It's like the '80s never happened

Via Matthew Yglesias, Oxblog posts an e-mail from Michael Ledeen that ends with this whopper:

Meanwhile [the Iranians] are organizing the extraction of Saddam from Iraq to Iran. I suppose fairly soon there will be a banquet of chiefs of state in Tehran, with Osama, Mullah Omar, Hekmatiar, Saddam and Khamene'i....

So Saddam is friends with the Iranians? Nothing like a fucking 8 year war to create an unbreakable bond between two nations.

So he's forgetting everything about the Iran/Iraq war except the Hezbollah incident. Which also, by the way, involves forgetting that unfortunate incident where Rummy was sent as special envoy to Iraq in order to normalize trade relations.

Excuse me, I must go bang my head against the wall.

Bill Maher's Blog

I don't think I've linked to Bill Maher's blog yet, so there you are. And to get you in the mood, here's one of his posts I like reposted here in full (usually I don't do that, but hey, I'm giving Maher free advertising on my immensely popular blog with its readership of at least 5 people):

Fair, Balanced, or Fox?

FOX News channel senior V.P. John Moody has instructed FOX affiliates to stop using Arnold-isms such as “Total Recall”, “The Governator”, and “The Running Man” to describe candidate Schwarzenegger lest they “belittle” Arnold’s candidacy or leave viewers with the impression that his candidacy is anything but a deadly serious one. While he’s at it, Moody might want to tell Arnold himself to stop ending press conferences with the words, “Hasta la vista, Gray Davis!” Because if he doesn’t people might get the idea that this recall is some kind of undemocratic, partisan freak show financed by cynical party hacks and swallowed whole by a weak-minded, action movie-addled public.

I have a new fan!

Nathan Newman has added me to his blogroll, adding the list of Raznor readers not in my immediate family by at least one. He asked me to add him to my blogroll, but I still don't have one of those, so check out his post on minimum wage anyway.

I'm going to go get breakfast.

blah blah blah

Internet connection on campus is really slow for the moment for some reason. So I'm not really sure when it'll speed up enough for me to get back to the once mighty blogging that made Raznor world famous last semester.

In the meantime, check out the series of posts over at This Modern World and as always, Atrios probably has posts on every important thing that's happened on the planet.

I'll look for more stuff to post in the midst of setting up my room.

Well that's new

So I'm in Portland again, which means more frequent blogging, including the fact that it's not just soldiers dying in Iraq anymore.

Right now, Iran is blaming US, everybody's pissed off, and the bottom line is things are chaotic, and things just keep getting worse.

I tell you, that democracy we're imposing better be the best fucking democracy of all time.

Ann Coulter Spontaneously Combusts

Get the scoop here.

Via Atrios.

Al Franken 1, Faux News 0

Goodbye frivolous lawsuit:

A federal judge on Friday denied Fox News Channel's request for an injunction to block humorist Al Franken's new book, which uses the Fox slogan "fair and balanced."

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said Fox's claim was "without merit, both factually and legally."

Well duh.

Via Oliver Willis.

Update: Bob Harris has a pretty good post on Fox's reaction to this.

Second Update: From the AP story:

The book went on sale nationally Thursday, moved up from its September rollout date because of publicity from the lawsuit. The publisher added 50,000 copies to the original run of 270,000 after the suit was filed.

So, uh, take that Al Franken.

Surprise, surprise, Texas Republicans don't give a fuck about the democratic process

Get Donkey has a has a pretty good run through of the Texas 11. Read it and be disgusted.

In the meanwhile I'm back in Portland next week, with constant internet access that's even better than the 56k I get at home. So more blogging starting then. I just hope the readership I might have had at some point returns. Hence increasing readership from 1 to 5.

Truly I am the most influential man in the history of Western Civilization. But still not tops in Eastern Civilization. Damn you Confucius!

New fair and balanced Get Your War On

Give it a fair and balanced read here.

It's Fair and Balanced Day

Just got off a fair and balanced day of work, am now watching the fair and balanced Diamondbacks play the Braves, in a fair and balanced manner. So I'll see if I'll post much fair and balanced more today. Oh, and fair and balanced.

Fair and Balanced

Following Atrios' lead in honor of the frivolous lawsuit by Fox News against Al Franken, this blog is now called "Raznor's Fair and Balanced Rants". 'Cause it's fair. And balanced. Yay.

Pete Rose back in baseball

Article here from Baseball Prospectus.

