Sunday, October 31, 2004
More Proof That Bush Supporters Tend To Be Misinformed.
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From A Kevin Drum Guest Blogger:
FUN FACTS... From two Boston Globe columnists, two interesting poll numbers I'd not seen on which groups are predisposed to believe falsehoods about Iraq. There's this from Ellen Goodman:
As recently as two weeks ago, the Harris Poll showed that 41 percent of Americans still link Saddam Hussein with the hijackers. What's more disheartening is the gender gap of misinformation: 51 percent of women compared with 29 percent of men connect Iraq and al Qaeda.
And this from Dan Payne:
Nonpartisan, academic poll found 72 percent of Bush supporters still believe Iraq had WMD. 75 percent think Iraq gave substantial support to Al Qaeda. Some 63 percent believe evidence of this support has been found. Should US have gone to war if our intelligence concluded Iraq was not making WMD or supporting Al Qaeda? 58 percent said no.
—Paul Glastris
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From A Kevin Drum Guest Blogger:
FUN FACTS... From two Boston Globe columnists, two interesting poll numbers I'd not seen on which groups are predisposed to believe falsehoods about Iraq. There's this from Ellen Goodman:
As recently as two weeks ago, the Harris Poll showed that 41 percent of Americans still link Saddam Hussein with the hijackers. What's more disheartening is the gender gap of misinformation: 51 percent of women compared with 29 percent of men connect Iraq and al Qaeda.
And this from Dan Payne:
Nonpartisan, academic poll found 72 percent of Bush supporters still believe Iraq had WMD. 75 percent think Iraq gave substantial support to Al Qaeda. Some 63 percent believe evidence of this support has been found. Should US have gone to war if our intelligence concluded Iraq was not making WMD or supporting Al Qaeda? 58 percent said no.
—Paul Glastris
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Americans Are Not The Only Ones Completely Tired Of Bush
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Blair’s Wife, Next To Last person Who Still Likes Bush, Finally Turns
Cherie Blair has been accused of criticising George W Bush's policies in a private address she gave during a United States lecture tour
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Blair’s Wife, Next To Last person Who Still Likes Bush, Finally Turns
Cherie Blair has been accused of criticising George W Bush's policies in a private address she gave during a United States lecture tour
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Sunday Science Thread
been meaning to catch up on these
Indonesia's Hobbit-Sized Humans Find Humble Home
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Newly unearthed remains of hobbit-sized humans, perhaps one of the most significant finds involving human evolution in recent years, are being stored in an office drawer in the Indonesian capital.
A lack of funds and strict laws on the removal of national treasures from the country mean the bones of several Homo floresiensis, who stood about one meter (three feet) tall and walked the earth about 13,000 years ago, are being kept at a modest government office in Jakarta, archaeologists said.
The small hominids, dubbed "Flores man," were first unearthed in a limestone cave on the remote island of Flores in 2003 by Australian and Indonesian scientists and the findings published to great acclaim this week in the journal Nature.
"They are now stored in a steel cabinet in the office," Thomas Sutikna, the archaeologist who first discovered the prized skull of a "Flores man," told Reuters on Friday, referring to the National Archaeology office in Jakarta.
"In 2004 we also found the lower part of a jaw, parts of legs and arms and some teeth."
Scientists are shocked to learn that human remains found in Indonesia in 2003 belong to a previously unknown miniature human species that lived on a south Asian island just 18,000 years ago.
The full-grown female human was barely a meter tall, with a skull the size of a grapefruit. The discovery is proof, the researchers say, that human species in the recent past are much more diverse than previously thought.
Excavators discovered the remains of a cranium, right and left leg, hand and other bone fragments in a cave called Liang Bua on the Indonesian island of Flores, about 400 miles east of Bali.
The archeology world is agog. Researchers previously believed that people with such a small brain and body last walked the Earth 3 million years ago.
"I would have been less surprised if my colleagues had found an alien spacecraft," said Peter Brown, an associate professor of archaeology at Australia's University of New England in Armidale, who describes his analysis of the remains in the Oct. 28 issue of Nature.
The fact that the remains date to just 18,000 years ago is remarkable, Brown said. "In evolutionary terms, this was yesterday."
Indonesian Folklore About Tribes Of Little People Apparently Were Not Folklore
PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 25 - Scientists are about to get their first really close and revealing look at Titan, the invitingly mysterious giant moon of Saturn.
The Cassini spacecraft is on course to pass within 750 miles of Titan at 12:44 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. Its cameras and imaging radar system are expected to break through the moon's opaque atmosphere and for the first time map wide swaths of its hidden surface.
Because Cassini's antenna will be pointing away from Earth through the flyby, at least nine hours will pass before the spacecraft is expected to begin transmitting the first pictures.
At a diameter of 3,200 miles, Titan is half again as large as Earth's Moon and only slightly smaller than Jupiter's Ganymede, the goliath of solar system satellites. Unlike all other known moons, Titan is enveloped in a thick atmosphere of nitrogen gas mixed with a permanent smoggy haze, to the frustration of astronomers.
Just Like A Tourist, Italian Space Probe Visits Saturn's Moon, Takes Pictures
File This Under Could-Get-Any-Weirder
Oct. 22, 2004 — A University of Florida scientist has created a living "brain" of cultured rat cells that now controls an F-22 fighter jet flight simulator.
Scientists say the research could lead to tiny, brain-controlled prosthetic devices and unmanned airplanes flown by living computers.
And if scientists can decipher the ground rules of how such neural networks function, the research also may result in novel computing systems that could tackle dangerous search-and-rescue jobs and perform bomb damage assessment without endangering humans.
Additionally, the interaction of the cells within the lab-assembled brain also may allow scientists to better understand how the human brain works. The data may one day enable researchers to determine causes and possible non-invasive cures for neural disorders, such as epilepsy.
For the recent project, Thomas DeMarse, a University of Florida professor of biomedical engineering, placed an electrode grid at the bottom of a glass dish and then covered the grid with rat neurons. The cells initially resembled individual grains of sand in liquid, but they soon extended microscopic lines toward each other, gradually forming a neural network — a brain — that DeMarse says is a "living computational device."
The brain then communicates with the flight simulator through a desktop computer.
"We grow approximately 25,000 cells on a 60-channel multi-electrode array, which permits us to measure the signals produced by the activity each neuron produces as it transmits information across this network of living neurons," DeMarse told Discovery News. "Using these same channels (electrodes) we can also stimulate activity at each of the 60 locations (electrodes) in the network. Together, we have a bidirectional interface to the neural network where we can input information via stimulation. The network processes the information, and we can listen to the network's response."
Einstein dead For 49 Years, Still Kicking Ass
By measuring variations in satellite orbits, scientists have found the first direct evidence of one of the hallowed tenets of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity -- that the Earth and other large celestial bodies distort space and time as they rotate.
Researchers reporting yesterday in the journal Nature said improved satellite data had enabled them to show the effect known as "frame-dragging" with a degree of precision never previously possible.
Scientists Look To Recreate….Creation. Uh…Good Luck With That.
GENEVA (Reuters) - It has revolutionized physics, made Nobel Prize winners and given birth to the World Wide Web -- now its successor looks set to answer some of the natural world's most fundamental questions.
CERN the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has made many formidable discoveries since its launch 50 years ago, but these achievements could be dwarfed by findings from a 17-mile accelerator, or particle-smasher, being assembled outside Geneva.
From 2007 it will be firing particles at speeds nearing that of light, before smashing them together to re-create the conditions scientists believe existed less than one billionth of a second after the Big Bang -- the birth of the cosmos some 14 billion years ago.
"(We) have achieved very, very important results in what we call particle physics, which is to say, what happened after the Big Bang," said CERN Director-General Robert Aymar.
Aging but still on the go, climbing in and around craters, tapping into the mysteries of strangely cracked rocks, the two roving vehicles Spirit and Opportunity have explored Mars about three times as long as originally scheduled and keep finding evidence of past liquid water shaping the now arid surface.
Two Robots On Mars Still Roving, Find More Evidence Of Water
Tyrannosaurus rex may have had a coat of fluffy feathers.
This conclusion comes from US and Chinese scientists who today announce the discovery of a 130m-year-old forerunner of the lumbering Cretaceous predator.
Dilong paradoxus - its generic name comes from the Mandarin for emperor and dragon, and its species name from its unusual features - was the size of a turkey, had a single nose bone, a massive jaw, a long neck, and hands with three fingers.
Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History, Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other colleagues report in Nature that its fossils were unearthed in Liaoning province in China.
Dilong is the most primitive of the tyrannosaurid family found so far. But what shook the discoverers was that the region's unique volcanic ash and sandy muds preserved not just the skeleton but also some soft tissue - and the first direct evidence that tyrannosaurs had feathers, or at least branching structures an inch long called protofeathers.
Links Between Dinosaurs and Birds Grows Stronger With Chinese Find: Terrasaur With Feathers!!!!
.
Indonesia's Hobbit-Sized Humans Find Humble Home
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Newly unearthed remains of hobbit-sized humans, perhaps one of the most significant finds involving human evolution in recent years, are being stored in an office drawer in the Indonesian capital.
A lack of funds and strict laws on the removal of national treasures from the country mean the bones of several Homo floresiensis, who stood about one meter (three feet) tall and walked the earth about 13,000 years ago, are being kept at a modest government office in Jakarta, archaeologists said.
The small hominids, dubbed "Flores man," were first unearthed in a limestone cave on the remote island of Flores in 2003 by Australian and Indonesian scientists and the findings published to great acclaim this week in the journal Nature.
"They are now stored in a steel cabinet in the office," Thomas Sutikna, the archaeologist who first discovered the prized skull of a "Flores man," told Reuters on Friday, referring to the National Archaeology office in Jakarta.
"In 2004 we also found the lower part of a jaw, parts of legs and arms and some teeth."
Scientists are shocked to learn that human remains found in Indonesia in 2003 belong to a previously unknown miniature human species that lived on a south Asian island just 18,000 years ago.
The full-grown female human was barely a meter tall, with a skull the size of a grapefruit. The discovery is proof, the researchers say, that human species in the recent past are much more diverse than previously thought.
Excavators discovered the remains of a cranium, right and left leg, hand and other bone fragments in a cave called Liang Bua on the Indonesian island of Flores, about 400 miles east of Bali.
The archeology world is agog. Researchers previously believed that people with such a small brain and body last walked the Earth 3 million years ago.
"I would have been less surprised if my colleagues had found an alien spacecraft," said Peter Brown, an associate professor of archaeology at Australia's University of New England in Armidale, who describes his analysis of the remains in the Oct. 28 issue of Nature.
The fact that the remains date to just 18,000 years ago is remarkable, Brown said. "In evolutionary terms, this was yesterday."
Indonesian Folklore About Tribes Of Little People Apparently Were Not Folklore
PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 25 - Scientists are about to get their first really close and revealing look at Titan, the invitingly mysterious giant moon of Saturn.
The Cassini spacecraft is on course to pass within 750 miles of Titan at 12:44 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. Its cameras and imaging radar system are expected to break through the moon's opaque atmosphere and for the first time map wide swaths of its hidden surface.
Because Cassini's antenna will be pointing away from Earth through the flyby, at least nine hours will pass before the spacecraft is expected to begin transmitting the first pictures.
At a diameter of 3,200 miles, Titan is half again as large as Earth's Moon and only slightly smaller than Jupiter's Ganymede, the goliath of solar system satellites. Unlike all other known moons, Titan is enveloped in a thick atmosphere of nitrogen gas mixed with a permanent smoggy haze, to the frustration of astronomers.
Just Like A Tourist, Italian Space Probe Visits Saturn's Moon, Takes Pictures
File This Under Could-Get-Any-Weirder
Oct. 22, 2004 — A University of Florida scientist has created a living "brain" of cultured rat cells that now controls an F-22 fighter jet flight simulator.
Scientists say the research could lead to tiny, brain-controlled prosthetic devices and unmanned airplanes flown by living computers.
And if scientists can decipher the ground rules of how such neural networks function, the research also may result in novel computing systems that could tackle dangerous search-and-rescue jobs and perform bomb damage assessment without endangering humans.
Additionally, the interaction of the cells within the lab-assembled brain also may allow scientists to better understand how the human brain works. The data may one day enable researchers to determine causes and possible non-invasive cures for neural disorders, such as epilepsy.
For the recent project, Thomas DeMarse, a University of Florida professor of biomedical engineering, placed an electrode grid at the bottom of a glass dish and then covered the grid with rat neurons. The cells initially resembled individual grains of sand in liquid, but they soon extended microscopic lines toward each other, gradually forming a neural network — a brain — that DeMarse says is a "living computational device."
The brain then communicates with the flight simulator through a desktop computer.
"We grow approximately 25,000 cells on a 60-channel multi-electrode array, which permits us to measure the signals produced by the activity each neuron produces as it transmits information across this network of living neurons," DeMarse told Discovery News. "Using these same channels (electrodes) we can also stimulate activity at each of the 60 locations (electrodes) in the network. Together, we have a bidirectional interface to the neural network where we can input information via stimulation. The network processes the information, and we can listen to the network's response."
Einstein dead For 49 Years, Still Kicking Ass
By measuring variations in satellite orbits, scientists have found the first direct evidence of one of the hallowed tenets of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity -- that the Earth and other large celestial bodies distort space and time as they rotate.
Researchers reporting yesterday in the journal Nature said improved satellite data had enabled them to show the effect known as "frame-dragging" with a degree of precision never previously possible.
Scientists Look To Recreate….Creation. Uh…Good Luck With That.
GENEVA (Reuters) - It has revolutionized physics, made Nobel Prize winners and given birth to the World Wide Web -- now its successor looks set to answer some of the natural world's most fundamental questions.
CERN the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has made many formidable discoveries since its launch 50 years ago, but these achievements could be dwarfed by findings from a 17-mile accelerator, or particle-smasher, being assembled outside Geneva.
From 2007 it will be firing particles at speeds nearing that of light, before smashing them together to re-create the conditions scientists believe existed less than one billionth of a second after the Big Bang -- the birth of the cosmos some 14 billion years ago.
"(We) have achieved very, very important results in what we call particle physics, which is to say, what happened after the Big Bang," said CERN Director-General Robert Aymar.
Aging but still on the go, climbing in and around craters, tapping into the mysteries of strangely cracked rocks, the two roving vehicles Spirit and Opportunity have explored Mars about three times as long as originally scheduled and keep finding evidence of past liquid water shaping the now arid surface.
Two Robots On Mars Still Roving, Find More Evidence Of Water
Tyrannosaurus rex may have had a coat of fluffy feathers.
This conclusion comes from US and Chinese scientists who today announce the discovery of a 130m-year-old forerunner of the lumbering Cretaceous predator.
Dilong paradoxus - its generic name comes from the Mandarin for emperor and dragon, and its species name from its unusual features - was the size of a turkey, had a single nose bone, a massive jaw, a long neck, and hands with three fingers.
Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History, Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other colleagues report in Nature that its fossils were unearthed in Liaoning province in China.
Dilong is the most primitive of the tyrannosaurid family found so far. But what shook the discoverers was that the region's unique volcanic ash and sandy muds preserved not just the skeleton but also some soft tissue - and the first direct evidence that tyrannosaurs had feathers, or at least branching structures an inch long called protofeathers.
Links Between Dinosaurs and Birds Grows Stronger With Chinese Find: Terrasaur With Feathers!!!!
.
Saturday, October 30, 2004
these costumes are honestly too scary for children
Tangled Web, Meet Weaver
.
Before Karen Hughes did an emergency rewrite, Mickey Herskowitz was hired to ghostwrite Bush's autobiography. Herskowitz states, among other stunners, that Bush planned to invade Iraq two years before 9/11 because Republicans were so impressed by the political capital Margaret Thatcher gained by invading the Falklands.
'According to Herskowitz, George W. Bush's beliefs on Iraq were based in part on a notion dating back to the Reagan White House - ascribed in part to now-vice president Dick Cheney, Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee under Reagan. "Start a small war. Pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade."'
Other revelations: Bush admitted he didn't fulfill his National Guard service, lied about flying inner-city kids in a plane in 1973; confessed his businesses were "floundering" before Hughes re-spun it; Bush Senior disagreed with his son's invasion of Iraq but kept mum...
.
Before Karen Hughes did an emergency rewrite, Mickey Herskowitz was hired to ghostwrite Bush's autobiography. Herskowitz states, among other stunners, that Bush planned to invade Iraq two years before 9/11 because Republicans were so impressed by the political capital Margaret Thatcher gained by invading the Falklands.
'According to Herskowitz, George W. Bush's beliefs on Iraq were based in part on a notion dating back to the Reagan White House - ascribed in part to now-vice president Dick Cheney, Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee under Reagan. "Start a small war. Pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade."'
Other revelations: Bush admitted he didn't fulfill his National Guard service, lied about flying inner-city kids in a plane in 1973; confessed his businesses were "floundering" before Hughes re-spun it; Bush Senior disagreed with his son's invasion of Iraq but kept mum...
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Partisan To The Bitter End
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One last chapter of the investigation by the Sept. 11 commission, a supplement completed more than two months ago, has not yet been made public by the Justice Department, and officials say it is unlikely to be released before the presidential election, even though that had been a major goal of deadlines set for the panel.
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One last chapter of the investigation by the Sept. 11 commission, a supplement completed more than two months ago, has not yet been made public by the Justice Department, and officials say it is unlikely to be released before the presidential election, even though that had been a major goal of deadlines set for the panel.
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Eleanor Clift Goes For It
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It's hard to game the election with all the conflicting polls, but my prediction is that it will break at the last minute for Kerry. With more than two thirds of the undecided voters saying the country is on the wrong track, Kerry should win. Bush got 47.9 percent of the vote in 2000, and that's where he is stuck today. A record voter turnout is expected, and that signals change, not four more years of the status quo.
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It's hard to game the election with all the conflicting polls, but my prediction is that it will break at the last minute for Kerry. With more than two thirds of the undecided voters saying the country is on the wrong track, Kerry should win. Bush got 47.9 percent of the vote in 2000, and that's where he is stuck today. A record voter turnout is expected, and that signals change, not four more years of the status quo.
.
GOP To Poor: Fuck U
A Little Late, But Gladly Kristoff Fully Turns On Bush
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Taking Bush at His Word
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
I often criticize statements by President Bush, so today let me praise some of his real wisdom:
• Oct. 11, 2000: "If we're an arrogant nation, [foreigners] will resent us. If we're a humble nation but strong, they'll welcome us. ... We've got to be humble."
It's a good thing Mr. Bush tried to be humble, or the U.S. would have an approval rating even lower than 5 percent in Jordan, and Osama bin Laden's approval rating in Pakistan would be higher than 65 percent.
• Feb. 27, 2001: "I hope you will join me to pay down $2 trillion in debt during the next 10 years. ... We should approach our nation's budget as any prudent family would."
But Mr. Bush, with the help of a weak economy, has transformed the Clinton budget surpluses into huge deficits. Since Mr. Bush took office, the federal debt has increased by $2.1 trillion, or 40 percent.
• Sept. 25, 2000: "It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas."
Hmm. And many of our exports go abroad. Meanwhile, despite the lackluster economy, oil imports are 1.3 million barrels per day higher than in Mr. Clinton's last year in office.
• June 11, 2001: "My administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate change."
Great! Because America's carbon dioxide emissions, associated with global warming, have risen 1.7 percent since then.
• June 26, 2003: "Notorious human rights abusers, including, among others, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Zimbabwe, have long sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world by staging elaborate deceptions and denying access to international human rights monitors."
It takes a big man to admit mistakes, like his administration's practice of hiding certain Arab prisoners from Red Cross and other inspectors.
• Nov. 5, 2003: "In the debate about the rights of the unborn, we are asked to broaden the circle of our moral concern. ... We're asked by our convictions and tradition and compassion to build a culture of life, and make this a more just and welcoming society."
Abortions declined in the U.S. in the Clinton years; the abortion rate dropped by 22 percent in the 1990's. But while data are incomplete, abortions appear to have increased sharply since Mr. Bush took office. Glen H. Stassen, a Christian pro-life theologian, estimates that 52,000 more abortions occurred in 2002 than would have been expected based on the previous trend. Professor Stassen attributes the rise in abortions in part to the troubled economy and concerns among pregnant women that they cannot afford to have babies.
• May 25, 2004: "One of the challenges we face is to make sure the health care system responds to the needs of the citizens."
But five million more Americans don't have health insurance, compared with when Mr. Bush took office.
• Sept. 9, 2003: "We must focus early to make sure every child can read and write and add and subtract."
But Mr. Bush's budget guidelines translate into inflation-adjusted reductions in 2006 alone of more than $900 million for Head Start and childhood education.
• May 24, 2003: "We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea."
On Mr. Bush's watch, North Korea is generally believed to have gone from two nuclear weapons to about eight.
• 2001: "Not on my watch."
Scrawled note by Mr. Bush on a report to him about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that had occurred under President Clinton.
That's reassuring to the 100,000 or more people in Darfur who have died in a spasm of murder and rape that Mr. Bush acknowledges as genocide.
• Sept. 30, 2004: "The biggest threat facing this country is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist network."
But the single most important step to reducing the risk that a nuclear weapon will destroy New York is to secure loose nukes abroad, and Mr. Bush has been lackadaisical about that. Only 135 out of 600 metric tons of Russian nuclear materials have been given comprehensive upgrades, and Mr. Bush initially proposed cutting funds for that program.
• Sept. 2, 1999: "Effective reform requires accountability. ... It is a sad story. High hopes, low achievement. Grand plans, unmet goals. My administration will do things differently."
Oh?
.
Taking Bush at His Word
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
I often criticize statements by President Bush, so today let me praise some of his real wisdom:
• Oct. 11, 2000: "If we're an arrogant nation, [foreigners] will resent us. If we're a humble nation but strong, they'll welcome us. ... We've got to be humble."
It's a good thing Mr. Bush tried to be humble, or the U.S. would have an approval rating even lower than 5 percent in Jordan, and Osama bin Laden's approval rating in Pakistan would be higher than 65 percent.
• Feb. 27, 2001: "I hope you will join me to pay down $2 trillion in debt during the next 10 years. ... We should approach our nation's budget as any prudent family would."
But Mr. Bush, with the help of a weak economy, has transformed the Clinton budget surpluses into huge deficits. Since Mr. Bush took office, the federal debt has increased by $2.1 trillion, or 40 percent.
• Sept. 25, 2000: "It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas."
Hmm. And many of our exports go abroad. Meanwhile, despite the lackluster economy, oil imports are 1.3 million barrels per day higher than in Mr. Clinton's last year in office.
• June 11, 2001: "My administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate change."
Great! Because America's carbon dioxide emissions, associated with global warming, have risen 1.7 percent since then.
• June 26, 2003: "Notorious human rights abusers, including, among others, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Zimbabwe, have long sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world by staging elaborate deceptions and denying access to international human rights monitors."
It takes a big man to admit mistakes, like his administration's practice of hiding certain Arab prisoners from Red Cross and other inspectors.
• Nov. 5, 2003: "In the debate about the rights of the unborn, we are asked to broaden the circle of our moral concern. ... We're asked by our convictions and tradition and compassion to build a culture of life, and make this a more just and welcoming society."
Abortions declined in the U.S. in the Clinton years; the abortion rate dropped by 22 percent in the 1990's. But while data are incomplete, abortions appear to have increased sharply since Mr. Bush took office. Glen H. Stassen, a Christian pro-life theologian, estimates that 52,000 more abortions occurred in 2002 than would have been expected based on the previous trend. Professor Stassen attributes the rise in abortions in part to the troubled economy and concerns among pregnant women that they cannot afford to have babies.
• May 25, 2004: "One of the challenges we face is to make sure the health care system responds to the needs of the citizens."
But five million more Americans don't have health insurance, compared with when Mr. Bush took office.
• Sept. 9, 2003: "We must focus early to make sure every child can read and write and add and subtract."
But Mr. Bush's budget guidelines translate into inflation-adjusted reductions in 2006 alone of more than $900 million for Head Start and childhood education.
• May 24, 2003: "We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea."
On Mr. Bush's watch, North Korea is generally believed to have gone from two nuclear weapons to about eight.
• 2001: "Not on my watch."
Scrawled note by Mr. Bush on a report to him about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that had occurred under President Clinton.
That's reassuring to the 100,000 or more people in Darfur who have died in a spasm of murder and rape that Mr. Bush acknowledges as genocide.
• Sept. 30, 2004: "The biggest threat facing this country is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist network."
But the single most important step to reducing the risk that a nuclear weapon will destroy New York is to secure loose nukes abroad, and Mr. Bush has been lackadaisical about that. Only 135 out of 600 metric tons of Russian nuclear materials have been given comprehensive upgrades, and Mr. Bush initially proposed cutting funds for that program.
• Sept. 2, 1999: "Effective reform requires accountability. ... It is a sad story. High hopes, low achievement. Grand plans, unmet goals. My administration will do things differently."
Oh?
.
8 More Marines
Friday, October 29, 2004
1111
Brilliant Idea here from Kos Diarist
build Bush a fake Oval Office
by richardcownie
[Subscribe]
Fri Oct 29th, 2004 at 15:50:19 GMT
Since Bush and his followers obviously don't
care about actual facts, here's my suggestion:
Tell Bush he's won (maybe GHW can even be persuaded
to ring and congratulate him)
Build a fake Oval Office in Crawford TX and let
him spend the next 4 years there with Condi & Karl
Let Fox News keep him informed about his great
success, the progress of democracy in Iraq,
the construction of giant statue of W The Liberator
in Baghdad, and anything else to keep him happy.
Then Kerry and the rest of us can get on with trying
to repair the damage in the real world ...
by richardcownie
[Subscribe]
Fri Oct 29th, 2004 at 15:50:19 GMT
Since Bush and his followers obviously don't
care about actual facts, here's my suggestion:
Tell Bush he's won (maybe GHW can even be persuaded
to ring and congratulate him)
Build a fake Oval Office in Crawford TX and let
him spend the next 4 years there with Condi & Karl
Let Fox News keep him informed about his great
success, the progress of democracy in Iraq,
the construction of giant statue of W The Liberator
in Baghdad, and anything else to keep him happy.
Then Kerry and the rest of us can get on with trying
to repair the damage in the real world ...
Rude Pundit Must read
.
Fiddle On, Motherfuckers, Fiddle On:
If you take a moment and you sniff the air, what you get is the assaultive whiff of desperation coming from the Bush administration and the right wing of this country. The Rude Pundit refuses to make predictions, but there's a palpable sense growing in America that Kerry may actually win this long, lingering nightmare of a campaign. You get it from the shit smell of the dying Bush/Cheney campaign, the faded deodorant and armpit sweat stink from the conservative punditry.
You get it from the sight of Bush flailing about, like a jackrabbit on an electrified metal floor. It's a pathetic thing, as he hops around on the dais at his various events, searching for some spot where's there's comfort, peace, rest. God, you think, throw some water on that motherfucker so he just fries. Here's Bush's bizarro explanation of the failure to consider 760,000 pounds of powerful explosives worthy of securing: "If Senator Kerry had his way, we would still be taking our global test, Saddam Hussein would still be in power, he would control all those weapons and explosives, and could have shared them with our terrorist enemies." Let's see if we can follow the crazed leaps of logic here: because the United States under George W. Bush invaded Iraq, 40 to 60 semi-truckloads of the most dangerous explosives in the world were (more than likely) looted from a site that had previous been sealed and monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, thus placing the explosives in the hands of (more than likely) terrorist, insurgents, and/or unfriendly countries. However, had a theoretical United States under a theoretical President Kerry not invaded, Saddam mightmaybecouldhave shared the sealed, monitored explosives with terrorists with whom he had no working relationship. At a minimum here, we're talkin' a zero-sum gain, no? But the more likely scenario is this: Bush and the Bushettes fucked up. Big time. And the price for that fuck up is being paid in soldiers' arms, legs, nuts, and guts, blown all over the fuckin' place with car bombs and RPGs. And we're just bidin' our time until the real big time explosions happen. In other words, Bush spends his time talking about what might have been under Kerry instead of what actually happened under his "leadership." Meanwhile, Bush's minions are out there blaming the troops, just like Abu Ghraib, just like so many other things. God, we're all such a bunch of squalid losers when compared to the infallibility of the President and his cabinet. (Strangely, today, Bush made no mention of the missing explosives in his speech in Saginaw.)
The other truly, madly, deeply pathologically cynical thing is Bush's invocation of past Democratic Presidents as a way of trying to lure Democrats to him, like a camouflaged lizard on a branch lures gnats and beetles. With the batshit mad Zell Miller, a man whose eyes can't stop spinning long enough to focus on the objects of his hatred, by his side, Bush said, "The Democratic Party has a great tradition of leading this country with strength and conviction in times of war and crisis. I think of Franklin Roosevelt's commitment to total victory. I think of Harry Truman's clear vision at the beginning of the Cold War. I think of John Kennedy's brave declaration of American ideals. President Kennedy said: 'The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.'" Sure, Bush'd be right if Roosevelt attacked Peru after Pearl Harbor, if Truman had refused to direct talks with the Soviet Union while denegrating the just-established United Nations, and if Kennedy hadn't been attacked by Republicans for his Catholicism or if he hadn't said that if he could not reconcile his conscience with the national interest, "I would resign the office, and I hope any conscientious public servant would do likewise." Bush then invoked Bill Clinton, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and other Democrats who would rather get fucked by Nixon's decayed femur than vote for Bush.
Meanwhile, Fox "News" is spinning like a weasel on speed with its constant attempts to prop up the Bush adminstration on the missing explosives, even though NBC and reality are closing in on Bush. Paul Bremer was on to say, "We don't know;" Brit Hume keeps on screeching, "We don't know and it's CBS's fault;" and Bill O'Reilly doesn't seem to understand that no one wants to talk to the guy who might jack off while shoving a vibrator up his ass.
As Josh Marshall and others have pointed out, the right wing media is already getting prepared for the post-election story of "blame the liberal media," which would be unnecessary if Bush was seen as a shoo-in. Jonah Goldberg questions the "timing" of the New York Times report on the looted explosives, as if the story should be squelched until after the election so that we can't judge Bush based on his mistakes. Rush Limbaugh is huffing and puffing like a whore on nickel night trying to turn this against Kerry and the U.N. and, of course, the Times and CBS. If they lose, they will be flinging their shit at anything that limps left.
