tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58010582011-07-12T14:45:47.940-07:00Bragg's Babblings 2005Commenting semi-coherently on Al Franken's book on CDJohn Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.comBlogger321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-75891507634334222007-07-31T09:23:00.000-07:002007-07-31T10:09:18.050-07:00Hillary won't shed a tear if Edwards wins IowaDavid Yepsen of the Des Moines Register writes that the Hillary-Obama squabble over foreign policy is most likely to help John Edwards. Well, Hillary won't shed a tear if Edwards wins Iowa. In fact, it's almost as good as winning Iowa herself. Yepsen's logic is that the spat will drive up both of their negatives, helping Edwards. Well, Hillary John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-72683146220701719842007-07-27T11:15:00.003-07:002007-07-27T11:34:39.896-07:00Presidential PrognosticatingThere are only two men who can stop Rudy Giuliani from being the Republican nominee: Rudy Giuliani and John McCain.Giuliani is leading in almost every national poll while being often dismissed as someone who can't possibly win the nomination. Romney, Thompson and McCain are all campaigning to be the "real conservative" alternative to Rudy after the early primaries. John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1134503915058811022005-12-13T11:48:00.000-08:002005-12-13T11:58:35.073-08:00There is a danger in overestimating the competence of the Administration, thinking that the permanent bureaucracy will do the bidding of their political masters. The color-coded system is a pointless joke, in terms of making us more secure. But it’s not supposed to make us more secure—it’s supposed to save senior civil service jobs in case of a successful attack. This is much sadder, and in a John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1134156200795158802005-12-09T11:18:00.000-08:002005-12-09T11:27:25.826-08:00Topics to argue about. Let's have the Esteemed Audience pick five and we'll go from there.1. Given the information available at the time, Bush should have done something differently about terrorism in the first eight months of his Administration.2. Islamic terrorism is a problem that cannot be substantially reduced but only prevented and kept at a manageable level. Any project whose aim is John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1134080952679751572005-12-08T14:08:00.000-08:002005-12-08T14:29:12.736-08:00Something that both me and my Esteemed Audience can both be horrified by.http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1383832&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312Infuriating quotes:Officials said a 50-year-old Egyptian man was stopped a week ago at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. Sources said he had a suspicious pair of shoes that tested positive five times for the explosive substance TATP on the John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133909293318710672005-12-06T14:45:00.000-08:002005-12-06T15:04:54.696-08:00I have a suggestion to my audience. I submit that the Listen to Franken/Scrawl notes/Blog/Comment/Respond to 25 different posts and growing is about to get completely out of control. I suggest that my audience select 5 or 10 topics to go back and forth on. If we reach resolution on a few, then maybe move on to others. I suggest we set aside a few things as resolved.Rove's campaign tactics are John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133892879027936482005-12-06T10:05:00.000-08:002005-12-06T10:14:39.040-08:00This isn't working. I'm skimming the posts, and the blog displays symptoms of borderline schizophrenia--this is the Moulin Rouge of blogging. The method of listening to book on CD, scrawling notes while at stoplights (or while on a straightaway) and then frantically blogging and trying to get through a half-hour's notes in before I get in the car again and take another page of notes on a John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133880683458682962005-12-06T06:16:00.000-08:002005-12-06T06:51:23.526-08:00I actually fell asleep in front of the computer last night, so my bit on Kerry, Miller and the weapons systems didn't make much sense. In Kerry's first Senate campaign, he opposed every major weapons system in the Reagan buildup--or to be concise he opposed the Reagan buildup. Kerry was a member and a leader of the nuclear-freeze, pro-Sandinista, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133839950296362852005-12-05T19:31:00.000-08:002005-12-05T19:32:30.306-08:00W's flip-flops. This is an excellent point, and if the Democrats had deployed this during the campaign, it would have helped. (Provided that they had a different candidate, one without Kerry's and Clinton's addiction to playing both sides of every street.)Franken asking for Oxycontin for the road was funny.Democrats really don't have to run many negative ads—their watercarriers in the media John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133811430752217882005-12-05T11:34:00.000-08:002005-12-05T11:49:22.816-08:00Trying to enable comments.................John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133809935458870092005-12-05T11:00:00.000-08:002005-12-05T11:33:43.810-08:00The infamous $87 Billion which Kerry voted for before he voted against it.You can't say "I don't oppose A. I only oppose it if (impossible) condition B is not met." In reality, or as the