Every now and then, I like to admit that the right-wing smear machine might be wrong about something.
So, today, based on these before, during, and after pictures, I admit that John Kerry apparently did turn a freakish shade of orange during a touch football game, and not as a result of some pre-debate cosmetic procedure gone awry, as some on the right have guessed.
So. Vitamin D overdose?
Quite literally Unbelievable:
Senator John Kerry's campaign said yesterday that Mr. Kerry did not own a Chinese assault rifle, as he was quoted as saying in Outdoor Life magazine, but a single-bolt-action military rifle, blaming aides who filled out the magazine's questionnaire on his behalf for the error.Though the comment was presented by Outdoor Life as part of an "exclusive interview with the two presidential candidates," four pages that included many long, conversational answers using first-person pronouns, [Kerry Campaign spokesman] Mr. [Michael] Meehan said Mr. Kerry's portions were written by his staff. A public relations representative for Outdoor Life did not respond to a message seeking comment.
I don't see how Outdoor Life can let this stand. I hope they will have a response soon. Maybe we can ask them!
Letters To The Editor
Outdoor Life Public Relations
(Link via Instapundit)
This just in - Rise in GOP Numbers May Impact Elections. Gosh, ya think? Here's why I think this headline demonstrates bias: it seems to regard high numbers of Democrats as normative, so that Republicans taking part in the election are steering it in an unnatural direction.
A review of national polls after the Republican National Convention found a slight shift in the number of people who described themselves as Republicans compared with the number who said they were Democrats. Polls after the Democratic National Convention, showed strength for Democratic nominee John Kerry (news - web sites) and the Democrats.
See? A rise in Republican numbers is a (value-neutral) "shift", while similar numbers for Democrats are "strength."
The rest of the piece is just as bad, and worse, and engages in a sort of "balance" I've noticed a lot of lately: turning a story on its head and then reporting it from that perspective.
Blogger/Broadcaster/Nice Guy Mitch Berg (also a Top5 contributor and an early Boviosity blogroller) got to MC a presidential rally in Minnesota. Drop by and congratulate him!
We interrupt your gleeful perusing of the CBS forged documents meltdown to bring you this delightful description of anarchist culture, courtesy of the great Charles Portis in his novel, "The Dog Of The South." I didn't really care for the book - it was a bit of a slog and a real letdown after "True Grit," but I was struck by this bit about an encounter with some radicals down Mexico way:
The Dane never showed up but they had the "seminar" anyway, under some shade trees in a place called the French Park. Jay Bomarr opened it with his famous speech, "Come Dream Along With Me." I had heard it myself, at Ole Miss of all places, back in the days when Jay was drawing big crowds. It was a dream of blood and smashed faces, with a lot of talk about "the people," whose historic duty it was to become a nameless herd and submit their lives to the absolute control of a small pack of wily and vicious intellectuals. Norma said it went over fairly well with the young Americans and Canadians, judging from the applause. No Mexicans came except for the professor who was chairman of the thing. Dupree was there, standing at the front, and he heckled Jay for awhile. He had a New Year's Eve noisemaker, a ratchet device that he swung around. The flunkies took it away from him and carried him off in the woods and beat him up.
The more that things change, eh? This was written in 1979.
In fairness, I don't think I'm the target audience for this. Post-punk X-country has always kind of seemed like a gimmick to me, losing the best parts of all the genres it attempts to meld while studiously avoiding the worst parts. It's just a whole lotta nothin' to me.
This CD has some fun crunchy guitar riffs you can bang your hat on if you're so inclined. The opener, "From Mercury To Texas," features the dreaded pointless F-bomb, so I can't play it for my kids, and it's not sophisticated enough for them to listen to when they're teens. The whole album is that kind of a wash. Oh, and I always kind of thought Mercury would be hot. The lyric indicates that the songwriter is freezing. Maybe he's on the dark side of the planet?
The target of the second song, "Lemonade," is people who want the lemonade but don't want the lemons. It's a hopeless muddle. "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade" is good advice, of course, but they've flipped it around so it makes no sense. I mean, we all know people who don't want to work hard to achieve success, but how many people really seek out misfortune in order to have the pleasure of working through it?
There are a couple of lovely alt-country ballads and interesting instrumentals, but the whole thing is pretty much unlistenable to me.
Why I have it: Promo copy bought at a used-CD sale for $1
Status: Curious? Higher tolerance for utterly gratuitous F-bombs than mine? Buy it here.