Yes, we can smell the sweat of fear, we can see the spinning dance of death, we can hear the frantic fiddling, we can touch the potential future, and we can taste the acrid flames that are licking at their feet. It's all crumbling. Let's just hope it collapses soon enough.
// posted by Rude One @ 1:32 PM
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Fiddle On, Motherfuckers, Fiddle On:
If you take a moment and you sniff the air, what you get is the assaultive whiff of desperation coming from the Bush administration and the right wing of this country. The Rude Pundit refuses to make predictions, but there's a palpable sense growing in America that Kerry may actually win this long, lingering nightmare of a campaign. You get it from the shit smell of the dying Bush/Cheney campaign, the faded deodorant and armpit sweat stink from the conservative punditry.
You get it from the sight of Bush flailing about, like a jackrabbit on an electrified metal floor. It's a pathetic thing, as he hops around on the dais at his various events, searching for some spot where's there's comfort, peace, rest. God, you think, throw some water on that motherfucker so he just fries. Here's Bush's bizarro explanation of the failure to consider 760,000 pounds of powerful explosives worthy of securing: "If Senator Kerry had his way, we would still be taking our global test, Saddam Hussein would still be in power, he would control all those weapons and explosives, and could have shared them with our terrorist enemies." Let's see if we can follow the crazed leaps of logic here: because the United States under George W. Bush invaded Iraq, 40 to 60 semi-truckloads of the most dangerous explosives in the world were (more than likely) looted from a site that had previous been sealed and monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, thus placing the explosives in the hands of (more than likely) terrorist, insurgents, and/or unfriendly countries. However, had a theoretical United States under a theoretical President Kerry not invaded, Saddam mightmaybecouldhave shared the sealed, monitored explosives with terrorists with whom he had no working relationship. At a minimum here, we're talkin' a zero-sum gain, no? But the more likely scenario is this: Bush and the Bushettes fucked up. Big time. And the price for that fuck up is being paid in soldiers' arms, legs, nuts, and guts, blown all over the fuckin' place with car bombs and RPGs. And we're just bidin' our time until the real big time explosions happen. In other words, Bush spends his time talking about what might have been under Kerry instead of what actually happened under his "leadership." Meanwhile, Bush's minions are out there blaming the troops, just like Abu Ghraib, just like so many other things. God, we're all such a bunch of squalid losers when compared to the infallibility of the President and his cabinet. (Strangely, today, Bush made no mention of the missing explosives in his speech in Saginaw.)
The other truly, madly, deeply pathologically cynical thing is Bush's invocation of past Democratic Presidents as a way of trying to lure Democrats to him, like a camouflaged lizard on a branch lures gnats and beetles. With the batshit mad Zell Miller, a man whose eyes can't stop spinning long enough to focus on the objects of his hatred, by his side, Bush said, "The Democratic Party has a great tradition of leading this country with strength and conviction in times of war and crisis. I think of Franklin Roosevelt's commitment to total victory. I think of Harry Truman's clear vision at the beginning of the Cold War. I think of John Kennedy's brave declaration of American ideals. President Kennedy said: 'The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.'" Sure, Bush'd be right if Roosevelt attacked Peru after Pearl Harbor, if Truman had refused to direct talks with the Soviet Union while denegrating the just-established United Nations, and if Kennedy hadn't been attacked by Republicans for his Catholicism or if he hadn't said that if he could not reconcile his conscience with the national interest, "I would resign the office, and I hope any conscientious public servant would do likewise." Bush then invoked Bill Clinton, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and other Democrats who would rather get fucked by Nixon's decayed femur than vote for Bush.
Meanwhile, Fox "News" is spinning like a weasel on speed with its constant attempts to prop up the Bush adminstration on the missing explosives, even though NBC and reality are closing in on Bush. Paul Bremer was on to say, "We don't know;" Brit Hume keeps on screeching, "We don't know and it's CBS's fault;" and Bill O'Reilly doesn't seem to understand that no one wants to talk to the guy who might jack off while shoving a vibrator up his ass.
As Josh Marshall and others have pointed out, the right wing media is already getting prepared for the post-election story of "blame the liberal media," which would be unnecessary if Bush was seen as a shoo-in. Jonah Goldberg questions the "timing" of the New York Times report on the looted explosives, as if the story should be squelched until after the election so that we can't judge Bush based on his mistakes. Rush Limbaugh is huffing and puffing like a whore on nickel night trying to turn this against Kerry and the U.N. and, of course, the Times and CBS. If they lose, they will be flinging their shit at anything that limps left.
Yes, we can smell the sweat of fear, we can see the spinning dance of death, we can hear the frantic fiddling, we can touch the potential future, and we can taste the acrid flames that are licking at their feet. It's all crumbling. Let's just hope it collapses soon enough.
// posted by Rude One @ 1:32 PM
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What Utter Bullshit
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The Internal Revenue Service has threatened to revoke the NAACP's tax-exempt status because the civil rights group's chairman, Julian Bond, "condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush" during a speech this summer, according to documents the group provided yesterday.
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The Internal Revenue Service has threatened to revoke the NAACP's tax-exempt status because the civil rights group's chairman, Julian Bond, "condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush" during a speech this summer, according to documents the group provided yesterday.
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Thursday, October 28, 2004
Ass Face McKinnon Now Egg Faced McKinnon
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"The Bush campaign's advertising has been consistently dishonest in what they say. But today, it's been exposed for being dishonest about what we see. If they won't tell the truth in an ad, they won't tell the truth about anything else," Lockhart said.
McKinnon said a video editor he declined to identify was told to edit the picture to focus on a young boy waving a flag.
On his own initiative, the editor removed the podium and copied the faces, McKinnon said.
"I didn't even know it was done," he said. The doctoring was first revealed on an Internet site. "There was no intention on anybody's part to try to represent anything that wasn't true," McKinnon said
Mark McKinnon caught In Another Lie. Say It Ain't So
"The Bush campaign's advertising has been consistently dishonest in what they say. But today, it's been exposed for being dishonest about what we see. If they won't tell the truth in an ad, they won't tell the truth about anything else," Lockhart said.
McKinnon said a video editor he declined to identify was told to edit the picture to focus on a young boy waving a flag.
On his own initiative, the editor removed the podium and copied the faces, McKinnon said.
"I didn't even know it was done," he said. The doctoring was first revealed on an Internet site. "There was no intention on anybody's part to try to represent anything that wasn't true," McKinnon said
Mark McKinnon caught In Another Lie. Say It Ain't So
"Wild Charges" turn out to...be...true. Ooops
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One of the funniest things that ever happened has happened tonight the Daily Show. Bush gave a speech and made the point “If John Kerry were President today Saddam Hussein still have all those weapons and he would have shared them with our terrorist enemies…”
To which Jon Stewart buried his face in his hands and said “Our terrorist enemies have them NOW.
That’s…the…poooint..”
W Stands For Woops
A videotape made by a television crew with American troops when they opened bunkers at a sprawling Iraqi munitions complex south of Baghdad shows a huge supply of explosives still there nine days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, apparently including some sealed earlier by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The tape, broadcast on Wednesday night by the ABC affiliate in Minneapolis, appeared to confirm a warning given earlier this month to the agency by Iraqi officials, who said that hundreds of tons of high-grade explosives, powerful enough to bring down buildings or detonate nuclear weapons, had vanished from the site after the invasion of Iraq.
The question of whether the material was removed by Mr. Hussein's forces in the days before the invasion, or looted later because it was unguarded, has become a heated dispute on the campaign trail, with Senator John Kerry accusing President Bush of incompetence, and Mr. Bush saying it is unclear when the material disappeared and rejecting what he calls Mr. Kerry's "wild charges."
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One of the funniest things that ever happened has happened tonight the Daily Show. Bush gave a speech and made the point “If John Kerry were President today Saddam Hussein still have all those weapons and he would have shared them with our terrorist enemies…”
To which Jon Stewart buried his face in his hands and said “Our terrorist enemies have them NOW.
That’s…the…poooint..”
W Stands For Woops
A videotape made by a television crew with American troops when they opened bunkers at a sprawling Iraqi munitions complex south of Baghdad shows a huge supply of explosives still there nine days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, apparently including some sealed earlier by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The tape, broadcast on Wednesday night by the ABC affiliate in Minneapolis, appeared to confirm a warning given earlier this month to the agency by Iraqi officials, who said that hundreds of tons of high-grade explosives, powerful enough to bring down buildings or detonate nuclear weapons, had vanished from the site after the invasion of Iraq.
The question of whether the material was removed by Mr. Hussein's forces in the days before the invasion, or looted later because it was unguarded, has become a heated dispute on the campaign trail, with Senator John Kerry accusing President Bush of incompetence, and Mr. Bush saying it is unclear when the material disappeared and rejecting what he calls Mr. Kerry's "wild charges."
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Frank Rich Puts Bush In Perspective
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Mr. Bush was, of course, far more entertaining in the debates than his opponent; he may be the most facially expressive president since the invention of television. But in 2004, this may not be the winning formula it was four years ago. Because the audience had seen the unplugged, petulant Bush in the first debate, it knew that his subsequent reinventions were as contrived (if not as effective) as Sally Field's in "Sybil." Unlike such natural performers as Reagan and Bill Clinton, he lets you see all the over-rehearsed preparation that goes into his acting. By the time he tried to mask his rage with inappropriate grinning in debate No. 3, he seemed as fake as the story line by which he had sold the country on the war in Iraq.
Mr. Kerry, by contrast, was nothing if not consistent - consistently leaden. He may flip-flop on policy - though no less so than a president who once opposed nation building and a Homeland Security Department - but he doesn't flip-flop on personality. It wouldn't matter if Hugh Jackman were his running mate or how many of his daughters' hamsters he rescued; charm is not his forte. He'll never be, in that undying pollster's formulation, a guy you want to have a beer with - or even a pinot noir.
But he's also not a man likely to prance around on an aircraft carrier to foment the fiction that a happy ending is imminent. He's already announced his intention to jettison a favorite administration special effect, the color-coded terror alerts. His sepulchral looks and stentorian manner suggest he'd bring us any bad news straight up. Mr. Kerry may seem like the closest thing this country has ever had to an Audio-Animatronic chief executive, but Mr. Bush's action-hero theatrics may have defined "presidential" down to the point where Audio-Animatronics can pass for gravitas.
To Mr. Bush and his cronies, who see the world as an arena in which performance is all and circumspection is antithetical to manly decisiveness, Mr. Kerry is a farcical weakling. That's why they were so obsessed with smearing the senator's Vietnam record, the main refutation of that argument. What they didn't count on is that their man's "Top Gun" stagecraft carries its own baggage. When a real war goes wrong, a considered plan, as Mr. Kerry pedantically refers to his every policy prescription, can start to look preferable to a slam-dunk Jerry Bruckheimer stunt. While the mantra of this election season has it that Kerry voters are voting against Bush, not for Kerry, it's equally possible that some of them see their choice as a vote for mundane, nuances-and-all reality over a hyperbolic fantasy whose budget in blood and money has spiraled out of control. After three years of nonstop thrills, Americans will just have to decide on Nov. 2 whether there could be fates even worse than spending the next four years being bored.
.
Mr. Bush was, of course, far more entertaining in the debates than his opponent; he may be the most facially expressive president since the invention of television. But in 2004, this may not be the winning formula it was four years ago. Because the audience had seen the unplugged, petulant Bush in the first debate, it knew that his subsequent reinventions were as contrived (if not as effective) as Sally Field's in "Sybil." Unlike such natural performers as Reagan and Bill Clinton, he lets you see all the over-rehearsed preparation that goes into his acting. By the time he tried to mask his rage with inappropriate grinning in debate No. 3, he seemed as fake as the story line by which he had sold the country on the war in Iraq.
Mr. Kerry, by contrast, was nothing if not consistent - consistently leaden. He may flip-flop on policy - though no less so than a president who once opposed nation building and a Homeland Security Department - but he doesn't flip-flop on personality. It wouldn't matter if Hugh Jackman were his running mate or how many of his daughters' hamsters he rescued; charm is not his forte. He'll never be, in that undying pollster's formulation, a guy you want to have a beer with - or even a pinot noir.
But he's also not a man likely to prance around on an aircraft carrier to foment the fiction that a happy ending is imminent. He's already announced his intention to jettison a favorite administration special effect, the color-coded terror alerts. His sepulchral looks and stentorian manner suggest he'd bring us any bad news straight up. Mr. Kerry may seem like the closest thing this country has ever had to an Audio-Animatronic chief executive, but Mr. Bush's action-hero theatrics may have defined "presidential" down to the point where Audio-Animatronics can pass for gravitas.
To Mr. Bush and his cronies, who see the world as an arena in which performance is all and circumspection is antithetical to manly decisiveness, Mr. Kerry is a farcical weakling. That's why they were so obsessed with smearing the senator's Vietnam record, the main refutation of that argument. What they didn't count on is that their man's "Top Gun" stagecraft carries its own baggage. When a real war goes wrong, a considered plan, as Mr. Kerry pedantically refers to his every policy prescription, can start to look preferable to a slam-dunk Jerry Bruckheimer stunt. While the mantra of this election season has it that Kerry voters are voting against Bush, not for Kerry, it's equally possible that some of them see their choice as a vote for mundane, nuances-and-all reality over a hyperbolic fantasy whose budget in blood and money has spiraled out of control. After three years of nonstop thrills, Americans will just have to decide on Nov. 2 whether there could be fates even worse than spending the next four years being bored.
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BBC Correspondent Finds Out Americans Don’t Trust US Media At All
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here's the url: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/10/27/eyewitness_to_a_failure_in_iraq?mode=PF
ironically, this isn't reported in US media
What has helped to spur this trend? It has to be about far more than the simple continued growth of the internet. Two factors seem to be central. When I was travelling through the United States making a series of reports for BBC News, many voters described how their faith in much of the mainstream media had been shattered by the flawed exit poll predictions in the tumultuous 2000 election, which saw President Bush elected after a tortuous recount that was finally decided by the Supreme Court. The second factor is a slowly growing unease within America about the current situation in Iraq. Here again, one detects a sense that many Americans are beginning to doubt what they are getting from much of the mainstream press. News organisations themselves have admitted to failures. The New York Times was one of the first to declare that it had failed to be robust enough in its coverage of the build-up to the invasion of Iraq. Some local newspapers have told their readers the same thing. In March this year, Rick Mercier, a columnist for The Free Lance-Star in Virginia wrote: "The media are finished with their big blow-outs on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and there is one thing they forgot to say: We're sorry. Sorry we let unsubstantiated claims drive our coverage. Sorry we were dismissive of experts who disputed White House charges against Iraq. Sorry we let a band of self-serving Iraqi defectors make fools of us. Sorry we fell for Colin Powell's performance at the United Nations. Sorry we couldn't bring ourselves to hold the administration's feet to the fire before the war, when it really mattered. Maybe we'll do a better job next war."
But before any "next war" happens, the first and most important challenge that the mainstream US media faces is getting it right this election, one that many predict will be just as closely run as its predecessor. Whether it succeeds or not could determine just how many people decide to consult the mainstream media on defining national issues in the future.
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here's the url: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/10/27/eyewitness_to_a_failure_in_iraq?mode=PF
ironically, this isn't reported in US media
What has helped to spur this trend? It has to be about far more than the simple continued growth of the internet. Two factors seem to be central. When I was travelling through the United States making a series of reports for BBC News, many voters described how their faith in much of the mainstream media had been shattered by the flawed exit poll predictions in the tumultuous 2000 election, which saw President Bush elected after a tortuous recount that was finally decided by the Supreme Court. The second factor is a slowly growing unease within America about the current situation in Iraq. Here again, one detects a sense that many Americans are beginning to doubt what they are getting from much of the mainstream press. News organisations themselves have admitted to failures. The New York Times was one of the first to declare that it had failed to be robust enough in its coverage of the build-up to the invasion of Iraq. Some local newspapers have told their readers the same thing. In March this year, Rick Mercier, a columnist for The Free Lance-Star in Virginia wrote: "The media are finished with their big blow-outs on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and there is one thing they forgot to say: We're sorry. Sorry we let unsubstantiated claims drive our coverage. Sorry we were dismissive of experts who disputed White House charges against Iraq. Sorry we let a band of self-serving Iraqi defectors make fools of us. Sorry we fell for Colin Powell's performance at the United Nations. Sorry we couldn't bring ourselves to hold the administration's feet to the fire before the war, when it really mattered. Maybe we'll do a better job next war."
But before any "next war" happens, the first and most important challenge that the mainstream US media faces is getting it right this election, one that many predict will be just as closely run as its predecessor. Whether it succeeds or not could determine just how many people decide to consult the mainstream media on defining national issues in the future.
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WSJ Actually Said This:
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Lost the Link, here are the authors: SHAILAGH MURRAY and GREG HITT
Mr. Bush believes the key to victory lies in his party's conservative core. He gave a rare interview over the weekend to Fox News, a network sympathetic to the Bush cause and popular with Republicans. Among other things, Mr. Bush voiced doubts about whether the country can be fully protected from future terror attacks. "Whether or not we can be ever fully safe is up -- you know, up in the air," he said.
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Lost the Link, here are the authors: SHAILAGH MURRAY and GREG HITT
Mr. Bush believes the key to victory lies in his party's conservative core. He gave a rare interview over the weekend to Fox News, a network sympathetic to the Bush cause and popular with Republicans. Among other things, Mr. Bush voiced doubts about whether the country can be fully protected from future terror attacks. "Whether or not we can be ever fully safe is up -- you know, up in the air," he said.
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Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Un Fuckin Believeable
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Thanks to Collective Sigh, I found this horrible reference to Democrats trying to get out the vote. Those SCUMBAGS!
MILWAUKEE - Republicans are criticizing a Wisconsin get-out-the-vote campaign involving public school students, saying Democrats are exploiting the students for political gain.
Young people in the program organized by the Wisconsin Citizen Action Fund take time from regular classes to go door to door in minority neighborhoods and areas with historically low voter turnout, urging people to cast ballots.
The students, ranging in age from 11 to 18, also use phone banks to call homes and urge people to vote.
Chris Lato, spokesman for the state Republican Party, called the program "a disgraceful use of taxpayer money."
"To spend this time on a clearly partisan effort when these kids should be in school learning is shocking," Lato said.
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Thanks to Collective Sigh, I found this horrible reference to Democrats trying to get out the vote. Those SCUMBAGS!
MILWAUKEE - Republicans are criticizing a Wisconsin get-out-the-vote campaign involving public school students, saying Democrats are exploiting the students for political gain.
Young people in the program organized by the Wisconsin Citizen Action Fund take time from regular classes to go door to door in minority neighborhoods and areas with historically low voter turnout, urging people to cast ballots.
The students, ranging in age from 11 to 18, also use phone banks to call homes and urge people to vote.
Chris Lato, spokesman for the state Republican Party, called the program "a disgraceful use of taxpayer money."
"To spend this time on a clearly partisan effort when these kids should be in school learning is shocking," Lato said.
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We all run in our own circles
New Species of Bird
What Do The Wingnuts Do Lookin Defeat In The Face?
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With defeat looking them in the face, the wingnuts are softening the ground to the idea that it was all the Liberal Media that resulted in Bush’s failure.
Read about it here and and here and and here.
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With defeat looking them in the face, the wingnuts are softening the ground to the idea that it was all the Liberal Media that resulted in Bush’s failure.
Read about it here and and here and and here.
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TPM Night
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Squirming under the bright lights of scrutiny, Scott McClelland, arguably the biggest idiot the world has ever seen and the worst liar, cannot hold his ground under the weight of facts.
From TPM
(October 25, 2004 -- 02:05 PM EDT // link // print)
Could the al Qa Qaa debacle be a sinister and ingenious ploy on the part of the White House to give the public one more view of the goofball buck-passing that has been such an asset to the president's administration?
Look at the latest from Scott McClellan on Air Force One. This from CNN ...
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President Bush wants to determine what went wrong.
McClellan, on Air Force One, stressed that the missing explosives were not nuclear materials, and said the storage site was the responsibility of the interim Iraqi government, not the United States, as of June 28, when the United States turned over the nation's administration to the Iraqis.
The president wants to determine what went wrong.
This reminds me of when I wanted to know why my Palm Pilot stopped working after I dropped it in the bath tub.
Doesn't this capture Bush's entire presidency?
The thing happened more than a year ago, his administration has taken active steps to cover it up and now that the truth finally comes out, he 'wants to determine what went wrong.'
The idea of accepting responsibility for anything is simply alien to the man. He doesn't even have the good grace to scam us by finding a scapegoat to pin the blame on.
And what about Scott McClellan trying to pin it on the Iraqis?
Does he not read the newspapers or does he think everyone else to too stupid to remember what they just read in them this morning. The stuff was taken more than a year before the Iraqis took over the US occupation authority. And even the highly-cautious Times piece makes clear that Jerry Bremer was told about it no later than May of this year.
-- Josh Marshall
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Squirming under the bright lights of scrutiny, Scott McClelland, arguably the biggest idiot the world has ever seen and the worst liar, cannot hold his ground under the weight of facts.
From TPM
(October 25, 2004 -- 02:05 PM EDT // link // print)
Could the al Qa Qaa debacle be a sinister and ingenious ploy on the part of the White House to give the public one more view of the goofball buck-passing that has been such an asset to the president's administration?
Look at the latest from Scott McClellan on Air Force One. This from CNN ...
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President Bush wants to determine what went wrong.
McClellan, on Air Force One, stressed that the missing explosives were not nuclear materials, and said the storage site was the responsibility of the interim Iraqi government, not the United States, as of June 28, when the United States turned over the nation's administration to the Iraqis.
The president wants to determine what went wrong.
This reminds me of when I wanted to know why my Palm Pilot stopped working after I dropped it in the bath tub.
Doesn't this capture Bush's entire presidency?
The thing happened more than a year ago, his administration has taken active steps to cover it up and now that the truth finally comes out, he 'wants to determine what went wrong.'
The idea of accepting responsibility for anything is simply alien to the man. He doesn't even have the good grace to scam us by finding a scapegoat to pin the blame on.
And what about Scott McClellan trying to pin it on the Iraqis?
Does he not read the newspapers or does he think everyone else to too stupid to remember what they just read in them this morning. The stuff was taken more than a year before the Iraqis took over the US occupation authority. And even the highly-cautious Times piece makes clear that Jerry Bremer was told about it no later than May of this year.
-- Josh Marshall
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This Is How Crazy Bushies Are- Read The Commitment Just To Attend An Event
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From Atrios comment section
* All attendies must submit to a body cavity search, sign a loyalty oath, not wear any clothing signifying support for or reference to any another candidate or party but that of the republican party and george w. bush and be willing to voice concern, consternation, laughter, admonition and praise when prompted. Any and all participants not willing to submit to these rules and regulations hereby relinquishes their rights and will be subject to arrest and summary incarceration. Bush/Cheney '04 and it's affiliates, the Southern Baptist Ministry, John Hagee Ministries, The 700 Club, the Ministries for God, the Assemblies for God, there members and their sponsors have paid for this event. Not recognizing God or His son by signing this loyalty oath may be grounds for dismissal and possible ex-communication.
Paid for by Bush/Cheney '04.
From Atrios comment section
* All attendies must submit to a body cavity search, sign a loyalty oath, not wear any clothing signifying support for or reference to any another candidate or party but that of the republican party and george w. bush and be willing to voice concern, consternation, laughter, admonition and praise when prompted. Any and all participants not willing to submit to these rules and regulations hereby relinquishes their rights and will be subject to arrest and summary incarceration. Bush/Cheney '04 and it's affiliates, the Southern Baptist Ministry, John Hagee Ministries, The 700 Club, the Ministries for God, the Assemblies for God, there members and their sponsors have paid for this event. Not recognizing God or His son by signing this loyalty oath may be grounds for dismissal and possible ex-communication.
Paid for by Bush/Cheney '04.
Black Watch, Famed Scottish Regiment Called On Again
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The troops' self-assurance was more than matched by their commanding officer, Lt. Col. James Cowan.
"There's been much sensationalist talk about the threat we will face," he said. "Frankly, this regiment beat Napoleon, beat the Kaiser and beat Hitler.
"For the Jocks of the Black Watch this is just the latest chapter in our history and another job to be done."
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The troops' self-assurance was more than matched by their commanding officer, Lt. Col. James Cowan.
"There's been much sensationalist talk about the threat we will face," he said. "Frankly, this regiment beat Napoleon, beat the Kaiser and beat Hitler.
"For the Jocks of the Black Watch this is just the latest chapter in our history and another job to be done."
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Are We Still The Best?
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Is America Losing Its Edge
With innovative capacity rapidly spreading across the Pacific, the United States cannot simply assume that it will remain the epicenter of scientific research and technological innovation. Instead, it should meet the challenge from Asia head-on. The United States must actively engage with new centers of innovation and prepare itself to integrate rapidly and build on new ideas emerging in China, India, and South Korea. Above all, it must not assume that future innovation will occur automatically. Only through renewed attention to science funding, educational reform, the health of labor and capital markets, and the vitality of the business environment can the United States maintain its edge-and the most innovative economy in the world.
This is a great topic. Not only has the tightening of our borders since 9/111 made it harder for foreign engineering students to get into the United States, it has made it more common already for some of the brightest minds in the worlds to just simply choose other countries to conduct their studies in.
This is very shortsighted and dangerous as many Americans, primarily Bush supporters, are just uninformed as the positive impact foreign scientists have made on our economy and culture.
Consider the aircraft industry. For the last three years, French Airbus has out sold Boeing in the commercial airline industry. And if that doesn’t wake you up, look at this article about a recent meeting between USAF F-15s vs Indian Su-30 aircraft in aggressor training. Yes, the Indians and their Sukhoi Fighter apparently won the day handily.
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Is America Losing Its Edge
With innovative capacity rapidly spreading across the Pacific, the United States cannot simply assume that it will remain the epicenter of scientific research and technological innovation. Instead, it should meet the challenge from Asia head-on. The United States must actively engage with new centers of innovation and prepare itself to integrate rapidly and build on new ideas emerging in China, India, and South Korea. Above all, it must not assume that future innovation will occur automatically. Only through renewed attention to science funding, educational reform, the health of labor and capital markets, and the vitality of the business environment can the United States maintain its edge-and the most innovative economy in the world.
This is a great topic. Not only has the tightening of our borders since 9/111 made it harder for foreign engineering students to get into the United States, it has made it more common already for some of the brightest minds in the worlds to just simply choose other countries to conduct their studies in.
This is very shortsighted and dangerous as many Americans, primarily Bush supporters, are just uninformed as the positive impact foreign scientists have made on our economy and culture.
Consider the aircraft industry. For the last three years, French Airbus has out sold Boeing in the commercial airline industry. And if that doesn’t wake you up, look at this article about a recent meeting between USAF F-15s vs Indian Su-30 aircraft in aggressor training. Yes, the Indians and their Sukhoi Fighter apparently won the day handily.
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Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Gordon Housworth Is Brilliant
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Stewart earned my undying respect when he passed from comedy and parody to scathing commentary during his Trojan Horse interview on CNN Crossfire (transcript here). I share with my younger generation Stewart's comment that, "We feel a frustration with the way politics are handled and the way politics are handled within the media." I am thrilled to see that "Daily Show fans are more knowledgeable about current events than those of other comedy shows, rivaling newspaper readers and network news viewers."
In an environment where I now find even the interviews of Tim Russert to fail to press the point, where Fox is beyond the pale, where CNN has lost its way, where broadcast anchors admit to self-censorship in an effort to avoid commercial attack, where the only TV news that I seek out is PBS (Lehrer, Moyers, Frontline et al), I will continue to rely on primary source materials -- the stuff from which the high street press is crafted, and a broad spectrum of offshore sources to form my opinions.
And the Daily Show.
-
Stewart earned my undying respect when he passed from comedy and parody to scathing commentary during his Trojan Horse interview on CNN Crossfire (transcript here). I share with my younger generation Stewart's comment that, "We feel a frustration with the way politics are handled and the way politics are handled within the media." I am thrilled to see that "Daily Show fans are more knowledgeable about current events than those of other comedy shows, rivaling newspaper readers and network news viewers."
In an environment where I now find even the interviews of Tim Russert to fail to press the point, where Fox is beyond the pale, where CNN has lost its way, where broadcast anchors admit to self-censorship in an effort to avoid commercial attack, where the only TV news that I seek out is PBS (Lehrer, Moyers, Frontline et al), I will continue to rely on primary source materials -- the stuff from which the high street press is crafted, and a broad spectrum of offshore sources to form my opinions.
And the Daily Show.
-
I’m Tired Of This Shit
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By ADAM ZAGORIN & TIMOTHY J. BURGER
A whistle-blower objected to the government's Halliburton deals—and says now she's paying for it
In February 2003, less than a month before the U.S. invaded Iraq, Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse walked into a Pentagon meeting and with a quiet comment started what could be the end of her career. On the agenda was the awarding of an up to $7 billion deal to a subsidiary of Houston-based conglomerate Halliburton to restore Iraq's oil facilities. On hand were senior officials from the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and aides to retired Lieut. General Jay Garner, who would soon become the first U.S. administrator in Iraq.
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By ADAM ZAGORIN & TIMOTHY J. BURGER
A whistle-blower objected to the government's Halliburton deals—and says now she's paying for it
In February 2003, less than a month before the U.S. invaded Iraq, Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse walked into a Pentagon meeting and with a quiet comment started what could be the end of her career. On the agenda was the awarding of an up to $7 billion deal to a subsidiary of Houston-based conglomerate Halliburton to restore Iraq's oil facilities. On hand were senior officials from the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and aides to retired Lieut. General Jay Garner, who would soon become the first U.S. administrator in Iraq.
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TPM Night
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KERRY AND THE CIA....I'm out of town this weekend, so I've been a little out of the loop, but I'm glad to see that the Bush campaign is living up to expectations. When I first saw their new "Wolves" ad, I thought it was kind of derivative and amateurish, but basically within the normal bounds of political truth stretching. But via Fred Kaplan, I see that I wasn't paying nearly enough attention:
•
John Kerry voted to reduce intelligence spending after our "first terrorist attack"? Sure, as long as you realize that this refers to 1993, not 9/11. Needless to say, the admakers do their best not to make this clear.
