Kudos and congratulations to TD friend Michael Jaliman, who scored an unexpected, yet decisive victory in the Democratic primary for the Congressional seat in New York’s 19th Congressional District. Shameless political plug to follow; you’ll see why in context. Mike beat the candidate of the establishment Democratic Party up there (Putnam County and parts of Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, and upper Westchester Counties), and appears to have done so by over 20 percentage points in a race with a high turnout for this kind of primary (the winner gets to face five-term incumbent Republican Sue Kelly!). Your talking dog is pleased...

Yet another of a seemingly endless series of suicide blasts and shooting attacks against Iraqi government targets, particularly the police and security services, resulted in the deaths of at least 59 in Iraq yesterday. I suppose at some point, if enough Iraqis end up wounded or dead amidst the intramural violence (that WE unleashed) there won’t be enough left on the street to cause still more violence. Say this much for Saddam: he kept the trains from blowing up on time. Still, though, as recently as a few days ago, I heard some apologist for the Bush Administration (quite possibly...

The nightmare of ten years of peace and prosperity (at least, from the stand point of banned assauult weapons, like uzis and AK-47s and the like) have come to an end, as the assault weapons ban imposed by Congress and signed by Bill CLinton in 1994 comes to an end at midnight. You don’t even have to cite Columbine and that sort of thing: Al Qaeda operatives in the United States can now much more easily get their hands on these kinds of weapons, for use within the United States. (It would smack of some kind of sick poetic justice...

Indications are that North Korea seems to be trying to test a nuclear weapon; and a mushroom-type cloud observed over North Korea may be an indication of how far along its nuclear weapons program has run. North Korea has already tested long range ballistic missiles, now believed capable of coming very close to the West Coast of North America (and certainly, Japan). As many of you know, in recent weeks, South Korea’s secret nuclear program has come to light (we won’t even talk about Iran.) The proliferation genie may have blown its way out of the bottle; we desperately need...

Time for a ramble. I’m not sure I’m going to have an opportunity to post over the weekend, and we have 9-11-01 Version 3.0 coming right at us. Not good news coming from the world writ large: Ayman Al-Zawahiri, widely regarded as OBL’s key deputy, issued a video shown on Al Jazeera promising an Al Qaeda victory (however that is defined). Coming to the third anniversary of 9-11-01, this is just bad good news, given A.Q.’s flare for the dramatically evil (the Madrid bombings occurred on 3-11-04, 911 days and 30 months after 9-11-01). We can take reasonable confidence that...

We all owe (yet another) debt of gratitude to our hurricane-battered Mistress of Movable Type, Kathy Kinsley, for diagnosing our server problem, enabling us to comeback… again… with… a vengeance. So, thanks again, Kathy. So much to talk about. (Well, not really, but I’m supposed to say that!) I fear this will be a den Beste length post. So be it. Two troubling themes I’d like to tie together. The first one comes straight from Kathy’s blog, where you can read my “clash of civilizations” comment and Kathy’s response. The second comes from the Unseen Editor concerning eerie parallels between...

The Unseen Editor forwards me the latest outrage in Bozo (as distinct from Gonzo) Journalism: the Associated Press’s account of a Bush rally in Wisconsin. The story is that President Bush expressed his prayers and thoughts for the speedy recovery of President Clinton (who is about to undergo heart bypass surgery). So far so good. Supposedly, the crowd booed, and Bush did nothing. Except it didn’t; which is why he did nothing. This would appear to be some sort of invitation to believe that those who would attend a GOP campaign rally are Neanderthal bloodthirsty assholes who would wish a...

It’s now 60 days until the November 2, 2004 election. Accordingly, I’m pleased to announce the talking dog’s “pick the margin of victory” contest. On November 2, 2004, will President Kerry be elected by the minimum 270 electoral votes? A decisive 300 e.v.’s? A blowout at 350 or more? Or will John Kerry snatch defeat from the jaws of the victory that Economic He-Man Ahnold and Unmedicated Zell and Catatonic Dick just handed him, and it will be President Bush with the gaudy electoral college numbers? Just tell me in comments to this (or any other!) post, or in e-mail,...

Over in another front in a (pretty hopeless) War on Terror, Russian officials decided to storm a school at Beslan, Russia, resulting (so far) in hundreds of injuries and the probable deaths of 150 people, and some terrorists remain holed up in a school basement with still more hostages. At least ten of the purportedly twenty dead terrorists were described as “Arab mercenaries”. It was unclear exactly what the terrorists were looking for, most likely the release of jailed Chechen comrades. Cautionary tales of the war on terrorism, Russian style. Well over 100 were killed when Russians decided to storm...

Much as a particular political figure in his late 50’s was widely thought to be the likeliest candidate to need heart by-pass surgery after the GOP extravaganza, it turns out that another one has that particular problem, former President Bill Clinton. After complaining of chest pains, he checked into a New York hospital, which announced it will do by-pass surgery shortly to go around a coronary blockage. Best wishes to President Clinton for a speedy recovery. While he probably won’t be able to participate much in the presidential campaign, he has a really good reason.