Friday, February 18th, 2005
Observations, comments, etceteras:
Cheney’s speech last night was just about what I expected. Tech Central managed get its hands on the best table in the place, so I sat within bread-throwing distance. Cheney mostly delivered standard Bush administration palp — lip service to limited government princples. Less spending, trusting the people, reforming the tax code, you know the spiel. It’s the same stuff the White House has been saying for five years. Perhaps it’ll happen soon. It hasn’t happened yet. He did deliver one amusing line, noting that there are more people in the business of preparing taxes than there are seving in the U.S. army. Swell. You’ve got the White House and both houses of Congress. Do something about it.
Norm Coleman, on the other hand, was quite stirring. Coleman was honored for his work on the oil-for-food scandal, and delivered a rousing speech on the corruption within the United Nations, culimating in the line, “This U.S. Senator says it’s time for Kofi Annan to resign from the United Nations.” Standing ovation. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear Coleman assert that world policing and humanitarianism aren’t legitimate functions of the U.S. military. The thirsty war folk here and I don’t agree on much when it comes to foreign policy, but I too got the “hell yeah” chills when it comes to the UN-bashing.
Image of the night: Kosher Sex author, answerer of the question “is semen kosher?,” Michael Jackson buddy, and celebrity rabbi extraordinaire Schmuley Boteach exchanging business cards with NRA honcho Wayne LaPierre.
There was a $100 bounty at my table for anyone to go up, shake Henry Hyde’s hand, then slyly convert the handshake into a “1-2-3-4, I declare a thumb war.” Nobody bit. But that would have been really, really funny. Hyde, unfortunately, wasn’t looking well last night.
The Reagan Trade Center is awful. It’s really hard to get around in this place. The building’s design isn’t the least bit intuitive, and the parking lot is a nightmare.
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TheAgitator.com
A Sad Truth
Radley Balko, reacting to Vice President Dick Cheney’s speech at CPAC last night:
He did deliver one amusing line, noting that there are more people in the business of preparing taxes than there are seving in the U.S. army. Swell. You’ve got the Whi…