I chose the imagery on purpose.

The One

(Above) From Ann Althouse, Obama in the rain.
(Below) I agree with GOP3 this is quite creepy. Especially her eyes.

I think I preferred this in the original Italian.

Update! The video has been pulled. Not sure why.

Goodbye Sitemeter

Microsoft must hate Sitemeter. I got home tonight to discover Internet Explorer 7.0 could not open my blog all the way. After repeating the experiment on a second computer and getting the same results, I then watched to see where IE choked on my site. It kicked up an error right as it was loading Sitemeter. I tried to go to the Sitemeter website and got the same error.

So Sitemeter is gone, along with the TTLB Ecosystem. I wasn't a big fan of it anyway, and it's likely the problems were caused by Sitemeter playing with the cookies.

A quick look at Google points out I'm not alone in this.

Update! A commenter at Little Green Footballs has a solution:

Call the Messiah! he's the one we've been waiting for to fix the internet.

Update 2! Patrick at Badger Blogger has chucked Sitemeter, but Ann Althouse told me she is going to try to tough it out. She wants us to dump IE instead.

Update 3!No Runny Eggs reports, when in doubt - upgrade to the beta IE 8! (IE 1 the browser, IE 2 the browser... IE 8 the browser! You ate the browser? Yuck.)

Holy Moses

Ann Althouse found the most megalomaniacal line in Barack Obama's speech last night. I'm surprised she could pick the winner with so many to choose from.

Who are you to argue with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has once again picked my humble little efforts as the weekly Best of the Blogs. Perhaps it was because I took a jab at one of their competitors.

End of the line
Saturday (April 26) was the last day for the regularly printed version of the Capital Times. From here on out, Madison's Progressive newspaper will be pixels and bytes. Ed Garvey will miss it. After all, they gave him a lifetime achievement award. Ann Althouse will not, having been the target of its tolerance of low-minded conspiracy theorists.

I miss the loss of almost any newspaper, and so I guess I'm sorry to see Madison reduced to one daily liberal newspaper. Perhaps if the company that ran both newspapers hadn't let the Wisconsin State Journal drift leftward there would have been room for two newspapers. But when the choices are left and left-er, something's gotta give.

James Wigderson
Wigderson Library & Pub
wigdersonlibrarypub.blogspot.com

Screwed again by People Magazine

Once again People named their list of the 100 most beautiful people (ht: Althouse) , and I was overlooked once again. I was about to fire my publicist Pedro when ICE cleared out his rooming house. I knew he was a bargain at less-than-minimum wage, but you know what they say about jobs that Americans won't do.

Pedro left a note on my desk telling me I made the list of the 100 best looking Wisconsin bloggers, and that I need to pose for photos in my usual blogging attire. My wife suggested some clothes instead.

I don't know yet what magazine it's for, but I bet I finished in front of that Owen guy.

Red rag bytes dust

Saturday* was the last day for the regularly printed version of the Capital Times. From here on out Madison's Progressive newspaper will be pixels and bytes. Ed Garvey will miss it. After all, they gave him a lifetime achievement award. Ann Althouse will not, having been the target of its tolerance of low-minded conspiracy theorists.

I miss the loss of almost any newspaper, and so I guess I'm sorry to see Madison reduced to one daily liberal newspaper. Perhaps if the company that ran both newspapers hadn't let the Wisconsin State Journal drift leftward there would have been room for two newspapers. But when the choices are left and left-er, something's gotta give, especially in an era of declining newspaper readership.

As the French Communists discovered in coalition with Francois Mitterrand, it sucks to be at the extreme end.

* Yep, I was two days behind, too.

"Don't be such a lesbian"

Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan appearing on Tim Russert's program on MSNBC:

As the transcript at Media Matters indicates, Hitchens told Sullivan (who is gay), "Don't be such a lesbian. Get on with it."

Sullivan doesn't exactly look put out by his friend's comment, and later responds on his blog to the criticism of Hitchens, "Some people really need to get a sense of humor."

A commenter at Ann Althouse's blog claims,

Hitchens has a gay sensibility and that is a term that some gays say to others at times when they act like Sullivan was acting in that clip.

Another one responded,

Obviously, lesbians are heavy on the foreplay, oils...baths...whereas a good gay man (titus?) has fast dirty sex and gets it over with. Hitch was just asking him to "hurry it up" with his point.

Since I don't have the required "gay sensibility" (Dave in SF will even vouch for my dislike of Andrew Lloyd Weber), I cannot say one way or the other, except to note that Sullivan obviously got the joke whatever its point or comedic value.

Of course, I doubt Media Matters would have even noticed Hitchens' joke if Hitchens didn't talk about Hillary Clinton later in the same interview:

"I just think that if she knew how it made her look, sort of alternately soppy and bitchy, she'd stop it. But she can't help herself, can she? She just can't."

Is that Hitchens' way of saying Hillary Clinton should stop behaving like a gay caricature?

