William Safire has died

The writing world has last another great one.

The New York Times gives the grim news:

William Safire, a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon and a Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for The New York Times who also wrote novels, books on politics and a Malaprop’s treasury of articles on language, died at a hospice in Rockville, Md. on Sunday. He was 79.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Martin Tolchin, a friend of the family.

There may be many sides in a genteel debate, but in the Safire world of politics and journalism it was simpler: there was his own unambiguous wit and wisdom on one hand and, on the other, the blubber of fools he called “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.”

He was a college dropout and proud of it, a public relations go-getter who set up the famous Nixon-Khrushchev “kitchen debate” in Moscow, and a White House wordsmith in the tumultuous era of war in Vietnam, Nixon’s visit to China and the gathering storm of the Watergate scandal that drove the president from office.

Then, from 1973 to 2005, Mr. Safire wrote his twice weekly “Essay” for the Op-Ed Page of The Times, a forceful conservative voice in the liberal chorus. Unlike most Washington columnists who offer judgments with Olympian detachment, Mr. Safire was a pugnacious contrarian who did much of his own reporting, called people liars in print and laced his opinions with outrageous wordplay.

Critics initially dismissed him as an apologist for the disgraced Nixon coterie. But he won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, and for 32 years tenaciously attacked and defended foreign and domestic policies, and the foibles, of seven administrations. Along the way, he incurred enmity and admiration, and made a lot of powerful people squirm.

Mr. Safire also wrote four novels, including “Full Disclosure,” (Doubleday, 1977), a best-seller about succession issues after a president is blinded in an assassination attempt, and nonfiction that included “The New Language of Politics,” (Random House, 1968), and “Before the Fall,” (Doubleday, 1975,) a memoir of his White House years.

And from 1979 until earlier this month, he wrote “On Language,” a New York Times Magazine column that explored written and oral trends, plumbed the origins and meanings of words and phrases, and drew a devoted following, including a stable of correspondents he called his Lexicographic Irregulars.

The columns, many collected in books, made him an unofficial arbiter of usage, and one of the most widely read writers on language. It also tapped into the lighter side of the dour-looking Mr. Safire: a Pickwickian quibbler who gleefully pounced on gaffes, inexactitudes, neologisms, misnomers, solecisms and perversely peccant puns, like “The President’s populism and the First Lady’s momulism.”

There were columns on blogosphere blargon, tarnation-heck euphamisms, dastardly subjunctives and even Barack and Michelle Obama’s fist bumps. And there were Safire “rules for writers”: Remember to never split an infinitive. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. Avoid cliches like the plague. And don’t overuse exclamation marks!!

Hack writers are in abundance; I consider myself to be among them. Damned good writers are a rarity, those who could think for themselves, those who could engage, make one think, laugh and learn —- all within the same sentence, are indeed a rarity. William Safire was in that club of Conservative writers, that included William F. Buckley, Irving Kristol, and many other greats that I cannot think of, off the top of my rather pointed head.

May the man rest in peace.

Tim Russert's Dad Passes Away

(A big H/T and thanks to Mediaite on Twitter)

The Story via Mediaite:

Timothy Joseph Russert, father of the late, legendary NBC Newsman Tim Russert and grandfather of NBC correspondent Luke Russert, passed away today at the age of 85.

Known as “Big Russ,” Russert became famous in his own right by being a focus of the New York Times bestseller “Big Russ & Me.”

Tim Russert passed away in June 2008 at the age of 58.

The Families statement is as follows:

“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Timothy Joseph Russert. While he was affectionately known to the world as “Big Russ,” he carried no more important nor meaningful titles than those of father, grandfather, great-grandfather, patriot and friend. He passed peacefully with his family at his side from natural causes at the age of 85.

We warmly thank all those who were inspired by his life and his lessons.

In lieu of flowers please send donations to the Alzheimer’s Association so that the world may move closer to finding a cure for this sad affliction.

We ask for privacy as funeral arrangments are pending.”

Here is Tim talking about his father, from a “Remembering Tim Russert special on MSNBC:

I, like the rest of the political blogging world; was absolutely stunned beyond words, when the news broke the Tim Russert died. Now, it seems that “Bug Russ” has gone to go be with Tim.

May he rest in peace and my condolences to his family.

Irving Kristol Dead at age 89

I got the alert via New York Times and I checked over at the Weekly Standard and sure enough Irving Kristol has passed.

