Venom-spewing "poet" Amiri Baraka is now the former poet-laureate of New Jersey. The NJ state legislature voted 69-2 to eliminate his post. My only question is: who are the 2? Whoooooooooo? Whooooooooooo?
War is Peace and Ignorance is Strength (to the Associated Press, anyway): "Mideast truce holds despite new violence"
"Tomorrow he'll be yesterday's man": Mark Steyn on the impending train wreck soon to be formerly known as Howard Dean
Ze'ev Schiff, the legendary defense correspondent for Ha'aretz, answers questions from readers.
Bernie Barker is the World's Oldest Male Stripper. I take absolutely no responsibility for the consequences if you should accidentally click on this photograph.
And speaking of exotic entertainers, I took the SelectSmart 2004 AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SELECTOR to try to figure out who I should vote for. My results were:
1. Libertarian Candidate (100%)
2. Bush, George W. - US President (95%)
3. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (68%)
4. Gephardt, Cong. Dick, MO - Democrat (66%)
5. Lieberman Senator Joe CT - Democrat (56%)
6. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (56%)
7. Graham, Senator Bob, FL - Democrat (55%)
8. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (51%)
9. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (38%)
10. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (33%)
11. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol IL - Democrat (19%)
12. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (14%)
13. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (-10%)
Some of the trailing candidates will have to start trying a little harder if they want to earn my endorsement.
UPDATE A commenter remarks that every set of answers seems to give a negative number for LaRouche. That is because the SelectSmart database doesn't have any actual information on LaRouche's positions. As SelectSmart explains
In our attempt to research his positions we found his political agenda is unique, vociferous and convoluted. We welcome any attempts from the candidate, his staff or supporters to clarify them.LaRouche's own website is here. Having spent a few minutes looking around on his site, I think an affinity score of -10% is a pretty good call. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 03, 2003 07:00 AM
Hmmm...I, too, got 100% for an unnamed Libertarian...think there might be some bias in this quiz?
I also got a surprisingly high 27% for Carol Mosely-Braun and an underwhelming -11% for Lyndon LaRouche...
Posted by: Brian Swisher on July 3, 2003 07:51 AMEveryone seems to be getting a negative figure for LaRouche. I wonder if this was a joke on the part of the programmer.
Posted by: Xrlq on July 3, 2003 09:59 AMCheck out the "campaign Humor" link on LaRouche's site.
Disturbing.
Posted by: Bill Herbert on July 3, 2003 07:09 PMEither the quiz is rigged, or your beliefs really are more in line with the Libertarians.
I am a Libertarian, and when asked by Republicans why this is so, I reply that the GOP is just far too fiscally liberal for me. Look at the balooning budgets, and the specifics, starting with tariffs on steel and lumber, and ending with this prescription bill, and it should be clear enough.
Posted by: Mike Kole on July 4, 2003 11:48 AMThe quiz results mystified me; the top four finishers had significantly less in common with my choices (based on my interpretation of the "click here for info" tidbits) than the fifth-place finisher. Also, it is interesting to note that Bush scored low on civil liberties based on racial arguments (that were not discussed under minority issues).
Posted by: MNWindsor on July 7, 2003 10:21 AM