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August 23, 2004

"A Web of Connections"

Recently, the New York Times accused Republican-leaning citizens of Practicing Politics in the First Degree when it expressed shock and outrage that, get this, conservatives who don't like John Forbes Kerry were donating money to organizations that don't like John Forbes Kerry.

I had to laugh. Just as I was reading all this outrage, I came across this tasty paragraph:

Out of desperation, the Bush campaign has picked the wrong fight with the wrong veteran," said Jim Jordan, former Kerry campaign manager who now runs an outside group airing ads against Bush. "Today's the start of the mother of all backlashes."

So let me get this straight: Kerry is accusing the Bush campaign of having a "Web of Connections" to the SwiftVets. The head of an anti-Bush group, meanwhile, is a "former Kerry campaign manager."

Ummmm.... okay. Don't hold your breath waiting for a NYT article or editorial about that.

But as my pappy always said, a fact isn't a fact until you put it into pie-graph format. This chart showing the "Web of Connections" between Kerry and "independent" liberal 527's isn't technically a pie chart, but it does look snazzy.

Thanks to Kausfiles for the chart.

Update: There's almost nothing you can afford not to read in this Taranto Best of the Web column.

Update: Connecting John Kerry to his former campaign manager is just too easy. Connecting him to Kevin Bacon, on the other hand, is investigative journalism of the first order.

Thanks to Harlan Pepper for tipping me to that. There's also this.

Dollar Democracy Update: Truth Laid Bear compares and contrasts the SwiftVets' donations -- around $150,000 -- to donations to the liberal 527's --just the listed oned have combined donations of $120 million.

posted by Ace at 02:30 PM

Comments

The book is interesting, but Bush has too many connections to the vets. Time to call off the attack dogs and let people decide for themselves.

Posted by: Akefa on August 23, 2004 02:56 PM

Huh. The swiftvets site isn't responding.... hmmmmm.....

Posted by: Brian B on August 23, 2004 02:59 PM

Akefa: They're not Bush's attack dogs. These guys dislike Kerry independently of any presidential campaign other than his own.

Posted by: Patton on August 23, 2004 03:04 PM

I kinda like this web of connections as well.

Posted by: Harlan Pepper on August 23, 2004 03:07 PM

The book is interesting, but Bush has too many connections to the vets. Time to call off the attack dogs and let people decide for themselves.

Let's see:

Does Kerry have "too many connections" to MoveOn, ACT, the Media Fund, etc.? Should those organizations halt all anti-Bush or pro-Kerry advocacy?

people decide for themselves

How can the people "decide for themselves" if they are denied the relevant information with which to make an informed decision?

Perhaps the 527's and the DNC and Kerry should have let the "people decide for themselves" by not bringing up their refuted AWOL claims about Bush?

Oddly enough, liberals -- who claim to be in favor of maximum speech, maximum facts, maximum information -- always seem to come to this "no one needs to hear of this position" when there's facts or speech they don't like.

Posted by: ace on August 23, 2004 03:09 PM

Even if they were "Bush's attack dogs," I say so fucking what? What's good for the (left-wing MorOn.org) goose is good for the gander, isn't it?

Posted by: zetetic on August 23, 2004 03:11 PM

1) The presidential oath of office requires the president to protect the Constitution, which one would assume means protection of free speech. So Kerry is violating the oath of office even before he's elected.

2) Bush is marginally better on this front. I'm sick of both of them bitching about 527's. Stop being such a wimp (by trying to silence dissent) and grow a pair (by dealing with the dissent). Good lord, what a bunch of Nancy boys we have running for office these days.

You think Reagan would have been whining?

Posted by: Joe R. on August 23, 2004 03:16 PM

The book is interesting, but Bush has too many connections to the vets. Time to call off the attack dogs and let people decide for themselves.

Hmm. Your ideas intrigue me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Posted by: Homer Jay Simpson on August 23, 2004 03:28 PM

The book is interesting,

Since you haven't read it, (I won't go into whether I think you could comprehend it if you did read it) how the fuck would you know?

but Bush has too many connections to the vets.

The leader of Swift Boat Veterans For Truth is a registered Democrat that supported Edwards in the Democrat primary. Wow, that Bushitler is something else, dividing the nation whilst cultivating far reaching political connections even amongst the political parties that hate him!

Time to call off the attack dogs

Absolutely. And since MoveOn.org, Soros, and the rest have done the most attacking, we'll let them go first.

and let people decide for themselves.

Looks like they already are, and you, as usual, are whining about their decision.