Via The New York Times:

Irving Kristol, the political commentator who, as much as anyone, defined modern conservatism and helped revitalize the Republican Party in the late 1960s and early ’70s, setting the stage for the Reagan presidency and years of conservative dominance, died Friday in Arlington, Va. He was 89 and lived in Washington.

His son, William Kristol, the commentator and editor of the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard, said the cause of death was complications of lung cancer.

Mr. Kristol exerted an influence across generations, from William F. Buckley to the columnist David Brooks, through a variety of positions he held over a long career: executive vice president of Basic Books, contributor to The Wall Street Journal, professor of social thought at New York University, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

He was commonly known as the godfather of neoconservatism, even by those who were not entirely sure what the term meant. In probably his most widely quoted comment — his equivalent of Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame — Mr. Kristol defined a neoconservative as a liberal who had been “mugged by reality.”

[….]

By now Mr. Kristol was battling on several fronts. He published columns and essays attacking liberalism and the counterculture from his perches at The Wall Street Journal and The Public Interest, and in 1978 he and William E. Simon, President Nixon’s secretary of the treasury, formed the Institute for Educational Affairs to funnel corporate and foundation money to conservative causes. In 1985 he started The National Interest, a journal devoted to foreign affairs.

But Mr. Kristol wasn’t railing just against the left. He criticized America’s commercial class for upholding greed and selfishness as positive values. He saw “moral anarchy” within the business community, and he urged it to take responsibility for itself and the larger society. He encouraged businessmen to give money to political candidates and help get conservative ideas across to the public. Republicans, he said, had for half a century been “the stupid party,” with not much more on their minds than balanced budgets and opposition to the welfare state. He instructed them to support economic growth by cutting taxes and not to oppose New Deal institutions.

Above all, Mr. Kristol preached a faith in ordinary people. . “It is the self-imposed assignment of neoconservatives,” he wrote, “to explain to the American people why they are right, and to the intellectuals why they are wrong.”

Mr. Kristol saw religion and a belief in the afterlife as the foundation for the middle-class values he championed. He argued that religion provided a necessary constraint to antisocial, anarchical impulses. Without it, he said, “the world falls apart.” Yet Mr. Kristol’s own religious views were so ambiguous that some friends questioned whether he believed in God. In 1996, he told an interviewer: “I’ve always been a believer.” But, he added, “don’t ask me in what.”

“That gets too complicated,” he said. “The word ‘God’ confuses everything.”

In 2002, Mr. Kristol received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, often considered the nation’s highest civilian honor. It was another satisfying moment for a man who appears to have delighted in his life or, as Andrew Sullivan put it, “to have emerged from the womb content.”

He once said that his career had been “one instance of good luck after another.” Some called him a cheerful conservative. He did not dispute it. He had had much, he said, “to be cheerful about.”

I will not lie. I did not agree with Mr. Kristol’s Politics or his version of Conservatism. In fact, I have been known to make a crack at people on other blogs; when they were spewing stupidity, especially the George W. Bush Cheerleaders, I would always say, “Where did you learn that line? From Bill or Irving Kristol?” or something usually to that effect. Some of Irving Kristol’s ideology was very controversial;  like the desire for a full scale invasion of Iran; of which I found to be horrifically stupid. Thankfully, Bush’s people agreed. Much of his ideology can be summed up as Wilsonian; the man believed that war was the answer, always. I disagreed then and I still do.

However, it is not to say that Kristol was a total loss; He did work to take the Conservative movement away from the Anti-Semites within the Republican Party. He also exposed and expelled the blatant racists that had taken root since the days of Abraham Lincoln. Between Kristol and Buckley; Conservatism become a bit more intellectual and not the knuckle-dragging simpleton nonsense that it has become now; Sarah Palin being a perfect example.

May God Bless the man, I am sure will be missed. May he rest in peace.

Cross-Posted at Alexandria

Senator Ted Kennedy has died

Yes, I know about it. I have been up all night trying to figure out what the hell I was going to say.

I am referring to the passing of Ted Kennedy.

He was a liberal, of whom his policies I disagreed with; most notably recently when he yowled on about how Health-care was a right of every American citizen. I disagreed then and still do disagree with that foolish damned philosophy.  I called him on it, in my usual crass manner.  This was done with the working assumption that the man would actually live. I had no idea that he was going to die. Besides that, I was calling the man on his politics, and was not intended to be knock on him personally.  Anyone that does not see that difference, needs to get their head out of their damned ass.

