Well, I’m learning that there are people out there willing to defend the indefensible.

Here are comments 6 through 9 at this previous post (6 and 8 are from what many of us have referred to as “Smithbots”, 7 and 9 are mine) on David Smith’s claim made to Bill Sloat of the Cleveland Openers blog that he “flirted” with running for Congress in Utah.

Since y’all want to keep the controversy visible, I’m only too happy to comply with your request:

(#6) Utah has a different system for primary elections. A candidate must first go to a party nominating convention, and then if they make it through they then appear on the ballot for the voters of the state. David went to the convention, but only Swallow and Bridgewater made it on to the Primary and hence on a general ballot. So David is correct. He never did appear on a ballot.

The Utah system allows for a lot more people to try out politics without the significant investment of a statewide primary, which is why you see so many candidates on that list you posted. It also makes it easier to challenge an incumbent, because you will only get two candidates in any one primary as the nominating convention prohibits more than two candidates passing onto the general primary election.

Comment by Jackson — 4/3/2006 @ 8:54 am | Edit This

(#7 - BizzyBlog response) #6, even if I concede the cuteness over ballots (which I don’t), your response gets you only halfway there. Showing up at a party convention in hopes of getting the primary nomination for congress is not “flirting” with running for Congress, it IS running for Congress. Arguing that it’s not is absurd, fundamentally dishonest, and was I believe an attempt to prevent someone from investigating and learning that he captured all of 16 votes in his “flirtation.”

Comment by TBlumer — 4/3/2006 @ 9:20 am | Edit This

(#8) I agree with Jackson - Smith was not on the congressional ballot in Utah - specifically a primary or general election. The ballot he was on was not a public vote, but a vote within the party convention. I think you are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill with this “Busted Edition” But then again, no one ever said your reporting was supposed to be unbiased.. its your soapbox, stand on it all you like.

Comment by CMan — 4/3/2006 @ 4:44 pm | Edit This

(#9 - BizzyBlog response) Y’know, you guys just won’t answer the question of how somebody who is “flirting” with the idea of running for Congress stumbles into a GOP state convention hall and gets considered with a group of 11 other candidates for a nomination.

Are you going to tell me that only the top two finishers were serious, and the other 10 were “flirting”? That’s bullcrap, and you know it. David Smith was RUNNING for Congress the moment the balloting began at the State convention, and my biases or yours can do nothing to alter that FACT.

Don’t waste your time with a response unless you can refute the “flirting” argument. Good luck.

Comment by TBlumer — 4/3/2006 @ 5:05 pm | Edit This

I have to apologize, though, as my last paragraph was written in haste.

I would LOOOOVE to keep receiving comments that attempt to defend David Smith’s 2002 Utah deception. I could go on like this every day until the election. The more people who learn that David Smith claimed that he “flirted” with running for Congress in Utah when he actually competed with 11 other candidates for the GOP nomination at the Utah GOP convention (and got his butt kicked), and the more incoherent attempts to defend the falsehood he attempts to bring to bear, the better.

So, please, keep those comments coming. :–>

There is little doubt that the Roth 401(k) is a better deal for most younger employees, for whom not taking a tax deduction for contributions is less important than the ability to build up tax-free wealth.

So I have been surprised that there hasn’t been more willingness on the part of employers to offer it.

I’m not surprised any more:

Set to expire in 2010 unless the law which provides for the plan is extended, many employers do not see the point of offering a retirement option that may expire so soon after implementation.

“Benefits administrators have a tremendous amount to deal with that is very concrete (health care costs, pension plans, etc.). So, to expect them to look at something that is purely optional and unclear whether it is a good idea for most people, it is understandable that they might shy away from offering the benefit,” said Friedman.

I did not realize that the Roth 401(k) is yet another item currently held hostage until Congress makes the current tax system permanent (an option known to most as “making the Bush tax cuts permanent”).

This is yet another reason, and a big one, for Congress to get on with it, and for retirement savers, particularly younger ones, to contact their representatives to encourage them to do so. And if you are “younger,” meaning more than 10 or so years away from retirement, have the Roth 401(k) option available to you, and haven’t taken advantage of it, take a serious look at doing so. It may even make sense if you are less than 10 years away from retirement, but you have to run the numbers.

