You speak eloquently and have seemingly read every
book ever published. You are a fountain of
endless (sometimes useless) knowledge, and
never fail to impress at a party.
What people love: You can answer almost any
question people ask, and have thus been
nicknamed Jeeves.
What people hate: You constantly correct their
grammar and insult their paperbacks.
What Kind of Elitist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Letter to Bush Cheney ’04 Campaign Manager Ken Mehlman
Yesterday, I received a letter from Bush Cheney ’04 Campaign Manager Ken Mehlman asking our campaign for a tape of a recent fund-raising event. Today, I sent the following reply:
July 13, 2004
Ken Mehlman
Campaign Manager
BUSH-CHENEY ’04, Inc.
P.O. BOX 10648
Arlington, VA 22210
Dear Ken:
Over the past several months, allies of the President have questioned John Kerry’s patriotism while your staff has criticized his service in Vietnam. Republicans and their allies have gone so far as to launch attacks against his wife and your campaign has run $80 million in negative ads that have been called baseless, misleading and unfair by several independent observers.
Considering that the President has failed to even come close to keeping his promise to change the tone in Washington, we find your outrage over and paparazzi-like obsession with a fund-raising event to be misplaced. The fact is that the nation has a greater interest in seeing several documents made public relating to the President’s performance in office and personal veracity that the White House has steadfastly refused to release. As such, we will not consider your request until the Bush campaign and White House make public the documents/materials listed below:
[...]
We also wanted to wish you a happy anniversary. As we are sure you and the attorneys representing the President, Vice-President and other White House officials are aware, today marks one year since Administration sources leaked the identity of a covert CIA agent to Bob Novak in an effort to retaliate against a critic of the Administration.
In light of the fact that the Administration began gutting the laws protecting the nation’s forests yesterday, we hope you will accept the paper on which this letter is written as an anniversary gift. (The one year anniversary is known as the “paper anniversary.”)
Sincerely,
Mary Beth Cahill
Campaign Manager
U.S. Senate Blocks Bid to Vote on Gay Marriage Ban
Yay!
There were only 48 votes to cut off debate and continue on to a final roll call. 60 votes were needed.
During the debate, Rick Santorum, bless ‘im, said, “It is not about hate. It is not about gay bashing. It is simply about doing the right thing for the basic glue that holds society together.”
Sure.
The six Republicans who crossed the aisle were McCain-AZ, Nighthorse Campbell-CO, Miller-GA, Snowe and Collins-ME, Nelson-NE, Sununu-NH, Chafee-RI. Good job, guys.
Update: Vote tally
A person I like forwarded the following on to me. Imagine HUGE FONTS! and PURPLE! GREEN! RED! lettering.
Onward.
Subject: Unbelievable!!!
USPS New Stamp (ed. Well, no. It isn’t. The stamp was first released in September 2001, then re-released — and the price raised from 34c to 37c — in October 2002.)
This one is impossible to believe. Scroll down for the text.
If there is only one thing you forward today…..let it be this!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of PanAm
Flight 103!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World
Trade Center in 1993!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine
barracks in Lebanon!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military
barracks in Saudi Arabia!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American
Embassies in Africa!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001!
REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were
lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!
Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the
EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class
holiday postage stamp.
REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp
when purchasing your stamps at the post office.
To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those
AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.
REMEMBER to pass this along to every patriotic AMERICAN you know.
As I said, I like the guy. He’s my dad’s age, maybe a bit older or a bit younger. Should I put up a fuss or should I let it slide, like I often let things slide when my dad says something I may not wholeheartedly agree with.
I stewed about it for a while, wondering whether I should reply at all and, if so, what I should say. I decided that if my dad had sent me something like this, I would’ve replied with a polite protest and given back my differing viewpoint. I couldn’t let this abomination, for that’s what I considered it, just pass by without comment.
Herewith my reply:
I buy the stamp and do not think it un-patriotic to do so. After all, President Bush sends official greetings from the White House to Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr and no one is doubting his patriotism or claiming that he’s ignoring Americans who have died in terrorist attacks when he does so.
http://philippines.usembassy.gov/wwwhr172.html
Best,
Too wimpy? Too snarky? Should I just have let the e-mail drop into that great bit bucket in the sky?
Had a headsup e-mail from a correspondent calling himself Jim Chasm yesterday, telling me there was another Erdös number up for grabs at eBay.
Don’t know what an Erdös number is? Check the explanation I gave the last time one was up for sale.
The previous eBay auction, which ended in shambles and refusal to pay the winning bid, offered an Erdös number of 5. The current auction offers a 2, which is as good as it gets, being as Erdös himself is dead.
Seems someone who co-authored a paper with Erdös is looking to write a paper on Playing Skill in the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour and needs some help with research and analysis.
The “item location” for this auction is the bucolic village of Forest Grove, OR, where I spent a couple days a few years back. I sent a heads-up about the auction and the item location to the editor/publisher of Computer Bits, for which I write a monthly column. The editor/publisher hies from that area and has a serious poker-playing buddy who may be able to suss out who this mysterious Erdös 1 is.
How “real” is this auction and how serious are the people who track Erdös numbers? You be the judge.
Auction ends Jul-22-04 19:30:00 PDT.
I realized someone is way more organized than I am when I came across this item from Bill Keaggy’s astounding grocery list collection.
We scratch our lists on notepads handed out by two of our favorite local real estate agents. The smiling faces of Susan and Joe top our lists: cottage cheese, grapefruit, Weetabix, milk.
CBC Archives. Subtitled, “Relive our History through CBC Radio and Television.” Clips, topics, archives — terrific site for the history buff, the curious, the Canadian.
The JAG Hunter – a US military justice blog with interesting article links and teasing excerpts. e.g.
13.7.04
Red Cross Suspects U.S. Hides Detainees
Nebraska’s attorney general on the effects of a general discharge from military service…
US notifies Japan that army deserter will be charged
Barriers to voting remain for troops deployed abroad
GIs Charged In Detainee Death
US secretly holding terror suspects – Red Cross
Pfc. Lynndie England hearing is rescheduled again
White House lawyer laments Bush court loss
Pentagon to Begin Guantanamo Hearings in Weeks
Marine facing court-martial says he was told to be rough with prisoners
… and that’s only in the last eight hours or so.
[found The JAG Hunter using http://www.blogger.com/redirect/next_blog.pyra — Blogger’s “next blog” feature]
Patricia Unterman and Michael Bauer have (finally!) made their way to El Raigón. Their opinions differ a bit from each other. (Bauer especially laid into the wine prices.)
I’m assuming that even though they chow down with each other on occasion (this being one of them), they don’t look at each others’ reviews while writing their own.
They both agree with me that those sweet, simple, grilled sweetbreads are yummy as are the Panqueques con Dulce de Leche.
Yum.
El Raigón. (510 Union St., North Beach, San Francisco) — Good place for Atkins dieters and lovers of sweetbreads. Not so good place for vegetarians.
SJ Rozan has a blog. Rozan also has another blog — progress: from manuscript to bookstore — the publishing process.
progress details the minutiae (and progress!) involved with getting ABSENT FRIENDS, Rozan’s ninth book, out by September, 2004. Rozan also answers questions from readers regarding the process.
Looking to publish your first book? Writer, this blog’s for you.
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