He spoke loudly for the disabled, something that I can appreciate, as I am the nephew of a developmentally disabled aunt. (Also known as mentally retarded) The Democrats took up this cause; because the people that should have been taking their cause; that is the Church —— were too busy trying to make themselves more holy and righteous.

I will not lionize him, Mr. Kennedy will get enough of that here in the next few days; from the mainstream media. But I will NOT do the typical slash and burn that is commonly found on many of the Conservative Blogs. Those who do this are pure idiots, immature asinine pricks are they. I said this on twitter last night; which earned me some praise from a well-known tech blogger. How anyone can call themselves a damned Conservative and then turn right around and engage in the same damned behavior that the liberals engaged in when Tony Snow died, is well beyond the ability for this simple-minded writer to understand. I was under the damned impression that we Conservatives were supposed to be better than that.  I guess some of our guys did not get the memo on that subject.

Hell, even Michelle Malkin, the biggest screeching yowler that there is, has tapered her remarks and is showing respect. What was it that Debbie Schlussel called her in a e-mail to me yesterday? Partisan and a fake? Hmmmm.. Perhaps Debbie should look in the mirror, because I see Debbie trashing and Michelle is not, at all. Weird how that works, is it not?

As for all the speculation as to what will this do to the health-care debate, that will come at a later date. For now, let us give the family the space to grieve for a loved one and the Nation, Liberals especially; to morn the loss of their Lion.

May Ted Rest in peace and may God rest his soul.

Conservative Icon Journalist Robert Novak has died

A truly sad day in Conservatism. Conservative Icon and award winning Journalist Robert Novak has died.

I really do not think that my mere words could ever measure up to those who have already paid tribute to him.

Tim Carney Pays tribute:

Bob Novak hired me away from HUMAN EVENTS in late 2001. “Poaching,” HE Editor-in-Chief Tom Winter called it. I was not the first early-20s reporter Novak would pluck from HE’s newsroom. Nor would I be the last.

Work for us Novak reporters, in addition to writing the Evans-Novak Political Report, consisted of doing “the opposite of research,” as I put it. Rather than trying to find an answer to a question Novak had — he had another staffer for that — we would try to dig up scoops, leads, and unreported nuggets to feed him.

That Novak would hire a leg-man to go around Washington sniffing out news reflected the virtue at the heart of his work: His columns, while they resided on the op-ed pages, were built upon previously unreported facts that revealed and explained the machinations of government, the men and women in power, and the politics behind it all. His job demanded he get a constant flow of new information, but curiosity and a thirst for knowledge were natural traits for him.

Bob Novak was, above all, a reporter.

I suggest that you read all of that tribute; as I feel that it is excellent.

CNN did a nice tribute as well:

Kenneth Tomlinson writes:

How many reporters, when George W. Bush named Paul O’Neill as his Treasury secretary, knew that he had been a pal of young government staffer Dick Cheney and that it was O’Neill who was the reason Gerald Ford’s vision as he opened his presidential campaign was “essentially that of a Washington bureaucrat.”? Of course Novak wrote the column. But did Bush (and Rove) ever come to see that Novak was right?

In recent years, some of Novak’s most significant work was done in association with Tom Phillips, who had begun publishing the bi-weekly Evans-Novak Political Report in1971 at Phillips Publishing and then had moved the newsletter to Eagle Publishing after he founded Eagle in 1993. Under the umbrella of the Phillips Foundation, Phillips and Novak developed the nation’s largest journalistic grant program for young writers — offering five-figure stipends to finance research and development of significant conservative books and articles that otherwise would not have been produced.

Not a Saturday night passes that I do not miss “Capital Gang.” Spring is not the same without the ACC tournament. I cannot pick up the Saturday New York Post or the Monday Washington Post without a sense of regret that the column is not there.

There was one thing about Novak that I admired greatly; and that is that he was skeptical of the Washington D.C. crowd. Something that I found myself to be quite a bit. He also was highly critical of the Bush Administration and much of its action that lead up to the Iraq War and afterwards. Novak did not carry water for the Republican Party; something that I highly admired about him.

