Politics: Where we struggle to kneel in the muck.

[The Larry Davis Experience]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
I realize "homicide bombers" takes a bias against the people getting on buses or airplanes and blowing up themselves and some mothers and kids. what I don't get is why this is seen as "right wing."

I think it's seen as right wing because it is most often right wingers using the term (see sgtclub's support of your point).

I personally think homicide bomber is kind of a goofy term because every bomber who takes a life is a homicide bomber. Why not just call them a bomber.

Do you take "homicide bomber" to refer only to those attackers who take their own life?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by The Larry Davis Experience
I think it's seen as right wing because it is most often right wingers using the term (see sgtclub's support of your point).

I personally think homicide bomber is kind of a goofy term because every bomber who takes a life is a homicide bomber. Why not just call them a bomber.

Do you take "homicide bomber" to refer only to those attackers who take their own life?

The wingers are going to start using the terms "homicide shooter," "homicide stabber," and "homicide killer" as well.

Because they don't want to run the risk that Atticus will nail them for a logical inconsistency.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

From Kleiman, Kerry's Top Ten list:


10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.

9. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.

8. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.

7. The reduced earned income tax credit is so unfair, it just makes me want to tear out my lustrous, finely groomed hair.

6. Attorney General (John) Ashcroft gets to write off the entire U.S. Constitution.

5. Texas Rangers can take a business loss for trading Sammy Sosa.

4. Eliminate all income taxes; just ask Teresa to cover the whole damn thing.

3. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.

2. Hundred-dollar penalty if you pronounce it "nuclear" instead of 'nucular.'

1. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by The Larry Davis Experience
I think it's seen as right wing because it is most often right wingers using the term (see sgtclub's support of your point).

I personally think homicide bomber is kind of a goofy term because every bomber who takes a life is a homicide bomber. Why not just call them a bomber.

Do you take "homicide bomber" to refer only to those attackers who take their own life?

It is odd indeed to have the logic of my post questioned, when only moments before, Ty actually said the fact that the lunatic Bush- hater, who fed Rather's bloodlust, had spoken with high ranking Kerry officials was a non-story.

Anyway, homicide bomber was a coined phrase. It was developed to replace suicide bomber. Larry its not enough to argue "homicide bomber" is inaccurate. You have to show homicide bomber is worse than suicide bomber. I explained why I think it solid.

[The Larry Davis Experience]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
It is odd indeed to have the logic of my post questioned, when only moments before, Ty actually said the fact that the lunatic Bush- hater, who fed Rather's bloodlust, had spoken with high ranking Kerry officials was a non-story.

Easy, tiger. No one's questioning your logic. I was asking you how you use the term. And if you think Joe Lockhart is high up, you must think Scott McClellan is next in line to replace Rumsfeld at DoD.

Anyway, homicide bomber was a coined phrase. It was developed to replace suicide bomber. Larry its not enough to argue "homicide bomber" is inaccurate. You have to show homicide bomber is worse than suicide bomber. I explained why I think it solid.

I think it's worse simply because it's redundant. Out of "suicide bomber" I intuitively get that the guy killed himself, based on the meanings of the two words separately. If you think it makes the dead guy look worse if you change "sui-" to "homi-", then go knock yourself out.

[SlaveNoMore]

Tyrone Slothrop
From Kleiman, Kerry's Top Ten list:


10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.

9. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.

8. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.

7. The reduced earned income tax credit is so unfair, it just makes me want to tear out my lustrous, finely groomed hair.

6. Attorney General (John) Ashcroft gets to write off the entire U.S. Constitution.

5. Texas Rangers can take a business loss for trading Sammy Sosa.

4. Eliminate all income taxes; just ask Teresa to cover the whole damn thing.

3. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.

2. Hundred-dollar penalty if you pronounce it "nuclear" instead of 'nucular.'

1. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.

Ya know - this is actually a lot more funny than it seemed when he read it last night. Lummox.

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by sgtclub
So now the flag, caring for the troops, and patriotic music makes them biased? OK, whatever.