• Kerry was actually trying to get the National Reconnaissance Office to return money it had fraudulently failed to spend. That's not a cut, it's good governance. Good conservative governance, in fact.
• Another Kerry bill did propose overall spending cuts as part of a deficit reduction package, including about a billion dollars a year in intelligence spending. It never went anywhere, though, and in any case Republican Porter Goss proposed bigger and more specific cuts the very next year. But that apparently didn't make Goss too wishy washy on terror to be President Bush's nominee to head the CIA this year, so it's a little hard to see why it speaks poorly of Kerry.
If Kerry were genuinely weak in the war against terrorism, the Bush campaign would be able to come up with something a lot better than this. The fact that this is the best they can do probably says more about Kerry's strength than anything the Democrats could say for themselves.
—Kevin Drum 1:45 PM Permalink | TrackBack (1) | Comments (81)
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KERRY AND THE CIA....I'm out of town this weekend, so I've been a little out of the loop, but I'm glad to see that the Bush campaign is living up to expectations. When I first saw their new "Wolves" ad, I thought it was kind of derivative and amateurish, but basically within the normal bounds of political truth stretching. But via Fred Kaplan, I see that I wasn't paying nearly enough attention:
•
John Kerry voted to reduce intelligence spending after our "first terrorist attack"? Sure, as long as you realize that this refers to 1993, not 9/11. Needless to say, the admakers do their best not to make this clear.
• Kerry was actually trying to get the National Reconnaissance Office to return money it had fraudulently failed to spend. That's not a cut, it's good governance. Good conservative governance, in fact.
• Another Kerry bill did propose overall spending cuts as part of a deficit reduction package, including about a billion dollars a year in intelligence spending. It never went anywhere, though, and in any case Republican Porter Goss proposed bigger and more specific cuts the very next year. But that apparently didn't make Goss too wishy washy on terror to be President Bush's nominee to head the CIA this year, so it's a little hard to see why it speaks poorly of Kerry.
If Kerry were genuinely weak in the war against terrorism, the Bush campaign would be able to come up with something a lot better than this. The fact that this is the best they can do probably says more about Kerry's strength than anything the Democrats could say for themselves.
—Kevin Drum 1:45 PM Permalink | TrackBack (1) | Comments (81)
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Bush Contradicts....Bush
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Bush Caught In A …Lie
”Now my opponent is throwing out the wild claim that he knows where bin Laden was in the fall of 2001, and that our military passed up the chance to get him in Tora Bora. This is an unjustified criticism of our military commanders in the field.”
Except For This
U.S. Concludes Bin Laden Escaped at
The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.
Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border. Though there remains a remote chance that he died there, the intelligence community is persuaded that bin Laden slipped away in the first 10 days of December.
Bin Laden Escapes
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Bush Caught In A …Lie
”Now my opponent is throwing out the wild claim that he knows where bin Laden was in the fall of 2001, and that our military passed up the chance to get him in Tora Bora. This is an unjustified criticism of our military commanders in the field.”
Except For This
U.S. Concludes Bin Laden Escaped at
The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.
Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border. Though there remains a remote chance that he died there, the intelligence community is persuaded that bin Laden slipped away in the first 10 days of December.
Bin Laden Escapes
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TPM
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(October 25, 2004 -- 02:05 PM EDT // link // print)
Could the al Qa Qaa debacle be a sinister and ingenious ploy on the part of the White House to give the public one more view of the goofball buck-passing that has been such an asset to the president's administration?
Look at the latest from Scott McClellan on Air Force One. This from CNN ...
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President Bush wants to determine what went wrong.
McClellan, on Air Force One, stressed that the missing explosives were not nuclear materials, and said the storage site was the responsibility of the interim Iraqi government, not the United States, as of June 28, when the United States turned over the nation's administration to the Iraqis.
The president wants to determine what went wrong.
This reminds me of when I wanted to know why my Palm Pilot stopped working after I dropped it in the bath tub.
Doesn't this capture Bush's entire presidency?
The thing happened more than a year ago, his administration has taken active steps to cover it up and now that the truth finally comes out, he 'wants to determine what went wrong.'
The idea of accepting responsibility for anything is simply alien to the man. He doesn't even have the good grace to scam us by finding a scapegoat to pin the blame on.
And what about Scott McClellan trying to pin it on the Iraqis?
Does he not read the newspapers or does he think everyone else to too stupid to remember what they just read in them this morning. The stuff was taken more than a year before the Iraqis took over the US occupation authority. And even the highly-cautious Times piece makes clear that Jerry Bremer was told about it no later than May of this year.
n Josh Marshall
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(October 25, 2004 -- 02:05 PM EDT // link // print)
Could the al Qa Qaa debacle be a sinister and ingenious ploy on the part of the White House to give the public one more view of the goofball buck-passing that has been such an asset to the president's administration?
Look at the latest from Scott McClellan on Air Force One. This from CNN ...
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President Bush wants to determine what went wrong.
McClellan, on Air Force One, stressed that the missing explosives were not nuclear materials, and said the storage site was the responsibility of the interim Iraqi government, not the United States, as of June 28, when the United States turned over the nation's administration to the Iraqis.
The president wants to determine what went wrong.
This reminds me of when I wanted to know why my Palm Pilot stopped working after I dropped it in the bath tub.
Doesn't this capture Bush's entire presidency?
The thing happened more than a year ago, his administration has taken active steps to cover it up and now that the truth finally comes out, he 'wants to determine what went wrong.'
The idea of accepting responsibility for anything is simply alien to the man. He doesn't even have the good grace to scam us by finding a scapegoat to pin the blame on.
And what about Scott McClellan trying to pin it on the Iraqis?
Does he not read the newspapers or does he think everyone else to too stupid to remember what they just read in them this morning. The stuff was taken more than a year before the Iraqis took over the US occupation authority. And even the highly-cautious Times piece makes clear that Jerry Bremer was told about it no later than May of this year.
n Josh Marshall
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Wolfowitz And His Pathetic Life
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The big miscalculation underlying the American-led intervention in Iraq was that the enemy would recognize defeat, and submit. When the Administration was faced with a insurgency, a new calculation—one that was advocated by Wolfowitz—was made: putting an Iraqi imprimatur on the mission would defuse the insurgency. The first step wa the hastened transfer of sovereignty, last June. Yet the insurgency rages on, and Allawi worries about appearing to be an American puppet. Although he assured President Bus in his letter that he had “absolutely no intention” of changing his convictions or policies, he warned, “I am concerned by the concerted effort by some Iraqis and foreigners t paint my government as too close to the US and her allies.” He went on, “This is likely to get worse as elections approach, and makes it harder to rebuild political unity and t isolate the insurgents.” Now the Bush war policy depends upon a final calculation—that an Iraqi security force can be made strong enough, soon enough, to allow the mostl American multinational force to recede
Wolfowitz seems more confident about this prospect than Allawi does. Speaking in Germany to the spouses of the 1st Infantry Division’s soldiers, Wolfowitz said, “I think you’re going to see a major change over the course of the next six months or a year.” He said he hoped that progress with the Iraqi force might go even faster than expected. “At the moment, we’re just planning for the worst,” he said. Then he added, “But a lot of good should happen this coming year.”
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The big miscalculation underlying the American-led intervention in Iraq was that the enemy would recognize defeat, and submit. When the Administration was faced with a insurgency, a new calculation—one that was advocated by Wolfowitz—was made: putting an Iraqi imprimatur on the mission would defuse the insurgency. The first step wa the hastened transfer of sovereignty, last June. Yet the insurgency rages on, and Allawi worries about appearing to be an American puppet. Although he assured President Bus in his letter that he had “absolutely no intention” of changing his convictions or policies, he warned, “I am concerned by the concerted effort by some Iraqis and foreigners t paint my government as too close to the US and her allies.” He went on, “This is likely to get worse as elections approach, and makes it harder to rebuild political unity and t isolate the insurgents.” Now the Bush war policy depends upon a final calculation—that an Iraqi security force can be made strong enough, soon enough, to allow the mostl American multinational force to recede
Wolfowitz seems more confident about this prospect than Allawi does. Speaking in Germany to the spouses of the 1st Infantry Division’s soldiers, Wolfowitz said, “I think you’re going to see a major change over the course of the next six months or a year.” He said he hoped that progress with the Iraqi force might go even faster than expected. “At the moment, we’re just planning for the worst,” he said. Then he added, “But a lot of good should happen this coming year.”
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Monday, October 25, 2004
Even More Ineptitude From Bushco
Another Fiasco And Another Cover Up
Sunday, October 24, 2004
What A Great Day This Is
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I don’t think anyone realized what just happened last week. Without too much comment, I saw the Left hit the Righties (with a Left Hook) that surprised the Right and knocked it on its ass.
It was the Sinclair Affair, wherein, a public stupid enough to believe that Fox is an actual “news” service might be persuaded to turn on Kerry with the airing of another paid propaganda film about Kerry in Vietnam.
Atrios, Kos, and other bloggers joined in and organized and formed a website. Before you know it, we all made phone calls and brought the Sinclair stock price down, we had advertisers withdraw, and at the end of the day they showed a documentary so well done that it rightly so, engendered empathy for John Kerry.
Two years ago, we would have lost this battle and been ripping at each other’s throats over it. LGF and the freepers would be laughing their asses off at us.
Today, Bush is about to lose the Presidency, and the righties are either drinking the kool aid and standing by their loser, or they’re jumping ship.
Schadenfreude. It is a wonderful feeling. A lovely notion, we will win this all at the end of the day. This is like seeing the Falcons go 5-1 this early in the season. It’s like seeing the Red Sox beat the Yankees like a drum and reading the funny editorials about Jeter and the starting rotation. It’s all so funny. I can feel it in the air. We have found our anger and our voices and we know that the fight will not be easy, but we have a chance.
I don’t think anyone realized what just happened last week. Without too much comment, I saw the Left hit the Righties (with a Left Hook) that surprised the Right and knocked it on its ass.
It was the Sinclair Affair, wherein, a public stupid enough to believe that Fox is an actual “news” service might be persuaded to turn on Kerry with the airing of another paid propaganda film about Kerry in Vietnam.
Atrios, Kos, and other bloggers joined in and organized and formed a website. Before you know it, we all made phone calls and brought the Sinclair stock price down, we had advertisers withdraw, and at the end of the day they showed a documentary so well done that it rightly so, engendered empathy for John Kerry.
Two years ago, we would have lost this battle and been ripping at each other’s throats over it. LGF and the freepers would be laughing their asses off at us.
Today, Bush is about to lose the Presidency, and the righties are either drinking the kool aid and standing by their loser, or they’re jumping ship.
Schadenfreude. It is a wonderful feeling. A lovely notion, we will win this all at the end of the day. This is like seeing the Falcons go 5-1 this early in the season. It’s like seeing the Red Sox beat the Yankees like a drum and reading the funny editorials about Jeter and the starting rotation. It’s all so funny. I can feel it in the air. We have found our anger and our voices and we know that the fight will not be easy, but we have a chance.
Yes, The Pope Is Actually Worried That Bush Is The Anti-Christ
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Pope: Does W = 666?
WASHINGTON DC -- According to freelance journalist Wayne Madsden, "George W Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs and his constant references to 'evil doers,' in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations--the anti-Christ."
Madsen, a Washington-based writer and columnist, who often writes for Counterpunch, says that people close to the pope claim that amid these concerns, the pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in Revelations. John Paul II has always believed the world was on the precipice of the final confrontation between Good and Evil as foretold in the New Testament.
Before he became pope, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla said, "We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel."
The pope worked tirelessly to convince leaders of nations on the UN Security Council to oppose Bush's war resolution on Iraq. Vatican sources claim they had not seen the pope more animated and determined since he fell ill to Parkinson's Disease. In the end, the pope did convince the leaders of Mexico, Chile, Cameroon and Guinea to oppose the U.S. resolution.
Madsen contends that "Bush is a dangerous right-wing ideologue who couples his political fanaticism with a neo-Christian blood cult."
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Pope: Does W = 666?
WASHINGTON DC -- According to freelance journalist Wayne Madsden, "George W Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs and his constant references to 'evil doers,' in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations--the anti-Christ."
Madsen, a Washington-based writer and columnist, who often writes for Counterpunch, says that people close to the pope claim that amid these concerns, the pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in Revelations. John Paul II has always believed the world was on the precipice of the final confrontation between Good and Evil as foretold in the New Testament.
Before he became pope, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla said, "We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel."
The pope worked tirelessly to convince leaders of nations on the UN Security Council to oppose Bush's war resolution on Iraq. Vatican sources claim they had not seen the pope more animated and determined since he fell ill to Parkinson's Disease. In the end, the pope did convince the leaders of Mexico, Chile, Cameroon and Guinea to oppose the U.S. resolution.
Madsen contends that "Bush is a dangerous right-wing ideologue who couples his political fanaticism with a neo-Christian blood cult."
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Hunter Thompson Has Seen It All And Still Thinks W Is The Worst
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Back in June, when John Kerry was beginning to feel like a winner, I had a quick little rendezvous with him on a rain-soaked runway in Aspen, Colorado, where he was scheduled to meet with a harem of wealthy campaign contributors. As we rode to the event, I told him that Bush's vicious goons in the White House are perfectly capable of assassinating Nader and blaming it on him. His staff laughed, but the Secret Service men didn't. Kerry quickly suggested that I might make a good running mate, and we reminisced about trying to end the Vietnam War in 1972.
That was the year I first met him, at a riot on that elegant little street in front of the White House. He was yelling into a bullhorn and I was trying to throw a dead, bleeding rat over a black-spike fence and onto the president's lawn.
We were angry and righteous in those days, and there were millions of us. We kicked two chief executives out of the White House because they were stupid warmongers. We conquered Lyndon Johnson and we stomped on Richard Nixon -- which wise people said was impossible, but so what? It was fun. We were warriors then, and our tribe was strong like a river.
That river is still running. All we have to do is get out and vote, while it's still legal, and we will wash those crooked warmongers out of the White House.
Fear And Extreme Loathing
Back in June, when John Kerry was beginning to feel like a winner, I had a quick little rendezvous with him on a rain-soaked runway in Aspen, Colorado, where he was scheduled to meet with a harem of wealthy campaign contributors. As we rode to the event, I told him that Bush's vicious goons in the White House are perfectly capable of assassinating Nader and blaming it on him. His staff laughed, but the Secret Service men didn't. Kerry quickly suggested that I might make a good running mate, and we reminisced about trying to end the Vietnam War in 1972.
That was the year I first met him, at a riot on that elegant little street in front of the White House. He was yelling into a bullhorn and I was trying to throw a dead, bleeding rat over a black-spike fence and onto the president's lawn.
We were angry and righteous in those days, and there were millions of us. We kicked two chief executives out of the White House because they were stupid warmongers. We conquered Lyndon Johnson and we stomped on Richard Nixon -- which wise people said was impossible, but so what? It was fun. We were warriors then, and our tribe was strong like a river.
That river is still running. All we have to do is get out and vote, while it's still legal, and we will wash those crooked warmongers out of the White House.
Fear And Extreme Loathing
And This Was The Nice Part Of The Endorsement
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Des Moines Register Endorses Kerry
About half of Americans have lost confidence in President Bush, yet many hang back from embracing the alternative. That's unfortunate, because Senator John F. Kerry is a wise and decent man who has the makings of a fine president.
Still, there's little wonder that voters have doubts. Most of what they think they know about the senator comes from a masterful job of "defining the opposition" carried out by the Bush campaign and its surrogates before most people got a chance to know the real Kerry.
So Americans were introduced to Kerry the flip-flopper. Kerry the softie on defense. Kerry the wild-eyed liberal. Kerry the appeaser who will let terrorists attack America.
It's sad that an incumbent president chose to employ so much of his vast campaign resources to tear down his challenger, and not to cite his own accomplishments or to move the nation ahead. But perhaps that's precisely the difficulty the president faces.
His presidency has been one of bold leadership undermined by a failure to achieve meaningful results. The resolute leader Americans rallied behind after Sept. 11, 2001, sidetracked the country into a mess in Iraq. The fiscally responsible, compassionate conservative Americans thought they elected, the man we hoped would improve schools, lower the cost of health care and find more jobs, has failed to do so and instead run up an unprecedented national debt.
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Des Moines Register Endorses Kerry
About half of Americans have lost confidence in President Bush, yet many hang back from embracing the alternative. That's unfortunate, because Senator John F. Kerry is a wise and decent man who has the makings of a fine president.
Still, there's little wonder that voters have doubts. Most of what they think they know about the senator comes from a masterful job of "defining the opposition" carried out by the Bush campaign and its surrogates before most people got a chance to know the real Kerry.
So Americans were introduced to Kerry the flip-flopper. Kerry the softie on defense. Kerry the wild-eyed liberal. Kerry the appeaser who will let terrorists attack America.
It's sad that an incumbent president chose to employ so much of his vast campaign resources to tear down his challenger, and not to cite his own accomplishments or to move the nation ahead. But perhaps that's precisely the difficulty the president faces.
His presidency has been one of bold leadership undermined by a failure to achieve meaningful results. The resolute leader Americans rallied behind after Sept. 11, 2001, sidetracked the country into a mess in Iraq. The fiscally responsible, compassionate conservative Americans thought they elected, the man we hoped would improve schools, lower the cost of health care and find more jobs, has failed to do so and instead run up an unprecedented national debt.
.
Republican Florida Newspaper Endorses Kerry
.
Schadenfreude
Kerry for president
Our position: The Bush presidency has disappointed us on almost all counts.
Four years ago, the Orlando Sentinel endorsed Republican George W. Bush for president based on our trust in him to unite America. We expected him to forge bipartisan solutions to problems while keeping this nation secure and fiscally sound.
This president has utterly failed to fulfill our expectations. We turn now to his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, with the belief that he is more likely to meet the hopes we once held for Mr. Bush.
.
Schadenfreude
Kerry for president
Our position: The Bush presidency has disappointed us on almost all counts.
Four years ago, the Orlando Sentinel endorsed Republican George W. Bush for president based on our trust in him to unite America. We expected him to forge bipartisan solutions to problems while keeping this nation secure and fiscally sound.
This president has utterly failed to fulfill our expectations. We turn now to his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, with the belief that he is more likely to meet the hopes we once held for Mr. Bush.
.
Kerry By A Landslide?
Behind Closed Doors, Bush Officials Decide Torture Is OK.
.
At the request of the CIA, the Justice Department drafted a confidential memo that authorizes the agency to transfer detainees out of Iraq for interrogation -- a practice that international legal specialists say contravenes the Geneva Conventions.
One intelligence official familiar with the operation said the CIA has used the March draft memo as legal support for secretly transporting as many as a dozen detainees out of Iraq in the last six months. The agency has concealed the detainees from the International Red Cross and other authorities, the official said…
… But three years later, not a single terrorist has been prosecuted. Of the roughly 560 men being held at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, only 4 have been formally charged. Preliminary hearings for those suspects brought such a barrage of procedural challenges and public criticism that verdicts could still be months away. And since a Supreme Court decision in June that gave the detainees the right to challenge their imprisonment in federal court, the Pentagon has stepped up efforts to send home hundreds of men whom it once branded as dangerous terrorists.
.
At the request of the CIA, the Justice Department drafted a confidential memo that authorizes the agency to transfer detainees out of Iraq for interrogation -- a practice that international legal specialists say contravenes the Geneva Conventions.
One intelligence official familiar with the operation said the CIA has used the March draft memo as legal support for secretly transporting as many as a dozen detainees out of Iraq in the last six months. The agency has concealed the detainees from the International Red Cross and other authorities, the official said…
… But three years later, not a single terrorist has been prosecuted. Of the roughly 560 men being held at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, only 4 have been formally charged. Preliminary hearings for those suspects brought such a barrage of procedural challenges and public criticism that verdicts could still be months away. And since a Supreme Court decision in June that gave the detainees the right to challenge their imprisonment in federal court, the Pentagon has stepped up efforts to send home hundreds of men whom it once branded as dangerous terrorists.
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Wapo Waps Bush
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In Iraq, we do not fault Mr. Bush for believing, as President Clinton before him believed, that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. We supported the war and believed that the Iraqi dictator posed a challenge that had to be faced; we continue to believe that the U.S. mission to promote a representative government in Iraq has a chance to leave the United States safer and the Iraqis far better off than they were under their murderous dictator.
We do, however, fault Mr. Bush for exaggerating to the public the intelligence given him privately and for alienating allies unnecessarily. Above all, we fault him for ignoring advice to better prepare for postwar reconstruction. The damage caused by that willful indifference is incalculable. There is no guarantee that Iraq would be more peaceful today if U.S. forces had prevented postwar looting, secured arms depots, welcomed international involvement and transferred authority to Iraqis more quickly. But the chances of success would have been higher. Yet the administration repeatedly rebuffed advice to commit sufficient troops. Its disregard for the Geneva Conventions led to a prison-torture scandal in both Iraq and Afghanistan that has diminished for years, if not decades, the United States' image and influence abroad. In much of the world, in fact, U.S. prestige is at a historic low, partly because of the president's high-handed approach to allies on issues ranging far beyond Iraq.
These failings have a common source in Mr. Bush's cocksureness, his failure to seek advice from anyone outside a narrow circle and his unwillingness to expect the unexpected or adapt to new facts. These are dangerous traits in any president but especially in a wartime leader. They are matched by his failure to admit his errors or to hold senior officials accountable for theirs.
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In Iraq, we do not fault Mr. Bush for believing, as President Clinton before him believed, that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. We supported the war and believed that the Iraqi dictator posed a challenge that had to be faced; we continue to believe that the U.S. mission to promote a representative government in Iraq has a chance to leave the United States safer and the Iraqis far better off than they were under their murderous dictator.
We do, however, fault Mr. Bush for exaggerating to the public the intelligence given him privately and for alienating allies unnecessarily. Above all, we fault him for ignoring advice to better prepare for postwar reconstruction. The damage caused by that willful indifference is incalculable. There is no guarantee that Iraq would be more peaceful today if U.S. forces had prevented postwar looting, secured arms depots, welcomed international involvement and transferred authority to Iraqis more quickly. But the chances of success would have been higher. Yet the administration repeatedly rebuffed advice to commit sufficient troops. Its disregard for the Geneva Conventions led to a prison-torture scandal in both Iraq and Afghanistan that has diminished for years, if not decades, the United States' image and influence abroad. In much of the world, in fact, U.S. prestige is at a historic low, partly because of the president's high-handed approach to allies on issues ranging far beyond Iraq.
These failings have a common source in Mr. Bush's cocksureness, his failure to seek advice from anyone outside a narrow circle and his unwillingness to expect the unexpected or adapt to new facts. These are dangerous traits in any president but especially in a wartime leader. They are matched by his failure to admit his errors or to hold senior officials accountable for theirs.
.
The Cowardice Of Bush And His Secrecy
.
Torture Decided Upon By Bush Officials
WASHINGTON - In early November 2001, with Americans still staggered by the Sept. 11 attacks, a small group of White House officials worked in great secrecy to devise a new system of justice for the new war they had declared on terrorism.
Determined to deal aggressively with the terrorists they expected to capture, the officials bypassed the federal courts and their constitutional guarantees, giving the military the authority to detain foreign suspects indefinitely and prosecute them in tribunals not used since World War II.
The plan was considered so sensitive that senior White House officials kept its final details hidden from the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, officials said. It was so urgent, some of those involved said, that they hardly thought of consulting Congress.
.
Torture Decided Upon By Bush Officials
WASHINGTON - In early November 2001, with Americans still staggered by the Sept. 11 attacks, a small group of White House officials worked in great secrecy to devise a new system of justice for the new war they had declared on terrorism.
Determined to deal aggressively with the terrorists they expected to capture, the officials bypassed the federal courts and their constitutional guarantees, giving the military the authority to detain foreign suspects indefinitely and prosecute them in tribunals not used since World War II.
The plan was considered so sensitive that senior White House officials kept its final details hidden from the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, officials said. It was so urgent, some of those involved said, that they hardly thought of consulting Congress.
.
Saturday, October 23, 2004
Yet Another Bush Crony Gets A Contract Despite Charges Of Fraud
.
More War Profiteering
Managers of a security firm that won large contracts in Iraq warned their bosses in February of what they called a pattern of fraudulent billing practices, internal company memorandums suggest.
The memorandums, written primarily by two company managers, charged that the security firm, Custer Battles, repeatedly billed the occupation authorities for nonexistent services or at grossly inflated prices…
…
One example captures some of the fog of post-invasion Iraq. With forged invoices, Mr. Miskovich wrote, Custer Battles billed for providing a security detail for the road delivery from Baghdad to Mosul of prefabricated cabins. The housing was urgently required by teams carrying out the currency exchange.
Not only did the company provide no guards for the trip, Mr. Miskovich said in his Feb. 28 memo, but the convoy was also somehow lost for a week, officials in Mosul had to sleep in tents, and the company had to offer a reward to locate the cabins.
More War Profiteering
Managers of a security firm that won large contracts in Iraq warned their bosses in February of what they called a pattern of fraudulent billing practices, internal company memorandums suggest.
The memorandums, written primarily by two company managers, charged that the security firm, Custer Battles, repeatedly billed the occupation authorities for nonexistent services or at grossly inflated prices…
…
One example captures some of the fog of post-invasion Iraq. With forged invoices, Mr. Miskovich wrote, Custer Battles billed for providing a security detail for the road delivery from Baghdad to Mosul of prefabricated cabins. The housing was urgently required by teams carrying out the currency exchange.
Not only did the company provide no guards for the trip, Mr. Miskovich said in his Feb. 28 memo, but the convoy was also somehow lost for a week, officials in Mosul had to sleep in tents, and the company had to offer a reward to locate the cabins.
Is Republican Voter Fraud Redundant?
.
When Republicans Can't Win Out Right, They Cheat. Case In Point.
Republican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps yesterday to place thousands of recruits inside polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of voters they suspect are not eligible to cast ballots.
.
When Republicans Can't Win Out Right, They Cheat. Case In Point.
Republican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps yesterday to place thousands of recruits inside polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of voters they suspect are not eligible to cast ballots.
.
Must Read Article About Reporting From Iraq
70-Year-Old Called Up for Iraq Duty
.
KNTV (NBC's San Francisco Bay Area affiliate) reports that Ted Wallace of Los Gatos just received orders to report for deployment to Iraq.
The 70-year-old Wallace acknowledges that he "probably owes the army two years," but was surprised at being called up many years after he left the military. He checked the documents with his local recruiting office and they told him they were accurate and authentic. He says he is going to report to duty but hopes they don't put him on the front line. He also hopes that the army will put off his deployment until after his upcoming knee surgery.
He seemed pretty spry, but I can see the bottom of the barrel much more clearly.
.
KNTV (NBC's San Francisco Bay Area affiliate) reports that Ted Wallace of Los Gatos just received orders to report for deployment to Iraq.
The 70-year-old Wallace acknowledges that he "probably owes the army two years," but was surprised at being called up many years after he left the military. He checked the documents with his local recruiting office and they told him they were accurate and authentic. He says he is going to report to duty but hopes they don't put him on the front line. He also hopes that the army will put off his deployment until after his upcoming knee surgery.
He seemed pretty spry, but I can see the bottom of the barrel much more clearly.
.
Friday, October 22, 2004
What You Get When A US Senator Trusts Fox News
Republican Senator Gets His Information From Fox News And It Shows
U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning said yesterday that he was unaware of reports that a unit of Army Reserve soldiers in Iraq had refused an order to deliver fuel for reasons including that their trucks were lightly armored.
"I don't know anything about that," Bunning said during a news conference after a speech he gave to the Rotary Club of Louisville.
Bunning added that Congress had approved money to upgrade body and vehicle armor. "And I believe that has all been accomplished. And I don't know about your reservists," he said. "Unfortunately, we've had some reports, but I don't know the one you're specifically talking about."
When reporters told him that the unit's refusal was a national news story and involved a soldier from Louisville, Bunning said, "Let me explain something: I don't watch the national news, and I don't read the paper. I haven't done that for the last six weeks. I watch Fox News to get my information."
U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning said yesterday that he was unaware of reports that a unit of Army Reserve soldiers in Iraq had refused an order to deliver fuel for reasons including that their trucks were lightly armored.
"I don't know anything about that," Bunning said during a news conference after a speech he gave to the Rotary Club of Louisville.
Bunning added that Congress had approved money to upgrade body and vehicle armor. "And I believe that has all been accomplished. And I don't know about your reservists," he said. "Unfortunately, we've had some reports, but I don't know the one you're specifically talking about."
When reporters told him that the unit's refusal was a national news story and involved a soldier from Louisville, Bunning said, "Let me explain something: I don't watch the national news, and I don't read the paper. I haven't done that for the last six weeks. I watch Fox News to get my information."
Well No It's Just A Coincidence that Cabinet Members Are All Giving Policy Speeches In Swing States.
.
WASHINGTON – When Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge leaves the Washington area on official business, nearly three-fifths of his public events are in the 17 states considered the most hotly contested in the presidential election.
Overall, Ridge and his senior executives, who have pledged that the department would not become entrenched in politics, did nearly half their public events in those 17 states, according to a review by The Associated Press. That includes the electoral prizes of Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20041020-1423-homelandsecurity-politics.html
Funny How They Don't Even Try To Hide It Anymore
.
WASHINGTON – When Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge leaves the Washington area on official business, nearly three-fifths of his public events are in the 17 states considered the most hotly contested in the presidential election.
Overall, Ridge and his senior executives, who have pledged that the department would not become entrenched in politics, did nearly half their public events in those 17 states, according to a review by The Associated Press. That includes the electoral prizes of Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20041020-1423-homelandsecurity-politics.html
Funny How They Don't Even Try To Hide It Anymore
.
Tough Shit Bitch
.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In this humid Southern capital, Florida Secretary of State Glenda E. Hood is feeling the political heat. Lawsuits allege she has disenfranchised poor and minority voters. Critics claim that she's creating a partisan atmosphere.
The Republican appointee, whose predecessor, Katherine Harris, figured so prominently in the 2000 election debacle, is pretty fed up. And this year's election is still 12 days away.