Previous posts:

• Sept. 26, 2005 — Quote of the Day: on Roth 401(k)s
• June 21 — Money Tip of the Day: Lean on Your Employer to Get Roth Option into Your 401(k)

Even I’m surprised at this little exchange Barone reports he had:

I remember a conversation I had with a broadcast news executive many years ago.

“Doesn’t the fact that 90 percent of your people are Democrats affect your work product?” I asked.

“Oh, no, no,” he said. “Our people are professional. They have standards of objectivity and professionalism, so that their own views don’t affect the news.”

“So what you’re saying,” I said, “is that your work product would be identical if 90 percent of your people were Republicans.”

He quickly replied, “No, then it would be biased.”

I have been closely acquainted with newsroom cultures for more than 30 years, and I recognize the attitude. Only liberals can see the world clearly. Conservatives are prevented by their warped and ungenerous views from recognizing the world as it is.

The New York Times and The Washington Post have often hired as reporters writers who have worked on liberal publications like The New Republic, The Washington Monthly and The American Prospect — and many of those writers have produced fine work. But they have never hired as reporters writers who have worked on conservative publications like National Review, The Weekly Standard and The American Spectator. News media executives like to brag about the diversity of their staffs, but there is precious little political diversity in most newsrooms.

And of course this affects the work product.

Barone goes on to describe two grievous reporting errors that required embarrassing corrections in The New York Times: The mythical Biloxi hurricane victim and the misidentified man in an Abu Ghraib picture (stories I blogged on here and here, respectively), and notes:

Both of these too-good-to-check stories of course reflected badly on the Bush administration, which seems to be a requirement for getting your story in the Times these days. The relentlessly negative coverage of Iraq in most news outlets falls in the same category. Stories about American heroes, stories about soldiers building schools and water systems, stories about the successes of Iraqis — you have to look awfully hard to find them in most news media today. What you do see is a determination to make Vietnam and Watergate happen again.

If it’s bad news about Bush or the War in Iraq, all the “checks and balances” and “four layers of editing” the print press is supposed to be famous for fail to catch drop-dead obvious mistakes. Just a few of the many examples: fake combat vet Jimmy Massey; Rathergate; the disappearing weapons cache that really didn’t disappear; and the big enchilada, “no weapons of mass destruction” (disproven five months ago by Richard Miniter, and supported with still-active links at this post).

It happens time and time again, and it all “strangely” goes in the Bush and anti-war direction. And it will continue to, as long as they see nothing wrong with 90% liberally-stacked newsrooms.

Cross-posted at Newsbusters.org.

The news (HT Drudge) is that “Movie Theater Pulls Trailer for ‘United 93‘ after Audience Complaints.”

Please. I’ve seen the trailer on iTunes. It’s also available at this link from the news story if your browser has a compatible movie player (mine didn’t). It is compelling (trailers are supposed to get you interested in seeing the movie, remember?), but certainly not violent, disrespectful, or in any way offensive.

Those who claim “we are not ready for this yet” never will be.

I can’t help noting that the theaters where objections caused the trailer to be pulled were in Hollywood and the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and that Hollywood’s trailer preceded the profanity-laced and violent R-Rated “Inside Man.” So objecting attendees (and I’ll bet there were very few, even in Hollywood) don’t like getting a brief reminder that real violence actually happened on September 11, 2001, and that it will be portrayed on the big screen, even when they’ve just paid $10 to get a heavy dose of on-screen violence themselves. Uh-huh.
___________________________

UPDATE — Reax (will be updated periodically):