As a purely tangential point, Jon Stewart appeared on the O'Reilly Factor on Friday. Link is to the transcript, not video, so we can't know if that little vein in O'Reilly's forehead started bulging or not. On the upside, notwithstanding Bill's noted control of interviews on his show, Stewart got O'Reilly to talk about talking puppets, and their eligibility to vote as non-felonious Florida Republicans.

Also, look for the memos on that 87% statistic. Bloggers, get your MS Word packages ready!

• JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW": How are you, sir?
  
  O'REILLY: OK. You know what's really frightening?
  
  STEWART: Uh oh.
  
  O'REILLY: You know what's really frightening?
  
  STEWART: You've been reading my diary.
  
  O'REILLY: You actually have an influence on this presidential election. That is scary.
  
  STEWART: If that were so, that would be quite frightening.
  
  O'REILLY: But it is. It's true. I mean, you've got stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night, OK, and they can vote.
  
  STEWART: Yeah.
  
  O'REILLY: You can't stop them.
  
  STEWART: Yeah, I just don't know how motivated they would be, these stoned slackers.
  
  O'REILLY: Yeah, it just depends if they have to go out that day.
  
  STEWART: What am I, a Cheech and Chong movie? Stoned slackers?
  
  O'REILLY: Come on, you do the research, you know the research on your program.
  
  STEWART: No, we don't.
  
  O'REILLY: Eighty-seven percent are intoxicated when they watch it. You didn't see that?
  
  STEWART: No, I didn't realize that.
  
  O'REILLY: Yeah, we have that there.
  
  STEWART: We come on right after, I believe, puppets that make crank calls...
  
  O'REILLY: Yeah.
  
  STEWART: ... so we are, I think, the appropriate follow up...
  
  O'REILLY: Yeah, and that's a great lead-in for you.
  
  STEWART: It's a wonderful show, by the way.
  
  O'REILLY: Puppets can't vote, but these dopey kids who watch you can.
  
  STEWART: They actually can -- in Florida, they can.
  
  O'REILLY: Puppets can vote in Florida.
  
  STEWART: As long as they vote Republican.
  
  O'REILLY: And they haven't committed a felony.
  
  STEWART: And they haven't committed a felony, that's exactly right.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by sgtclub
So now the flag, caring for the troops, and patriotic music makes them biased? OK, whatever.

Did you just read your sentence? Yes, absolutely it does. Its a huge red white and blue flag, and the commentators all but beamed when Iraq started getting bombed. It was treated like a carnival by Fox. Nothing wrong with that, I guess, but it is pretty damn biased. We all had the same horse in that race, but most of us were shaking our heads saying "Fuck, how in the hell has it come to this?" or "I don't know if this is such a good idea, but we'll see soon enough..." Nobody with any brains or conscience was saying "Yes. Lets get Iraq!"... mainly because no one could summon any reason to "get" Iraq. There was nothing to retaliate against. Fox wrapped a cynical strategic move in the flag, and played along with Bush's sale of the war on false pretenses to the lowest common denominator of our society. As Warren Zevon sang, that "ain't that pretty at all." CNN may be left, but at least it tried to show some dignity by just broadcasting the bombs and saying "here's whats going on." Fox could have done that, but instead it cheerlead. I guess it wasn't wrong for them to do so, but it did leave a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

Cheerleading in Afghanistan was fine, but Iraq? I mean, really... what was the cheer? "Yes, we're going to take the war to the shores of a weak third party we knew we could topple! USA! USA!"

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Gattigap
As a purely tangential point, Jon Stewart appeared on the O'Reilly Factor on Friday. Link is to the transcript, not video, so we can't know if that little vein in O'Reilly's forehead started bulging or not. On the upside, notwithstanding Bill's noted control of interviews on his show, Stewart got O'Reilly to talk about talking puppets, and their eligibility to vote as non-felonious Florida Republicans.

Also, look for the memos on that 87% statistic. Bloggers, get your MS Word packages ready!

• JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW": How are you, sir?
  
  O'REILLY: OK. You know what's really frightening?
  
  STEWART: Uh oh.
  
  O'REILLY: You know what's really frightening?
  
  STEWART: You've been reading my diary.
  
  O'REILLY: You actually have an influence on this presidential election. That is scary.
  
  STEWART: If that were so, that would be quite frightening.
  