"These people disappoint me," she said of her many critics. "I get to my wits' end with all the continual references to 2000. The last time I checked the calendar, it's 2004."
.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In this humid Southern capital, Florida Secretary of State Glenda E. Hood is feeling the political heat. Lawsuits allege she has disenfranchised poor and minority voters. Critics claim that she's creating a partisan atmosphere.
The Republican appointee, whose predecessor, Katherine Harris, figured so prominently in the 2000 election debacle, is pretty fed up. And this year's election is still 12 days away.
"These people disappoint me," she said of her many critics. "I get to my wits' end with all the continual references to 2000. The last time I checked the calendar, it's 2004."
.
LAPD Can’t Shed That Nazi image
.
Despite two decades of reform, the cop-as-gunfighter image still haunts the LAPD. Witness the tale this week of yet another Rampart-spawned rogue officer who led a crew of crooked cops on a four-year crime wave. But a small band of renegade cops does not a department make. A process tilted to protect them is a greater shame.
.
Despite two decades of reform, the cop-as-gunfighter image still haunts the LAPD. Witness the tale this week of yet another Rampart-spawned rogue officer who led a crew of crooked cops on a four-year crime wave. But a small band of renegade cops does not a department make. A process tilted to protect them is a greater shame.
.
Go ahead and scrub. You’re all gonna get a pink slip Nov 3rd anyway.
.
Brad Delong Notices That The White House Web Site is Being Systematically Scrubbed Of Possibly Embarrassing Content
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Brad Delong Notices That The White House Web Site is Being Systematically Scrubbed Of Possibly Embarrassing Content
.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
The Suffering You Don't Have To See
.
The Unknown Soldiers
By Lakshmi Chaudhry, AlterNet
Posted on October 21, 2004, Printed on October 21, 2004
http://www.alternet.org/story/20254/
Gene Bolles has seen more than his fair share of human suffering. Two years in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center – the U.S. military hospital in Germany that receives all injured soldiers evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan – is no doctor's dream job, especially not if you are a neurosurgeon who specializes in brain and spinal injuries – the kind that can destroy a 19-year-old kid's life. Yet as he speaks of the shattered soldiers who were once his charge, Bolles is neither overwrought nor angry.
The soft-spoken 62-year-old civilian speaks not of politics but of humanity – the terrible toll imposed by all wars, unjust or otherwise, on all involved, soldier or civilian. He speaks not of blame but of compassion and duty – our duty as a nation to pay attention and tend to the young men and women we ask to sacrifice life or limb in battle. At a time when the reality of the suffering in Iraq has been rendered invisible by media hype and partisan battle, Gene Bolles remains a steadfast advocate for the scarred, the maimed, and the tormented – whose numbers are far, far greater than what the Bush administration would like to admit.
So how did you end up working at Landstuhl hospital?
I am a neurosurgeon and have been in the practice for 32 years. I was approached to consider working for the Department of Defense and going to Landstuhl right after 9/11. So I took a leave of absence from my hospital and became the chief of neurosurgery in Germany.
That was right at the time the war in Afghanistan began and carried through Feb. 1, 2004.
Were the 9/11 attacks part of the reason why you agreed to go to Landstuhl?
Sure, in part. I had been in the military years ago, during the Vietnam era. I'd had that experience. So when this came up, I felt honored to have an opportunity to go help out and do what I could.
What kind of cases did you treat in Landstuhl? And these were mostly kids, right?
Well, I call them that since I'm 62 years old. And they were 18, 19, maybe 21. They all seemed very young. Certainly younger than my children.
As a neurosurgeon I mostly dealt with injuries to the brain, the spinal cord, or the spine itself. The injuries were all fairly horrific, anywhere from loss of extremities, multiple extremities, to severe burns. It just goes on, and on, and on. There were just a lot of serious injuries.
As a doctor myself who has seen trauma throughout his career, I've never seen it to this degree. The numbers, the degree of injuries. It really kinda caught me off-guard.
What about the soldiers themselves?
The soldiers, initially because of how they're trained, don't think of themselves. They're thinking of the buddies they've left behind. Almost all of them don't accept the reality of what's happened to them. They're still back in the war zone. And they care about their buddies so much.
And this is what makes the soldiers do what they do so gallantly – this feeling for each other. So when they get injured, they first feel guilty that they're not still back with their buddies. But then as time goes on, they realize that the price they paid for the war and then there is anger. And then there is frustration, then sadness, then depression. They realize they may never walk again or are so disfigured that the rest of their life is going to be very difficult.
But when they're going through this depression, we don't write about them so much. We don't display them. We want to only look at those soldiers who have either recovered from it or those who are acting as though nothing has happened. It's because we want to look at them as heroes. And they are heroes. But it's a reality that is not talked about much.
One of the soldiers interviewed in a recent documentary said that post-traumatic stress disorder is going to be to the Iraq War what Agent Orange was to the Vietnam War. Do you agree?
Yes. I have talked to many people who've been in the war zone. Perhaps I had a unique relationship with these soldiers because I was not an officer but a civilian; I didn't have direct control over them. Many of them felt more comfortable in allowing themselves to talk to me. They would talk about the nervousness they constantly felt, especially after the first part of the war ended and it became more a guerilla war. And they'd get attacked while sitting around waiting for orders to come in or just driving along the road. It started driving them batty. They were afraid and unsettled – it was different from charging ahead.
Many would break down talking about seeing their buddy get hurt or killed. They would even talk about the Iraqi soldiers – how awful it was, all that carnage. One guy hadn't slept for a long time because of nightmares because of what he saw early in the war, when we were killing high numbers of Iraqis. And he saw some of them got run over by tanks. He just couldn't get those images out of his mind.
They talk about hearing screams of comrades or enemies or civilians, or children. To see it and be there creates a lot of reaction. Sometimes they might initially act really tough, but underneath it all most soldiers have a lot of humane feeling. They feel this horror very deeply – more than many are willing to admit.
Do you think that soldiers who suffer from psychological damage get enough help? Their injuries may not look as "bad," but they've suffered terrible emotional damage because of the sheer horror of war.
I've seen experienced officers break down because of what they've seen just as much as young recruits. They're covering up and carrying such deep emotions. A soldier doesn't want to show that emotion. He is fearful that if he does, others will perceive him as weak. And there is some truth to that.
So even when they are going through emotional upheaval, they won't seek out help or admit that they are having these feelings. A lot of it doesn't come out until after they're discharged.
Are they prepared to deal with or not? Probably not. But they are trying to do better than what happened during the Vietnam era.
No I don't think they receive enough help. At the same time, I don't want to be critical of the present system. All of us are learning how to deal with this. What is important is that people need to be made aware of this issue. Rather than attack the system, I would much prefer to raise awareness of this issue and how it affects the soldiers. We're going to see as much if not more as what happened after the Vietnam War. The incidences of alcoholism, substance abuse, homelessness, inability to work, marriages that crumble, and so on. So we need to do something right now.
But many of these soldiers are not included in the numbers put out by the Pentagon for soldiers wounded in action in Iraq, which is right now around 7,500. Is there an important distinction between combat and non-combat related injuries?
Well, you should probably look up a military manual to get the definitions exactly right, but here's how I understand it: Say you're on duty, something blows up or you get shot, that's what they call a combat injury. But if you get in a truck accident or a Humvee rolls over you, that's defined as non-combat. So you can get a Purple Heart for the former and not for the latter.
And yes, we don't hear about the non-combat injuries and illnesses. I've seen figures that are now upwards of 30,000. I know that at least 20,000 have been air-evacuated into the Landstuhl system. These are also people who have suffered doing what we as a country are asking of them. As to why they're not recognized, they seem to be of lesser importance in that they're not mentioned. I don't think that's fair.
The numbers are even higher when you look at the numbers once the soldiers return to the country from Iraq or Afghanistan. According to some of the veteran groups, 33,000 have sought VA care, 26,000 have filed VA disability claims, and 10,000 have sought VA counseling. When you look at these huge, huge numbers, what do they indicate?
It's just starting and it's only going to get worse. Those numbers are going to do nothing but increase. You have the physical injuries which speak for themselves. I've seen the breakdown of that 33,000 number (who've sought VA care) and they include a significant percent of spine injuries. As a neurosurgeon, I saw all the complaints in that area and I can only say that there's an overwhelming number of them.
These are people in a lot of chronic pain. They're seeking help from our VA system, which is undergoing changes and is still under-funded. So these people don't get the help they really need. There's a lot of people suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome – that number is going to go up, and up, and up as time goes on.
So what is at stake in this undercounting of the casualties in Iraq – in not making clear what the toll of the war has imposed on our soldiers?
I really don't know why it's not out there for all of us to see. The question is why isn't our news media reporting this night after night so the American people can know about it. If you know about it, then why isn't CNN or NBC pushing this stuff?
What you see on TV and what you see in reality, is like night and day. The embedding of the journalists seemed to sterilize the war. When I heard them report, it was like it was a football game. The true effects of war are just awful. I'm now hearing estimates of upward of 30,000 in terms of civilian deaths. Let alone, all the Iraqis who have been injured.
Do you get the sense with this administration that even talking about the costs of the war is equivalent to challenging it?
I think wars should be challenged because they're absolutely devastating. The way it's made out is that if you're against what's happening in Iraq, you're against the present government or against the soldiers. And no, it doesn't have to be that way at all.
Why does the government make these differentiations? Why do they not talk about the reality of war? I suspect it's because they don't want upset all of the people who may then turn against the war. This is a war that has been debatable from the beginning.
But the soldiers don't seem to be questioning the war even though the initial reasons for the war such as WMDs have crumbled. I saw a CNN report on how many of them now see the reason for doing their job is to take care of their buddies – to make sure that everyone gets to go home in one piece.
My personal feeling is that the average soldier doesn't go to war because of the country. The reality is that the reason why they fight is the community that they've been a part of in the military. They don't look at the rationale or reason for war with that degree of depth. Maybe many soldiers would argue with me, I didn't really hear that in my conversations with them. It's more about their buddies. So it makes sense that it's more so now than ever.
But maybe now we're seeing some cracks. Depending on how this ends up – maybe not if the war ends better than we expect – but I suspect we're going to see a lot of anger among the GIs and veterans when they come back.
How have these very emotional years affected you?
I think about it a lot when I go to bed at night. I can't get it out of my head. It haunted me then and it haunts me now – the horrific, horrific injuries that these young people will now have to deal with for their rest of their lives. And I don't know if I'll ever stop thinking about them. I just feel a tremendous sadness – and that's just the way it is. I just hope everything in the world can be done to make what they have left for the rest of their lives as positive as possible. I sometimes fear that once they come back – with all the injuries and damage – they'll be forgotten about very quickly.
© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
.
The Unknown Soldiers
By Lakshmi Chaudhry, AlterNet
Posted on October 21, 2004, Printed on October 21, 2004
http://www.alternet.org/story/20254/
Gene Bolles has seen more than his fair share of human suffering. Two years in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center – the U.S. military hospital in Germany that receives all injured soldiers evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan – is no doctor's dream job, especially not if you are a neurosurgeon who specializes in brain and spinal injuries – the kind that can destroy a 19-year-old kid's life. Yet as he speaks of the shattered soldiers who were once his charge, Bolles is neither overwrought nor angry.
The soft-spoken 62-year-old civilian speaks not of politics but of humanity – the terrible toll imposed by all wars, unjust or otherwise, on all involved, soldier or civilian. He speaks not of blame but of compassion and duty – our duty as a nation to pay attention and tend to the young men and women we ask to sacrifice life or limb in battle. At a time when the reality of the suffering in Iraq has been rendered invisible by media hype and partisan battle, Gene Bolles remains a steadfast advocate for the scarred, the maimed, and the tormented – whose numbers are far, far greater than what the Bush administration would like to admit.
So how did you end up working at Landstuhl hospital?
I am a neurosurgeon and have been in the practice for 32 years. I was approached to consider working for the Department of Defense and going to Landstuhl right after 9/11. So I took a leave of absence from my hospital and became the chief of neurosurgery in Germany.
That was right at the time the war in Afghanistan began and carried through Feb. 1, 2004.
Were the 9/11 attacks part of the reason why you agreed to go to Landstuhl?
Sure, in part. I had been in the military years ago, during the Vietnam era. I'd had that experience. So when this came up, I felt honored to have an opportunity to go help out and do what I could.
What kind of cases did you treat in Landstuhl? And these were mostly kids, right?
Well, I call them that since I'm 62 years old. And they were 18, 19, maybe 21. They all seemed very young. Certainly younger than my children.
As a neurosurgeon I mostly dealt with injuries to the brain, the spinal cord, or the spine itself. The injuries were all fairly horrific, anywhere from loss of extremities, multiple extremities, to severe burns. It just goes on, and on, and on. There were just a lot of serious injuries.
As a doctor myself who has seen trauma throughout his career, I've never seen it to this degree. The numbers, the degree of injuries. It really kinda caught me off-guard.
What about the soldiers themselves?
The soldiers, initially because of how they're trained, don't think of themselves. They're thinking of the buddies they've left behind. Almost all of them don't accept the reality of what's happened to them. They're still back in the war zone. And they care about their buddies so much.
And this is what makes the soldiers do what they do so gallantly – this feeling for each other. So when they get injured, they first feel guilty that they're not still back with their buddies. But then as time goes on, they realize that the price they paid for the war and then there is anger. And then there is frustration, then sadness, then depression. They realize they may never walk again or are so disfigured that the rest of their life is going to be very difficult.
But when they're going through this depression, we don't write about them so much. We don't display them. We want to only look at those soldiers who have either recovered from it or those who are acting as though nothing has happened. It's because we want to look at them as heroes. And they are heroes. But it's a reality that is not talked about much.
One of the soldiers interviewed in a recent documentary said that post-traumatic stress disorder is going to be to the Iraq War what Agent Orange was to the Vietnam War. Do you agree?
Yes. I have talked to many people who've been in the war zone. Perhaps I had a unique relationship with these soldiers because I was not an officer but a civilian; I didn't have direct control over them. Many of them felt more comfortable in allowing themselves to talk to me. They would talk about the nervousness they constantly felt, especially after the first part of the war ended and it became more a guerilla war. And they'd get attacked while sitting around waiting for orders to come in or just driving along the road. It started driving them batty. They were afraid and unsettled – it was different from charging ahead.
Many would break down talking about seeing their buddy get hurt or killed. They would even talk about the Iraqi soldiers – how awful it was, all that carnage. One guy hadn't slept for a long time because of nightmares because of what he saw early in the war, when we were killing high numbers of Iraqis. And he saw some of them got run over by tanks. He just couldn't get those images out of his mind.
They talk about hearing screams of comrades or enemies or civilians, or children. To see it and be there creates a lot of reaction. Sometimes they might initially act really tough, but underneath it all most soldiers have a lot of humane feeling. They feel this horror very deeply – more than many are willing to admit.
Do you think that soldiers who suffer from psychological damage get enough help? Their injuries may not look as "bad," but they've suffered terrible emotional damage because of the sheer horror of war.
I've seen experienced officers break down because of what they've seen just as much as young recruits. They're covering up and carrying such deep emotions. A soldier doesn't want to show that emotion. He is fearful that if he does, others will perceive him as weak. And there is some truth to that.
So even when they are going through emotional upheaval, they won't seek out help or admit that they are having these feelings. A lot of it doesn't come out until after they're discharged.
Are they prepared to deal with or not? Probably not. But they are trying to do better than what happened during the Vietnam era.
No I don't think they receive enough help. At the same time, I don't want to be critical of the present system. All of us are learning how to deal with this. What is important is that people need to be made aware of this issue. Rather than attack the system, I would much prefer to raise awareness of this issue and how it affects the soldiers. We're going to see as much if not more as what happened after the Vietnam War. The incidences of alcoholism, substance abuse, homelessness, inability to work, marriages that crumble, and so on. So we need to do something right now.
But many of these soldiers are not included in the numbers put out by the Pentagon for soldiers wounded in action in Iraq, which is right now around 7,500. Is there an important distinction between combat and non-combat related injuries?
Well, you should probably look up a military manual to get the definitions exactly right, but here's how I understand it: Say you're on duty, something blows up or you get shot, that's what they call a combat injury. But if you get in a truck accident or a Humvee rolls over you, that's defined as non-combat. So you can get a Purple Heart for the former and not for the latter.
And yes, we don't hear about the non-combat injuries and illnesses. I've seen figures that are now upwards of 30,000. I know that at least 20,000 have been air-evacuated into the Landstuhl system. These are also people who have suffered doing what we as a country are asking of them. As to why they're not recognized, they seem to be of lesser importance in that they're not mentioned. I don't think that's fair.
The numbers are even higher when you look at the numbers once the soldiers return to the country from Iraq or Afghanistan. According to some of the veteran groups, 33,000 have sought VA care, 26,000 have filed VA disability claims, and 10,000 have sought VA counseling. When you look at these huge, huge numbers, what do they indicate?
It's just starting and it's only going to get worse. Those numbers are going to do nothing but increase. You have the physical injuries which speak for themselves. I've seen the breakdown of that 33,000 number (who've sought VA care) and they include a significant percent of spine injuries. As a neurosurgeon, I saw all the complaints in that area and I can only say that there's an overwhelming number of them.
These are people in a lot of chronic pain. They're seeking help from our VA system, which is undergoing changes and is still under-funded. So these people don't get the help they really need. There's a lot of people suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome – that number is going to go up, and up, and up as time goes on.
So what is at stake in this undercounting of the casualties in Iraq – in not making clear what the toll of the war has imposed on our soldiers?
I really don't know why it's not out there for all of us to see. The question is why isn't our news media reporting this night after night so the American people can know about it. If you know about it, then why isn't CNN or NBC pushing this stuff?
What you see on TV and what you see in reality, is like night and day. The embedding of the journalists seemed to sterilize the war. When I heard them report, it was like it was a football game. The true effects of war are just awful. I'm now hearing estimates of upward of 30,000 in terms of civilian deaths. Let alone, all the Iraqis who have been injured.
Do you get the sense with this administration that even talking about the costs of the war is equivalent to challenging it?
I think wars should be challenged because they're absolutely devastating. The way it's made out is that if you're against what's happening in Iraq, you're against the present government or against the soldiers. And no, it doesn't have to be that way at all.
Why does the government make these differentiations? Why do they not talk about the reality of war? I suspect it's because they don't want upset all of the people who may then turn against the war. This is a war that has been debatable from the beginning.
But the soldiers don't seem to be questioning the war even though the initial reasons for the war such as WMDs have crumbled. I saw a CNN report on how many of them now see the reason for doing their job is to take care of their buddies – to make sure that everyone gets to go home in one piece.
My personal feeling is that the average soldier doesn't go to war because of the country. The reality is that the reason why they fight is the community that they've been a part of in the military. They don't look at the rationale or reason for war with that degree of depth. Maybe many soldiers would argue with me, I didn't really hear that in my conversations with them. It's more about their buddies. So it makes sense that it's more so now than ever.
But maybe now we're seeing some cracks. Depending on how this ends up – maybe not if the war ends better than we expect – but I suspect we're going to see a lot of anger among the GIs and veterans when they come back.
How have these very emotional years affected you?
I think about it a lot when I go to bed at night. I can't get it out of my head. It haunted me then and it haunts me now – the horrific, horrific injuries that these young people will now have to deal with for their rest of their lives. And I don't know if I'll ever stop thinking about them. I just feel a tremendous sadness – and that's just the way it is. I just hope everything in the world can be done to make what they have left for the rest of their lives as positive as possible. I sometimes fear that once they come back – with all the injuries and damage – they'll be forgotten about very quickly.
© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
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Same Clown, Different Circus
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An ostensibly nonpartisan voter registration drive in Western Pennsylvania has triggered accusations that workers were cheated out of wages and given instructions to avoid adding anyone to the voter rolls who might support the Democratic presidential nominee.
Sproul & Associates, a consulting firm based in Chandler, Ariz., hired to conduct the drive by the Republican National Committee, employed several hundred canvassers throughout the state to register new voters. Some workers yesterday said they were told to avoid registering Democrats or anyone who indicated support for Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.
"We were told that if they wanted to register Democrat, there was no way we were to register them to vote," said Michele Tharp, of Meadville, who said she was sent out to canvass door-to-door and outside businesses in Meadville, Crawford County. "We were only to register Republicans."
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An ostensibly nonpartisan voter registration drive in Western Pennsylvania has triggered accusations that workers were cheated out of wages and given instructions to avoid adding anyone to the voter rolls who might support the Democratic presidential nominee.
Sproul & Associates, a consulting firm based in Chandler, Ariz., hired to conduct the drive by the Republican National Committee, employed several hundred canvassers throughout the state to register new voters. Some workers yesterday said they were told to avoid registering Democrats or anyone who indicated support for Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.
"We were told that if they wanted to register Democrat, there was no way we were to register them to vote," said Michele Tharp, of Meadville, who said she was sent out to canvass door-to-door and outside businesses in Meadville, Crawford County. "We were only to register Republicans."
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Why Does This Not Surprise Me?
Modo On Faith
Predictions
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Consider three things and connect the dots and you come to one conclusion. First this: Bush is coming to Crawford. Texas this weekend. That seems a little unusual given the tight poll numbers right now within weeks of the election. What could he be doing except resting up because he is not well, or planning to campaign out of this hole? Consider as the second point the fact that the national security Advisor is delivering policy speeches but only in swing states. Remember the National Security Advisor’s role is to advise the President on the best ways to protect U.S. and U.S. interests, not campaign for the Presidency. Finally, Cheney and Rumsfeld are arguing that a vote for Kerry will invite a terrorist attack.
Politics as usual? Or controlled panic?
Look, they know they’re going to lose this contest. They know Bush is running against Iraq and against the economy. Kerry is easy to run against. I mean after all, they’ve slathered him with every invective from traitor to coward to liar. They’ve tried, in many ways successfully, to get people to question following a real soldier and instead consider pulling the lever for a drunk rich kid trying to avoid service. They’ve spent as much as a major car company advertising. They have all the AM radio stations, and most of the rest of the paid broadcast news media on their side.
THey are just pulling even and/or slipping despite all this.
Here’s what I think you can count on in the next few days:
One- a desperate measure or two from Karl Rove to scare voters or allow the government to usurp the vote. Perhaps even an attempt to hack the vote.
Two- A near landslide victory. Upwards of 56-57% for Kerry.
Three- Desperate, vile lame duckism.
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Consider three things and connect the dots and you come to one conclusion. First this: Bush is coming to Crawford. Texas this weekend. That seems a little unusual given the tight poll numbers right now within weeks of the election. What could he be doing except resting up because he is not well, or planning to campaign out of this hole? Consider as the second point the fact that the national security Advisor is delivering policy speeches but only in swing states. Remember the National Security Advisor’s role is to advise the President on the best ways to protect U.S. and U.S. interests, not campaign for the Presidency. Finally, Cheney and Rumsfeld are arguing that a vote for Kerry will invite a terrorist attack.
Politics as usual? Or controlled panic?
Look, they know they’re going to lose this contest. They know Bush is running against Iraq and against the economy. Kerry is easy to run against. I mean after all, they’ve slathered him with every invective from traitor to coward to liar. They’ve tried, in many ways successfully, to get people to question following a real soldier and instead consider pulling the lever for a drunk rich kid trying to avoid service. They’ve spent as much as a major car company advertising. They have all the AM radio stations, and most of the rest of the paid broadcast news media on their side.
THey are just pulling even and/or slipping despite all this.
Here’s what I think you can count on in the next few days:
One- a desperate measure or two from Karl Rove to scare voters or allow the government to usurp the vote. Perhaps even an attempt to hack the vote.
Two- A near landslide victory. Upwards of 56-57% for Kerry.
Three- Desperate, vile lame duckism.
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Wednesday, October 20, 2004
GO SOX fuck u Steinbrenner
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Go Sox
The Yankees are the Republicans. All money and power and influence. More like a cosa nostra than a baseball team.
The Red Sox are from liberal mass, where Kerry 44 hails from.
As the Red Sox route the Yankees, the Dems will route the Rethuglicans.
Go Sox
The Yankees are the Republicans. All money and power and influence. More like a cosa nostra than a baseball team.
The Red Sox are from liberal mass, where Kerry 44 hails from.
As the Red Sox route the Yankees, the Dems will route the Rethuglicans.
Thousands Of Soldiers In Their 50s Being Deployed
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Charles Thomas tended to wounded soldiers on the sweltering killing fields of Vietnam, helped hurricane victims in Honduras and oversaw finances for soldiers in Bosnia.
Sometime in the next few weeks, the 58-year-old Army National Guard command sergeant major will leave his wife, Jeanette, their 11-year-old Maltese, Pebbles, walk through the door of his Old Bridge home one final time and head to Iraq.
"I don't want to leave my wife, but I have to go," Thomas said during an interview last week at his house, which the couple is selling. "I made her a deal. I promised her this is my last tour of duty, and she gets a new house."
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Charles Thomas tended to wounded soldiers on the sweltering killing fields of Vietnam, helped hurricane victims in Honduras and oversaw finances for soldiers in Bosnia.
Sometime in the next few weeks, the 58-year-old Army National Guard command sergeant major will leave his wife, Jeanette, their 11-year-old Maltese, Pebbles, walk through the door of his Old Bridge home one final time and head to Iraq.
"I don't want to leave my wife, but I have to go," Thomas said during an interview last week at his house, which the couple is selling. "I made her a deal. I promised her this is my last tour of duty, and she gets a new house."
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Writer Argues That Republicans Due For Huge Meltdown
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But both of these historical analogies are hopeful fantasies about what the GOP might someday become, not reasonable guesses at the near future. The truth is, for all its apparent strength, the modern Republican Party has worked itself into a position of profound and growing decay. Worried Republicans are right to look to the past to help sort out their future. But the right date isn't 1994 or 1904. It's the late 1970s--and the party to look at isn't the Republicans, but the Democrats. Like the Democrats of that period, the current version of the Republican Party is supremely powerful but ideologically incoherent, run largely by and for special interests and increasingly alienated from the broader voting public. Today's GOP is headed for a profound crackup. The only questions are when, exactly, the decline will start--and how long it will last.
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But both of these historical analogies are hopeful fantasies about what the GOP might someday become, not reasonable guesses at the near future. The truth is, for all its apparent strength, the modern Republican Party has worked itself into a position of profound and growing decay. Worried Republicans are right to look to the past to help sort out their future. But the right date isn't 1994 or 1904. It's the late 1970s--and the party to look at isn't the Republicans, but the Democrats. Like the Democrats of that period, the current version of the Republican Party is supremely powerful but ideologically incoherent, run largely by and for special interests and increasingly alienated from the broader voting public. Today's GOP is headed for a profound crackup. The only questions are when, exactly, the decline will start--and how long it will last.
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Bush Family Old Hands At Smears
Marines PISSED
Marines: “This is Bullshit!”:
QAIM, Iraq - The sound of the Black Hawk medical helicopter is an ominous sign for the Marines patrolling this forgotten western corner of Iraq that borders Syria. It means that one of them is seriously wounded or killed by their elusive enemy.
The sound of roaring engine, shattering evening calm, gets immediately followed up with a quick whisper among the troops, trying to find out who it was — this time.
At this Marine base, at the far west of the restless Anbar province only miles from the Syrian border, the news spreads quickly.
"We are losing guys left and right," says Cpl. Cody King, 20, of Phoenix, not hiding his anger. "All we are doing around here is getting blown up."
Most of the incidents these days, in this land of endless desert, dried-up river beds and winding dirt roads, include 155 mm artillery shells, mines and other sorts of crude homemade bombs. They make the Marines' enemy faceless and only heighten the feeling of vulnerability. The armor at their disposal is in short supply.
QAIM, Iraq - The sound of the Black Hawk medical helicopter is an ominous sign for the Marines patrolling this forgotten western corner of Iraq that borders Syria. It means that one of them is seriously wounded or killed by their elusive enemy.
The sound of roaring engine, shattering evening calm, gets immediately followed up with a quick whisper among the troops, trying to find out who it was — this time.
At this Marine base, at the far west of the restless Anbar province only miles from the Syrian border, the news spreads quickly.
"We are losing guys left and right," says Cpl. Cody King, 20, of Phoenix, not hiding his anger. "All we are doing around here is getting blown up."
Most of the incidents these days, in this land of endless desert, dried-up river beds and winding dirt roads, include 155 mm artillery shells, mines and other sorts of crude homemade bombs. They make the Marines' enemy faceless and only heighten the feeling of vulnerability. The armor at their disposal is in short supply.
Researcher Claims To Know Why Bush Lost His Wings
Bush Rally Throws Out Three Teachers Over T Shirts
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CENTRAL POINT, Ore. -- Three Medford school teachers were threatened with arrest and thrown out of the President Bush rally at the Jackson County Fairgrounds Thursday night, after they showed up wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Protect our civil liberties."
Three Medford school teachers who were thrown out of a Bush rally because of their t-shirts.
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CENTRAL POINT, Ore. -- Three Medford school teachers were threatened with arrest and thrown out of the President Bush rally at the Jackson County Fairgrounds Thursday night, after they showed up wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Protect our civil liberties."
Three Medford school teachers who were thrown out of a Bush rally because of their t-shirts.
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1.7 million veterans without health coverage
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 1.7 million military veterans have no health insurance or access to government hospitals and clinics for veterans, according to a report Tuesday from a doctors' group that favors federally financed health care.
The number of uninsured veterans jumped by 235,000 since 2000, meaning they are losing health insurance at a faster rate than the general population, said Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates a universal national health insurance program. About 45 million Americans have no health insurance, including 5 million who lost coverage during the past four years, according to the Census Bureau.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 1.7 million military veterans have no health insurance or access to government hospitals and clinics for veterans, according to a report Tuesday from a doctors' group that favors federally financed health care.
The number of uninsured veterans jumped by 235,000 since 2000, meaning they are losing health insurance at a faster rate than the general population, said Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates a universal national health insurance program. About 45 million Americans have no health insurance, including 5 million who lost coverage during the past four years, according to the Census Bureau.
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NYT Notices Jon Stewart On CNN
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And that is why his surprise attack on the hosts of CNN's "Crossfire" was so satisfying last Friday. Exchanging his usual goofy teasing for withering contempt, he told Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson that they were partisan hacks and that their pro-wrestling approach to political discourse was "hurting America." (He also used an epithet for the male reproductive organ to describe Mr. Carlson.)