• Ed Driscoll weighs in nicely — “….. these are the same audiences that caught the vapors when Mel Gibson armed his sons in The Patriot and predicted that his Passion of the Christ would launch a new pogrom.”
• ShrinkWrapped — “I saw the Trailer for United 93 in the theaters last weekend and it looks like the movie will be riveting, horrific, and excruciatingly painful, yet I plan on seeing it ….. We have not suffered a major attack in almost 5 years now, we are engaged in a very difficult and painful task in Iraq, and too many would like nothing better than to forget. The longer we go without an attack, and the further in time 9/11 recedes, the more necessary it becomes to remind ourselves that we are still facing an implacable enemy.” The objectors don’t want to be reminded.
• Random Jottings makes a great point — “Yeah, right. And it was “too late” to put pictures of the WTC on the news about a day after it happened.”
• Commenter David at Neptunus Lex — “Odd how we “have” to see crap like Farhenheit 9-11 or Syriana but God forbid not something that will help us remember.”
• Also — Insurgent Sarcasm and Neptunus Lex.
• Dr. Sanity hits it out of the park about the objectors — “They are the same people who scream bloody murder every time the topic is raised; every time the images are shown–as if by squelching all discussion about it, they can continue to pretend that it never really happened. They prefer to view the attacks and horrific deaths on that day as something that wouldn’t have occurred if the hated BushHitler hadn’t been in office. Intuitively they understand that if they give credence to its reality; and to the resultant war on terror, they would be supporting Bush.”
• American Barbarian (HT S.O.B. Alliance member Return of the Conservatives) — “Suddenly when a film challenges their editorial point of view they go all jello legged and question if the film should even be made?”
• April 4 — Jim Geraghty at National Review’s TKS catches some objectors to the movie lying about the 9/11 commission’s account of what happened on Flight 93.
• April 4 — Judith Weiss has a great post and a number of great comments at the post. My favorite comment (scroll down at the link to find it): “I’ve seen the trailer. It made me cry. They were doomed but did the right thing, for people they had never met and would never meet. “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you: Ask what you can do for your country.” They certainly did.”
• April 7 — Anchoress: “It is chilling, adrenaline-pumping and necessary. But not pleasant. My hands were shaking by the end of the trailer. It’s going to be tough to watch. But then again, The Passion of the Christ was tough to watch too. And I watched it 5 times.”

I am thrilled to know that Billy Valentine’s Franciscan Conservative has joined the State of Ohio Bloggers Alliance, and is giving us representation in the Steubenville area.

His site description:

Contains news and articles about conservative, college republicans, pro-life activism at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, a Catholic University in Steubenville, OH. Written and maintained by Billy Valentine.

You may not recall an important event in the 2004 presidential election. If you don’t, it’s because the WORMs (Worn-Out Reactionary Media, known to most as The Mainstream Media) made every attempt to pretend it didn’t happen.

But it did. Franciscan U. was the site of a humiliating experience for presidential candidate John Kerry, a pretend-Catholic who refuses to follow the instruction of The Church when it comes to prolife advocacy. Instead of the enthusiastic working-class traditional Democrats his people expected, Kerry was greeted by a crowd dominated by 500 or more prolife protesters, and was “visibly shaken.” The embarrassing event left little doubt in the minds of Central and Eastern Ohioans where Mr. Kerry stood, and is rightly considered one of the turning points that led to Ohio ultimately going for Bush in the November election. Also see “The Steubenville Meltdown” here.

To have someone from those hallowed halls in our Alliance is indeed an honor. The heartiest of welcomes!

George Mason University’s appearance at the NCAA Basketball Tournament Men’s Final Four made two things clear: Mid-major conferences deserve more respect, and the university’s namesake is a very underappreciated Founding Father:

Let’s hope that all this attention being lavished on the George Mason University basketball team focuses some attention on the man himself.

If George Mason isn’t exactly a forgotten founding father, he is certainly one of the lesser known, which is too bad because of his great legacy to us - the written guarantee of our fundamental civil liberties. Mason drafted the prototype of the Bill of Rights in 1776 as part of Virginia’s state constitution. He fought in vain to have them included in the U.S. Constitution but after campaigning relentlessly succeeded two years later in having them added as the first 10 amendments to that document.

His friends, Washington, Madison, Jefferson, all admired his wisdom and intellect and he might have shared in their historical fame except that he had a prickly personality and didn’t much like politics or politicians.

His Gunston Hall plantation survives, not far from Washington’s Mount Vernon and the university that bears his name. In honor of the basketball team, his statue on campus is bedecked in George Mason paraphernalia and green and gold balloons. As the father of nine, he would have understood.

George Mason’s Wikipedia entry has more.

Free Links:

• France is not the only country with an unruly youth immigrant problem, and maybe not even the most serious one –
  

  Police brought in as teachers lose control at Berlin school
  31 March 2006

  BERLIN - Violence at a Berlin school dominated by Arab and Turkish youths and the nearby slaying of police officer, shot in the head while trying to arrest muggers, has fuelled alarm that troubled parts of the German capital are lurching out of control.