You can read the roundup of opinions and memorials here at Memeorandum. Of course, there are some opportunistic liberals who are taking pot shots at the man at his passing. I find this to be totally offensive, and I told one so on a liberal rag blog that no one reads. I will not link to it; that would be sacrilegious. On the other hand, one of the bigger Liberal Blogs out there; which is ran by some marbled-mouthed ex-Republican, who knowingly married a gay man;  had surprisingly nice things to say about Mr. Novak.  Shocking indeed.

My deepest condolences to the Novak Family and most of all his many Children.

May Bob Rest in peace, as he has earned it.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver has passed

Some very sad news to report….

Via the New York Times:

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Eunice Kennedy Shriver

A sister of President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy and the mother-in-law of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Mrs. Shriver never held elective office. Yet she was no stranger to Capitol Hill, and some view her work on behalf of the developmentally challenged, including the founding of the Special Olympics, as the most lasting of the Kennedy family’s contributions.

“When the full judgment of the Kennedy legacy is made — including J.F.K.’s Peace Corps and Alliance for Progress, Robert Kennedy’s passion for civil rights and Ted Kennedy’s efforts on health care, workplace reform and refugees — the changes wrought by Eunice Shriver may well be seen as the most consequential,” U.S. News and World Report said in its cover story of Nov. 15, 1993.

Edward Kennedy said in an interview in October 2007: “You talk about an agent of change — she is it. If the test is what you’re doing that’s been helpful for humanity, you’d be hard pressed to find another member of the family who’s done more.”

[….]

<p>Eunice Kennedy Shriver</p>
Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Among the awards Mrs. Shriver received for her work on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities are the Legion of Honor, the Prix de la Couronne Française, the Albert Lasker Public Service Award, the National Recreation and Park Association National Voluntary

Service Award and the Order of the Smile of Polish Children. She was also made a dame of the Papal Order of St. Gregory. On Nov. 16, 2007, she was honored with a personal tribute at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, with many Kennedy family members present.

In 1984 President Ronald Reagan awarded Mrs. Shriver the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

In an interview with CBS News in 2004, Mrs. Shriver’s son Robert said: “My mom never ran for office, and she changed the world. Period. End of story.”

Sister Toldja reports the following:

She was a kind-hearted person who supported her Democrat-dominated family for decades, and even though she was a Democrat herself, she and her husband both were pro-life, and during the first presidential campaign of then-Governor Bill Clinton, she – along with several other prominent pro-life Democrats, signed a letter than was published in the NYT protesting the Democratic party’s pro-choice platform.

Let me simple add something. As much as I despise the current state of the Democratic Party’s far left socialism; As a nephew of the developmentally disabled (AKA Mentally retarded)  aunt, I can appreciate what this woman has done.

May her legacy be carried on for as long as this world may exist.

May she rest in peace.

The Two Sides of Tammi

First there is the funny. This, I feel is the quote of the year; or at least the month!

Finally back at the office we’re finishing up one of the reports in my office. Now, I’m right on the street side. Every damned semi that drive by sounds like it’s coming THROUGH my window. One time, it was particularly loud and my guy jumps.

Him – Damn….that’s annoying as hell.

Me – yeah…figures. Only I would be given an office with a vibrator.

It was at that point I announced it was time for everyone to go home. I had completely lost my ability to think or speak clearly….

via Tammi’s World: Tidbits.

Then there is the completely serious and quite sad, of Tammi.  It is the story of how Tammi lost her Dad. I read this originally in 2005, when Tammi first posted it. I nearly lost it then and I still get misty-eyed when I read it. Tammi’s a tough lady; she’s been through royal hell. She has my respect.

It just shows you how someone, who has been through hell and back, can have a good sense of humor. I God Bless her for that. 🙂

Director John Hughes dead at 59

As you all know, I am a child of the late early 1970’s and grew up in the 1980’s. So, this one is kind of personal.

John Hughes, who captured the zeitgeist of 1980s teen life as writer-director of “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles” and produced and scripted family hits such as “Home Alone,” died Thursday of a heart attack in Manhattan while taking a walk. He was 59.

After an impressive string of hits — “Home Alone” is one of the top-grossing live-action comedies of all time — Hughes, who never won a major show business award, stopped directing in 1991 and virtually retired from filmmaking a few years later, working on his farm in northern Illinois.