  O'REILLY: But it is. It's true. I mean, you've got stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night, OK, and they can vote.
  
  STEWART: Yeah.
  
  O'REILLY: You can't stop them.
  
  STEWART: Yeah, I just don't know how motivated they would be, these stoned slackers.
  
  O'REILLY: Yeah, it just depends if they have to go out that day.
  
  STEWART: What am I, a Cheech and Chong movie? Stoned slackers?
  
  O'REILLY: Come on, you do the research, you know the research on your program.
  
  STEWART: No, we don't.
  
  O'REILLY: Eighty-seven percent are intoxicated when they watch it. You didn't see that?
  
  STEWART: No, I didn't realize that.
  
  O'REILLY: Yeah, we have that there.
  
  STEWART: We come on right after, I believe, puppets that make crank calls...
  
  O'REILLY: Yeah.
  
  STEWART: ... so we are, I think, the appropriate follow up...
  
  O'REILLY: Yeah, and that's a great lead-in for you.
  
  STEWART: It's a wonderful show, by the way.
  
  O'REILLY: Puppets can't vote, but these dopey kids who watch you can.
  
  STEWART: They actually can -- in Florida, they can.
  
  O'REILLY: Puppets can vote in Florida.
  
  STEWART: As long as they vote Republican.
  
  O'REILLY: And they haven't committed a felony.
  
  STEWART: And they haven't committed a felony, that's exactly right.

it was tongue in cheek and in good humor. they were goofing on each other.

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by The Larry Davis Experience

I think it's worse simply because it's redundant. Out of "suicide bomber" I intuitively get that the guy killed himself, based on the meanings of the two words separately. If you think it makes the dead guy look worse if you change "sui-" to "homi-", then go knock yourself out.

I propose suihomi-bomber.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Did you just read your sentence? Yes, absolutely it does. Its a huge red white and blue flag, and the commentators all but beamed when Iraq started getting bombed. It was treated like a carnival by Fox. Nothing wrong with that, I guess, but it is pretty damn biased. We all had the same horse in that race, but most of us were shaking our heads saying "Fuck, how in the hell has it come to this?" or "I don't know if this is such a good idea, but we'll see soon enough..." Nobody with any brains or conscience was saying "Yes. Lets get Iraq!"... mainly because no one could summon any reason to "get" Iraq. There was nothing to retaliate against. Fox wrapped a cynical strategic move in the flag, and played along with Bush's sale of the war on false pretenses to the lowest common denominator of our society. As Warren Zevon sang, that "ain't that pretty at all." CNN may be left, but at least it tried to show some dignity by just broadcasting the bombs and saying "here's whats going on." Fox could have done that, but instead it cheerlead. I guess it wasn't wrong for them to do so, but it did leave a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

Cheerleading in Afghanistan was fine, but Iraq? I mean, really... what was the cheer? "Yes, we're going to take the war to the shores of a weak third party we knew we could topple! USA! USA!"

I recommend

[The Larry Davis Experience]

Originally posted by sgtclub
I propose suihomi-bomber.

Works for me.

Also on the plus side, if Hank wants to keep his beloved "homicide bomber" terminology he will have to show how this new term is worse. The evolution of the English language is mercilessly evenhanded.

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
it was tongue in cheek and in good humor. they were goofing on each other.

Well, yeah.

[By placing my ear to the screen, I think I actually heard my joke fail. Contrary to earlier descriptions of a "thud," I think mine went "splat."]

[Say_hello_for_me]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Bush's sale of the war on false pretenses to the lowest common denominator of our society

Ahem, I invented this concept earlier today with my explanation of the War on Drugs and the War on Poverty. You were a nice whole number. Guess which one?

[Aloha Mr. Learned Hand]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
The transcript of the Lockhart thing is on Atrios, and it's fun to read. Very unclear to me why the existence of a telephone call between Burkett and Lockhart should be a story, but he does a good job of flipping it around.

I agree with you that there's not much to the "Kerry Campaign Conspiracy" angle to this story as we speak, and there may never be. I am pretty disturbed, however, that a CBS News Producer is facilitating a contact between her source for an anti-Bush story she's working on and a senior official of the Kerry campaign, for what it says about her journalistic integrity (oxymoron?).