Posted by: Mr. Bowen on August 23, 2004 04:13 PM

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Funniest thing I've read about the Virginia mess. Back when they were hustling the referendum through the assembly both Senators, Warner and Kaine, advised them to go slow and play by the rules. Louise Lucas said she respected them but didn't need advice from the "cuck chair" in the corner. The gerrymandering was overturned and Louise is heading for the big house. Edward G. Robinson voice "where's your cuck now?"
Posted by: Smell the Glove

I posted his post on twitter and it's gotten 25K views so far. Thanks, Smell the Glove

Chris
@chriswithans

"Ahhhhh ahh I put my career on the line for Louise Lucas and Jay Jones thinking they'd vault me into presidential contention and we ended up costing Democrats 20 House seats and unleashing a Reverse Dobbs ahhhhh ahhh"

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click That Sums Up the Democrat Communist Party Today
Something is wrong as I hold you near
Somebody else holds your heart, yeah
You turn to me with your icy tears
And then it's raining, feels like it's raining

TJM wonders about world building in stories, mostly The Hunger Games

"It's f**king f**ked."
-- reportedly a genuine comment offered by a "senior Labour source"
Correction: I wrote that Labour is losing 88% (now 87%) of the seats it is "defending." I think that's wrong. The right way to say it is the seats they are contesting -- that is, they don't necessarily already hold these seats, but they have put up a candidate to run for the seat. It's still very bad but not as bad as losing 87% of the seats they already held.

Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat

🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER

He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight

It's over

"The end of the two party system in the UK" as first the Fake Conservatives and now Labour chooses political suicide rather than simply STOPPING THE INVASION
Incidentally, the only reason this didn't already happen in the US is because of the Very Bad Orange Man (who is right on 85% of all policy calls and extremely, existentially right on 15% of them)

No political party that is NOT also a doomsday religious cult would EVER choose a cataclysmic loss -- and possible extinction as a party -- to support a toxically unpopular favoritism of NON-CITIZEN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS over actual citizen voters.

Only a cult does this.

Now they've lost 84%.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg
@zatzi
If this continues Labour loses 2,148 seats tonight.

That is much worse than the worst case predictions I’ve seen.

Cataclysmic

Update: They've now lost 88% of the seats they're defending. As I mentioned earlier, I think I heard that London will not bail them out, as many of those Labour seats will probably flip to "Muslim Independent" or Green. Detroit's 5am vote will not save them.

Yup, Labour is losing 80% of its seats...

The British Patriot
@TheBritLad

🚨 BREAKING: Labour have lost 80% of all seats contested as of 2:25 AM.<
br> If this continues, Keir Starmer will be out of office next week.

Reform has surged and projected to pick up between 1700-2100 seats.

Wow, up to 1700-2100 seats. It's not incredible that this is happening. It's incredible that the Davos crowd is so absolutely determined to privilege Muslim "migrants" over the actual native population who elects them, no matter how loudly the natives scream that they want to be prioritized, that they will gladly self-extinguish as a party rather than simply representing the interests of their own voters. Astonishing.
Remember, when they call other people "cultists" -- they are the ones so imprisoned in their social reinforcement and discipline bubbles that they will choose political death rather than dare upset the Karen Enforcement Officers of their cult.
Update: Now they've lost 83% of the seats they were defending.

(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges

Reform are basically wiping Labour out in the North. It's not a defeat. It's not even a rout. Labour are simply ceasing to exist.

Nick Lowles
@lowles_nick

Tonight’s results are calamitous for Labour. Not just for Keir Starmer's leadership, but for the very future of the party

STARMERGEDDON: In early returns, Reform gains 135 seats, Labour loses 90, the Fake Conservatives lose 36 (and I didn't even know they could fall any further), the Lib Dems lose 4, and the Greens gain 6. Note that the only other party gaining seats is the Greens and they're only gaining a handful of seats.
Update: Reform now up 145, Labour down 98.
Labour projected to lose Wales -- where they've ruled for 27 years.
Fulton County Georgia just discovered 400 boxes of ballots for Labour
Update: REF +156, LAB -107, CON -45
Brutal: In four out of five council seats where Labour is defending, they've lost. 80%.
I'm sure it's not this simple, but Reform is straight taking Labour's and the "Conservatives'" seats. They've lost almost exactly what Reform gained. If understand this right (and warning, I probably don't), all of London's council seats are up for election, and Labour might lose hugely there, as their old voters abandon them for Reform, Muslim Indenpendents, and the Greens.
REF +190, LAB -134, CON -56.

Updates on the Labour collapse in council elections -- which wags are calling #Starmergeddon -- from Beege Welborne. There are about 5000 seats up for grabs, Labour is expected to lose 1,800, Reform will probably gain 1,580, up from... zero. So this would be more than that.
People claim that while Labour has adopted the Sharia Agenda to appeal to the million Muslims it allowed to migrate to the country, those voters are ditching Labour to vote for the Muslim Independent Party or the Greens. Delicious. This shadenfreude is going straight to my thighs.
Oh, and if Starmer loses about as badly as expected, Labour will toss him out of a window Braveheart style and replace him. He will announce he is resigning to spend more time with his Gay Ukrainian Male Prostitutes.

Media bias and senationalism are as old as, well, the media:

That was written by Denny O'Neill and illustrated by, get this, Frank Miller. Editor to the Stars Jim Shooter was in charge at the time.
I always thought the gag was original to the comic book, but in fact the "Threat or Menace" headline was a satirical joke about media bias and sensationalism for a long while. The Harvard Lampoon used it in a parody of Life magazine: "Flying Saucers: Threat or Menace?"

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