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And that is why his surprise attack on the hosts of CNN's "Crossfire" was so satisfying last Friday. Exchanging his usual goofy teasing for withering contempt, he told Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson that they were partisan hacks and that their pro-wrestling approach to political discourse was "hurting America." (He also used an epithet for the male reproductive organ to describe Mr. Carlson.)
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Pat Robertson Warned Bush Of Casualties
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Wow. You gotta wonder what’s happening when Pat Robertson distances himself from you
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition said Tuesday he told President George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that he should prepare Americans for the likelihood of casualties, but the president told him, "We're not going to have any casualties."
Pat Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, said he had that conversation with the president in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 invasion. He described Bush in the meeting as "the most self-assured man I've ever met in my life."
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Wow. You gotta wonder what’s happening when Pat Robertson distances himself from you
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition said Tuesday he told President George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that he should prepare Americans for the likelihood of casualties, but the president told him, "We're not going to have any casualties."
Pat Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, said he had that conversation with the president in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 invasion. He described Bush in the meeting as "the most self-assured man I've ever met in my life."
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Tuesday, October 19, 2004
The CIA Is Withholding A Critical Report Until After The Election.
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It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.
"It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."
When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. "We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report," she said. "We are very concerned."
This one names names.
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It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.
"It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."
When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. "We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report," she said. "We are very concerned."
This one names names.
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Hackworth Lays Out His Plan For Iraq: Fire Current Cabinet
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• Immediately fire SecDef Donald Rumsfeld, all of his Pentagon senior civilian assistants and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers.
• Replace Rumsfeld with retired Gen. Anthony Zinni and give this tough, smart, proven leader a free hand to bring in the best people to reshape and streamline our armed forces for the long counterinsurgency fight ahead.
• Fire National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and replace her with retired Gens. Wes Clark or John Sheehan.
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• Immediately fire SecDef Donald Rumsfeld, all of his Pentagon senior civilian assistants and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers.
• Replace Rumsfeld with retired Gen. Anthony Zinni and give this tough, smart, proven leader a free hand to bring in the best people to reshape and streamline our armed forces for the long counterinsurgency fight ahead.
• Fire National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and replace her with retired Gens. Wes Clark or John Sheehan.
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Compassionate Christians Protest Memorial Service
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File this under why I think most Christians are not Christian at all.
A group of about a dozen Christians protested outside an Alabama church where, in July, the funeral was held for Scotty Joe Weaver, a gay Baldwin County man who was murdered outside Bay Minette, Alabama.
Christians Protest That A Gay Man Had A Memorial Service
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File this under why I think most Christians are not Christian at all.
A group of about a dozen Christians protested outside an Alabama church where, in July, the funeral was held for Scotty Joe Weaver, a gay Baldwin County man who was murdered outside Bay Minette, Alabama.
Christians Protest That A Gay Man Had A Memorial Service
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The Smartest People In The World Against The Single Dumbest Man
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This year, 48 Nobel laureates dropped all pretense of nonpartisanship as they signed a letter endorsing Senator John Kerry. "Unlike previous administrations, Republican and Democratic alike, the Bush administration has ignored unbiased scientific advice in the policy making that is so important to our collective welfare," they wrote. The critics include members of past Republican administrations.
And battles continue to erupt in government agencies over how to communicate research findings that might clash with administration policies.
This month, three NASA scientists and several officials at NASA headquarters and at two agency research centers described how news releases on new global warming studies had been revised by administrators to play down definitiveness or risks. The scientists and officials said other releases had been delayed. "You have to be evenhanded in reporting science results, and it's apparent that there is a tendency for that not to be occurring now," said Dr. James E. Hansen, a climate expert who is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan.
Bush Vs Inconvenient Facts
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This year, 48 Nobel laureates dropped all pretense of nonpartisanship as they signed a letter endorsing Senator John Kerry. "Unlike previous administrations, Republican and Democratic alike, the Bush administration has ignored unbiased scientific advice in the policy making that is so important to our collective welfare," they wrote. The critics include members of past Republican administrations.
And battles continue to erupt in government agencies over how to communicate research findings that might clash with administration policies.
This month, three NASA scientists and several officials at NASA headquarters and at two agency research centers described how news releases on new global warming studies had been revised by administrators to play down definitiveness or risks. The scientists and officials said other releases had been delayed. "You have to be evenhanded in reporting science results, and it's apparent that there is a tendency for that not to be occurring now," said Dr. James E. Hansen, a climate expert who is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan.
Bush Vs Inconvenient Facts
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Howard Zinn From The Progressive. Must Read
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Yes, we can try to guard in every possible way against future attacks, by trying to secure airports, seaports, railroads, other centers of transportation. Yes, we can try to capture known terrorists. But neither of those actions can bring an end to terrorism, which comes from the fact that millions of people in the Middle East and elsewhere are angered by American policies, and out of these millions come those who will carry their anger to fanatic extremes.
The CIA senior terrorism analyst who has written a book signed "Anonymous" has said bluntly that U.S. policies – supporting Sharon, making war on Afghanistan and Iraq – "are completing the radicalization of the Islamic world."
Unless we re-examine our policies – our quartering of soldiers in a hundred countries (the quartering of foreign soldiers, remember, was one of the grievances of the American revolutionaries), our support of the occupation of Palestinian lands, our insistence on controlling the oil of the Middle East – we will always live in fear. If we were to announce that we will reconsider those policies, and began to change them, we might start to dry up the huge reservoir of hatred where terrorists are hatched.
Whoever the next president will be, it is up to the American people to demand that he begin a bold reconsideration of the role our country should play in the world. That is the only possible solution to a future of never-ending, pervasive fear. That would be "our" war on terrorism.
Yes, we can try to guard in every possible way against future attacks, by trying to secure airports, seaports, railroads, other centers of transportation. Yes, we can try to capture known terrorists. But neither of those actions can bring an end to terrorism, which comes from the fact that millions of people in the Middle East and elsewhere are angered by American policies, and out of these millions come those who will carry their anger to fanatic extremes.
The CIA senior terrorism analyst who has written a book signed "Anonymous" has said bluntly that U.S. policies – supporting Sharon, making war on Afghanistan and Iraq – "are completing the radicalization of the Islamic world."
Unless we re-examine our policies – our quartering of soldiers in a hundred countries (the quartering of foreign soldiers, remember, was one of the grievances of the American revolutionaries), our support of the occupation of Palestinian lands, our insistence on controlling the oil of the Middle East – we will always live in fear. If we were to announce that we will reconsider those policies, and began to change them, we might start to dry up the huge reservoir of hatred where terrorists are hatched.
Whoever the next president will be, it is up to the American people to demand that he begin a bold reconsideration of the role our country should play in the world. That is the only possible solution to a future of never-ending, pervasive fear. That would be "our" war on terrorism.
One Of The Funiest Writers Ever
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As any loyal member of the Apocalypse's Official Sponsor, the GOP, will be keen to point out: John Kerry vacillates with the reckless license enjoyed by those not tenacious enough to white knuckle their grip on a three-word policy in the galling face of relentless contrary proof. For, truly, what greater tip-off can there be of a propensity to flip-flop than for someone to be wrong – only to change his mind simply so he can be right? Mr. Bush's refusal to fall prey to the realities of the World the rest of us are forced to live in until Glory (you know, the "Quagmire Accomplished" one with only one Internet) has led some churlish detractors to claim that our President is unable to adapt to changing circumstances.
Pardon me while I stifle the most ladylike guffaw. Thanks to numerous reports and facts being made public, American voters are now able to gauge the actual threat posed by Saddam Hussein without access to state secrets (or becoming complicit in a felony by, more odiously, sharing dinner with Bob Novak). Because of this regrettable increase in awareness of the so-called truth, Mr. Bush has nimbly recalibrated the reason for having American teenagers killed to protect America from an imminent threat of nuclear – no, make that, ur, bringing democracy to Iraq (which is sort of like bringing a veal casserole to a new neighbor – only to discovery that they are not only militantly vegetarian, but armed to the teeth). To prove his alacritous willingness to adapt once a previous rationale has been exposed as a prevarication, our handsome President has had more variations on his reason for invading Iraq than Carrie Bradshaw had shoes. Indeed, I can almost hear Carrie click click clicking away through last night's Marlboro ash on her Apple laptop keyboard:
"I couldn't help but wonder: when does a monomaniac obsession with a warmongering madman start becoming imitation?"
Well, Carrie, our warmonger has promised more tax cuts, apparently planning to slap the escalating bill for Iraq on Uncle Sam's Capital One No Hassle VISA card. But it's only fair that our grandchildren pay for the war. After all, they are the only ones who stand a chance of seeing anything that remotely mimics democracy flourishing in that backwards, tribal hellhole. Liberals accuse our handsome President of stirring up Muslim terrorists in the Middle East with an unnecessary war in Iraq, making a mess of everything he touches and rubbing the rest of the world of the wrong way. Well, frankly, this is music to my ears! According to Scripture, Jesus will not return until the World is in a bellicose shambles. Clearly, the Lord has grown impatient cooling His sandals and has anointed our handsome President to ensure that the planet's demise is put on an accelerated schedule. And, friends, this is why none of you should vote for John Kerry. Someone in the Oval Office who is competent and doesn't make sport out of needling our allies could put off the Rapture for four -- even eight -- years!
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As any loyal member of the Apocalypse's Official Sponsor, the GOP, will be keen to point out: John Kerry vacillates with the reckless license enjoyed by those not tenacious enough to white knuckle their grip on a three-word policy in the galling face of relentless contrary proof. For, truly, what greater tip-off can there be of a propensity to flip-flop than for someone to be wrong – only to change his mind simply so he can be right? Mr. Bush's refusal to fall prey to the realities of the World the rest of us are forced to live in until Glory (you know, the "Quagmire Accomplished" one with only one Internet) has led some churlish detractors to claim that our President is unable to adapt to changing circumstances.
Pardon me while I stifle the most ladylike guffaw. Thanks to numerous reports and facts being made public, American voters are now able to gauge the actual threat posed by Saddam Hussein without access to state secrets (or becoming complicit in a felony by, more odiously, sharing dinner with Bob Novak). Because of this regrettable increase in awareness of the so-called truth, Mr. Bush has nimbly recalibrated the reason for having American teenagers killed to protect America from an imminent threat of nuclear – no, make that, ur, bringing democracy to Iraq (which is sort of like bringing a veal casserole to a new neighbor – only to discovery that they are not only militantly vegetarian, but armed to the teeth). To prove his alacritous willingness to adapt once a previous rationale has been exposed as a prevarication, our handsome President has had more variations on his reason for invading Iraq than Carrie Bradshaw had shoes. Indeed, I can almost hear Carrie click click clicking away through last night's Marlboro ash on her Apple laptop keyboard:
"I couldn't help but wonder: when does a monomaniac obsession with a warmongering madman start becoming imitation?"
Well, Carrie, our warmonger has promised more tax cuts, apparently planning to slap the escalating bill for Iraq on Uncle Sam's Capital One No Hassle VISA card. But it's only fair that our grandchildren pay for the war. After all, they are the only ones who stand a chance of seeing anything that remotely mimics democracy flourishing in that backwards, tribal hellhole. Liberals accuse our handsome President of stirring up Muslim terrorists in the Middle East with an unnecessary war in Iraq, making a mess of everything he touches and rubbing the rest of the world of the wrong way. Well, frankly, this is music to my ears! According to Scripture, Jesus will not return until the World is in a bellicose shambles. Clearly, the Lord has grown impatient cooling His sandals and has anointed our handsome President to ensure that the planet's demise is put on an accelerated schedule. And, friends, this is why none of you should vote for John Kerry. Someone in the Oval Office who is competent and doesn't make sport out of needling our allies could put off the Rapture for four -- even eight -- years!
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A Reporter Tells Her View Of Iraq
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In July 2003, when travel around Iraq didn't require armored cars and armed guards, my translator and I took a day trip to Fallujah. Unrest was on the rise there and we were curious about who was behind the violence. Was it indeed former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party? We wanted to get some truth on the ground. Even if the reporting foray was a bust, we planned to stuff ourselves at Haji Hussein, our favorite kebab restaurant.
At the mayor's office and the police station, my translator, Naseer, tried to find someone who would speak with candor. "They're all liars," he declared after a few interviews. Then, as we were about to give up, a mayoral aide told us to look up the city's senior tribal chief, Sheik Khamis Hassnawi. "He'll tell you what's really happening," the aide whispered.
In a city where residents often began conversations with diatribes against the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq, Hassnawi was a refreshing exception. Although he appeared to come from central casting, with his prominent nose, weathered face and checkered headscarf, he talked for much of the afternoon -- over Dunhill cigarettes and takeout from Haji Hussein -- about how Fallujah could be saved with the help of the U.S. military. The Americans, he said, needed to find a way to employ the legions of former soldiers and other disaffected young men milling about the city. Unlike Shiites in the south, who had grown accustomed to unemployment and poverty, Sunnis in Fallujah had thrived on government contracts, smuggling and graft. Postwar joblessness was a new, embarrassing -- and dangerous -- phenomenon. "Either you put them to work," Hassnawi said, "or they will turn to the resistance."
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In July 2003, when travel around Iraq didn't require armored cars and armed guards, my translator and I took a day trip to Fallujah. Unrest was on the rise there and we were curious about who was behind the violence. Was it indeed former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party? We wanted to get some truth on the ground. Even if the reporting foray was a bust, we planned to stuff ourselves at Haji Hussein, our favorite kebab restaurant.
At the mayor's office and the police station, my translator, Naseer, tried to find someone who would speak with candor. "They're all liars," he declared after a few interviews. Then, as we were about to give up, a mayoral aide told us to look up the city's senior tribal chief, Sheik Khamis Hassnawi. "He'll tell you what's really happening," the aide whispered.
In a city where residents often began conversations with diatribes against the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq, Hassnawi was a refreshing exception. Although he appeared to come from central casting, with his prominent nose, weathered face and checkered headscarf, he talked for much of the afternoon -- over Dunhill cigarettes and takeout from Haji Hussein -- about how Fallujah could be saved with the help of the U.S. military. The Americans, he said, needed to find a way to employ the legions of former soldiers and other disaffected young men milling about the city. Unlike Shiites in the south, who had grown accustomed to unemployment and poverty, Sunnis in Fallujah had thrived on government contracts, smuggling and graft. Postwar joblessness was a new, embarrassing -- and dangerous -- phenomenon. "Either you put them to work," Hassnawi said, "or they will turn to the resistance."
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High Times Weighs In On The…(cough) Election
Monday, October 18, 2004
Sinclair Stock Is Crashing
Florida Republicans Already Started Hijacking Vote
New Hampshire Republicans Stifle Student Vote
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More than 50,000 college students reside in New Hampshire — depending on what you mean by "reside." Granite State Republicans have put forth a new take on that definition, one that some say is intended to disenfranchise young voters.
"They know that New Hampshire is going to come down to one or two thousand votes, so Republicans are trying to keep students from registering here," says Andrew Sylvia, president of the Democrats Club at Keene State College.
Among an array of recently passed New Hampshire election-law reforms is a change in the definition of who has a right to vote there. "An established domicile" in the state is no longer enough; instead, New Hampshire must be the site of a voter’s "a single established domicile" (emphasis added), newly defined as "that one place where a person ... manifests an intent to maintain a single continuous presence for domestic, social, and civil purposes."
More than 50,000 college students reside in New Hampshire — depending on what you mean by "reside." Granite State Republicans have put forth a new take on that definition, one that some say is intended to disenfranchise young voters.
"They know that New Hampshire is going to come down to one or two thousand votes, so Republicans are trying to keep students from registering here," says Andrew Sylvia, president of the Democrats Club at Keene State College.
Among an array of recently passed New Hampshire election-law reforms is a change in the definition of who has a right to vote there. "An established domicile" in the state is no longer enough; instead, New Hampshire must be the site of a voter’s "a single established domicile" (emphasis added), newly defined as "that one place where a person ... manifests an intent to maintain a single continuous presence for domestic, social, and civil purposes."
This Just In: Fat Lady Has Not Sung Yet
John Cleese On Bush
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How many Bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?
None. There's nothing wrong with that light bulb. There is no need to change anything. We made the right decision and nothing has happened to change our minds. People who criticize this light bulb now, just because it doesn't work anymore, supported us when we first screwed it in, and when these flip-floppers insist on saying that it is burned out, they are merely giving aid and encouragement to the Forces of Darkness.
Brilliant
How many Bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?
None. There's nothing wrong with that light bulb. There is no need to change anything. We made the right decision and nothing has happened to change our minds. People who criticize this light bulb now, just because it doesn't work anymore, supported us when we first screwed it in, and when these flip-floppers insist on saying that it is burned out, they are merely giving aid and encouragement to the Forces of Darkness.
Brilliant
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Bush's Theocracy
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Excerpted MUST READ By Ron Suskind
Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a treasury official for the first President Bush, told me recently that ''if Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3.'' The nature of that conflict, as Bartlett sees it? Essentially, the same as the one raging across much of the world: a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion.
''Just in the past few months,'' Bartlett said, ''I think a light has gone off for people who've spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do.'' Bartlett, a 53-year-old columnist and self-described libertarian Republican who has lately been a champion for traditional Republicans concerned about Bush's governance, went on to say: ''This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them. . . ….
…. All of this -- the ''gut'' and ''instincts,'' the certainty and religiosity -connects to a single word, ''faith,'' and faith asserts its hold ever more on debates in this country and abroad. That a deep Christian faith illuminated the personal journey of George W. Bush is common knowledge. But faith has also shaped his presidency in profound, nonreligious ways. The president has demanded unquestioning faith from his followers, his staff, his senior aides and his kindred in the Republican Party. Once he makes a decision -- often swiftly, based on a creed or moral position -- he expects complete faith in its rightness.
The disdainful smirks and grimaces that many viewers were surprised to see in the first presidential debate are familiar expressions to those in the administration or in Congress who have simply asked the president to explain his positions….
…. There is one story about Bush's particular brand of certainty I am able to piece together and tell for the record.
In the Oval Office in December 2002, the president met with a few ranking senators and members of the House, both Republicans and Democrats. In those days, there were high hopes that the United States-sponsored ''road map'' for the Israelis and Palestinians would be a pathway to peace, and the discussion that wintry day was, in part, about countries providing peacekeeping forces in the region. The problem, everyone agreed, was that a number of European countries, like France and Germany, had armies that were not trusted by either the Israelis or Palestinians. One congressman -- the Hungarian-born Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California and the only Holocaust survivor in Congress -- mentioned that the Scandinavian countries were viewed more positively. Lantos went on to describe for the president how the Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping force on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sweden has a well-trained force of about 25,000. The president looked at him appraisingly, several people in the room recall.
''I don't know why you're talking about Sweden,'' Bush said. ''They're the neutral one. They don't have an army.''
Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: ''Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They're the ones that are historically neutral, without an army.'' Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.
Bush held to his view. ''No, no, it's Sweden that has no army.''
The room went silent, until someone changed the subject....
Excerpted MUST READ By Ron Suskind
Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a treasury official for the first President Bush, told me recently that ''if Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3.'' The nature of that conflict, as Bartlett sees it? Essentially, the same as the one raging across much of the world: a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion.
''Just in the past few months,'' Bartlett said, ''I think a light has gone off for people who've spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do.'' Bartlett, a 53-year-old columnist and self-described libertarian Republican who has lately been a champion for traditional Republicans concerned about Bush's governance, went on to say: ''This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them. . . ….
…. All of this -- the ''gut'' and ''instincts,'' the certainty and religiosity -connects to a single word, ''faith,'' and faith asserts its hold ever more on debates in this country and abroad. That a deep Christian faith illuminated the personal journey of George W. Bush is common knowledge. But faith has also shaped his presidency in profound, nonreligious ways. The president has demanded unquestioning faith from his followers, his staff, his senior aides and his kindred in the Republican Party. Once he makes a decision -- often swiftly, based on a creed or moral position -- he expects complete faith in its rightness.
The disdainful smirks and grimaces that many viewers were surprised to see in the first presidential debate are familiar expressions to those in the administration or in Congress who have simply asked the president to explain his positions….
…. There is one story about Bush's particular brand of certainty I am able to piece together and tell for the record.
In the Oval Office in December 2002, the president met with a few ranking senators and members of the House, both Republicans and Democrats. In those days, there were high hopes that the United States-sponsored ''road map'' for the Israelis and Palestinians would be a pathway to peace, and the discussion that wintry day was, in part, about countries providing peacekeeping forces in the region. The problem, everyone agreed, was that a number of European countries, like France and Germany, had armies that were not trusted by either the Israelis or Palestinians. One congressman -- the Hungarian-born Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California and the only Holocaust survivor in Congress -- mentioned that the Scandinavian countries were viewed more positively. Lantos went on to describe for the president how the Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping force on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sweden has a well-trained force of about 25,000. The president looked at him appraisingly, several people in the room recall.
''I don't know why you're talking about Sweden,'' Bush said. ''They're the neutral one. They don't have an army.''
Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: ''Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They're the ones that are historically neutral, without an army.'' Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.
Bush held to his view. ''No, no, it's Sweden that has no army.''
The room went silent, until someone changed the subject....
Just When I Said Freidman Was Making Sense
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This will blow up in his face.
Sometimes it's useful to stand back and ask yourself: If I could vote for anyone for president other than George W. Bush or John Kerry, whom would I choose? I'd choose Bill Cosby - on the condition that he would talk as bluntly to white parents and kids about what they need to do if they want to succeed as he did to black kids and parents a few months ago.
This will blow up in his face.
Sometimes it's useful to stand back and ask yourself: If I could vote for anyone for president other than George W. Bush or John Kerry, whom would I choose? I'd choose Bill Cosby - on the condition that he would talk as bluntly to white parents and kids about what they need to do if they want to succeed as he did to black kids and parents a few months ago.
Dowd On Church Vs State
Dowd On Church Vs State
The conservative bishops, salivating to overturn Roe v. Wade, prefer an evangelical antiabortion president to one of their own who said in Wednesday's debate: "What is an article of faith for me is not something that I can legislate on somebody who doesn't share that article of faith. I believe that choice ... is between a woman, God and her doctor."
The conservative bishops, salivating to overturn Roe v. Wade, prefer an evangelical antiabortion president to one of their own who said in Wednesday's debate: "What is an article of faith for me is not something that I can legislate on somebody who doesn't share that article of faith. I believe that choice ... is between a woman, God and her doctor."
Bush 41 National Security Advisor Blasts Bush 43
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Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, was highly critical of the current president's handling of foreign policy in an interview published this week, saying that the current President Bush is "mesmerized" by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, that Iraq is a "failing venture" and that the administration's unilateralist approach has harmed relations between Europe and the United States.
Scowcroft's remarks, reported in London's Financial Times, are unusual coming from a leading Republican less than three weeks before a highly contested election. In the first Bush administration, Scowcroft was a mentor to Condoleezza Rice, the current national security adviser, and he is regarded as a close associate of the president's father.
Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, was highly critical of the current president's handling of foreign policy in an interview published this week, saying that the current President Bush is "mesmerized" by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, that Iraq is a "failing venture" and that the administration's unilateralist approach has harmed relations between Europe and the United States.
Scowcroft's remarks, reported in London's Financial Times, are unusual coming from a leading Republican less than three weeks before a highly contested election. In the first Bush administration, Scowcroft was a mentor to Condoleezza Rice, the current national security adviser, and he is regarded as a close associate of the president's father.
Jon Stewart , America's Top Journalist- In My humble opiniom
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looks like someone agrees sort of
Harry Jaffee Knows That Jon Stewart Could Be The Most Influential Journalist Alive.
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looks like someone agrees sort of
Harry Jaffee Knows That Jon Stewart Could Be The Most Influential Journalist Alive.
...
Gray Lady: John Kerry for President
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Head Of Log Cabin Republicans Slams False Piety Of Republicans.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of the nation's largest gay and lesbian Republican group slammed fellow Republicans Friday for "feigning outrage" over comments by Sen. John Kerry, and called on President Bush to "stop attacking gay families on the campaign trail."
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of the nation's largest gay and lesbian Republican group slammed fellow Republicans Friday for "feigning outrage" over comments by Sen. John Kerry, and called on President Bush to "stop attacking gay families on the campaign trail."
Friday, October 15, 2004
Rove Dirty Tricks Start Right Away
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But an interesting thing happened as I worked on this piece. Early in the summer, as Bush was struggling, even Rove's allies professed to doubt his ability to control the dynamics of the race in view of an unrelenting stream of bad news from Iraq. Several insisted that he was in over his head—with an emphasis that seemed to go deeper than mere professional envy. Yet by August, when attacks by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were dominating the front pages, such comments had become rarer. Then they died away entirely.
If this year stays true to past form, the campaign will get nastier in the closing weeks, and without anyone's quite registering it, Rove will be right back in his element. He seems to understand—indeed, to count on—the media's unwillingness or inability, whether from squeamishness, laziness, or professional caution, ever to give a full estimate of him or his work. It is ultimately not just Rove's skill but his character that allows him to perform on an entirely different plane. Along with remarkable strategic skills, he has both an understanding of the media's unstated self-limitations and a willingness to fight in territory where conscience forbids most others.
Rove isn't bracing for a close race. He's depending on it.
But an interesting thing happened as I worked on this piece. Early in the summer, as Bush was struggling, even Rove's allies professed to doubt his ability to control the dynamics of the race in view of an unrelenting stream of bad news from Iraq. Several insisted that he was in over his head—with an emphasis that seemed to go deeper than mere professional envy. Yet by August, when attacks by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were dominating the front pages, such comments had become rarer. Then they died away entirely.
If this year stays true to past form, the campaign will get nastier in the closing weeks, and without anyone's quite registering it, Rove will be right back in his element. He seems to understand—indeed, to count on—the media's unwillingness or inability, whether from squeamishness, laziness, or professional caution, ever to give a full estimate of him or his work. It is ultimately not just Rove's skill but his character that allows him to perform on an entirely different plane. Along with remarkable strategic skills, he has both an understanding of the media's unstated self-limitations and a willingness to fight in territory where conscience forbids most others.
Rove isn't bracing for a close race. He's depending on it.
Whole Towns Disappear
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Finding Only Shadows in Hunt for Insurgents
By JAMES GLANZ
NUSUFIYA, Iraq, Oct. 9 - Nobody tends the stalls at the main market under the big painted signs. Nothing moves on the streets. No one answers when American soldiers pound on the flimsy metal gates of the houses. No objections are raised when the soldiers peer into kitchen pantries or, their heads cocked with suspicion, pull the dust cover off a television set that is being stored in the corner of a living room.
Out of the hundreds of homes here and in a neighboring town, Mulla Fayyad, most were empty when the soldiers descended at dusk and began an overnight search, house by house, for insurgents and their weaponry. Families were at home in only a small number of houses, perhaps a few dozen.
It is not as though no one lives here. Fresh onions and tomatoes sat on a counter, some of them cut up and ready to eat. Children's sandals lay where they were kicked off on a porch or at the bottom of a stairway. Small Iraqi banknotes tumbled to the floor when a cupboard was pulled open.
But nobody was home. While terrorism suspects and militia fighters have routinely slipped away from their pursuers ever since last year's invasion, the sudden emptying of whole towns before unannounced raids appears to be a new phenomenon.
"Something happened, and they knew we were coming," said Staff Sgt. Norm Witka of the 1st Brigade, 23rd Infantry Regiment, whose unit was one of those that poured into the towns and searched nearly every room of every house.
The mystery of the disappearing populace has repeated itself during sweeps by soldiers and marines in northern Babil Province, a patch of land about 30 miles south of Baghdad. It is an area that is not only hostile to the American occupation but thought to contain important supply lines for insurgents elsewhere in the country.
Finding Only Shadows in Hunt for Insurgents
By JAMES GLANZ
NUSUFIYA, Iraq, Oct. 9 - Nobody tends the stalls at the main market under the big painted signs. Nothing moves on the streets. No one answers when American soldiers pound on the flimsy metal gates of the houses. No objections are raised when the soldiers peer into kitchen pantries or, their heads cocked with suspicion, pull the dust cover off a television set that is being stored in the corner of a living room.
Out of the hundreds of homes here and in a neighboring town, Mulla Fayyad, most were empty when the soldiers descended at dusk and began an overnight search, house by house, for insurgents and their weaponry. Families were at home in only a small number of houses, perhaps a few dozen.
It is not as though no one lives here. Fresh onions and tomatoes sat on a counter, some of them cut up and ready to eat. Children's sandals lay where they were kicked off on a porch or at the bottom of a stairway. Small Iraqi banknotes tumbled to the floor when a cupboard was pulled open.
But nobody was home. While terrorism suspects and militia fighters have routinely slipped away from their pursuers ever since last year's invasion, the sudden emptying of whole towns before unannounced raids appears to be a new phenomenon.
"Something happened, and they knew we were coming," said Staff Sgt. Norm Witka of the 1st Brigade, 23rd Infantry Regiment, whose unit was one of those that poured into the towns and searched nearly every room of every house.
The mystery of the disappearing populace has repeated itself during sweeps by soldiers and marines in northern Babil Province, a patch of land about 30 miles south of Baghdad. It is an area that is not only hostile to the American occupation but thought to contain important supply lines for insurgents elsewhere in the country.
Injured Iraq Vets Come Home to Poverty
Jon Stewart Called Tucker Carlson a dick
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I Have Been Waiting To Hear This
STEWART: You know what's interesting, though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.
I Have Been Waiting To Hear This
STEWART: You know what's interesting, though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.
Bush Raises Taxes. Believe It Or Not
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Bush Raises Taxes. Believe It Or Not
If there's a single piece of data President Bush wants to bring to your attention, it's that John Kerry, during his 20 years in the Senate, voted to raise taxes 98 times. Bush repeats this often, usually in a tone of incredulity. But Kerry is a piker. When Bush signs the big corporate tax bill passed this week by the Republican Congress, he will be approving 63 different tax increases with a single stroke of the pen..
Bush Raises Taxes. Believe It Or Not
If there's a single piece of data President Bush wants to bring to your attention, it's that John Kerry, during his 20 years in the Senate, voted to raise taxes 98 times. Bush repeats this often, usually in a tone of incredulity. But Kerry is a piker. When Bush signs the big corporate tax bill passed this week by the Republican Congress, he will be approving 63 different tax increases with a single stroke of the pen..
