[August 25, 2000]

Well, I was right about one thing - I never would have imagined that finish. Even two days later, my brain is still buzzing. I do think that Rich truly earned the money, by constantly keeping his eye on the prize, although I thought his defense at the final Tribal Council was insufferable, unlike Kelly's defense, won him not a single vote he didn't already have. Other than that, I think Rich played the game near-flawlessly, with his crowning glory being his decision to ditch the final immunity challenge. Sometime during the challenge, he realized that even if he had "won," it would be a loss for him. Rich needed to have Rudy on the jury, not as a competitor, to have any shot at winning the prize, but if he won immunity and failed to pick Rudy, he would have lost his vote.

That said, I admire Rudy more for following through with his end of the bargain even when he had no real need to do so - he showed himself a man of integrity, despite his vast personal differences with Rich. On the Town Hall, Rudy said that he had applied for Survivor II, and I really hope he gets picked. (Gee, how can CBS resist?) I also hope he gets assigned to a tribe full of gay nudists, just for fun's sake. Rudy also got the best line of the entire night, on the Letterman show:

Months later, I still got sand in places I wish I didn't.

Today, I got to thinking: what if the next President picked all the Survivor cast for government posts? Here's what you might see:

Then again, maybe not. W

[August 23, 2000]

Ugh. Mental midget and not-so-crypto-ideologue Bryant Gumbel will host tonight's "Town Hall" reunion of the Survivor contestants. Why can't we vote this idiot off the air? W

Survivor Drinking Game Rules (as drafted by Mike and Dineen)

You must drink:

You choose who drinks:

You must finish your drink:

All Must Drink:

Survivors ready? Go! W

[August 22, 2000]

So tomorrow night, we're caving to the pressure and hosting a Survivor finale party. We're having some of Dineen's colleagues over for dinner and lots of shouting at the TV. On the menu: fish and rice, of course, and - you guessed it - tapioca pudding for dessert. Since I guess this means I'll have to officially state my pick for the winner, I think Rudy has a strong shot at winning it all. I just have a hard time concocting any scenario where anyone else beats him. W

Here's a few other notes on some Gore-isms of the past few days:

First, the Associated Press had a fit of civic responsibility and saw fit to fill in some of the details that Al left out. Next, here's a lovely little piece by Joseph Farah on how Al distorts the evironmental record in Texas. Finally, The Washington Times opines on who invented our current propsperity. Hint: it wasn't Al. W

Quoth House Minority Whip David Bonior (MI):

You can bet your bottom dollar that the Republican Party was behind (the leak)

Now that we know that the leak was an accidental slip by a Carter-appointed, Democratic federal judge, where do we go to collect our dollar, Dave? Dave?  W

You Ain’t Seen Big Government Yet: It’s been several days now, and the magnitude of Al Gore’s acceptance speech has had time to settle over the land like a plague. I was unable to watch the speech myself, as I was in a car traveling northbound on I-95 for a family gathering; I had to just listen to it on AM radio, fiddling with the dial every time we crossed into a new market. Deprived of the visions of Al Gore that I later heard about – arms spread open like a Christ-figure, balloons dropping all around – I had to focus on his words and what they meant to this country. I came away deeply disturbed.

I knew that Gore would, as nominees usually do, give the speech of his life. Delivery-wise, he nailed it about as well as someone made of wood can be expected to. He’s obviously had some speech coaching, and one could almost hear his advisors whispering in his ear to “let a little Tennessee in.” Listening to him speak, in the dark of night as the freeway rolled by, I could hear this Beltway Boy straining to put just the right twang on it. Mostly, he succeeded.

But Al wants to focus on substance, so let’s move there. For almost the first half of his speech – the part before the Christmas list – Al sounded like he was accepting the Republican nomination, talking about his family, his tour in Vietnam in service of his father’s campai… I mean, his country, and the importance of communities. Al stood to collect the credit for this administration for its role in the pre-Clinton recovery of 1992 and the boom which started in 1994. He bragged of welfare reform and balanced budgets and “targeted” tax cuts, forgetting that this administration was forced into every one by a Republican Congress elected on the promise of enacting all three. All in all, he offered few surprises. Then began the Christmas list.

Al promised universal health coverage. He paid homage to the teachers’ unions who have obstructed real education reform for so long. He promised universal pre-school care. He condemned tax cuts for the “wealthy.” He promised to oppose real Social Security reform, and instead to throw more money at a program which is fundamentally flawed. He promised to pay off the national debt “by 2012” – many years after he would presumably have left office. He promised to extend the tentacles of government regulation further into the pharmaceutical industry by creating a new entitlement program for prescription medicine. He promised to fight oil companies and drug companies and tobacco companies all the while his party was collecting money from them in the tents outside the hall.

He promised everyone what he thought they wanted to hear.

He did so without courage. Al talked in code, promising to support ENDA and invoking the memory of Matthew Shepard in support of hate-crimes legislation without once mentioning the word “gay.” The intended audience knew what he was talking about, but Al was afraid to tell the rest of the world that he supports gay rights. He spoke with a forked tongue, promising to support “free trade” and “fair trade,” more code for saying he stood firmly on both sides of the fence.

He said, “those are the issues, and that's where I stand.” We know now better than ever – Al Gore will fight for Big Government and sweeping paternalism. He would be the President who never met an entitlement he didn’t like. He brings home the theme of his party’s convention… if you thought the era of big government was over, well… you ain’t seen nothing yet. W

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