I dunno. Think about this what you will, but I really don't think Rose should be admitted. Posted in every Major League clubhouse is the rule that if you gamble on games you are involved in, you will be banned from Baseball for life. Pete Rose had been involved in Major League Baseball for a quarter century as a player and manager when he was caught on this. But for a more convincing argument, check out Derek Zumsteg's article on the Dowd Report.

In the meanwhile, Kudos to Baseball Prospectus. Anyone who regularly reads this knows I'm quite a fan of their site, and now they're breaking one hell of a big story.

Slow blogging but had to mention this one

What small readership I had earlier is probably gone by now after the slow bloggin' summer, I hope to reinvigorate this blog when I get back to Portland at the end of the month.

Still, for what readership I have I have to this (via August):

Lawyers for Fox who filed the complaint also take issue with Mr. Franken's book cover because it "mimics the look and style" of two books written by Bill O'Reilly, a prominent Fox News personality. Mr. O'Reilly is also pictured on the cover, just beneath the word "Lies."

The court papers refer to Mr. Franken, who is a former "Saturday Night Live" writer and performer, as a "parasite" who hopes to use Fox's reputation to confuse the public and boost sales of his book.

Mr. Franken is also accused of verbally attacking Mr. O'Reilly and other Fox personalities on at least two occasions, and of being "either intoxicated or deranged" as he flew into a rage at a press correspondents' dinner in April 2003. Mr. Franken has not filed a response in court to the suit.

I really have no comment on this. I mean what do I say? Fox News has no credibility and they can't take dissent? I mean, is anyone readint this who didn't already know this? And, my god, it's called satire! Any reasonable person should know that Al Franken is going to use exaggeration to emphasize his points. Fortunately, this fact should allow him to get this frivolous law suit dismissed in any court.

Update: Turns out that the basis of the lawsuit isn't the libel part, but copyright infringement, since the title is Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Theml: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. To which, I can merely say, "Ugh".

Yay!

Good news for the now-Bishop Robinson, the smear campaign has officially failed. Via August who has some pretty good thoughts on the subject.

Ted Rall on the Futures Market

If you click for long enough, you'll find porn

All the hypocritical controversy about Robinson, the gay Episcopalian priest who's nominated for bishop, is pretty well summed up by Atrios and August. But in case you missed it, it all revolves around this anonymous e-mail:

If you go to a website, and then make a few more clicks, and then leave the web site, and then make a few more clicks, you can access some erotica if you pay for it.

Which refers to this website.

So the website in question has links, which go to other sites that have links, which you can click to get other sites that have links, and so on until at some point you come across erotica.

My God! He supports pornography!!!!!!!! Ban him from the priesthood!!!! And this has nothing to do with his sexual orientation!! At all.

Anyway, this led me to postulate a theory, I call it the Internet Porn Probability Theory:

Given an arbitrary website, the probability of reaching pornography through random link clicking ad infinitum is 1.

Any Raznor readers care to test this theory? Let me know.

Oliver Willis has jumped on the Dean bandwagon

I've been losing my Dean zeal lately, but seeing Willis' enthusiastic endorsement fills me with joy, and at least a memory of the zeal I once had. Still not sure if I want to lean toward the Dean or Kucinich camp. There's still half a year before the primaries, so as the foot guy from "Who Am I" says: "take it easy, we have plenty of time."

Sorry for the obscure reference. Tom, if you're reading, it should give you a thrill at least.

Bush lashes out against Fox News!!!

Seriously man! Tom Tomorrow links to this:

Q: Thank you, sir. Since taking office you signed into law three major tax cuts -- two of which have had plenty of time to take effect, the third of which, as you pointed out earlier, is taking effect now. Yet, the unemployment rate has continued rising. We now have more evidence of a massive budget deficit that taxpayers are going to be paying off for years or decades to come; the economy continues to shed jobs. What evidence can you point to that tax cuts, at least of the variety that you have supported, are really working to help this economy? And do you need to be thinking about some other approach?

GWB: Yes. No, to answer the last part of your question. First of all, let me -- just a quick history, recent history. The stock market started to decline in March of 2000. Then the first quarter of 2001 was a recession. And then we got attacked in 9/11. And then corporate scandals started to bubble up to the surface, which created a -- a lack of confidence in the system. And then we had the drumbeat to war. Remember on our TV screens -- I'm not suggesting which network did this -- but it said, "March to War," every day from last summer until the spring -- "March to War, March to War." That's not a very conducive environment for people to take risk, when they hear, "March to War" all the time.