old Marxists used to say objectively, you oppose A. You could say that Bush, in threatening to veto the Iraq appropriation if it was linked to tax cuts, took both our military and our economic future hostage. I John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133793910407052972005-12-05T06:15:00.000-08:002005-12-05T07:03:18.460-08:00Disc 3 Begins.The MainStream Media never treated the Swift Boat attacks as a he said/she said issue. The MSM stayed true to the line that the SBVT charges were all 100% unsubstantiated, groundless lies. In fact, some of the charges (Christmas in Cambodia) turned out to be true, some false, some impossible to determine with certainty.Franken watches too much Fox News Channel.The German/Jewish bit John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133708508983945932005-12-04T06:32:00.000-08:002005-12-04T08:55:29.996-08:00Some quick notes. Let's do this Larry King Style. Upon review, let's not. Carrage returns are Mr. Eyeball's friend.Bush used 9/11 in all kinds of debates, but is it that unreasonable that 9/11 would change the cost-benefit calculus for the Patriot Act, or drilling in ANWR?...You can fill hours and pages with quotes from Bush 41 cabinet officials about how it would have been a bad idea to march toJohn Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133706721854747972005-12-04T06:21:00.000-08:002005-12-04T06:32:01.866-08:00"The Clintons told the Bushes all about it."I call horse$#!+. Possibly, they told the Bushes privately that "We didn't understand the al-Qaeda threat until too late in our eight years to do much about it. We found out, and pretty soon you'll find out too." Even if they said this, they knew that the Bushes would dismiss this as the blatherings of international ingenues that had stumbled throughJohn Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133536436233731812005-12-02T07:00:00.000-08:002005-12-02T07:22:13.690-08:00The thing about a Presidential Daily Brief is that there's one every day.What is dishonest about the August 8 PDB hullaballoo is that there is a wide variety of threats, all of which could be a critical threat to American national security.China's military buildup could challenge US hegemony in East Asia within 10 years. Globalization could spread diseases from humanity's original heartland in John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133535625548604612005-12-02T06:55:00.000-08:002005-12-02T07:00:25.550-08:00"The election wasn't about moral values, @$$#0/3."First of all, in these polls, etc. "moral values" is code for "religious voters." The fact is that the Democratic party base and heirarchy is secular. Aside from black people, the most predictably Democratic voting bloc is people who go to church "seldom or never", something like 70-30. And the most predictably Republican bloc is people who goJohn Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133535301383596052005-12-02T06:46:00.000-08:002005-12-02T06:55:01.383-08:00Terror. Terror! TERROR!!Franken is cleverly implying that American's fears are groundless or irrational, the products of cheap psychological tricks rather than a real concern. On the contrary, the jihad is real, and millions of Muslims would like to kill us in the process of establishing a worldwide Caliphate and restoring/inaugurating God's reign on earth. Their project of world conquest John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133534522411816752005-12-02T06:35:00.000-08:002005-12-02T06:42:02.413-08:00"The number of studies that have proven no human link to Global Warming--None." Franken either is or plays scientifically illiterate here. A study has an incredibly hard time proving an absolute negative--that there is NO correlation between X and Y. I haven't gone over the global warming debate for a few years, but, AFAIK, the state of play is that a large majority of scientists overall John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133534132377947832005-12-02T06:16:00.000-08:002005-12-02T06:45:48.983-08:00"There have been zero Orange alerts since the election."The fact that the color-coded alert system was scrapped may have something to do with this. (Pause to Google fruitlessly for cite.) Hey, nothing like research. Turns out the system wasn't scrapped, but DHS moved from raising and lowering the national alert level to alerts about specific sectors or regions. Right now, we've been on Yellow John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133495282694067242005-12-01T19:30:00.000-08:002005-12-01T19:55:57.523-08:00Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the L.A. Street Dogs of War!!I ended up listening to the first half-hour or so three times, nitpicking new items each time, so other sections will not be as long as this one. The North Korea stuff at the bottom holds up pretty well, in my own opinion.Key issue of ideology here, and the reason Democrats keep losing post 9/11 elections.First of all, I grew up in New York in John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133493966287567962005-12-01T19:18:00.000-08:002005-12-01T19:29:58.643-08:00"The Only Thing We Have To Feah Is Feah Itself"This isn't a factual quibble, but a historical one. Franken's parallel between 9/11 and the Depression is rather ridiculous if extended beyond "They were both Bad." FDR's famous statement was not a declaration that we should never fear anything--he was talking about a specific economic situation. During