Author: KcM

Escape from New York.

While Dean and Clark parry for New York votes, Tom De Lay laments the loss of his GOP convention booze cruise. As of yesterday, “some Republicans in Washington who supported the cruise liner idea were still saying that it would not have taken much money away from the city and that perhaps there are some Republican members of Congress who want to take their families to the convention but do not want them to stay in Manhattan.” I see. So for the GOP, New York City is a great place to wave the bloody shirt, but God forbid they spend a night there.

Stirrings in the Heartland.

“Here’s a riddle: What do shuttered factories manufacture? Democrats. Or at least they might, if the national Democratic Party had the balls to do what needs to be done.” Rick Perlstein treks through Illinois to evaluate the growing cracks in the Dubya (and Wal-Mart) coalition.

Cavalier and Klayman.

Easily the prohibitive frontrunner at this point, Howard Dean begins to position for the general election by burnishing his policy creds and thinking about a Democratic Congress. But now he’s got the freak shows at Judicial Watch to contend with, and Klayman is as tenacious and aggravating a conspiracy nut as they come. Still, even with Judicial Watch frothing at the mouth, I doubt Papergate will be the stumbling block the rest of the Dem field is hoping for. (Congress link via Value Judgment.)

Red and Swollen?

The NY Times surveys the demographic and electoral changes to the red state/blue state map going into 2004, and apparently Dubya states have picked up 7 electoral votes since the last go-around. Well, unless you’re going to presume that all the people that have moved to the red zone in the past four years vote Republican, I’m not sure this tells us all that much.

The End of All Things.


Peter Jackson received a hero’s welcome in New Zealand yesterday as the Return of the King officially premiered in Wellington. I’ve been reading a number of online reviews lately, which I won’t link to as they’re so spoilerific. But so far the consensus seems to be (a) RotK is easily the best of the three and (b) some of the Theatrical Edition streamlining will aggravate Tolkien fans. I must admit, I was disturbed to find out some of the many scenes that have been edited out of the film, but I presume they’ll all be back for the EE next November, so I guess I really can’t complain. And if RotK is half as good as everyone is making it out to be, then I probably won’t care once the film starts anyway. At any rate, only two weeks to go… Update: Here’s a relatively non-spoilerish review that gets the consensus point across: The film is stunning. Amazing. Frightening. Breathtaking. Heartbreaking. Epic and intimate all at once. Booyah.

The Dyess Man Cometh.

(Ok, I cribbed that from the Post, but it’s still a great headline.) After two years recovering from injury, former All-Star Antonio McDyess returned to the Knicks last night in their OT loss to the Pistons. He looked pretty lost out there (2 points, 3 boards), but I’m sure he’ll find his sea legs after some more minutes. In the meantime, Scott Layden has just lost his last excuse. If we can’t make the playoffs in the lEast now, heads should roll.