The do-anything, no-holds-barred candidate, part II

Ann Althouse has more on the do-anything, no-holds-barred Obama campaign from her son, Chris:

Looking at your precinct, I notice that you are a delegate for Clinton and the Delegation Chair in your precinct supports Obama. The same thing is true in my precinct--I'm for Clinton, and my Delegation Chair, who has never contacted me, is for Obama. It was actually the Obama Precinct Captain who told me, when I asked her a series of questions about the rules a few weeks ago, that it's the Delegation Chair's responsibility. To make up for this, I have made a point of personally calling and e-mailing all the Clinton delegates in my precinct (235), who would be out of the loop if it were left to the Delegation Chair.

Here's the problem: if the Clinton delegates who are in precincts with Delegation Chairs who support Obama (in other words, any precinct with an Obama majority, since those Chairs were voted on at the caucus) don't show up because those Delegation Chairs only contacted the Obama supporters, Obama will get delegates he didn't earn. The race is all about delegates, and those delegates will be determined by those who show up at the county convention, then determined by those who are sent on to the state convention. We can't let them win more delegates just by not telling us when the convention is!

Looks like the politics of hope is really the politics of "hope they don't show up."

And there's another update from Chris Althouse and Newsweek on the Obama wooing of Clinton delegates in Texas.

Obama is crushing my sense of innocence. Who can I believe now?

The do-anything, no-holds-barred candidate

Who'da thunk it was Obama? Chris Althouse, a Democratic county delegate in Texas supporting Hillary Clinton, received a mailing to flip his support to Obama:

I just got a flier in the mail from Barack Obama. It's clearly a special flier for delegates. It has my full name, address, and "Support Barack Obama at your County Convention!" There's no point in sending a message like that to anyone who isn't a delegate; the county convention is where the delegates meet, post-caucus. So, they got my name and address from a list of caucus delegates, and the lists of those delegates say who each person has pledged their support for. In fact, Clinton's campaign sent me a link to the lists that are sent to the campaigns, so I know what they look like. [ADDED: This list, which shows which candidate the delegate supports, is on line.] Technically, I could change my vote from Clinton to Obama, but the delegates were selected proportionately to represent the voters. Surely, he isn't suggesting that I do this, since he so firmly believes that delegates, pledged or super, can't go against the will of the people. Or is he?

Shady land deal, rough-and-tumble politics, all he needs to do is drop his pants in front of a civil servant and Obama is the second coming of Clinton.

Is he done speaking in Houston yet?

Ann Althouse may have one of the best photo captions ever:

I know, I heard the latest Barack Obama speech.

Meanwhile, Ben Smith blames Hillary...

When you play with conspiratorial fire

Sometimes you get grilled.

Some things aren't in the news because — unexciting as it may be to the mind of the conspiracy buff — they didn't happen.

The book on McCain's judges

Ann Althouse looks at the question of the kind of judges a President McCain would appoint.

McCain has embraced the generality of a conservative judge, but within that category, there will always be an array of judicial minds. Once he is elected, he'll be choosing from that array, and it remains fair to wonder whether he will pick more flexible pragmatic judges like O'Connor and Kennedy.

In fact, I think that is the line he probably perceived between Roberts and Alito — if he said what he's reputed to have said. I think people at the time did see a distinction like that, and even if McCain doesn't have a deep, lawyerly knowledge of law, he very well may have heard talk that Alito was more of an ideological conservative and Roberts had a instinct toward moderation and consensus.

If that really is the effective range, we could count on completing the transformation of the courts begun so long ago under Ed Meese and President Reagan.

Cap Times the conspiracy newsletter

From: James Wigderson
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 5:29 PM
To: John Nichols; Judie Kleinmaier
Subject: letters policy

I was surprised to see letters to the editor regarding 9-11 conspiracy theories actually published in a daily newspaper. I'm curious on the limits of the Capital Times letter policy.

For example, do you publish letters alleging Neil Armstrong never walked on the moon? What about the Kennedy assassinations? Does the allowable letters policy include those that assert the existence of UFOs, Bigfoot and/or psychic abilities?

What about conspiracy theorists writing the 2004 Tsunami was the result of military experiments? AIDS was a CIA conspiracy? Bush stole the 2004 election? Or the 2000 election?

What about "The DaVinci Code?"

Thanks in advance for your response.

Sincerely,

James Wigderson

Admittedly snarky, I received the following in response:

Kevin Barrett is from our area, and Ann Althouse (whose blog ripped on him) is a University of Wisconsin professor. We have covered this issue quite a bit. We often let people have their say in letters even if we don't agree with them.

Are you suggesting that we should believe everything our government -- the government of George Bush and Dick Cheney -- tells us?

