The Elvisberg Report

Carry Me Back

Elvis Elvisberg — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 20:02:09 +0000

About to head to Virginia for voter protection stuff on election day. Democrats will be there to make sure every eligible voter is permitted to vote a regular ballot. Should be fun.

The Party of No Ideas

Elvis Elvisberg — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:07:26 +0000

The real reason the National Review types are upset, of course, is that the media is reporting on Biden’s comment, Rev. Wright, lipstick on pigs, etc., and nobody gives a shit.

Times are too serious, and Republican policy (to the extent that any such thing exists) and talking points so discredited, that the outrage and umbrage assault can’t make a dent in public opinion anymore.

The Only Thing We Have to Say Is… Bias Itself

Elvis Elvisberg — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:43:00 +0000

The ever-entertaining WSJ op-ed page notes Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s support for a stimulus program not too dissimilar from what the Democrats have proposed.

The conclusion: “Perhaps Mr. Bernanke’s blunderbuss political intrusion will win him more Democrat friends, and maybe even Mr. Obama’s goodwill. To the rest of the world, he has harmed the Fed and made himself less credible.”

There is no intellectual justification for anything the WSJ supports. So when someone argues against their views, all they can do is scream “bias!”

Who Do YOU Trust?

Elvis Elvisberg — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:34:02 +0000

As awful as the Washington Post editorial page is, I don’t want to lose my elitist cred by siding with Joe on this one.

Despite their agreement on Social Security, Joe the Plumber and the Washington Post find themselves on opposite sides this campaign.

Nightmarish Dystopia or the State of the Nation

Elvis Elvisberg — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:58:06 +0000

Ignorance is strength. At least as far as GOP electoral strategy is concerned.

In interviews here in the Deep South and in Virginia, white voters made it clear that they remain deeply uneasy with Mr. Obama — with his politics, his personality and his biracial background. Being the son of a white mother and a black father has come to symbolize Mr. Obama’s larger mysteries for many voters. When asked about his background, a substantial number of people interviewed said they believed his racial heritage was unclear, giving them another reason to vote against him.

Also too, “when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.” George W. Bush, June 18, 2002.

Collapsing Brand Perilous for Young Conservative Careerists

Elvis Elvisberg — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:48:28 +0000

Ross Douthat writes an engaging, honest post about the incentives of conservative-leaning writers in non-GOP institutions and states. Naturally, the whole debate among conservatives isn’t about the merits, but about the political correctness of the ideas expressed. It’s all a tribal tug-of-war, because as the freshly excommunicated Christopher Buckley pointed out, it’s not clear just what, if anything, movement conservatism stands for at this point.

Anyway, I’d just like to point out that this, from Douthat’s post, is quite a difficult sentence to diagram:

Even if Brooks and Noonan and Buckley and Dreher and Kathleen Parker and David Frum and Heather Mac Donald and Bruce Bartlett and George Will and on and on – note the ideological diversity in the ranks of conservatives who aren’t Helping The Team these days – are all just snobs and careerists who quit or cavil or cover their asses when the going gets tough and their “seat at the table” is threatened, an American conservative movement that consists entirely of those pundits with the rock-hard testicular fortitude required to never take sides against the family seems like a pretty small tent at this point.

“Rock-hard testicular fortitude.” Not necessarily a phrase I expected to see from Ross Douthat.

Affairs Determinism

Elvis Elvisberg — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:58:21 +0000

Wow. This obnoxious little statement from Howard Wolfson almost legitimates Chris Matthew’s “analysis” that but for Bill’s affair, Hillary would have had no shot at elective office.

Which always struck me as one of the stupidest and most offensive things the television told me all primary season.

Hillary Clinton is an amazingly talented person– she’s been extremely helpful and graceful since her concession, overcoming her mistakes in surrounding herself with assholes during the campaign.

Study: Media Focus Steadily on Trivialities

Elvis Elvisberg — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:56:08 +0000

Stop the presses, this is a scoop:

Fully 78% of campaign stories from January 1 through May 4, 2008 examined by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism focused on political tactics, strategy or the state of the horserace, as opposed to policy, background or personal issues. Policy topics made up 7% of the stories, personal matters, 7%, and public record, 2%.

It occurs to me that media coverage of John McCain is rather like the treatment of Keanu Reeves’ character in the 2000 football movie The Replacements. In that film, “Reeves has ‘heart,’ a detail conveyed by having other characters speak of him as a great guy every five minutes.”

We constantly hear that McCain is a great guy with integrity, but there never seems to be any supporting evidence from the past 3 decades. And God forbid we ever hear a word about what he intends to do as president.

The Conspiracy Grows

Elvis Elvisberg — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:59:27 +0000

Obviously this is meaningless, but with bentonite in the news today, I just Googled it. Result #4:

Bentonite Performance Minerals LLC – Halliburton

Bentonite Performance Minerals LLC (BPM) is a world leader in the production of Wyoming bentonite, the benchmark in the global sodium bentonite industry. …
www.bentonite.com/ – 30k – Cached – Similar pages

Actually, Phil, I Think We Can Do Both at the Same Time

Elvis Elvisberg — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:00:03 +0000

… especially considering that you made up all of his backwards economics plans. Phil Gramm: “It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country.”