  Police have now been brought in to help control the situation at the Ruetli school in the immigrant-dominated Neukoelln district, with six officers checking students for weapons.

  Teachers at the school published a letter this week widely interpreted as saying conditions at their school had become so bad that it should be closed down.

  The letter said teachers had lost all authority and were now so afraid that they only entered classrooms with a mobile phone so they could call for help in an emergency.

• This is the kind of news that makes you think the prosperity will stay with us for a while — IT Spending to Pick Up, Says SG Cowen (a consulting firm).
• Katherine Harris’s Florida Senate candidacy appears to be in trouble — campaign staff are leaving, money isn’t coming in, etc. I think this is a classic case of attempting too much too soon, combined with an annoying entitlement mentality. She has been portrayed as a hero or villain for merely doing the job the law mandated she do in the 2000 presidential election. Those who praised her, and those damned her, both overplayed thin hands. Harris was able to parlay the notoriety received from that event quickly into a successful congressional run. But she has always seemed to feel that the Bush Administration owed her something, like a clear shot at becoming a US Senator, and I’ve never understood that. If her campaign is indeed fizzling, it should be a lesson to overeager politicians to bide their time.
• A bus company plans Detroit-Chicago fares for as little as $1. You read that right.
• Looming cuts at bankrupt Delphi, which is closing 21 of its 29 plants, are angering auto workers. Not as much as total liquidation would.
• Another unsettling voting machine security story, this time out of Utah. You don’t need to be a tinfoil hatter to wonder what in the world is going on.

Remembering the remarkable man who, as much as anyone, brought down the Iron Curtain:

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people from around the world flocked to a candlelight service at the Vatican on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul and pray that he be made a saint soon.

They came from the late Pope’s native Poland, from the United States, Asia and Italy to pray the rosary and listen to Pope Benedict deliver an address after a moment of silence at 9:37 p.m. (1937 GMT), the moment that he died a year ago.

A woman holds a picture of the late Pope John Paul II while Pope Benedict XVI addresses the crowd from the window of his private apartments during the Sunday Angelus prayer at the Vatican April 2, 2006. (REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito)
A sea of Polish flags filled the square as dusk settled and the some of the late Pope’s countrymen held up a huge banner from his home town of Wadowice in southern Poland.

Dozens of banners bore the name of Solidarnosc (Solidarity), the free trade union that John Paul supported in the 1980s and whose rise led to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

“We are here to give tribute. It is a must for us to be here because being here in St Peter’s Square is us giving him our thanksgiving for all the wonderful things he did,” said Richard Ricafente, a man in his 20s from the Philippines.

Young people read excerpts from the late Pope’s writings, including some of his poetry, and listened to spiritual songs as they exchanged personal memories of the late pontiff.

Nuns in black habits and Franciscan monks in brown robes joined young people in jeans. During the day many of them had waited together for hours to visit John Paul’s tomb in St Peter’s Basilica.

“I think he was a holy Pope and I think the process for sainthood should be speeded up,” said Giuseppe Decore, an Italian lawyer.

“MAKE HIM A SAINT NOW”

Many said they would be praying that the late Pope could be made a saint soon. Several in the evening crowd held up a banner reading “Santo Subito” (”Make him a saint now”), a repeat of banners held aloft at his funeral a year ago.

“I don’t have the words to express my feelings. He was not only our father but a father to the whole world,” said Hanna Ulatowska, a 29-year-old flower shop owner who came from Warsaw.

The feeling was the same at the Lagiewniki shrine near Krakow, where thousands of Poles, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, attended a memorial mass said by the late Pope’s private secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz.

“I pray every day so that John Paul II is made a saint. He is a man that changed Poland, changed me, changed the whole world. He was already a saint in his lifetime,” said Katarzyna Malec, a pensioner from Krakow.

Last May, Pope Benedict put his predecessor on the fast track to sainthood by dispensing with Church rules that normally impose a five-year waiting period after a candidate’s death before the procedure that leads to sainthood can even start.

Previous post:

• April 1, 2005 — Pope John Paul: Champion of Freedom, Human Life, and Democracy