I am constantly surprised at the animosity toward Bush.
-- Richard Cohen
This is the sort of thing that explains why there will be an uphill battle for Democrats, especially if Sen. Kerry (as is his wont) tries to heavy handedly carry it out. Cohen spends the whole column explaining how President Bush (after appearing to accomplish just that in Texas) totally failed at his promise to be a "uniter, not a divider." [History will show he did it before even being officially elected, during the election controversy. It was downhill from there.] And, he is surprised that people strongly dislike the guy? Admittedly, as shown by his changing tune on the war, Cohen is a bit slow on the uptake, but this is ridiculous.
Furthermore, it should be underlined that it is debatable how successful President Bush handled things right after 9/11. It is questionable, factoring in the "tax shift" process (explained here, and pointed out by both Sen. Edwards and Howard Dean), that he truly reduced taxes. Military reforms are blackened by the costs in the long run arising from our Iraqi excursion. The missile system is of debatable use and the educational reforms are suspect. Thus, even the promises allegedly fulfilled or praiseworthy actions as suggested in the piece at the end of the day doesn't quite work out. And, Cohen was far from silent about some of these things. But, still, he is surprised at just how much people don't like the guy.
Aggravating, but quite revealing.
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Late Night: The mayor of New Paltz, NY, who got in trouble recently for marrying some same sex couples recently was a guest on Conan. It was a nice little interview, fairly serious, if not excessively so. The mayor is in his mid-twenties, and is a house painter and amateur performer, given the mayoral job is part time and only pays $8K a year. Dave had Courtney Love on and she made a total fool out of herself, appearing basically to be on drugs of some sort. She flashed him repeatedly (no Drew Barrymore, who flashed him a decade ago on his birthday, she) and rambled on and on (plus performed her number badly) as he looked on clearly uncomfortable. I don't quite understand why Letterman allowed this to go on -- it was not his finest hour. Love was later arrested that night for hitting an audience member at an unscheduled concert with a microphone stand.
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The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday overruled its staff and declared that an expletive uttered by rock star Bono on NBC last year was both indecent and profane. The agency made it clear that virtually any use of the F-word was inappropriate for over-the-air radio and television.
"The 'F-word' is one of the most vulgar, graphic and explicit descriptions of sexual activity in the English language," the commission said Thursday. "The fact that the use of this word may have been unintentional is irrelevant; it still has the same effect of exposing children to indecent language." [cite]
I was not aware that the word "fuck" had some inherently sacrilegious ("profane") meaning. Also, it amuses me how various nasty epithets are acceptable but a passing unscripted "fucking brilliant" on an award show (I'm guessing Bono cursed in some of his songs) is so outrageous. The prudery involved here, the going so far as overruling a staff recommendation, is patently obvious.
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Happy Birthday ... C-SPAN.