"We are selling our souls for dross."
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Britain's ambassador to Uzbekistan has been withdrawn from his post for "operational reasons" following a series of public differences of opinion with his employers.
Craig Murray has courted controversy since being appointed to the embassy in Tashkent in 2002 by publicly accusing the Uzbek government of torturing political and religious prisoners.
Earlier this week, details were revealed of a furious memo he sent to the Foreign Office, complaining that the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) was using information passed on to it by the CIA but originally obtained in Uzbek torture cells.
As well as being morally and legally wrong, the practice was unreliable because prisoners under torture could be expected to say whatever their tormentors wanted to hear, he warned.
And he wrote: "We are selling our souls for dross.".
Britain's ambassador to Uzbekistan has been withdrawn from his post for "operational reasons" following a series of public differences of opinion with his employers.
Craig Murray has courted controversy since being appointed to the embassy in Tashkent in 2002 by publicly accusing the Uzbek government of torturing political and religious prisoners.
Earlier this week, details were revealed of a furious memo he sent to the Foreign Office, complaining that the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) was using information passed on to it by the CIA but originally obtained in Uzbek torture cells.
As well as being morally and legally wrong, the practice was unreliable because prisoners under torture could be expected to say whatever their tormentors wanted to hear, he warned.
And he wrote: "We are selling our souls for dross.".
Richard Cohen Notices Bush's Change
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Had Bush admitted that things went wrong with Iraq, he could have been himself. But he was out there three times telling us what we know is not true. This was Kerry's problem when he was defending his vote in favor of a war that he never, in his gut, thought was a good idea. When he finally was able to say how he really felt, his campaign took off. The man settled into his own skin. He had the better argument. The camera picked it up.
Bush, though, has been hobbled by artifice. The natural has been turned into just another synthetic pol. His only good moments came when he talked about his faith and his family, tapping into a wellspring of emotional truth. Other than that, he was only rarely the politician he used to be -- crushed, not empowered by incumbency. If I could, I'd wager differently. The man I bet on no longer exists.
The Vanishing Pres
Had Bush admitted that things went wrong with Iraq, he could have been himself. But he was out there three times telling us what we know is not true. This was Kerry's problem when he was defending his vote in favor of a war that he never, in his gut, thought was a good idea. When he finally was able to say how he really felt, his campaign took off. The man settled into his own skin. He had the better argument. The camera picked it up.
Bush, though, has been hobbled by artifice. The natural has been turned into just another synthetic pol. His only good moments came when he talked about his faith and his family, tapping into a wellspring of emotional truth. Other than that, he was only rarely the politician he used to be -- crushed, not empowered by incumbency. If I could, I'd wager differently. The man I bet on no longer exists.
The Vanishing Pres
Thrown Out Of South Dakota, Cheating RNC Operatives Hired by Bush
Hat Tip Kos
Larry Russell, who left the state Republican Party's get-out-the-vote operation when questions came up about absentee ballot applications, has joined the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.
According to an internal Republican Party memo obtained by the Argus Leader, three other GOP workers who resigned also will be involved in the Ohio campaign [...]
Jason Glodt, executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party, confirmed the memo was authentic. But he said he did not want to comment on an internal communication.
The memo was e-mailed to Republican staffers and officials Sunday evening by Glodt.
"Todd Schleckeway, Nathan Mertz and Eric Fahrendorf have also been recruited to Ohio to work with Larry on the President's campaign," the e-mail said.
Larry Russell, who left the state Republican Party's get-out-the-vote operation when questions came up about absentee ballot applications, has joined the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.
According to an internal Republican Party memo obtained by the Argus Leader, three other GOP workers who resigned also will be involved in the Ohio campaign [...]
Jason Glodt, executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party, confirmed the memo was authentic. But he said he did not want to comment on an internal communication.
The memo was e-mailed to Republican staffers and officials Sunday evening by Glodt.
"Todd Schleckeway, Nathan Mertz and Eric Fahrendorf have also been recruited to Ohio to work with Larry on the President's campaign," the e-mail said.
And Now The Mutiny Starts
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Next, we’ll have fragging.
A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday.
The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.
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Next, we’ll have fragging.
A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday.
The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.
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Is Bush Wearing This?
Mega Post
Writer Poses As Republican
As a professional misanthrope, I believe that if you are going to hate a person, you ought to do it properly. You should go and live in his shoes for a while and see at the end of it how much you hate yourself. This was what I was doing down in Florida. The real challenge wasn't just trying to understand these Republicans. It was to become the best Republican I could be.
Republicans caught In Voter Fraud? Naw,....
You'll remember that this was the case in which the New Hampshire Republican Party hired an outfit called GOP Marketplace to arrange for a barrage of hang-up calls to phone banks doing get-out-the-vote work for the Dems, thus putting them out of commission for most of election day morning.
Well, in the background this case has been plugging along. And two folks -- the executive director of the state party, Chuck McGee and Allen Raymond, head of the now-defunct GOP Marketplace -- have pled guilty to federal charges in the case.
Torture Scandal Doesn’t Stop Sanchez From Getting His Promotion
Pray you get a Bush Administration Job because You Can Never Be Fired
Oh It WAS Nerve Gas…..
Pentagon Admits Nerve Gas After Over A Decade
8 out of 10 Europeans Hate Bush. So Do We.
As a professional misanthrope, I believe that if you are going to hate a person, you ought to do it properly. You should go and live in his shoes for a while and see at the end of it how much you hate yourself. This was what I was doing down in Florida. The real challenge wasn't just trying to understand these Republicans. It was to become the best Republican I could be.
Republicans caught In Voter Fraud? Naw,....
You'll remember that this was the case in which the New Hampshire Republican Party hired an outfit called GOP Marketplace to arrange for a barrage of hang-up calls to phone banks doing get-out-the-vote work for the Dems, thus putting them out of commission for most of election day morning.
Well, in the background this case has been plugging along. And two folks -- the executive director of the state party, Chuck McGee and Allen Raymond, head of the now-defunct GOP Marketplace -- have pled guilty to federal charges in the case.
Torture Scandal Doesn’t Stop Sanchez From Getting His Promotion
Pray you get a Bush Administration Job because You Can Never Be Fired
Oh It WAS Nerve Gas…..
Pentagon Admits Nerve Gas After Over A Decade
8 out of 10 Europeans Hate Bush. So Do We.
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Lynne Cheney And Dick Cheney
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During last night's debate, John kerry brought up the fact that Dick Cheney's daughter is gay. This mornin g, his gay daughter/ campaign manager came out and said that was "a cheap and tawdry political trick".
No comment from her on the No Gay Marriage Amendment.
Nor was there any comment on the attempt to distract from the fact that Kerry won all three debates with Bush.
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During last night's debate, John kerry brought up the fact that Dick Cheney's daughter is gay. This mornin g, his gay daughter/ campaign manager came out and said that was "a cheap and tawdry political trick".
No comment from her on the No Gay Marriage Amendment.
Nor was there any comment on the attempt to distract from the fact that Kerry won all three debates with Bush.
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Steve Cobble On Bush’s Pathetic Performance
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Steve Cobble: After four years in office, the President of the most powerful nation in the history of the world could not offer a health care plan for the 45 million Americans without health insurance; blew a direct question asking what he would say to someone who lost their job; ducked the delicate issue of Roe v. Wade (but with code words for the far right); didn’t know whether homosexuality was a choice or not; and refused to take any responsibility for the mess in Iraq, the current lack of flu vaccine, record job losses, declining wages, assault weapons, huge deficits, or the divisiveness in our politics.
And this was his “best” debate. Which Kerry won (again).
Steve Cobble: After four years in office, the President of the most powerful nation in the history of the world could not offer a health care plan for the 45 million Americans without health insurance; blew a direct question asking what he would say to someone who lost their job; ducked the delicate issue of Roe v. Wade (but with code words for the far right); didn’t know whether homosexuality was a choice or not; and refused to take any responsibility for the mess in Iraq, the current lack of flu vaccine, record job losses, declining wages, assault weapons, huge deficits, or the divisiveness in our politics.
And this was his “best” debate. Which Kerry won (again).
Two Numbers Not To Forget
Well, We Now Where Cheney Lives.
“I have a Butter Knife…And I Know How To Use It. Stay Back.”
How Can A Dildo Own A Vibrator?
US Goes Beyond Constitutional Limits On Spending, Decides To Fund Payments With Your Pension.
You have to wonder why a department named “Justice” would ever argue against better DNA evidence.
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Congress deserves credit for overriding objections from the Justice Department and approving a pioneer program to provide federal suspects better defense lawyers and fairer access to DNA evidence in seeking post-conviction exonerations. This significant step forward in criminal justice, which President Bush is expected to sign into law, also prods the states to deal with growing crime-lab scandals by setting up panels to look into allegations of misconduct and the outright falsification of evidence. By adding provisions to advance the rights of crime victims, Congress steered this valuable bipartisan package to passage after five years of frustration.
George W Orwell
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Congress deserves credit for overriding objections from the Justice Department and approving a pioneer program to provide federal suspects better defense lawyers and fairer access to DNA evidence in seeking post-conviction exonerations. This significant step forward in criminal justice, which President Bush is expected to sign into law, also prods the states to deal with growing crime-lab scandals by setting up panels to look into allegations of misconduct and the outright falsification of evidence. By adding provisions to advance the rights of crime victims, Congress steered this valuable bipartisan package to passage after five years of frustration.
George W Orwell
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Gallup. Snap poll following debate. MoE 5%.
Kevin Drum’s Comment Section
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VRWC--
Sometimes its remarkable what a sunny disposition you fellas have. I mean, this idea that everyone should be willing to "re-train" themselves at a moment's notice to become a flight attendant or burger-flipper? I'm a relatively smart guy, I think (I hope!). I think I'd already do pretty good as a burger-flipper. I don't need community college to teach me how to sprinkle the salt.
If you want to know the conservative vision of America, go to Russia. People like VRWC should take a little trip to Russia, where they'd see the ultimate revenge of the business/'entrepeneurial' class upon the professional class in all its gory detail. Leading physicists driving taxis. Doctors moonlighting as kiosk attendants. All sorts of people willing to throw away their years of hard-earned attainment to survive at whatever jobs were available. And this is the model society of folks like VRWC. Because people like this hate professionals. They think professionals are 'snobs' that need 're-training'. They think that expertise and devotion to one's profession are so declasse, so 20th century. They honestly think that a world where people didn't give a hit about their jobs except as a paycheck would be a better world.
Move to Russia, VRWC. See it for yourself.
Posted by: kokblok on October 14, 2004 at 3:01 AM | PERMALINK
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VRWC--
Sometimes its remarkable what a sunny disposition you fellas have. I mean, this idea that everyone should be willing to "re-train" themselves at a moment's notice to become a flight attendant or burger-flipper? I'm a relatively smart guy, I think (I hope!). I think I'd already do pretty good as a burger-flipper. I don't need community college to teach me how to sprinkle the salt.
If you want to know the conservative vision of America, go to Russia. People like VRWC should take a little trip to Russia, where they'd see the ultimate revenge of the business/'entrepeneurial' class upon the professional class in all its gory detail. Leading physicists driving taxis. Doctors moonlighting as kiosk attendants. All sorts of people willing to throw away their years of hard-earned attainment to survive at whatever jobs were available. And this is the model society of folks like VRWC. Because people like this hate professionals. They think professionals are 'snobs' that need 're-training'. They think that expertise and devotion to one's profession are so declasse, so 20th century. They honestly think that a world where people didn't give a hit about their jobs except as a paycheck would be a better world.
Move to Russia, VRWC. See it for yourself.
Posted by: kokblok on October 14, 2004 at 3:01 AM | PERMALINK
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Steve Gilliard. Must Read
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No need to elaborate.
Kerry beat Bush because like the sun rising, the Vikings losing Super Bowls and the Premiership coming down to Arsenal vs ManU, it is the natural order of things.
Bush looked merely cheap and grasping this time, as Kerry's smiles and head shakes just belittled the president. And I think that the comparison to Tony Soprano, the murdering, philandering mob boss was no compliment.
But the worst moment of the night, the one which went past our well-heeled press but not millions of working people. When asked about unemployment, Bush talked about education. When asked about the minimum wage,
It may have been the worst and most important mistake in a flailing, desperate campaign. Because school is not a job, it does not guarantee a job, it cannot protect a job, something millions of people know. As the people who live in the Bay Area about education as they go from their barista job to their Borders job after years as an IT worker.
And it is a slap in the face to the people who worked in heavy industry in swing states. Their unions will remind them of that starting tomorrow.
Education can help, but you need a thriving economy.
Bush's replies on health care will be gutted in the fact checking process which has gone so poorly for Bush, more on that later, but Kerry should have said "you know, when you have NO insurance, any insurance is a good thing." Bush keeps talking about socialized medicine in a country where fighting with your insurance company is a routine occurance. It is the kind of disconnect that only the rich could have with reality.
And Kerry put the fear of God into people with thet Social Security plan.
But in a debate where Bush was probably medicated off his ass, not heavily, but enough to control his temper, he just wasn't as sharp as Kerry. Only the devoted could miss exactly how sharp and to the point Kerry was compared to the terminally unprepared and inadequate Bush. Kerry knows this stuff, and Bush's attempts to minimize him just fell flat.
Oh, and that lie he told about Osama Bin Laden, jesus. I heard him say it. So did John Kerry.
Look, Bush just had three chances to prove he should keep his job and he acted as if it wasn't a big deal, that the plan is going well.
Instead, the wheels are flying off the campaign and it's there for anyone to see. He's gonna get around 40-45 percent of the vote, the Jesus freaks, red dog Republicans and the fearful, but for most people, it's time to see the Bush presidency as part of the past, not the present. He can't talk about what matters and his "march to freedom" bullshit is an insult to thinking people.
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No need to elaborate.
Kerry beat Bush because like the sun rising, the Vikings losing Super Bowls and the Premiership coming down to Arsenal vs ManU, it is the natural order of things.
Bush looked merely cheap and grasping this time, as Kerry's smiles and head shakes just belittled the president. And I think that the comparison to Tony Soprano, the murdering, philandering mob boss was no compliment.
But the worst moment of the night, the one which went past our well-heeled press but not millions of working people. When asked about unemployment, Bush talked about education. When asked about the minimum wage,
It may have been the worst and most important mistake in a flailing, desperate campaign. Because school is not a job, it does not guarantee a job, it cannot protect a job, something millions of people know. As the people who live in the Bay Area about education as they go from their barista job to their Borders job after years as an IT worker.
And it is a slap in the face to the people who worked in heavy industry in swing states. Their unions will remind them of that starting tomorrow.
Education can help, but you need a thriving economy.
Bush's replies on health care will be gutted in the fact checking process which has gone so poorly for Bush, more on that later, but Kerry should have said "you know, when you have NO insurance, any insurance is a good thing." Bush keeps talking about socialized medicine in a country where fighting with your insurance company is a routine occurance. It is the kind of disconnect that only the rich could have with reality.
And Kerry put the fear of God into people with thet Social Security plan.
But in a debate where Bush was probably medicated off his ass, not heavily, but enough to control his temper, he just wasn't as sharp as Kerry. Only the devoted could miss exactly how sharp and to the point Kerry was compared to the terminally unprepared and inadequate Bush. Kerry knows this stuff, and Bush's attempts to minimize him just fell flat.
Oh, and that lie he told about Osama Bin Laden, jesus. I heard him say it. So did John Kerry.
Look, Bush just had three chances to prove he should keep his job and he acted as if it wasn't a big deal, that the plan is going well.
Instead, the wheels are flying off the campaign and it's there for anyone to see. He's gonna get around 40-45 percent of the vote, the Jesus freaks, red dog Republicans and the fearful, but for most people, it's time to see the Bush presidency as part of the past, not the present. He can't talk about what matters and his "march to freedom" bullshit is an insult to thinking people.
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For the record
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"I want justice. There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, "Wanted: Dead or Alive" ... I just remember, all I'm doing is remembering when I was a kid I remember that they used to put out there in the old west, a wanted poster. It said:
"Wanted, Dead or Alive." All I want and America wants him brought to justice. That's what we want."
Bush on bin Laden
September 17th, 2001
"As I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban. But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became -- we shoved him out more and more on the margins. He has no place to train his al Qaeda killers anymore."
Bush on bin Laden
March 13th, 2002
n Josh Marshall
"I want justice. There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, "Wanted: Dead or Alive" ... I just remember, all I'm doing is remembering when I was a kid I remember that they used to put out there in the old west, a wanted poster. It said:
"Wanted, Dead or Alive." All I want and America wants him brought to justice. That's what we want."
Bush on bin Laden
September 17th, 2001
"As I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban. But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became -- we shoved him out more and more on the margins. He has no place to train his al Qaeda killers anymore."
Bush on bin Laden
March 13th, 2002
n Josh Marshall
Wow. Friedman Still Making Sense. Could Be Best Ever
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Incredible Point
But in politicizing 9/11, Mr. Bush drove a wedge between himself and common sense when it came to implementing his Iraq strategy. After failing to find any W.M.D. in Iraq, he became so dependent on justifying the Iraq war as the response to 9/11 - a campaign to bring freedom and democracy to the Arab-Muslim world - that he refused to see reality in Iraq. The president seemed to be saying to himself, "Something so good and right as getting rid of Saddam can't possibly be going so wrong." Long after it was obvious to anyone who visited Iraq that we never had enough troops there to establish order, Mr. Bush simply ignored reality. When pressed on Iraq, he sought cover behind 9/11 and how it required "tough decisions" - as if the tough decision to go to war in Iraq, in the name of 9/11, should make him immune to criticism over how he conducted the war.
Lastly, politicizing 9/11 put a wedge between us and our history. The Bush team has turned this country into "The United States of Fighting Terrorism." "Bush only seems able to express our anger, not our hopes," said the Mideast expert Stephen P. Cohen. "His whole focus is on an America whose role in the world is to negate the negation of the terrorists. But America has always been about the affirmation of something positive. That is missing today. Beyond Afghanistan, they've been much better at destruction than construction."
I wish Mr. Kerry were better able to articulate how America is going to get its groove back. But the point he was raising about wanting to put terrorism back into perspective is correct. I want a president who can one day restore Sept. 11th to its rightful place on the calendar: as the day after Sept. 10th and before Sept. 12th. I do not want it to become a day that defines us. Because ultimately Sept. 11th is about them - the bad guys - not about us. We're about the Fourth of July.
Incredible Point
But in politicizing 9/11, Mr. Bush drove a wedge between himself and common sense when it came to implementing his Iraq strategy. After failing to find any W.M.D. in Iraq, he became so dependent on justifying the Iraq war as the response to 9/11 - a campaign to bring freedom and democracy to the Arab-Muslim world - that he refused to see reality in Iraq. The president seemed to be saying to himself, "Something so good and right as getting rid of Saddam can't possibly be going so wrong." Long after it was obvious to anyone who visited Iraq that we never had enough troops there to establish order, Mr. Bush simply ignored reality. When pressed on Iraq, he sought cover behind 9/11 and how it required "tough decisions" - as if the tough decision to go to war in Iraq, in the name of 9/11, should make him immune to criticism over how he conducted the war.
Lastly, politicizing 9/11 put a wedge between us and our history. The Bush team has turned this country into "The United States of Fighting Terrorism." "Bush only seems able to express our anger, not our hopes," said the Mideast expert Stephen P. Cohen. "His whole focus is on an America whose role in the world is to negate the negation of the terrorists. But America has always been about the affirmation of something positive. That is missing today. Beyond Afghanistan, they've been much better at destruction than construction."
I wish Mr. Kerry were better able to articulate how America is going to get its groove back. But the point he was raising about wanting to put terrorism back into perspective is correct. I want a president who can one day restore Sept. 11th to its rightful place on the calendar: as the day after Sept. 10th and before Sept. 12th. I do not want it to become a day that defines us. Because ultimately Sept. 11th is about them - the bad guys - not about us. We're about the Fourth of July.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
HatTrick
CBS News Poll
Kerry 39
Bush 25
CNN Focus Group
24 on the panel
Kerry 10
Bush 7
Undecided 7
ABC News
Kerry 42
Bush 41
38% GOP
30% Dem
28% Independent
CIA Torturing Al-Qaida Suspects In Secret Jordanian Lockup
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Also at the secret facility are Abu Zubaydah, described as Al-Qaida's "recruitment officer," and Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, who was captured in Thailand a year ago. The Indonesian Hambali was the only non-Arab Muslim participant in Al-Qaida's supreme military council. He served as the operations chief for Jemaah Islamiya, which was behind attacks in the Philippines before 9/11 and for the attack on the Bali night club in October 2002 that killed over 200 people.
Haaretz was unable to obtain the identities of the other detainees in Jordan.
The 46-page Human Rights Watch report levels harsh criticism at the U.S. administration for using "undisclosed locations" and "disappearing" prisoners. The report charges that the U.S. thereby is in breach of all international conventions, including the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war, by refusing prisoners access to the Red Cross or their families.
The report contends that American operatives detained Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's children to serve as "hostages" through which to pressure their father into cooperating.
The prisoners were subjected to severe torture, the report states.
Also at the secret facility are Abu Zubaydah, described as Al-Qaida's "recruitment officer," and Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, who was captured in Thailand a year ago. The Indonesian Hambali was the only non-Arab Muslim participant in Al-Qaida's supreme military council. He served as the operations chief for Jemaah Islamiya, which was behind attacks in the Philippines before 9/11 and for the attack on the Bali night club in October 2002 that killed over 200 people.
Haaretz was unable to obtain the identities of the other detainees in Jordan.
The 46-page Human Rights Watch report levels harsh criticism at the U.S. administration for using "undisclosed locations" and "disappearing" prisoners. The report charges that the U.S. thereby is in breach of all international conventions, including the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war, by refusing prisoners access to the Red Cross or their families.
The report contends that American operatives detained Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's children to serve as "hostages" through which to pressure their father into cooperating.
The prisoners were subjected to severe torture, the report states.
MSNBC Unfair? Naw…
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After standing virtually alone among mainstream media outlets in declaring Dick Cheney the clear victor in his October 5 debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, MSNBC made an odd decision about its coverage of the subsequent Bush-Kerry debate: It added more conservative voices to its panel discussion.
Arguing whether MSNBC is fair is like arguing whether or not Chris Matthews is an asshole.
After standing virtually alone among mainstream media outlets in declaring Dick Cheney the clear victor in his October 5 debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, MSNBC made an odd decision about its coverage of the subsequent Bush-Kerry debate: It added more conservative voices to its panel discussion.
Arguing whether MSNBC is fair is like arguing whether or not Chris Matthews is an asshole.
FBI IndyMedia Seizure A Voter Suppression Ploy
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FBI-led seizure of Indymedia computers in U.K. may be tied to U.S. election
The plot sickens. Last week's mysterious seizure in England of computers used by the worldwide IndyMedia activist news collective is becoming more clear—as in clear and present danger.
An international journalists group contends that the goal of the FBI-led seizure (see this Bush Beat item) was election-related intimidation, not just the temporary disruption of the network, though several IndyMedia sites are still down. You may ask how the FBI can seize computers outside its jurisdiction. Are you saying that has stopped our government lately?
FBI-led seizure of Indymedia computers in U.K. may be tied to U.S. election
The plot sickens. Last week's mysterious seizure in England of computers used by the worldwide IndyMedia activist news collective is becoming more clear—as in clear and present danger.
An international journalists group contends that the goal of the FBI-led seizure (see this Bush Beat item) was election-related intimidation, not just the temporary disruption of the network, though several IndyMedia sites are still down. You may ask how the FBI can seize computers outside its jurisdiction. Are you saying that has stopped our government lately?
Actual E Mail Invite To Bush Speech
hat tip Kos
From an email:
Bush is coming to Medford, Oregon Thursday. John Edwards is here Wednesday morning.
Edwards' visit is already sold out. There are tickets available for Bush, even though his visit was planned in advance. This is in republican-leaning rural southern Oregon.
I tried to get tickets to both events. Edwards was sold out, but I could still get them for Bush, provided I:
1. was a registered republican
2. wrote an essay about why he should be president
3. promise to support him
Write an essay? Shit, talk about getting out the vote and then making them work for it. i'd rather blow the Pope than write an essay about why I support a candidate.
From an email:
Bush is coming to Medford, Oregon Thursday. John Edwards is here Wednesday morning.
Edwards' visit is already sold out. There are tickets available for Bush, even though his visit was planned in advance. This is in republican-leaning rural southern Oregon.
I tried to get tickets to both events. Edwards was sold out, but I could still get them for Bush, provided I:
1. was a registered republican
2. wrote an essay about why he should be president
3. promise to support him
Write an essay? Shit, talk about getting out the vote and then making them work for it. i'd rather blow the Pope than write an essay about why I support a candidate.
More GOP Perfidy (Is that redundant?)
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GOP Pays Company To Throw Out Democratic Registration Forms.
Oct. 12) -- Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.
GOP Pays Company To Throw Out Democratic Registration Forms.
Oct. 12) -- Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.
Sinclair Subsidiary Recieves Contract From White House
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Sinclair Broadcasting Group, under fire for ordering its 62 networks to broadcast a film sharply critical of John Kerry’s opposition to the Vietnam War, is a major investor in a company recently awarded a military contract by the Bush Administration, RAW STORY has learned.
Jadoo Power Systems, Inc., a producer of portable power systems, announced Sept. 28 that it had been awarded a contract to supply its products, which are used for covert surveillance operations, to US Special Operations Command. According to the SOCOM website, SOCOM “plans, directs, and executes special operations in the conduct of the War on Terrorism.”
Jadoo, whose name in Hindi means “magic,” is owned by Sinclair Ventures, Inc. and Contango Capital Management. Sinclair Ventures is “a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. as well as other individuals.”
Sinclair Broadcasting Group, under fire for ordering its 62 networks to broadcast a film sharply critical of John Kerry’s opposition to the Vietnam War, is a major investor in a company recently awarded a military contract by the Bush Administration, RAW STORY has learned.
Jadoo Power Systems, Inc., a producer of portable power systems, announced Sept. 28 that it had been awarded a contract to supply its products, which are used for covert surveillance operations, to US Special Operations Command. According to the SOCOM website, SOCOM “plans, directs, and executes special operations in the conduct of the War on Terrorism.”
Jadoo, whose name in Hindi means “magic,” is owned by Sinclair Ventures, Inc. and Contango Capital Management. Sinclair Ventures is “a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. as well as other individuals.”
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Please Tell Trajan and I Where You Are Reading This From.
Bush Gets Free Pass
The United States Commission on Civil Rights Nicer To Bush Than Other Way Around
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (AP) - The United States Commission on Civil Rights voted on Friday to wait until after next month's election to discuss a report critical of the Bush administration's civil rights record. Republican members had objected to the report's timing.
The US Commission On Human Rights decides not to criticize Bush and Sinclair orders hbis stations to play an anti-Kerry movie
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (AP) - The United States Commission on Civil Rights voted on Friday to wait until after next month's election to discuss a report critical of the Bush administration's civil rights record. Republican members had objected to the report's timing.
The US Commission On Human Rights decides not to criticize Bush and Sinclair orders hbis stations to play an anti-Kerry movie
Green Zone Now As Unsafe Rest Of Vietn…Iraq
This is Unbelievable
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Soldiers Being Used To protect KB&R
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - The U.S. military confirmed Wednesday that soldiers are riding shotgun in civilian supply convoys, and a Missouri soldier stationed in Iraq defended the practice against the criticism of his home state governor.
A day after complaining about the mixing of soldiers and citizens in a letter to President Bush, Democratic Gov. Bob Holden continued to press the issue Wednesday, alleging at a Capitol news conference that what American soldiers "have been asked to do is highly inappropriate."
Yet it apparently is not highly unusual.
"We have coalition troops, to include the (Missouri) unit in question, routinely providing security for civilian convoys which provide food, fuel and supplies for coalition troops throughout Iraq," Capt. Patrick Swan, a spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force in Baghdad, said in an e-mail response to an inquiry from The Associated Press.
"This security can be through military vehicles escorting trucks, or the placing of coalition troops within the cabs of civilian trucks to provide additional firepower," Swan said.
Holden's complaint was prompted by the concerns of a family member of a soldier in the National Guard's 1221st Transportation Company, which is based in Missouri.
Soldiers Being Used To protect KB&R
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - The U.S. military confirmed Wednesday that soldiers are riding shotgun in civilian supply convoys, and a Missouri soldier stationed in Iraq defended the practice against the criticism of his home state governor.
A day after complaining about the mixing of soldiers and citizens in a letter to President Bush, Democratic Gov. Bob Holden continued to press the issue Wednesday, alleging at a Capitol news conference that what American soldiers "have been asked to do is highly inappropriate."
Yet it apparently is not highly unusual.
"We have coalition troops, to include the (Missouri) unit in question, routinely providing security for civilian convoys which provide food, fuel and supplies for coalition troops throughout Iraq," Capt. Patrick Swan, a spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force in Baghdad, said in an e-mail response to an inquiry from The Associated Press.
"This security can be through military vehicles escorting trucks, or the placing of coalition troops within the cabs of civilian trucks to provide additional firepower," Swan said.
Holden's complaint was prompted by the concerns of a family member of a soldier in the National Guard's 1221st Transportation Company, which is based in Missouri.
W wears a Freedom suit
Stand Up Against RAMPANT LESBIANS
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Rampant lesbianism
OK Rep Sentate candidate stands up against rampant lesbianism that is just ruining…..er….uh……well it’s just Rampant dammnit!
Personally I am SO in favor of lesbianism it’s not even funny.
Rampant lesbianism
OK Rep Sentate candidate stands up against rampant lesbianism that is just ruining…..er….uh……well it’s just Rampant dammnit!
Personally I am SO in favor of lesbianism it’s not even funny.
GOP or Nursemaid?
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Texas Congressman Pete Sessions moons police, causes rukus. Opposed Janet Jackson’s nipple.
Shit dog, why is it that when Janet’s sexy right breast is expressed there is a half million dollar fine, but when Pete Sessions bares his hairy naked ass, that’s ok?
Texas Congressman Pete Sessions moons police, causes rukus. Opposed Janet Jackson’s nipple.