Judie Kleinmaier, opinion editor, The Capital Times

Update! 2/7/08 11:50 AM
The exchange with Kleinmaier continued:
From: James Wigderson
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 3:31 PM
To: Judie Kleinmaier
Subject: RE: letters policy

So which conspiracy theories do you feel comfortable with appearing on the letters page?

- James Wigderson

Subject: RE: letters policy
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 07:46:27 -0600
From: "Judie Kleinmaier"

I don't keep a list. Letters are not news stories and, as I said, we let people have their say. Normally we don't run a lot of letters that come from out of our area. The only thing unusual about the Barrett letters is that we ran more letters from out-of-state people. Normally we don't get a lot of out-of-state letters, but we did on that topic -- I assume because Barrett and Althouse are from this area.

- Judie Kleinmaier

No limit to the nuttiness at the Cap Times

Blogger and law professor Ann Althouse has provoked a reaction from the wackos who believe the attacks on 9-11 were self-inflicted. The Capital Times, apparently suffering from a lack of other things to blame on President Bush, is actually printing their letters to the editor.

I prefer Althouse's reaction to the suggestion she debate one of these wackos: "... I would no more debate a 9/11 truther than I would a Nazi or a Klansman."

But they skipped the drinking game

Ann Althouse and Jessica McBride both "live blogged" the Republican Presidential Debate.

Althouse:

Yes, I'll do it. And I'll do it without TiVo assistance. Going TiVo-less is not just to make me completely spontaneous. I don't want to get bogged down in it. Once I start pausing, I start feeling responsible for everything. But there will be a transcript later for that. And, dammit, I want the TiVo for "Survivor"!

McBride (from her summary):

The clear winner of the GOP presidential debate tonight: Fred Thompson. He wasn't even on the stage, but the other candidates were all so problematic (or unknowns - like Duncan Hunter) that the groundswell is bound to grow for Thompson.

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Can we stop inviting Ann Coulter to conservative events?

I'll repeat myself: National Review was right to fire her, and conservatives should stop associating with her.

The latest victims of Ann Coulter's latest offensive rant designed to attract attention to herself were not so much John Edwards or homosexuals (both of whom will survive this quite nicely) but the other speakers who will now be asked to defend themselves for appearing at an event when Ann Coulter used the term, "faggot."

Why do conservatives continue to embarrass themselves by bringing Ann Coulter out in public? Haven't we figured out that her schtick is not at all different than Howard Stern's? Giving Coulter a podium and a microphone is like handing a nail gun to a two-year-old.

I think part of the problem is that there is a significant faction of the Right that wishes we were as free to be as obnoxious and offensive as the political Left, and they're more than willing to embrace Coulter just to hear the Left gasp. Except the Left isn't gasping anymore. They use Coulter to justify their own extremists even as they also use Coulter to bash anyone associated with the Right forcing all of us to once more go through the routine of saying, "Of course I don't hate homosexuals, and I condemn what Ann Coulter said..." (That extends to pundits, too.)

Maybe this will be the last straw, but I doubt it. After all Joe Sobran still draws dinner invitations. But with any luck conservative organizations will have learned their lesson and finally ostracize Coulter.

Maybe then she'll shave her head, enter rehab, write a book and become a liberal.

Now that will be funny.

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Who asked for your vote?

In this week's column for the Waukesha Freeman, I tell the voters, let's not ask which politician to vote for, but ask which politician asks for our vote. It's my plea for more candidates to actually go door-to-door to campaign, and not just at my house.

Years ago when I first learned about political campaigning from the Republican National Congressional Committee, we were told the most important asset to any campaign was the candidate. Not because we could mold him or her to our will as political consultants, but because the voters were much more likely to vote if asked by the candidate.
Think about your own experience as a voter meeting a candidate and how often you were more likely to vote for that person even after just a two-minute conversation.

In a similar vein, Dave Diamond explains why he "sucks" and decided not to go to the polls, Linda Clifford didn't ask him.

Y'see, where I live there was one and only one primary on the ballot, state Supreme Court. And Linda Clifford hasn't asked me to vote for her. Everyone else on every Dem mailing list I'm on has asked, but I've yet to get an e-mail or phone call from the Clifford campaign. Thus I couldn't vote for her, because I have a personal rule about not voting for people who don't ask me.

Given the Big Red Dog is going to need every vote she can get out of Dane County in April, I suspect Dave will be hearing from her soon.

And in the "Great Minds Think Alike Department", it's purely coincidental my use of American Idol as an example of Democracy in action and this discussion between Ann Althouse and James Pinkerton. But it's fun just the same.

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What would he thought of John Edward?

Ann Althouse passes along a great Groucho Marx anecdote (aren't they all great?) from Dick Cavett's blog:

The medium began to chant unintelligibly, and then to emit a strange humming sound (I can’t help seeing her as Margaret Dumont), eventually achieving her trance state. “I am in touch, I am in touch with the Other Side,” she intoned. “Does anyone have a question?”

Groucho arose and asked, “What is the capital of North Dakota?”

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