And it’s been in the works for a loooooong time:
MSNBC – Excerpts from Nixon White House tapes
June 16, 1971: Oval Office meeting with John O’Neill
Nixon: That’s great. Give it to [John Kerry], give it to him. And you can do it, because you have a pleasant manner, too, because you’ve got — and I think it’s a great service to the country.
Miami — Small toys showing an airplane flying into the World Trade Center were packed inside more than 14,000 bags of candy and sent to small groceries around the country before being recalled.
Lisy Corp., the wholesaler that distributed the candy, said Friday that the toys were purchased in bulk from a Miami-based import company.
The toys came in an assortment purchased sight unseen from L&M Import in Miami and included the toys depicting the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the twin towers, whistles and other small toys, said Luis Pedron, Lisy’s national sales manager. The invoice said the toy was a plastic swing set.
“I hate to blame the importer. He probably did not know what he was getting. He brings them in 40-foot containers. But whoever made it knew exactly what they were making,” Pedron said.
Pedron said Lisy did not notice the small plastic figurines until two people complained, but there is no mistaking what the toys represent: At the bottom of each is the product number 9011.
You get the feeling people slaving away in factories overseas for pennies a day might be the teeniest bit resentful?
On this page on the RNC website G O P.com :: Kerry Supporters Begin Protest Pilgrimage, we have this blurb, which I reproduce here:
And Speaking of Media Bias�
You know the drill � drop by Google News and enter �Ed Gillespie,� then count the articles headlining DNC boss Terry McAuliffe. The liberal bias is sooooo glaring it�s almost embarrassing.
Shall we talk about bias, then? Okay. Mouse over that headlining link. You’ll note that the link doesn’t search on Ed Gillespie, it searches on http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=McAuliffe:+Democrats+Not+Aiding+Protesters&filter=0
And we get a link to 20 copies of the same AP story in 20 different newspapers. If that’s bias, I’m a mongoose.
They really do think we’re dumb, don’t they?
Just for grins and giggles, I actually ran the real search on Ed Gillespie. Here’s what I got: Continue reading Speaking of media bias…
NYC is beginning to freeze around Madison Square Garden. I was living in Manhattan during the Democratic convention in ’92, and worked six blocks south of the garden– and I don’t remember it being anywhere near this bad.
On the one hand, it’s the post 9/11 world. On the other, I wonder if it’s not another ploy to make the Republican visitors feel like a persecuted minority, surrounded by these big bad mean liberals who hate us, so as to get them riled up and give their all for the Party.
To quote one of the most persecuted minorities in history– oy.
New York Post Online Edition: news
August 25, 2004 — WASHINGTON
House Speaker Dennis Hastert is charging in a new book that New York lawmakers’ attempts to win financial aid after the 9/11 attacks amounted to an “unseemly scramble” for money.
Just days before the GOP convention is set to begin in the city � and three years after the catastrophe from which many city businesses have yet to recover � the Illinois Republican’s ugly slap at the Big Apple infuriated New York legislators.
“The only thing unseemly is the three years it has taken us trying to get the president and Congress to fulfill their promise,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
“What’s unseemly is that the $20 billion became the ceiling, not the floor, in help to New York, when so many needs remains,” she added.
The headline on the Post that accompanies this is “Speaker Of The Louse”.
Folks, if you thought Republicans were going to get a hostile reaction before this story came out, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Unseemly? Hastert may not realize that this little attack wiped entire Zip Codes off the map. Acres of real estate. Major transportation hubs. Hundreds of businesses. Hundreds of thousands of lives affected.
Hastert should be out as House Speaker for this crack. And luckily, you can help do that, even if you don’t live in his district– all you have to do is vote against the Republican candidate for your local US Representative seat.
And here’s why we don’t like the leader of your party. (Hint: it’s not because we hate freedom.)
The 10 Ways Bush Screwed New York
And I’m sure we could come up with eleven. Or twelve. Or twenty. Or…
Andrew Tobias writes: Why We’re Gonna Win
In October of 2000, voters were asked whether they were �unusually excited� about the upcoming election. And now, in 2004, they’ve been asked again: Are they unusually excited about THIS upcoming election?
Among Republicans, the number is up � 51% are �unusually excited� versus 48% last time.
Among Democrats, the number is up from 36% to 68%.
That is not a typo.
Yes, but it’s also not sourced. Does anybody know where he got this from?
Via Matthew, we have this:
Marginal Revolution: Why the growth rate is important
The importance of the growth rate increases, the further into the future we look. If a country grows at two percent, as opposed to growing at one percent, the difference in welfare in a single year is relatively small. But over time the difference becomes very large. For instance, had America grown one percentage point less per year, between 1870 and 1990, the America of 1990 would be no richer than the Mexico of 1990. At a growth rate of five percent per annum, it takes just over eighty years for a country to move from a per capita income of $500 to a per capita income of $25,000, defining both in terms of constant real dollars. At a growth rate of one percent, such an improvement takes 393 years.
That’s me quoting me, from a book I am just starting to write. The tentative title is “The Welfare Economics of Human Tragedy: A New Approach to the Theory of Economic Policy.”
If I had to explain, in one sentence, the reason I am not on the political left, I would cite the enormous long-run benefits of economic growth. Of course it still can be argued that various left-wing policies, properly understood, will contribute to long-term growth. But in my view, if you are not supporting growth-maximizing economic policies, you better had a pretty good reason in your pocket.
Luckily for Tyler, I happen to have one. Which is that the Left seems to have better policies for maximizing growth.
Dwight Meredith did the math in late 2002, comparing growth under Democrat vs. Republican administrations over the last 40 years. He concluded:
The economy grew in 19 of the 20 years in which Democratic Presidents submitted a budget and in 16 of the 20 years in which Republican Presidents submitted a budget.
For the twenty years for which Republican presidents submitted budgets, the average rate of GDP growth was 2.94%.
For the twenty years in which Democratic presidents submitted budgets, the average rate of GDP growth was 3.92%.
Almost the full percentage point that Tyler was looking for.
Put another way, if the averages held and we had Democrats instead of Republicans for all 40 years, instead of just 20, we’d have economic growth of at least 465% instead of just 385%.*
*Yes, I’m oversimplifying the last bit. I don’t feel like doing the big calculation, which would be to add .98% to the actual performance of each Republican presidential year. But it’s close enough for illustration.
Saul Zaentz is suing New Line Cinema claiming that the studio has reneged on a deal calling for him to be paid a percentage of the adjusted gross profits of the three Lord of the Rings films, Daily Variety reported today. Zaentz, who bought the rights to the Tolkien novels in 1976, claims that he has been paid a percentage of the film’s net receipts instead — and that he is currently owed $20 million.
…that the best way to respond to that Swift Boat Vets ad where soldiers who theoretically served with Kerry claim that Kerry lied about his heroism in Vietnam and is unfit to command would be to make a similar ad attacking Bush for his time in the Alabama National Guard.
Of course, that would require finding somebody who actually served with Bush.
Damn, Rove’s clever.