Smythe's World

Matt Welch, who is on most days the greatest SoCal blogger (or at least on those days when Kevin Drum is not), writes an excellent article on the assortment of war criminals and liars who are finding employment in the Bush Administration, and where does he have to go to get it published...Canada !!!

For those of you baffled by recent events, Tom Tomorrow explains it all.

Sorry for the lighter than normal blogging this week, but I actually have been hard at work (you know, making a living, etc.). Sorry, but I do need to pay for my bar tabs, and this site just doesn't do it. I'll try to make it up to you next week.

Not an impressive start to the final half of the Bush presidency...his war on terrorism is floundering, his party's leader in Congress is revealed as an unreconstructed segregationist, both of his candidates lose winnable races in Louisiana over the weekend, and now his pick to "lead" the investigation into 9/11 steps down. Lord, I hope he picks Elliot Abrams to replace Kissinger...or better yet, nominates James Traficant to the Supreme Court.

Two things that I never thought I would say:

1. George Bush's speech today denouncing Trent Lott was welcome and courageous, and showed more sack than Tom Daschle has over this controversy; and

2. Andrew Sullivan's blog has been better on this issue than the New York Times (Krugman excepted).

Good Kobe, I hope Lott steps down soon, and puts an end to this nightmare. I really don't want to have to write the above more than once.

Although much has been said about the initial silence of the "liberal" news media over the Lott Affair, almost unmentioned has been the craven defense of the bigot by three who should know better: John McCain, JC Watts, and, especially, Tom Daschle. I don't know or care whether the GOP decides to maintain as its public face in the Senate an unreconstructed segregationist, since, no matter how well that party does in the old Confederacy, it won't be able to get enough support from the rest of the country to repeal anti-lynching laws or allow states to forbid inter-racial marriages. I do have problems with my party being led by castrati.

It now appears that Trent Lott's praise of the '48 Thurmond for President campaign was a common theme in his speechs going back to 1980. The criticism Lott has received from conservative quarters is somewhat laughable. After all, it is hardly reassuring to hear people say that they have no proposals to remedy past or present racial discrimination, oppose racism only when it it "targeted" at white law school applicants, do not believe that DC residents should be represented in Congress, and support efforts to suppress African-American votes in Florida, Missouri, and Louisiana through trickery and chicanery, but that they draw the line when it comes to lynching. Donnez moi un break !!!

Another blow struck in the war on "Islamofascism": Disney snubs Princess Jasmine !!!

The 2003 summer tour for the "Beatles of sports", Man. United, has been set for next July. In what has to be a monumental blow to the MSL, each of the games involve the Red Devils playing non-American teams, ensuring that fans will see third-rate performances by bench-warmers and the like. Not the sort of thing likely to grow the sport in America, or to develop a fan-base for the storied team outside of British expatriates, which is what the tour (and the marketing alliance with the New York Yankees) was originally supposed to do.

The NY Times reports ominously that of the seven major airlines that have emerged out of BK protection since 1978, only two (Continental Air and America West) survive today. Not so lucky: Braniff, Eastern Air, Pan American, World Airways and T.W.A. Together with U.S. Air, which filed last year, United is the fifth airline to file after giving millions to have an arena or stadium named after it.

Finally, a vigorous defense of Trent Lott's speech last week....

Interesting local breakdown of the Landrieu upset over the weekend. As I speculated earlier, her victory occurred because of a larger than expected turnout amongst African American voters, many of whom voted in the last hour of the election.

As much as I admire the NY Times, the paper was wrong when it appeared to censor two of its sports columnists from taking a position contrary to its editorial section on the Masters Controversy. Incidentally, neither of the columns even directly mentions the Times' editorial position. Of the two columns, the banal effort by Dave Anderson probably should have been omitted simply on quality grounds, but the paper should have been proud to publish this excellent piece by Harvey Araton.