The filmmaker, whom critic Roger Ebert once called “the philosopher of adolescence,” was a major influence on filmmakers including Wes Anderson, Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow, who told the L.A. Times last year, “Basically, my stuff is just John Hughes films with four-letter words.”

“I feel like a part of my childhood has died. Nobody made me laugh harder or more often than John Hughes,” said Apatow in a statement.

Bruce Berman, who was VP of production at Universal and president of production at Warners when Hughes made several films with those studios, told Daily Variety, “He was one of the most challenging relationships an exec could have, but one of the most fun, most talented and gifted.” Berman said that although Hughes was one of the fastest writers in the biz — “He could write a draft over a weekend — he didn’t like to be rewritten.”

Born in Michigan, Hughes used his high school town of suburban Northbrook, Ill., as a location for many of his films. He got his start as an advertising copywriter in Chicago and started selling jokes to performers such as Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers. Hired by National Lampoon magazine after submitting his short story “Vacation ’58,” he wrote his first screenplay, “Class Reunion,” while on staff at the magazine, and it became his first produced script in 1982. His next, “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” based on his short story, became his first big hit and spawned several sequels.

Hughes’ first film as a director was 1984’s “Sixteen Candles,” starring Anthony Michael Hall, John Cusack and Molly Ringwald. The teen romance introduced several of the actors who would make up Hughes’ “stock company” of thesps, several of whom became known as the Brat Pack.

In 1985, “The Breakfast Club” became the era’s iconic and influential high school film. It starred Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Hall and Judd Nelson as teens who must learn to get along when thrown together during Saturday detention.

Hughes wrote and exec produced Ringwald starrer “Pretty in Pink,” which felt of a piece with his directing projects, then directed “Weird Science,” starring Hall, and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” starring Matthew Broderick. He also wrote “Some Kind of Wonderful” and “She’s Having a Baby,” heartfelt adolescent stories that both bore his stamp.

He branched out with 1987’s more grown-up “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” starring Steve Martin and John Candy, then directed just two more films, “Uncle Buck” and “Curly Sue,” his eighth and final film as helmer.

via Director John Hughes dies at 59 – Entertainment News, Film News, Media – Variety.

His films were the basically the soundtrack of my life. At some port or another; I have most likely seen them all. Not much when they first came out mind you. At that time, I was still totally wrapped up into the whole Pentecostal Christan thing. Something that I sometimes feel stole my childhood from me.  My parents are not to blame; I am. I was never forced to do anything at all. I wanted to be where I was and what I was involved in. Because I thought it was right. Looking back however, I tend to believe that what I went through was nothing more than glorified brain washing.

Hughes films captured the 1980’s, in all its splendor. The whole innocence of being a kid in that era. It was a magical time to grow up; a Republican was in the White House. The Republican Party was a force to be reckoned with, Liberals tried and failed to change the course of the Country.  Reagan brought optimism back to America and it trickled out of the White House and on the silver screen.  Hughes channeled that whole era into film, for people like me to relive, time and time again.

I hope the man knew God, May he rest in peace.

Update: A very good Blog posting from fan of Hughs.

Some Sad News

Jim Hoft over at Gateway Pundit has lost his mother. 🙁

I realize that none of the words, that I can type on this blog can ease the pain that Jim is feeling right about now. So, I will just skip usual flower speech and just remind everyone, that life is too short; and that maybe everyone should go call Mom and Dad, and tell them how much you love them. If she’s close, go give her a hug.

When you’re done; Go on over and say a few kind words to Jim.

Politics is one thing, but real life is another. Sometimes, when getting caught up in the daily Blogosphere, we forget about that.

More Sad News: Libertarian Blogger Mark Yannone Found Dead

I was just over at Freedom’s Phoenix, some sad news to report:

Steve Yannone (no relation – close friend) steveyannone at aol.com (reports):

Will provide more details when family comes to town. Close friends can contact Steve for more details. It is 001-0720140919-Mark_Yannone3believed that he died from an epileptic seizure that he regularly suffered from. Sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. We’ll have more details as they become available.

Many of us have known Mark since the mid 90’s as a very principled and active libertarian. He was expected to be heavily engaged in the coming election cycle again. He will be missed.
Ernie

Mark’s Blog is here; Mark also run on the Libertarian ticket, that website is here.

What a sad loss for the Freedom Movement! :-((