Target Centermass

Day: September 12, 2004

  • Bombastic Gore Back on the Stump

    After toning down his rhetoric for the Democrats’ Boston shindig, former Vice-President Al Gore has once again bitterly gone over to the Dark Side and returned as Darth Gore. There’s little new in this story, but I’m linking it because I found humor in it.

    First, the accompanying picture:
    They played on our fears. It made me hungry.

    Second, the initial Republican response was a side-splitter:

    GOP strategist Keith Appell likens him to “some kind of cheerleader on acid.”

    “Some of the things he has said have been outrageous and he says them in this high-pitched scream,” Appell said. “I really don’t know what to call that.”

    Third, pollsters are very astute observers:

    Pollster Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, said Gore is “emblematic of happier days” to many Democrats.

    But Kohut cautioned that “swing voters tend to be moderate, and if he comes across as too over the top, there’s a risk.” The pollster added, though, “Certainly he’s not any more over-the-top than Dick Cheney.”

    Swing voters tend to be moderate? Voters who cannot decide between left and right tend to be in the center? Really? Who’d have thunk it. I feel now that I can go to the polls and consider myself an informed voter. Thank you, Mr. Kohut.

    And thank you, Associated Press, for the laughs.

  • Upping the Ante

    I’ve previously posted about the $10,000 challenge. Checking back, I see that the author has been deluged with people contacting him.

    Amazingly, my email was flooded with not only people trying to claim the prize, but individuals who so strongly shared my belief that the documents were forgeries that they too, pledged significant amounts of money to the challenge. As of now, including my initial $10,000, the amount pledged stands at $37,900.

    Also, the challenge has spawned another web page, stop60minutes.com, which is still in its infancy.

  • Another Expert Weighs in on the Forgery

    Hat tip to LGF for this tidbit by Joseph M. Newcomer, a self-described pioneer of electronic typesetting with a long list of credentials. He opens with this broadside:

    There has been a lot of activity on the Internet recently concerning the forged CBS documents. I do not even dignify this statement with the traditional weasel-word “alleged”, because it takes approximately 30 seconds for anyone who is knowledgeable in the history of electronic document production to recognize this whole collection is certainly a forgery, and approximately five minutes to prove to anyone technically competent that the documents are a forgery. I was able to replicate two of the documents within a few minutes. At time I a writing this, CBS is stonewalling. They were hoaxed, pure and simple. CBS failed to exercise anything even approximately like due diligence. I am not sure what sort of “expert” they called in to authenticate the document, but anything I say about his qualifications to judge digital typography is likely to be considered libelous (no matter how true they are) and I would not say them in print in a public forum.

    Newcomer then proceeds, at length and with graphic examples, to dissect and destroy CBS’s defense against the MS Word argument.

  • ‘Large cloud’ Seen Over North Korea

    CNN is reporting a mysterious cloud in North Korea that may or may not be the result of a nuclear test.

    A large cloud appeared over North Korea in satellite images several days ago, but a U.S. official told CNN it is “no big deal” and not the result of a nuclear explosion.

    South Korea’s Yonhap news agency is reporting a mushroom cloud over two miles (4 km) wide and a massive explosion in North Korea’s northernmost province on September 9 — the 56th anniversary of North Korea’s founding.

    South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Sunday the government was aware of the reports and is checking them.

    The U.S. official said the cloud could be the result of a forest fire.

    None of North Korea’s known nuclear sites are in the country’s northernmost provinces.

    However, The New York Times Saturday reported that President Bush and his top advisers recently received intelligence reports that could indicate North Korea is preparing a nuclear test, citing senior officials with access to the intelligence.

    With so little definate, I’ll refrain from comment at this time other than to say I doubt little will be made known about this any time soon. I also note that the American official suggests forest fire while CNN’s URL includes “blast.”