Shit dog, why is it that when Janet’s sexy right breast is expressed there is a half million dollar fine, but when Pete Sessions bares his hairy naked ass, that’s ok?
Voter Fraud Begins Early
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Republicans Resign Over Questionable Absentee Ballot Applications
Tonight six people connected with the South Dakota republican party have resigned over questions surrounding absentee ballot applications.
Republicans Resign Over Questionable Absentee Ballot Applications
Tonight six people connected with the South Dakota republican party have resigned over questions surrounding absentee ballot applications.
A Refresher Course In Why War Always Looks A Lot Cooler On CNN Than It Actually Is
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After serving a 12-month tour of duty in Iraq last year, Marine Lance Corporal Jeff Lucey returned home to his relieved family with no injuries – or at least none that were visible. “When we didn’t see him tremendously traumatized when he returned, we thought, 'Oh, thank god,'” says his father, Kevin Lucey. “And then it exploded.”
For months the 23-year-old battled his wartime demons; nightmares, bouts of depression and anxiety, and crushing guilt – classic symptoms of acute post-traumatic stress.
“He told me he was a murderer,” says Jeff’s sister, Debra. “He said, 'Don’t you understand? Your brother’s a murderer.’”
On June 22, 2004, Jeff Lucey lost his battle. He hanged himself from a rafter in the cellar of his family home.
…
…Acosta believes that the American public does not understand the enormity of this war’s toll. “People hear ‘injured’ … but they don’t realize that ‘injured’ is missing both his hands, or his legs, or whatever,” he says.
Double amputations, crushed spines, and severely disfiguring burns were some of the physical trauma Dr. Gene Bolles saw on a daily basis as the chief neurosurgeon at Landstuhl Hospital in Germany. The average age of the soldiers he treated was 19 and a half – just kids, he says, who put their lives on the line not for abstract concepts of patriotism, but for the powerful bonds of camaraderie.
“Kids don’t go to war and put themselves in danger for the good of the country, or anything else,” says Bolles, a civilian doctor who is also a Vietnam veteran. "They go there because they’ve learned to love their buddies … And when they get hurt, they feel guilty because they’re hurt and they can’t be there for their unit. It’s an intense training process. And all of a sudden, it’s over. They’re hurt, they’re wounded, they’re out of the service and it’s over. And that, in and of itself, is very traumatic.”
Real Costs Of War Are Hidden
After serving a 12-month tour of duty in Iraq last year, Marine Lance Corporal Jeff Lucey returned home to his relieved family with no injuries – or at least none that were visible. “When we didn’t see him tremendously traumatized when he returned, we thought, 'Oh, thank god,'” says his father, Kevin Lucey. “And then it exploded.”
For months the 23-year-old battled his wartime demons; nightmares, bouts of depression and anxiety, and crushing guilt – classic symptoms of acute post-traumatic stress.
“He told me he was a murderer,” says Jeff’s sister, Debra. “He said, 'Don’t you understand? Your brother’s a murderer.’”
On June 22, 2004, Jeff Lucey lost his battle. He hanged himself from a rafter in the cellar of his family home.
…
…Acosta believes that the American public does not understand the enormity of this war’s toll. “People hear ‘injured’ … but they don’t realize that ‘injured’ is missing both his hands, or his legs, or whatever,” he says.
Double amputations, crushed spines, and severely disfiguring burns were some of the physical trauma Dr. Gene Bolles saw on a daily basis as the chief neurosurgeon at Landstuhl Hospital in Germany. The average age of the soldiers he treated was 19 and a half – just kids, he says, who put their lives on the line not for abstract concepts of patriotism, but for the powerful bonds of camaraderie.
“Kids don’t go to war and put themselves in danger for the good of the country, or anything else,” says Bolles, a civilian doctor who is also a Vietnam veteran. "They go there because they’ve learned to love their buddies … And when they get hurt, they feel guilty because they’re hurt and they can’t be there for their unit. It’s an intense training process. And all of a sudden, it’s over. They’re hurt, they’re wounded, they’re out of the service and it’s over. And that, in and of itself, is very traumatic.”
Real Costs Of War Are Hidden
Q: How Do You Tell When A Bush Is In Power?
Economists Give Bush An “F”
Monday, October 11, 2004
Undecided? Or Just Plain Fucking Stupid?
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We "decideds" are so absolutely certain who we're going to vote for, or who we're going to vote against, that nothing the candidates say is ever going to change our little minds. Our man could say he was going to declare war on Switzerland, or raise taxes on the homeless, and we'd still vote for him.
I'm not only decided, I think that people who can’t decide which one of these two ought to be president even before they watched the debates, aren't undecided. They're stupid.
We "decideds" are so absolutely certain who we're going to vote for, or who we're going to vote against, that nothing the candidates say is ever going to change our little minds. Our man could say he was going to declare war on Switzerland, or raise taxes on the homeless, and we'd still vote for him.
I'm not only decided, I think that people who can’t decide which one of these two ought to be president even before they watched the debates, aren't undecided. They're stupid.
Pull Your Hair Out Corruption
BBC Watchers Talk About U.S “Press”
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"This American administration is not crazy about being interviewed by the BBC," she pointed out. "We give politicians a hard time. People are absolutely drilled down."
Atwell can't get over the American media's fixation with writing and speaking about the candidates and the questions of religion and patriotism. Clearly, things are different in her newsroom.
Noting that there are "flags everywhere" in the U.S. media's coverage of events, Atwell said the preoccupation is "absolutely incomprehensible."
She added: "We never put the Union Jack badge here on the TV news. People (in the U.K.) find overt patriotism to be odd."
Speaking about England, she joked, "Here, nobody goes to church."
"This American administration is not crazy about being interviewed by the BBC," she pointed out. "We give politicians a hard time. People are absolutely drilled down."
Atwell can't get over the American media's fixation with writing and speaking about the candidates and the questions of religion and patriotism. Clearly, things are different in her newsroom.
Noting that there are "flags everywhere" in the U.S. media's coverage of events, Atwell said the preoccupation is "absolutely incomprehensible."
She added: "We never put the Union Jack badge here on the TV news. People (in the U.K.) find overt patriotism to be odd."
Speaking about England, she joked, "Here, nobody goes to church."
Quotable Quotes
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"Being called partisan and vindictive by Tom DeLay is like being called ugly by a frog."
Ronnie Earle, prosecuting DeLay corruption.
"Being called partisan and vindictive by Tom DeLay is like being called ugly by a frog."
Ronnie Earle, prosecuting DeLay corruption.
Christopher Now Free Of His Bonds
Despite All The BC04 Yard Signs, Bush trails In PA.
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On the ground, literally, things are looking good for the president across the river. Bush/Cheney lawn signs are as numerous as pumpkins and fake spider-webs on the farmhouse lawns. Inside cozy, winterized homes, TVs have been flickering for months with incessant Bush propaganda. Through the end of September, the Bush campaign pumped 16,000 television spots costing $15 million into Pennsylvania, nearly as much as the combined Bush television buys in Michigan and Missouri. The campaign only spent more in two other states, Florida and Ohio. Bush advertising proliferates on rural Pennsylvania's roads too. At any time of year, billboards abound. These eyesores routinely provoke conservationists to litigate, but otherwise remain as much a part of the landscape as the ubiquitous Burma shave ads half a century ago. Right now the Bush signs are so numerous – I counted more than a half-dozen in a five mile stretch outside Honesdale, on the state's eastern edge – that the touring driver might believe Pennsylvania belongs to Bush. Other travelers report they sprout in similar profusion from the rocky slopes and forests for at least another hundred miles south, deep into the Lehigh Valley.
Their catchy one-liners, simple and to the point, are calculated to touch the flinty, faithful soul.
"Flip-Flops or Boots?" asks one.
"Remember: It's Your Money."
"One Nation Under God."…
…His handlers are too preoccupied with endgame now to notice that casually dissing people's intelligence didn't work this time. They didn't even bother to schedule any handshaking time, content to use the region as a CNN backdrop. Bush spent no time at all with residents and local news media. His plane touched down at the airport in Pittston Township at about 9:45 a.m. and was wheels-up by 11:30 a.m.
The event certainly didn't involve any undecided voters, either. Bush entered the Kirby Center through a rear door, avoiding demonstrators and supporters alike, and strode on stage before a hand-picked audience, loyalty-tested to cheer at the right lines.
We'll all know very soon whether billboards, TV ads, lawn signs and fake audiences can make up for W.'s deficiencies. But watching the leaves turn, and the chilling realities creeping into the northeastern Pennsylvania nights, I'm betting they won't.
On the ground, literally, things are looking good for the president across the river. Bush/Cheney lawn signs are as numerous as pumpkins and fake spider-webs on the farmhouse lawns. Inside cozy, winterized homes, TVs have been flickering for months with incessant Bush propaganda. Through the end of September, the Bush campaign pumped 16,000 television spots costing $15 million into Pennsylvania, nearly as much as the combined Bush television buys in Michigan and Missouri. The campaign only spent more in two other states, Florida and Ohio. Bush advertising proliferates on rural Pennsylvania's roads too. At any time of year, billboards abound. These eyesores routinely provoke conservationists to litigate, but otherwise remain as much a part of the landscape as the ubiquitous Burma shave ads half a century ago. Right now the Bush signs are so numerous – I counted more than a half-dozen in a five mile stretch outside Honesdale, on the state's eastern edge – that the touring driver might believe Pennsylvania belongs to Bush. Other travelers report they sprout in similar profusion from the rocky slopes and forests for at least another hundred miles south, deep into the Lehigh Valley.
Their catchy one-liners, simple and to the point, are calculated to touch the flinty, faithful soul.
"Flip-Flops or Boots?" asks one.
"Remember: It's Your Money."
"One Nation Under God."…
…His handlers are too preoccupied with endgame now to notice that casually dissing people's intelligence didn't work this time. They didn't even bother to schedule any handshaking time, content to use the region as a CNN backdrop. Bush spent no time at all with residents and local news media. His plane touched down at the airport in Pittston Township at about 9:45 a.m. and was wheels-up by 11:30 a.m.
The event certainly didn't involve any undecided voters, either. Bush entered the Kirby Center through a rear door, avoiding demonstrators and supporters alike, and strode on stage before a hand-picked audience, loyalty-tested to cheer at the right lines.
We'll all know very soon whether billboards, TV ads, lawn signs and fake audiences can make up for W.'s deficiencies. But watching the leaves turn, and the chilling realities creeping into the northeastern Pennsylvania nights, I'm betting they won't.
Oy
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Another Stupid Tactical Error In the Making
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration plans to delay major assaults on rebel-held cities in Iraq until after U.S. elections in November, say administration officials, mindful that large-scale military offensives could affect the U.S. presidential race.
Although American commanders in Iraq have been buoyed by recent successes in insurgent-held towns such as Samarra and Tall Afar, administration and Pentagon officials say they will not try to retake cities such as Fallouja and Ramadi — where the insurgents' grip is strongest and U.S. military casualties could be the highest — until after Americans vote in what is likely to be an extremely close election.
Shooting themselves in the foot. I mean we actually successfully quelled an insurgency in Samarra with Iraqi trained troops. But no. Nothing is more important than getting elected to this President.
Another Stupid Tactical Error In the Making
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration plans to delay major assaults on rebel-held cities in Iraq until after U.S. elections in November, say administration officials, mindful that large-scale military offensives could affect the U.S. presidential race.
Although American commanders in Iraq have been buoyed by recent successes in insurgent-held towns such as Samarra and Tall Afar, administration and Pentagon officials say they will not try to retake cities such as Fallouja and Ramadi — where the insurgents' grip is strongest and U.S. military casualties could be the highest — until after Americans vote in what is likely to be an extremely close election.
Shooting themselves in the foot. I mean we actually successfully quelled an insurgency in Samarra with Iraqi trained troops. But no. Nothing is more important than getting elected to this President.
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Why Should Expect A Bush Appointed FDA Would Give A Shit About Anyone’s Health When You See How Much Profits Could Be Lost?
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FDA Puts Profits In Front Of People
The Food and Drug Administration silenced one of its drug experts who raised safety concerns weeks before Merck & Co. yanked the blockbuster drug Vioxx due to increased risks for heart attack and strokes, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said Thursday.
Dr. David J. Graham, associate director for science in the FDA Drug Center's Office of Drug Safety, told Senate investigators he faced stiff resistance within the regulatory agency to his findings.
"Dr. Graham described an environment where he was 'ostracized,' 'subjected to veiled threats' and 'intimidation,'" Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement after Finance Committee investigators interviewed the researcher Thursday.
FDA Puts Profits In Front Of People
The Food and Drug Administration silenced one of its drug experts who raised safety concerns weeks before Merck & Co. yanked the blockbuster drug Vioxx due to increased risks for heart attack and strokes, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said Thursday.
Dr. David J. Graham, associate director for science in the FDA Drug Center's Office of Drug Safety, told Senate investigators he faced stiff resistance within the regulatory agency to his findings.
"Dr. Graham described an environment where he was 'ostracized,' 'subjected to veiled threats' and 'intimidation,'" Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement after Finance Committee investigators interviewed the researcher Thursday.
The Question For many Is Not Whether They Can Retire- But Whether They Can Stay Retired.
Marines Distinguish Fact From Bullshit
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"I feel we're going to be here for years and years and years," said Lance Cpl. Edward Elston, 22, of Hackettstown, N.J. "I don't think anything is going to get better; I think it's going to get a lot worse. It's going to be like a Palestinian-type deal. We're going to stop being a policing presence and then start being an occupying presence. . . . We're always going to be here. We're never going to leave."..
,,, "Every day you read the articles in the States where it's like, 'Oh, it's getting better and better,' " said Lance Cpl. Jonathan Snyder, 22, of Gettysburg, Pa. "But when you're here, you know it's worse every day."
Pfc. Kyle Maio, 19, of Bucks County, Pa., said he thought government officials were reticent to speak candidly because of the upcoming U.S. elections. "Stuff's going on here but they won't flat-out say it," he said. "They can't get into it."
"I feel we're going to be here for years and years and years," said Lance Cpl. Edward Elston, 22, of Hackettstown, N.J. "I don't think anything is going to get better; I think it's going to get a lot worse. It's going to be like a Palestinian-type deal. We're going to stop being a policing presence and then start being an occupying presence. . . . We're always going to be here. We're never going to leave."..
,,, "Every day you read the articles in the States where it's like, 'Oh, it's getting better and better,' " said Lance Cpl. Jonathan Snyder, 22, of Gettysburg, Pa. "But when you're here, you know it's worse every day."
Pfc. Kyle Maio, 19, of Bucks County, Pa., said he thought government officials were reticent to speak candidly because of the upcoming U.S. elections. "Stuff's going on here but they won't flat-out say it," he said. "They can't get into it."
Saturday, October 09, 2004
Kerry Lands Solidly With Electorate
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Did Kerry close the game Friday night? No, adviser Joe Lockhart surely couldn’t even say it without winking.
Even still, Kerry has been throwing strikes. The Massachusetts senator has been more measured and in command of his views than Mr. Bush.
Kerry has managed to keep President Bush on the defensive throughout the two debates. President Bush’s bully pulpit of incumbent prestige has not translated into the debate forums.
Pundits and political insiders are sure of two things: this presidential election matters more than most and the winner remains unknown.
Did Kerry close the game Friday night? No, adviser Joe Lockhart surely couldn’t even say it without winking.
Even still, Kerry has been throwing strikes. The Massachusetts senator has been more measured and in command of his views than Mr. Bush.
Kerry has managed to keep President Bush on the defensive throughout the two debates. President Bush’s bully pulpit of incumbent prestige has not translated into the debate forums.
Pundits and political insiders are sure of two things: this presidential election matters more than most and the winner remains unknown.
Robot Job Outsourced To Foreign Robots
Bagdhad Blogger
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Samarra Burning...
The explosions in Baghdad aren't any better. A few days ago, some 40 children were blown to pieces while they were gathering candy from American soldiers at the opening of a sewage treatment plant. (Side note: That's how bad things have gotten- we have to celebrate the reconstruction of our sewage treatment plants). I don't know who to be more angry with- the idiots and PR people who thought it would be a good idea to have children running around during a celebration involving troops or the parents for letting their children attend. I the people who arranged the explosions burn within the far-reaches of hell.
Samarra Burning...
The explosions in Baghdad aren't any better. A few days ago, some 40 children were blown to pieces while they were gathering candy from American soldiers at the opening of a sewage treatment plant. (Side note: That's how bad things have gotten- we have to celebrate the reconstruction of our sewage treatment plants). I don't know who to be more angry with- the idiots and PR people who thought it would be a good idea to have children running around during a celebration involving troops or the parents for letting their children attend. I the people who arranged the explosions burn within the far-reaches of hell.
Funny
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"I was a little worried at one point, I thought the President was going to attack Charlie Gibson."
"I was a little worried at one point, I thought the President was going to attack Charlie Gibson."
Polls Say Kerry Wins Debate
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Keep in mind that most of the polls that gave Kerry the edge were weighted in favor of Republican respondents. That said, it's obvious to me that anyone with a 3 digit IQ thought Bush did much better than last time, but Kerry clearly spanked him. It was another partisan night and I believe it was one of the finer points of this election run.
Keep in mind that most of the polls that gave Kerry the edge were weighted in favor of Republican respondents. That said, it's obvious to me that anyone with a 3 digit IQ thought Bush did much better than last time, but Kerry clearly spanked him. It was another partisan night and I believe it was one of the finer points of this election run.
Friday, October 08, 2004
President Finally Discovers A Great Reason To Invade
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No…Wait…Oh Yeah…HERE’S Why We Invaded
President Bush and his vice president conceded Thursday in the clearest terms yet that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, even as they tried to shift the Iraq war debate to a new issue - whether the invasion was justified because Saddam was abusing a U.N. oil-for-food program.
No…Wait…Oh Yeah…HERE’S Why We Invaded
President Bush and his vice president conceded Thursday in the clearest terms yet that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, even as they tried to shift the Iraq war debate to a new issue - whether the invasion was justified because Saddam was abusing a U.N. oil-for-food program.
Forged CBS Memos Mark Of An Old Trick Rove Has Played Many Times.
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Karl Rove, ambush strategist?
When Dan Rather finally admitted that fake memos might have been used in his "60 Minutes Wednesday" report on President Bush's National Guard Service, political insiders immediately suspected the hand of Karl Rove.
Rove has vehemently denied the speculation. But, as the Atlantic Monthly's Joshua Green points out in the upcoming issue, Bush's political guru has earned quite a reputation for using dirty tricks in the heat of a campaign.
Green reports that:
In the 1996 Alabama Supreme Court race between Democratic incumbent Kenneth Ingram and Republican challenger Harold See, Rove printed anonymous fliers attacking See, his own client. The purpose was "'to create a backlash against the Democrat,' as Joe Perkins, who worked for Ingram, put it to me," Green writes. "Presumably the public would believe that Democrats were spreading terrible rumors about See and his family. ... The ploy left Rove's opponent at a loss. Ingram's staff realized that it would be fruitless to try to persuade the public that the See campaign was attacking its own candidate."
Rumormongering is another tool in Rove's bag, Green writes. In the late 1980s, when political consultant John Weaver - John McCain's top 2000 adviser - hired away one of Rove's employees, "Rove spread a rumor that Weaver had made a pass at a young man at a state Republican function," Green writes. Weaver quickly became persona non grata in the Texas GOP.
Rove's slimiest moment came in 1994, when See first ran for the Supreme Court in Alabama against Democratic incumbent Mark Kennedy, who had just served a term as president of the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect. Kennedy's commercials highlighted his volunteer work - and included one that showed him holding hands with children - so Rove started a whispering campaign that Kennedy was a pedophile, Green writes. "What Rove does is try and make something so bad for a family that the candidate will not subject the family to the hardship," explained Perkins.
The traumatized Kennedy won narrowly, but decided not to run for reelection.
Rove didn't respond to Green's request for an interview.
Karl Rove, ambush strategist?
When Dan Rather finally admitted that fake memos might have been used in his "60 Minutes Wednesday" report on President Bush's National Guard Service, political insiders immediately suspected the hand of Karl Rove.
Rove has vehemently denied the speculation. But, as the Atlantic Monthly's Joshua Green points out in the upcoming issue, Bush's political guru has earned quite a reputation for using dirty tricks in the heat of a campaign.
Green reports that:
In the 1996 Alabama Supreme Court race between Democratic incumbent Kenneth Ingram and Republican challenger Harold See, Rove printed anonymous fliers attacking See, his own client. The purpose was "'to create a backlash against the Democrat,' as Joe Perkins, who worked for Ingram, put it to me," Green writes. "Presumably the public would believe that Democrats were spreading terrible rumors about See and his family. ... The ploy left Rove's opponent at a loss. Ingram's staff realized that it would be fruitless to try to persuade the public that the See campaign was attacking its own candidate."
Rumormongering is another tool in Rove's bag, Green writes. In the late 1980s, when political consultant John Weaver - John McCain's top 2000 adviser - hired away one of Rove's employees, "Rove spread a rumor that Weaver had made a pass at a young man at a state Republican function," Green writes. Weaver quickly became persona non grata in the Texas GOP.
Rove's slimiest moment came in 1994, when See first ran for the Supreme Court in Alabama against Democratic incumbent Mark Kennedy, who had just served a term as president of the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect. Kennedy's commercials highlighted his volunteer work - and included one that showed him holding hands with children - so Rove started a whispering campaign that Kennedy was a pedophile, Green writes. "What Rove does is try and make something so bad for a family that the candidate will not subject the family to the hardship," explained Perkins.
The traumatized Kennedy won narrowly, but decided not to run for reelection.
Rove didn't respond to Green's request for an interview.
You Call That a Major Policy Address?
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Did CNN and MSNBC get hoodwinked this morning? Yesterday, the White House announced that President Bush would be delivering a "major policy address" on terrorism today. The cable news networks broadcast it live and in full. Yet the "address" turned out to be a standard campaign stump speech before a Pennsylvania crowd that seemed pumped on peyote, cheering, screaming, or whooping at every sentence.
The president announced no new policy, uttered not one new word about terrorism, foreign policy, or anything else. He did all the things he wanted to do in last Thursday's debate—accuse his opponent of weakness, bad judgment, vacillation, and other forms of flip-floppery—though this time without a moderator to hush the audience, much less an opponent to bite back. And Bush loved it, smiling, smirking, raising his eyebrows, as if to say, "How 'bout that zinger?"
Did CNN and MSNBC get hoodwinked this morning? Yesterday, the White House announced that President Bush would be delivering a "major policy address" on terrorism today. The cable news networks broadcast it live and in full. Yet the "address" turned out to be a standard campaign stump speech before a Pennsylvania crowd that seemed pumped on peyote, cheering, screaming, or whooping at every sentence.
The president announced no new policy, uttered not one new word about terrorism, foreign policy, or anything else. He did all the things he wanted to do in last Thursday's debate—accuse his opponent of weakness, bad judgment, vacillation, and other forms of flip-floppery—though this time without a moderator to hush the audience, much less an opponent to bite back. And Bush loved it, smiling, smirking, raising his eyebrows, as if to say, "How 'bout that zinger?"
Punditry, Bush and the Unravelling Cassus Beli
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I would sell my mother to the Bedouins just for the chance to beat some of these cable news pundits into a bloody pulpy mess. When Howard Fineman was an “expert political commentator” during the Democratic Convention, Rev. Sharpton was delivering a terrific rousing speech. It was hellfire and brimstone sermon and Bush was Satan. It was clever and inciteful and well said. Cut away to Fineman who brings up Tawana Brawly. It was at that moment that I had realized that sometime pundits are despicable and really don’t know it. At that moment, I realized all of punditry is little more than a gossip who floats in high circles. Ah, the pundit, who sits on the sidelines, out of firing range, and deconstructs people by bringing up their worst moment is the ultimate commentary on the state of journalism in America. Consider all the retread themes one sees in a single night and you can see that there is apparently very little to talk about that truly matters to Americans beyond Michael Jackson’s fetishes and Laci Peterson’s bloated soaked corpse. So pundits aren’t really reporting on anything, they are gossiping about the edges of the news. Or what some people call news.
But now pundits are serving the public interest, if only incidentally, and accidentally, by retreading some themes that probably need retreading: The war in Iraq wasn’t worth it. Saddam was no threat and the last valid cassus belli has all but evaporated. And Bush and Cheney will not admit wrong doing under any circumstances.
I would ask anyone supporting Bush this question: If the CEO of your company made this many mistakes, refused to account for them and refused responsibility, would you want him replaced?
Here’s what Howard Fineman says in a moment of lucidity.
One new poll out shows that half the American people now think the war in Iraq was a mistake; as that number rises, and it will, Bush's fortunes will decline, as they are now doing. History shows that only one challenger in modern times has been behind in the AP poll on Labor Day and come back to win. That challenger was Ronald Reagan. Now Kerry is no Reagan, not by a long shot. But if people conclude that Bush was profoundly wrong to have gone to Iraq, Kerry doesn't have to be Reagan.
And here are some things other stringers and analysts are saying in regards to the new Duelfer report. Forexample, here is what David Kay, Duelfer’s predecessor had to say about Dick and Bush’s fantasy world:
A report by the Iraq Survey Group that Kay ran until he quit at the start of the year found Iraq had no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons when Bush was saying that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a growing threat.
The White House has insisted Saddam was a threat to the United States and had weapons of mass destruction capability, but Kay told NBC television: "All I can say is 'denial' is not just a river in Egypt."
Newsweek is also writing extensively about the deteriorating situation in Iraq and how Paul Bremer, who oversaw one of the worst insurgencies privately admitted that we did not have the troop strength to go into Iraq.
It seems that he is no longer a lockstep liar and his words elicited threatening phone calls from the White House. Fucking thugs.
Oct. 6 - It wasn’t very long ago that the Bush administration saw L. Paul Bremer III as a true-blue loyalist, a favorite of the president’s who had a good chance at a senior position in a second term, perhaps even as secretary of State. So there was considerable surprise and distress inside the White House this week when Iraq’s former administrator let loose with what he intended to be off-the-record comments criticizing the administration’s handing of Iraq—remarks that were quickly picked up by the Kerry campaign.
Bremer was playing Monday-morning quarterback on Iraq, suggested one White House official. Another described teeth gnashing among Bush aides when the comments became public. Some viewed Bremer as seeking to absolve himself of responsibility for the mistakes made in Iraq, the first official said, many of which could be traced back to decisions made by Bremer himself, particularly the decision to disband the Iraqi Army.
On Tuesday—the same day after Bremer’s critical remarks were made public by The Washington Post—he received no fewer than three calls from top White House officials asking for an explanation, NEWSWEEK has learned. National-security adviser Condoleezza Rice, chief of staff Andrew Card and Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby all spoke to Bremer to make sure his comments were being reported accurately. One Bush official said Libby called from the road because Cheney was about to go into a debate with Democratic nominee John Edwards in Ohio, and it was obvious he would be asked about the Bremer remarks. Rice, he said, called for a similar reason—she was doing television interviews.
I would sell my mother to the Bedouins just for the chance to beat some of these cable news pundits into a bloody pulpy mess. When Howard Fineman was an “expert political commentator” during the Democratic Convention, Rev. Sharpton was delivering a terrific rousing speech. It was hellfire and brimstone sermon and Bush was Satan. It was clever and inciteful and well said. Cut away to Fineman who brings up Tawana Brawly. It was at that moment that I had realized that sometime pundits are despicable and really don’t know it. At that moment, I realized all of punditry is little more than a gossip who floats in high circles. Ah, the pundit, who sits on the sidelines, out of firing range, and deconstructs people by bringing up their worst moment is the ultimate commentary on the state of journalism in America. Consider all the retread themes one sees in a single night and you can see that there is apparently very little to talk about that truly matters to Americans beyond Michael Jackson’s fetishes and Laci Peterson’s bloated soaked corpse. So pundits aren’t really reporting on anything, they are gossiping about the edges of the news. Or what some people call news.
But now pundits are serving the public interest, if only incidentally, and accidentally, by retreading some themes that probably need retreading: The war in Iraq wasn’t worth it. Saddam was no threat and the last valid cassus belli has all but evaporated. And Bush and Cheney will not admit wrong doing under any circumstances.
I would ask anyone supporting Bush this question: If the CEO of your company made this many mistakes, refused to account for them and refused responsibility, would you want him replaced?
Here’s what Howard Fineman says in a moment of lucidity.
One new poll out shows that half the American people now think the war in Iraq was a mistake; as that number rises, and it will, Bush's fortunes will decline, as they are now doing. History shows that only one challenger in modern times has been behind in the AP poll on Labor Day and come back to win. That challenger was Ronald Reagan. Now Kerry is no Reagan, not by a long shot. But if people conclude that Bush was profoundly wrong to have gone to Iraq, Kerry doesn't have to be Reagan.
And here are some things other stringers and analysts are saying in regards to the new Duelfer report. Forexample, here is what David Kay, Duelfer’s predecessor had to say about Dick and Bush’s fantasy world:
A report by the Iraq Survey Group that Kay ran until he quit at the start of the year found Iraq had no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons when Bush was saying that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a growing threat.
The White House has insisted Saddam was a threat to the United States and had weapons of mass destruction capability, but Kay told NBC television: "All I can say is 'denial' is not just a river in Egypt."
Newsweek is also writing extensively about the deteriorating situation in Iraq and how Paul Bremer, who oversaw one of the worst insurgencies privately admitted that we did not have the troop strength to go into Iraq.
It seems that he is no longer a lockstep liar and his words elicited threatening phone calls from the White House. Fucking thugs.
Oct. 6 - It wasn’t very long ago that the Bush administration saw L. Paul Bremer III as a true-blue loyalist, a favorite of the president’s who had a good chance at a senior position in a second term, perhaps even as secretary of State. So there was considerable surprise and distress inside the White House this week when Iraq’s former administrator let loose with what he intended to be off-the-record comments criticizing the administration’s handing of Iraq—remarks that were quickly picked up by the Kerry campaign.
Bremer was playing Monday-morning quarterback on Iraq, suggested one White House official. Another described teeth gnashing among Bush aides when the comments became public. Some viewed Bremer as seeking to absolve himself of responsibility for the mistakes made in Iraq, the first official said, many of which could be traced back to decisions made by Bremer himself, particularly the decision to disband the Iraqi Army.