the Depression, people were afraid to put theirJohn Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133493517386148042005-12-01T19:14:00.000-08:002005-12-01T19:18:37.386-08:00WSJ Once Claimed that Clinton Ran Over Teenagers With a Train?Franken claims that the Wall Street Journal editorial page claimed that Clinton was involved in running over teenagers with a train. The Journal editorial page accused Clinton of a lot of things, from covering up details of Vince Foster's death (probably true, but not as bad as that makes it sound) to conniving at the CIA running John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1133493185058170312005-12-01T18:38:00.000-08:002005-12-01T19:13:05.100-08:00Al Franken's Truth With Jokes (on CD)--A Running Review CommentaryFirst of all, some stylistic points. Franken has a voice made for print media. His style highlights one of the reasons that Limbaugh has been so successful while "leftwing Limbaughs" have come and gone. Limbaugh started out as a radio pro, with a quality bombastic base voice. The Simpsons voice Limbaugh most resembles is fellowJohn Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1064849263429560532003-09-29T08:27:00.000-07:002003-09-29T08:27:43.203-07:00 NY Times on Iraqi cousin marriage Link The Iraqi practice of cousin marriage reinforces a social system based on family as the primary criteria, rather than integrity as the recognition of reality. John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1064337331106387492003-09-23T10:15:00.000-07:002003-09-23T10:15:31.010-07:00NY Times Op-Ed: Iraq Doesn't Need More US Troops, it needs more Iraqis in control LinkJohn Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1063928105347568602003-09-18T16:35:00.000-07:002003-09-18T16:35:05.143-07:00Foreign Policy: Saudis Think About the Bomb The Guardian says that Saudi Arabia is considering a nuclear strategy, either an alliance with a nuclear power, a plan to buy the bomb from Pakistan, or to somehow get Israel and Iran to give up their nuclear programs. The Saudis provided a lot of money to Pakistan while Pakistan was developing their nuclear program. Saudi has also recently stationed John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-106362340155502232003-09-15T03:56:00.000-07:002003-09-15T03:56:41.580-07:00 What If? What if my policy had been followed in 1994--North Korea hands over the Yongbyon plutonium to the IAEA, the US pulls out of South Korea, the North pulls back from the DMZ. The US finds evidence of their uranium enrichment program, and in October 2002 the North admits they have an active program. Today, the US would be free to coerce the North without the threat of effective John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1063401561736720492003-09-12T14:19:00.000-07:002003-09-13T10:02:10.210-07:00"Can you name an instance in which a totalitarian state has been starved into oblivion?" No, because we've never tried it. Reminiscent of an old Marxist saying that "real" Marxism has never been tried. The fact is that Soviet Russia had next to no trade with the outside world in the 1920's and 1930's, during the worst decades of the Leninist-Stalinist terror. China had no support from the West John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1063388963388521112003-09-12T10:49:00.000-07:002003-09-12T10:49:23.283-07:00BB:Presenting NK with an ultimatum could eliminate its nukes short of war, but then that wouldn't actually be negotiation--so I'm all for it. But for such an ultimatum to work, it would need to be credible. So we would need actually to be willing to fight and win such a war. If you don't think it's possible to do this--and therefore possible to convey that it's possible--no ultimatum will work. John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1063388932468152832003-09-12T10:48:00.000-07:002003-09-12T10:48:52.356-07:00The Real North Korean Threat North Korea has, say, enough plutonium for 100 weapons, numbers that enable them to sell nuclear weapons to any cash-and-carry buyer and still have a North Korean nuclear deterrent. We cut off all aid and trade from the US, we even impose a blockade of the North's coasts, and the North keeps building bombs. The Islamic Nutburger Front deposits $1 billion in a Swiss John Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1063333539692644042003-09-11T19:25:00.000-07:002003-09-11T20:01:28.356-07:00Item to remember: there is a significant difference between a North Korea with a bomb or two, without the capacity to make more for the next few years, and a North Korea with a dozen bombs and the capacity to produce them at will. If North Korea has a single bomb, or two bombs, then they will hoard it as their final deterrent against a US attack, or their best offensive weapon in a campaign toJohn Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5801058.post-1063326940012407562003-09-11T17:35:00.000-07:002003-09-11T20:02:06.753-07:00In response to a critique of my North Korea position, which is detailed in this series: http://www.capitalismcenter.org/Initium/10-19-02.htm http://www.capitalismcenter.org/Initium/01-11-03.htm http://www.capitalismcenter.org/Initium/01-12-03.htm http://www.capitalismcenter.org/Initium/01-22-03.htm http://www.capitalismcenter.org/Initium/03-11-03.htm BB is Ben Bayer, whose critique can be foundJohn Bragghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02572341050529523488noreply@blogger.com0