Internet Commentator

Calling it quits on the alternative universe

Like John Fay, I used to be a fan of West Wing for its first few seasons. I have also noticed its serious decline in recent years so I'm relieved to see that NBC have finally decided to pull the plug on this increasingly preposterous series. The stubborn insistence on portraying a Democrat president for six years after the last one left office can only be explained by obtuse partisanship or inertia. Neither reflects well.

One of the things that was attractive about the earlier seasons was that there was some attempt to portray "the other side" honestly. I'm thinking of Josh's retort to Toby's assertion that drug companies' pills cost four cent to make: "You know that’s not true. The second pill costs them four cents; the first pill costs them $400 million" and Emily Procter's sympathetic Republican: Ainsley Hayes. The experience of writing good arguments and quips for that character ought to have given them a clue as to how they might have portrayed a Republican White House. If the writers and producers had any guts, they would have had Bartlett lose the first election. After all, it's a safe bet that a significant proportion of their viewers did actually vote Republican. Or perhaps, like the makers of the L-Word (of which more anon) they fancy that their viewing audience is solidly blue.

Instead they persisted with this alternative and increasingly irrelevant universe which foreswore the option of dealing with most of the issues which animate 2004-2006 era voters including, ironically, almost all Democrat voters, most of whom are driven to the point of derangement by the actual Republican president.

Guardian more partisan than NYT

Noted by Irish Eagle: Two differing headlines about U2's attitude towards political fundraising (by Rick Santorum and Hillary Clinton) coinciding with their concert tour.

The Guardian: U2 sing out against Republican's plans to bolster fighting fund at stadium gig

The New York Times: U2 Moves to Distance Itself From Concert Fund-Raising

I thought she was just Secretary of State

Shame on The Economist for this line in an otherwise reasonable piece on the Bush administration's unsatisfactory response to Hurrican Katrina .

The administration's initial response recalled Donald Rumsfeld's reaction to the anarchy in Iraq: stuff happens. [...] Condoleezza Rice, the highest ranking black in the country, saw a Broadway show, "Spamalot"

So freakin' what? What the hell has Condoleeza Rice's skin colour got to do with it? Does her status as the "highest-ranking black" make her some sort of Queen of "her people". Her role is to supervise and conduct foreign policy, which last time I looked had absolutely nothing to do with hurricanes or disasters.

Hey, what happened to the Reconquista?

Here's a little factoid gleaned from Marginal Revolution which should give anti-immigrationists pause for thought:

The study revealed that Latin American immigration to the US roughly doubled over the 1990s, while the total number of Latin American migrants remained stable, as the end of military conflicts in Central America allowed many migrants to return home

Seems that those "hordes" aren't "invading" so much as "just visiting".

Divided nation?

Not really. As this map illustrates.

[via Irish Eagle]

Learners, Complainers and Ostriches

Eugene Volokh notices two types of reactions from the "Kerry-supporter blogosphere":

Some, it seems, ask "What can people on our side learn from this?" Others just keep complaining about how bad Bush and Bush supporters are. As a purely practical matter, Republicans have much to fear from the first group, and very little to fear from the second.

Of course he neglected to notice a third type: The Ostrich. Crooked Timber's Daniel Davies, in a characteristic (mis)use of his intelligence to convince himself he was right all along, suggests it's all just a coin-flip and "we" (meaning leftist Democrats) shouldn't worry about it!

Needless to say Republicans have little to fear from the ostriches either.

Kerry class

Good to see that John Kerry has conceded defeat, demonstrating significantly more class than his running mate who unwittingly risked damaging his own prospects for 2008 this morning. Edwards' defiant promise that "every vote" would be counted raised the prospect of another long drawn out poisonous coda to the election and gave the impression that the Democrats were sore losers. Whatever one thinks of Bush's merits as a candidate, there can be no doubt about the legitimacy of his election. Kerry's prompt concession graciously acknowledges this.

Wisconsin "not too close to call"?

If Ohio is "close", why is Wisconsin in Kerry's column? Vote seems a lot closer here at 49.8% to 49.3%. Kerry leads by 13,000 votes with 30,000 votes yet to be counted.

Ohio "too close to call"?

Why is everyone (except for Fox News) claiming Ohio is too close to call?

51% to 49% looks pretty definitive to me. Bush's margin over Kerry there is about 136,000 votes. It is utterly improbable to think that the provisional ballots are going to magically hand the state's 20 electoral college votes to Kerry. As far as I can see, nobody is claiming that there is any more than 250,000 provisional ballots and there might even be fewer than 100,000. These ballots by their very nature are, well, provisional: many will surely prove to be invalid votes. It may well be the case that they trend towards Kerry, but it is preposterous to imagine that these provisional ballots, by some miracle, contain only Kerry votes which is the only way he could make any dent on that 136,000 margin. Anyone who thinks Ohio is still up for grabs is guilty of wishful thinking.

He'll Do

Or, "why not the long face?"

Kerry Haters for Kerry says it all about the choice on offer next week.