34/43

Ike at West Point, Bush at Yale.

1.from Bob’s inelegant URL: “Hey New York! Please get rid of Hillary!!!

First, she has Rupert Murdoch organizing fundraisers for her, and now she decides that 31% is a great time to declare her affection [*] for the worst pResident in US history:


In a speech at the National Archives on her political career, Mrs. Clinton said of Bush: "He is someone who has a lot of charm and charisma, and I think in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I was very grateful to him for his support for New York."

While asserting that she had "many disagreements about many, many issues" with the Republican president, she added, "He's been very willing to talk. He's been affable. He's been good company."

[*]“As Bush’s popularity sinks to new lows-a boost from Hillary Clinton”

2. from Haroon Moghul, “dubai is a train, which has no brakes”

I have new appreciation for Fareed Zakaria. He just smacked George Will, idiot extraordinaire, up there with [that] stupid Thomas Friedman: George Will just said, on Stephanopoulus' "This Week", and I'm paraphrasing, "I blame God for putting the oil under the ground of very unstable places, like Venezuela, the Middle East..." and I was like oh my God you stupid head, you didn't just say that out loud? (Yes. Stupid Head.) Thank Allah Fareed Zakaria intervened with a welcome and necessary shot of intelligence. He pointed out, as gently as possible, that it was the other way around: Oil makes places unstable. It's easy money and attracts ugly people as such. So the places weren't unstable so much as they were made unstable...

3.Some guy named Joel Aufrecht writes:

I got a free online subscription to The New Republic when I renewed my Salon subscription. The New Republic annoys me. One reason is their gratuitously contrarian article summaries. These examples are all from the last week[early Feb 2005-JV]:

* Hosni Mubarak is a nasty dictator who has stymied liberalism in Egypt. But it's precisely for the sake of liberalism in Egypt that he should be allowed to reelect himself one more time.

* The U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal is not really a scandal. It worked exactly as expected. And that's the problem.

* Bush's record on global warming is better than you think.

* Why North Korea's announcement that it has nuclear weapons could prove to be a good thing.

* Holland thought it was a model for Muslim integration into Europe. Unfortunately, it might be.

Aufrecht doesn’t care very much for Stanley Kauffmann either, saying that “big chunks of plot and meaning fly right over his head. And I don't mean deep Kurosawa or Renoir subtext. I mean basic plot elements.” Aufrecht only provides one example, for a film with which I’m unfamiliar.

4. And finally, West Point Grads Against the War:this site may disappear soon because the defense department says they are not authorized to use the name “West Point”, as it is the property of the government(!).

from Newsday:

A co-founder of West Point Graduates Against the War countered Friday that his organization is simply following the cadets' code.

"At West Point, we were taught that cadets do not lie, cheat or steal -- and to oppose those who do," said William Cross, a 1962 West Point graduate. "We are a positive organization. We are not anti-West Point or anti-military. We are just trying to uphold what we were taught."

The group, open to West Point graduates, spouses and children, claims about 50 members.

West Point spokesman Lt. Col. Kent Cassella said the academy sent the April 12 warning letter because the group failed to go through a licensing process to get permission to use the term "West Point." The group's anti-war stance is irrelevant, he said.

"This is not a political issue. They did not ask for permission. We are doing what any college or university would do to enforce its trademarks," Cassella said.

and, from the site in question:

"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war."

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity. War settles nothing."

"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."

"If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They’ll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government."

Dwight D. Eisenhower

34th President of the United States