On Tuesday—the same day after Bremer’s critical remarks were made public by The Washington Post—he received no fewer than three calls from top White House officials asking for an explanation, NEWSWEEK has learned. National-security adviser Condoleezza Rice, chief of staff Andrew Card and Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby all spoke to Bremer to make sure his comments were being reported accurately. One Bush official said Libby called from the road because Cheney was about to go into a debate with Democratic nominee John Edwards in Ohio, and it was obvious he would be asked about the Bremer remarks. Rice, he said, called for a similar reason—she was doing television interviews.
Thursday, October 07, 2004
This Just In- Friedman Returns From Vacation. Now Makes Sense
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Of all the shortsighted policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, none have been worse than their opposition to energy conservation and a gasoline tax. If we had imposed a new gasoline tax after 9/11, demand would have been dampened and gas today would probably still be $2 a gallon. But instead of the extra dollar going to Saudi Arabia - where it ends up with mullahs who build madrasas that preach intolerance - that dollar would have gone to our own Treasury to pay down our own deficit and finance our own schools. In fact, the Bush energy policy should be called No Mullah Left Behind.
Our own No Child Left Behind program has not been fully financed because the tax revenue is not there. But thanks to the Bush-Cheney energy policy, No Mullah Left Behind has been fully financed and is now the gift that keeps on giving: terrorism.
Mr. Bush says we're in "a global war on terrorism.'' That's right. But that war is rooted in the Arab-Muslim world. That means there is no war on terrorism that doesn't involve helping this region onto a more promising path for its huge population of young people - too many of whom are unemployed or unemployable because their oil-rich regimes are resistant to change and their religious leaders are resisting modernity.
The Battle Of The Pump
Of all the shortsighted policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, none have been worse than their opposition to energy conservation and a gasoline tax. If we had imposed a new gasoline tax after 9/11, demand would have been dampened and gas today would probably still be $2 a gallon. But instead of the extra dollar going to Saudi Arabia - where it ends up with mullahs who build madrasas that preach intolerance - that dollar would have gone to our own Treasury to pay down our own deficit and finance our own schools. In fact, the Bush energy policy should be called No Mullah Left Behind.
Our own No Child Left Behind program has not been fully financed because the tax revenue is not there. But thanks to the Bush-Cheney energy policy, No Mullah Left Behind has been fully financed and is now the gift that keeps on giving: terrorism.
Mr. Bush says we're in "a global war on terrorism.'' That's right. But that war is rooted in the Arab-Muslim world. That means there is no war on terrorism that doesn't involve helping this region onto a more promising path for its huge population of young people - too many of whom are unemployed or unemployable because their oil-rich regimes are resistant to change and their religious leaders are resisting modernity.
The Battle Of The Pump
This Just In. There Were No WMDs
The Gray Lady Says It All
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Sanctions worked. Weapons inspectors worked. That is the bottom line of the long-awaited report on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, written by President Bush's handpicked investigator.
In the 18 months since President Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, justifying the decision by saying that Saddam Hussein was "a gathering threat" to the United States, Americans have come to realize that Iraq had no chemical, nuclear or biological weapons. But the report issued yesterday goes further. It says that Iraq had no factories to produce illicit weapons and that its ability to resume production was growing more feeble every year. While Mr. Hussein retained dreams of someday getting back into the chemical warfare business, his chosen target was Iran, not the United States.
The report shows that the international sanctions that Mr. Bush dismissed and demeaned before the war - and still does - were astonishingly effective. Mr. Hussein hoped to get out from under the sanctions, and the report's author, Charles Duelfer, loyally told Congress yesterday that he thought that could have happened. But his report said the Iraqis lacked even a formal strategy or a plan to reconstitute their weapons programs if it did.
For months, administration officials have tried to deflect charges that they invaded Iraq under false pretenses and have urged critics to wait for Mr. Duelfer's verdict on the weapons search. The authoritative findings of his Iraq Survey Group have now left the administration's rationale for war more tattered than ever. It turns out that Iraq destroyed all stockpiles of illicit weapons more than a decade ago and had no large-scale production facilities left after 1996, seven years before the invasion. This was a matter of choice by Saddam Hussein, who desperately wanted an end to sanctions and feared that any weapons programs, if discovered by inspectors, would only keep them in place.
Even after U.N. inspectors left Iraq in 1998, a period when Western intelligence experts assumed the worst might be happening, the Hussein regime made no active efforts to produce new weapons of mass destruction. The much-feared nuclear threat - that looming mushroom cloud conjured by the administration to stampede Congress into authorizing an invasion - was a phantom. Mr. Duelfer found that even if Iraq had tried to restart its defunct nuclear program in 2003, it would have needed years to produce a nuclear weapon.
Since any objective observer should by now have digested the idea that Iraq posed no imminent threat to anyone, let alone the United States, it was disturbing to hear President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney continue to try to justify the invasion this week on the grounds that after Sept. 11, 2001, Iraq was clearly the most likely place for terrorists to get illicit weapons. Even if Mr. Hussein had wanted to arm groups he could not control - a very dubious notion- he had nothing to give them.
Administration officials will no doubt point to sections of the report citing evidence that front companies were supplying Iraq with banned materials, and that Iraq had money and expertise that could be used to make weapons. They will also point to Mr. Duelfer's speculation that support for the sanctions was eroding. But nothing in the voluminous record provides Mr. Bush with the justification he wanted for a preventive war because the weapons programs did not exist. And as the war continues to bog down, the power of nonviolent international sanctions looks more muscular every day.
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Sanctions worked. Weapons inspectors worked. That is the bottom line of the long-awaited report on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, written by President Bush's handpicked investigator.
In the 18 months since President Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, justifying the decision by saying that Saddam Hussein was "a gathering threat" to the United States, Americans have come to realize that Iraq had no chemical, nuclear or biological weapons. But the report issued yesterday goes further. It says that Iraq had no factories to produce illicit weapons and that its ability to resume production was growing more feeble every year. While Mr. Hussein retained dreams of someday getting back into the chemical warfare business, his chosen target was Iran, not the United States.
The report shows that the international sanctions that Mr. Bush dismissed and demeaned before the war - and still does - were astonishingly effective. Mr. Hussein hoped to get out from under the sanctions, and the report's author, Charles Duelfer, loyally told Congress yesterday that he thought that could have happened. But his report said the Iraqis lacked even a formal strategy or a plan to reconstitute their weapons programs if it did.
For months, administration officials have tried to deflect charges that they invaded Iraq under false pretenses and have urged critics to wait for Mr. Duelfer's verdict on the weapons search. The authoritative findings of his Iraq Survey Group have now left the administration's rationale for war more tattered than ever. It turns out that Iraq destroyed all stockpiles of illicit weapons more than a decade ago and had no large-scale production facilities left after 1996, seven years before the invasion. This was a matter of choice by Saddam Hussein, who desperately wanted an end to sanctions and feared that any weapons programs, if discovered by inspectors, would only keep them in place.
Even after U.N. inspectors left Iraq in 1998, a period when Western intelligence experts assumed the worst might be happening, the Hussein regime made no active efforts to produce new weapons of mass destruction. The much-feared nuclear threat - that looming mushroom cloud conjured by the administration to stampede Congress into authorizing an invasion - was a phantom. Mr. Duelfer found that even if Iraq had tried to restart its defunct nuclear program in 2003, it would have needed years to produce a nuclear weapon.
Since any objective observer should by now have digested the idea that Iraq posed no imminent threat to anyone, let alone the United States, it was disturbing to hear President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney continue to try to justify the invasion this week on the grounds that after Sept. 11, 2001, Iraq was clearly the most likely place for terrorists to get illicit weapons. Even if Mr. Hussein had wanted to arm groups he could not control - a very dubious notion- he had nothing to give them.
Administration officials will no doubt point to sections of the report citing evidence that front companies were supplying Iraq with banned materials, and that Iraq had money and expertise that could be used to make weapons. They will also point to Mr. Duelfer's speculation that support for the sanctions was eroding. But nothing in the voluminous record provides Mr. Bush with the justification he wanted for a preventive war because the weapons programs did not exist. And as the war continues to bog down, the power of nonviolent international sanctions looks more muscular every day.
More News After 30 Minutes of Jon Stewart Than 24/7 Cable News
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You have to wonder why Jon Stewart does two hours of satirical news a week, yet somehow seems to add more incite, more real thinking and more real issues coverage than six 24/7 cable news channels.
Think about how news used to be. 30 minutes from 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Then maybe a half hour of commentary. Then perhaps an afternoon or morning broadcast or two a week. And there was only NBC, CBS, and ABC. Yet, at the end of the day, they covered every war, all the issues and between an hour of news a day and the newspaper, Americans were generally more informed than they are now.
Take a careful look at cable news and what you see is nothing more than endless re-treading old themes and memes and punditry from “experts”.
At the end of the day, it’s all a wash. Jon Stewart, while just faking it, offers more news than CNN all week.
You have to wonder why Jon Stewart does two hours of satirical news a week, yet somehow seems to add more incite, more real thinking and more real issues coverage than six 24/7 cable news channels.
Think about how news used to be. 30 minutes from 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Then maybe a half hour of commentary. Then perhaps an afternoon or morning broadcast or two a week. And there was only NBC, CBS, and ABC. Yet, at the end of the day, they covered every war, all the issues and between an hour of news a day and the newspaper, Americans were generally more informed than they are now.
Take a careful look at cable news and what you see is nothing more than endless re-treading old themes and memes and punditry from “experts”.
At the end of the day, it’s all a wash. Jon Stewart, while just faking it, offers more news than CNN all week.
Your Tax Dollars Go To Right Wing Extremists
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The Feminist Majority Foundation reported today that the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) was "one of the recipients awarded part of a $10 million grant to train Iraqi women in the skills of democratic public life." According to IWF's site, they "will...implement a 12-month Women Leaders Program and Democracy Network Information and Coordination Center....The Center will be a key source of information and educational materials on democracy, campaigning, and governance for a variety of Iraqi democracy and women's rights advocacy organizations."
The Feminist Majority Foundation reported today that the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) was "one of the recipients awarded part of a $10 million grant to train Iraqi women in the skills of democratic public life." According to IWF's site, they "will...implement a 12-month Women Leaders Program and Democracy Network Information and Coordination Center....The Center will be a key source of information and educational materials on democracy, campaigning, and governance for a variety of Iraqi democracy and women's rights advocacy organizations."
Conspiracy Theory
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Last flu season 36,000 Americans died from the flu, and there were 114,000 hospitalizations. Every Dem candidate everywhere- Kerry and Breck Boy included- should be pointing their finer at Bu$h, Cheney and their own GOP opponent- these fuck-ups have happened on the Bu$h watch. There is nothing of substance the GOP can come back with; I can just see Bu$h suggesting we privatize the CDC to a "faith based scientific organization."
Last flu season 36,000 Americans died from the flu, and there were 114,000 hospitalizations. Every Dem candidate everywhere- Kerry and Breck Boy included- should be pointing their finer at Bu$h, Cheney and their own GOP opponent- these fuck-ups have happened on the Bu$h watch. There is nothing of substance the GOP can come back with; I can just see Bu$h suggesting we privatize the CDC to a "faith based scientific organization."
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Compassionate Conservatism Part 18
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Vice President Cheney made a rare appearance as president of the Senate to break a tie vote on another amendment. On the 49-49 tie, Cheney's vote defeated the amendment that would have provided government assistance on mortgage payments to workers who lose their jobs as a result of imports.
Vice President Cheney made a rare appearance as president of the Senate to break a tie vote on another amendment. On the 49-49 tie, Cheney's vote defeated the amendment that would have provided government assistance on mortgage payments to workers who lose their jobs as a result of imports.
Check Out Fulcrum's Idea
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As I was reading through the coverage of last night's debate, it struck me that Cheney's relative strength might not have been good for Bush. Here's what I mean:
When even the most rabid of BushCo. supporters admit that their boy-king had some difficulties last week against Kerry, you know that his performance was - at best - very weak. If you look at it minus the rose colored glasses that Republicans have super-glued to their faces, you know that his performance was abysmal. Along comes Darth Cheney who gives a credible, tough performance against the very likeable and believable John Edwards. What does that say to the voters, especially those who have been defending the President?
How can they not see that the man leading their ticket is nothing but an empty head atop an empty suit? How can they conclude otherwise, than that the real power in this duo is - as many on the left have been saying for years - Cheney. Doesn't the possibility that the person they think is so strong and resolute being controlled from "behind the curtain" diminish him in their eyes? For those who are not blindly behind BC'04, it must pain them to see Bush exposed as the weak minded, weak willed individual he is.
To those somehow still stuck in the middle, it should provoke a rational move to Kerry/Edwards. And remember, the first debate was supposedly on aWol's strong suit. What will he show us all when talking about domestic issues and unscripted questions from voters? Issues about which he has little interest or knowledge - based on his performance the past three and half years.
As I was reading through the coverage of last night's debate, it struck me that Cheney's relative strength might not have been good for Bush. Here's what I mean:
When even the most rabid of BushCo. supporters admit that their boy-king had some difficulties last week against Kerry, you know that his performance was - at best - very weak. If you look at it minus the rose colored glasses that Republicans have super-glued to their faces, you know that his performance was abysmal. Along comes Darth Cheney who gives a credible, tough performance against the very likeable and believable John Edwards. What does that say to the voters, especially those who have been defending the President?
How can they not see that the man leading their ticket is nothing but an empty head atop an empty suit? How can they conclude otherwise, than that the real power in this duo is - as many on the left have been saying for years - Cheney. Doesn't the possibility that the person they think is so strong and resolute being controlled from "behind the curtain" diminish him in their eyes? For those who are not blindly behind BC'04, it must pain them to see Bush exposed as the weak minded, weak willed individual he is.
To those somehow still stuck in the middle, it should provoke a rational move to Kerry/Edwards. And remember, the first debate was supposedly on aWol's strong suit. What will he show us all when talking about domestic issues and unscripted questions from voters? Issues about which he has little interest or knowledge - based on his performance the past three and half years.
More Pain For Limbaugh
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Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's medical records were properly seized by investigators seeking information on alleged illegal drug use, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.
State investigators had raided the offices of Limbaugh's doctors seeking information on whether Limbaugh illegally tried to buy prescription painkillers. Limbaugh, 53, has not been charged with a crime and the investigation had been at a standstill pending a decision on the medical records.
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's medical records were properly seized by investigators seeking information on alleged illegal drug use, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.
State investigators had raided the offices of Limbaugh's doctors seeking information on whether Limbaugh illegally tried to buy prescription painkillers. Limbaugh, 53, has not been charged with a crime and the investigation had been at a standstill pending a decision on the medical records.
Republican Family Values
NO WMDs. That's My Final Answer
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The government's most definitive account of Iraq's arms programs, to be released today, will show that Saddam Hussein posed a diminishing threat at the time the United States invaded and did not possess, or have concrete plans to develop, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, U.S. officials said yesterday.
The officials said that the 1,000-page report by Charles A. Duelfer, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, concluded that Hussein had the desire but not the means to produce unconventional weapons that could threaten his neighbors or the West.
The government's most definitive account of Iraq's arms programs, to be released today, will show that Saddam Hussein posed a diminishing threat at the time the United States invaded and did not possess, or have concrete plans to develop, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, U.S. officials said yesterday.
The officials said that the 1,000-page report by Charles A. Duelfer, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, concluded that Hussein had the desire but not the means to produce unconventional weapons that could threaten his neighbors or the West.
Andrew Sullivan Says Edwards Winner
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Boy was I ever wrong. If last Thursday night's debate was an assisted suicide for president Bush, this debate - just concluded - was a car wreck. And Cheney was road-kill. There were times when it was so overwhelming a debate victory for Edwards that I had to look away. I have to do C-SPAN now, but stay tuned for more post-debate blogging in a little while.
Andrew Sullivan Says Edwards Winner
Boy was I ever wrong. If last Thursday night's debate was an assisted suicide for president Bush, this debate - just concluded - was a car wreck. And Cheney was road-kill. There were times when it was so overwhelming a debate victory for Edwards that I had to look away. I have to do C-SPAN now, but stay tuned for more post-debate blogging in a little while.
Andrew Sullivan Says Edwards Winner
CHeney Caught In A Fib
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CHENEY (October 5, 2004) "I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11," Cheney insisted after Edwards jabbed at him.
CHENEY: (September/16/2003): We don't know. You and I talked about this two years ago. I can remember you asking me this question just a few days after the original attack. At the time I said no, we didn't have any evidence of that. Subsequent to that, we've learned a couple of things. We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s, that it involved training, for example, on [biological weapons] and [chemical weapons], that Al Qaeda sent personnel to Baghdad to get trained on the systems that are involved. The Iraqis providing bomb-making expertise and advice to the Al Qaeda organization.
CHENEY (October 5, 2004) "I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11," Cheney insisted after Edwards jabbed at him.
CHENEY: (September/16/2003): We don't know. You and I talked about this two years ago. I can remember you asking me this question just a few days after the original attack. At the time I said no, we didn't have any evidence of that. Subsequent to that, we've learned a couple of things. We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s, that it involved training, for example, on [biological weapons] and [chemical weapons], that Al Qaeda sent personnel to Baghdad to get trained on the systems that are involved. The Iraqis providing bomb-making expertise and advice to the Al Qaeda organization.
Time To Send In The Latrines!!!!
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Potty Poll
And if one straw poll is to be believed on this gigantic air base in the western Iraqi desert, Kerry is due to rout Bush in the November 2 elections after the Massachusetts senator picked up 73 votes to 58 on the bathroom wall.
However, the vote has come in for criticism amid suspicions Kerry supporters voted more than once due to the identical hashmarks on his side of the column inside the foul, humid brown and green plastic stalls, known as "Port-a-Johns".
Potty Poll
And if one straw poll is to be believed on this gigantic air base in the western Iraqi desert, Kerry is due to rout Bush in the November 2 elections after the Massachusetts senator picked up 73 votes to 58 on the bathroom wall.
However, the vote has come in for criticism amid suspicions Kerry supporters voted more than once due to the identical hashmarks on his side of the column inside the foul, humid brown and green plastic stalls, known as "Port-a-Johns".
All That Torture. And For What?
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The entire superstructire of torture and eliminating protections is coming apart piece by piece and the Repugs still persist in staying on message
Most of the alleged al Qaeda and Taliban inmates at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are likely to be freed or sent to their home countries for further investigation because many pose little threat and are not providing much valuable intelligence, the facility's deputy commander has said.
The entire superstructire of torture and eliminating protections is coming apart piece by piece and the Repugs still persist in staying on message
Most of the alleged al Qaeda and Taliban inmates at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are likely to be freed or sent to their home countries for further investigation because many pose little threat and are not providing much valuable intelligence, the facility's deputy commander has said.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Tonight's Debate Prediction
c/o
Steve Gilliard
There is a very simple way to look at tommorow's debate: John Edwards became a millionaire by getting the Dick Cheneys of the world in court and making them look like shit before a jury.
Steve Gilliard
There is a very simple way to look at tommorow's debate: John Edwards became a millionaire by getting the Dick Cheneys of the world in court and making them look like shit before a jury.
NOW he tells us.
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seems like he lost a perfect opportunity to make a difference when he was in office.
(CNN) -- The former U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq says the United States "paid a big price" for not having enough troops on the ground after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime.
L. Paul Bremer, speaking Monday at the opening session of the 91st annual Insurance Leadership Forum in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, said "horrid" looting was occurring when he arrived in Baghdad on May 6, 2003.
"We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," Bremer said. "We never had enough troops on the ground."
seems like he lost a perfect opportunity to make a difference when he was in office.
(CNN) -- The former U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq says the United States "paid a big price" for not having enough troops on the ground after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime.
L. Paul Bremer, speaking Monday at the opening session of the 91st annual Insurance Leadership Forum in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, said "horrid" looting was occurring when he arrived in Baghdad on May 6, 2003.
"We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," Bremer said. "We never had enough troops on the ground."
This WSJ Reporter Was Fired For Telling The Simple Facts
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WSJ reporter Farnaz Fassihi's letter from Baghdad. [Via Will Bunch and Romenesko]:
From: [Wall Street Journal reporter] Farnaz Fassihi
Subject: From Baghdad
Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under virtual house arrest. Forget about the reasons that lured me to this job: a chance to see the world, explore the exotic, meet new people in far away lands, discover their ways and tell stories that could make a difference.
Little by little, day-by-day, being based in Iraq has defied all those reasons. I am house bound. I leave when I have a very good reason to and a scheduled interview. I avoid going to people's homes and never walk in the streets. I can't go grocery shopping any more, can't eat in restaurants, can't strike a conversation with strangers, can't look for stories, can't drive in any thing but a full armored car, can't go to scenes of breaking news stories, can't be stuck in traffic, can't speak English outside, can't take a road trip, can't say I'm an American, can't linger at checkpoints, can't be curious about what people are saying, doing, feeling. And can't and can't. There has been one too many close calls, including a car bomb so near our house that it blew out all the windows. So now my most pressing concern every day is not to write a kick-ass story but to stay alive and make sure our Iraqi employees stay alive. In Baghdad I am a security personnel first, a reporter second.
WSJ reporter Farnaz Fassihi's letter from Baghdad. [Via Will Bunch and Romenesko]:
From: [Wall Street Journal reporter] Farnaz Fassihi
Subject: From Baghdad
Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under virtual house arrest. Forget about the reasons that lured me to this job: a chance to see the world, explore the exotic, meet new people in far away lands, discover their ways and tell stories that could make a difference.
Little by little, day-by-day, being based in Iraq has defied all those reasons. I am house bound. I leave when I have a very good reason to and a scheduled interview. I avoid going to people's homes and never walk in the streets. I can't go grocery shopping any more, can't eat in restaurants, can't strike a conversation with strangers, can't look for stories, can't drive in any thing but a full armored car, can't go to scenes of breaking news stories, can't be stuck in traffic, can't speak English outside, can't take a road trip, can't say I'm an American, can't linger at checkpoints, can't be curious about what people are saying, doing, feeling. And can't and can't. There has been one too many close calls, including a car bomb so near our house that it blew out all the windows. So now my most pressing concern every day is not to write a kick-ass story but to stay alive and make sure our Iraqi employees stay alive. In Baghdad I am a security personnel first, a reporter second.
Monday, October 04, 2004
Krugman. Must Read
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Last week President Bush found himself defending his record on national security without his usual protective cocoon of loyalty-tested audiences and cowed reporters. And the sound you heard was the scales' falling from millions of eyes.
Trying to undo the damage, Mr. Bush is now telling those loyalty-tested audiences that Senator John Kerry's use of the phrase "global test" means that he "would give foreign governments veto power over our national security decisions." He's lying, of course, as anyone can confirm by looking at what Mr. Kerry actually said. But it may still work - Mr. Bush's pre-debate rise in the polls is testimony to the effectiveness of smear tactics.
Still, something important happened on Thursday. Style probably mattered most: viewers were shocked by the contrast between Mr. Bush's manufactured image as a strong, resolute leader and his whiny, petulant behavior in the debate. But Mr. Bush would have lost even more badly if post-debate coverage had focused on substance.
Here's one underreported example: So far, Mr. Bush has paid no political price for his shameful penny-pinching on domestic security and his refusal to provide effective protection for America's ports and chemical plants. As Jonathan Chait wrote in The New Republic: "Bush's record on homeland security ought to be considered a scandal. Yet, not only is it not a scandal, it's not even a story."
But Mr. Kerry raised the issue, describing how the administration has failed to protect us against terrorist attacks. Mr. Bush's response? "I don't think we want to get to how he's going to pay for all these promises."
Oh, yes we do. According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, Mr. Bush's tax cuts, with their strong tilt toward the wealthy, are responsible for more than $270 billion of the 2004 budget deficit. Increased spending on homeland security accounts for only $20 billion. That shows the true priorities of the self-proclaimed "war president." Later, Mr. Bush, perhaps realizing his mistake, asserted, "Of course we're doing everything we can to protect America." But he had already conceded that he isn't.
It's also not clear whether voters have noticed the collapse of Mr. Bush's cover story for the disastrous decision to invade Iraq. In Coral Gables, Mr. Bush asserted that when Mr. Kerry voted to authorize the use of force against Saddam, he "looked at the same intelligence I looked at." But as The Times confirmed last weekend, the Bush administration suppressed intelligence that might have raised doubts in Congress.
The case for war rested crucially on one piece of evidence: Saddam's purchase of aluminum tubes that, according to Condoleezza Rice, were "only really suited for nuclear weapons programs." But the truth, never revealed to Congress, was that most of the government's experts considered the tubes unsuited for a nuclear program and identical to the tubes used by Iraq for other purposes. Yes, Virginia, we were misled into war.
Now it's Dick Cheney's turn.
Mr. Cheney's manufactured image is as much at odds with reality as Mr. Bush's. The vice president is portrayed as a hardheaded realist, someone you can trust with difficult decisions. But his actual record is one of irresponsibility and incompetence.
Case in point: Mr. Cheney completely misread the nature of the 2001 California energy crisis. Although he has stonewalled investigations into what went on in his task force, there's no real question that he placed his trust in the very companies whose market-rigging caused that crisis.
In tonight's debate, John Edwards will surely confront Mr. Cheney over that task force, over domestic policies and, of course, over Halliburton. But he can also use the occasion to ask more hard questions about national security.
After all, Mr. Cheney didn't just promise Americans that "we will, in fact, be welcomed as liberators" by the grateful Iraqis. He also played a central role in leading us to war on false pretenses.
No, that's not an overstatement. In August 2002, when Mr. Cheney declared "we now know Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons," he was being dishonest: the administration knew no such thing. He was also being irresponsible: his speech pre-empted an intelligence review that might have given dissenting experts a chance to make their case.
So here's Mr. Edwards's mission: to expose the real Dick Cheney, just as Mr. Kerry exposed the real George Bush.
Last week President Bush found himself defending his record on national security without his usual protective cocoon of loyalty-tested audiences and cowed reporters. And the sound you heard was the scales' falling from millions of eyes.
Trying to undo the damage, Mr. Bush is now telling those loyalty-tested audiences that Senator John Kerry's use of the phrase "global test" means that he "would give foreign governments veto power over our national security decisions." He's lying, of course, as anyone can confirm by looking at what Mr. Kerry actually said. But it may still work - Mr. Bush's pre-debate rise in the polls is testimony to the effectiveness of smear tactics.
Still, something important happened on Thursday. Style probably mattered most: viewers were shocked by the contrast between Mr. Bush's manufactured image as a strong, resolute leader and his whiny, petulant behavior in the debate. But Mr. Bush would have lost even more badly if post-debate coverage had focused on substance.
Here's one underreported example: So far, Mr. Bush has paid no political price for his shameful penny-pinching on domestic security and his refusal to provide effective protection for America's ports and chemical plants. As Jonathan Chait wrote in The New Republic: "Bush's record on homeland security ought to be considered a scandal. Yet, not only is it not a scandal, it's not even a story."
But Mr. Kerry raised the issue, describing how the administration has failed to protect us against terrorist attacks. Mr. Bush's response? "I don't think we want to get to how he's going to pay for all these promises."
Oh, yes we do. According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, Mr. Bush's tax cuts, with their strong tilt toward the wealthy, are responsible for more than $270 billion of the 2004 budget deficit. Increased spending on homeland security accounts for only $20 billion. That shows the true priorities of the self-proclaimed "war president." Later, Mr. Bush, perhaps realizing his mistake, asserted, "Of course we're doing everything we can to protect America." But he had already conceded that he isn't.
It's also not clear whether voters have noticed the collapse of Mr. Bush's cover story for the disastrous decision to invade Iraq. In Coral Gables, Mr. Bush asserted that when Mr. Kerry voted to authorize the use of force against Saddam, he "looked at the same intelligence I looked at." But as The Times confirmed last weekend, the Bush administration suppressed intelligence that might have raised doubts in Congress.
The case for war rested crucially on one piece of evidence: Saddam's purchase of aluminum tubes that, according to Condoleezza Rice, were "only really suited for nuclear weapons programs." But the truth, never revealed to Congress, was that most of the government's experts considered the tubes unsuited for a nuclear program and identical to the tubes used by Iraq for other purposes. Yes, Virginia, we were misled into war.
Now it's Dick Cheney's turn.
Mr. Cheney's manufactured image is as much at odds with reality as Mr. Bush's. The vice president is portrayed as a hardheaded realist, someone you can trust with difficult decisions. But his actual record is one of irresponsibility and incompetence.
Case in point: Mr. Cheney completely misread the nature of the 2001 California energy crisis. Although he has stonewalled investigations into what went on in his task force, there's no real question that he placed his trust in the very companies whose market-rigging caused that crisis.
In tonight's debate, John Edwards will surely confront Mr. Cheney over that task force, over domestic policies and, of course, over Halliburton. But he can also use the occasion to ask more hard questions about national security.
After all, Mr. Cheney didn't just promise Americans that "we will, in fact, be welcomed as liberators" by the grateful Iraqis. He also played a central role in leading us to war on false pretenses.
No, that's not an overstatement. In August 2002, when Mr. Cheney declared "we now know Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons," he was being dishonest: the administration knew no such thing. He was also being irresponsible: his speech pre-empted an intelligence review that might have given dissenting experts a chance to make their case.
So here's Mr. Edwards's mission: to expose the real Dick Cheney, just as Mr. Kerry exposed the real George Bush.
Gray Lady Finally Says It!!!
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The tubes-for-bombs theory was the creation of a low-level C.I.A. analyst who got his facts, even the size of the tubes, wrong. It was refuted within 24 hours by the Energy Department, which issued three papers debunking the idea over a four-month period in 2001, and by the International Atomic Energy Agency. A week before Mr. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, in which he warned of an Iraqi nuclear menace, international experts in Vienna had dismissed the C.I.A.'s theory about the tubes. The day before, the International Atomic Energy Agency said there was no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program and rejected the tubes' tale entirely.
It's shocking that with all this information readily available, Secretary of State Colin Powell still went before the United Nations to repeat the bogus claims, an appearance that gravely damaged his reputation. It's even more disturbing that Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, had not only failed to keep the president from misleading the American people, but had also become the chief proponents of the "mushroom cloud" rhetoric.
Ms. Rice had access to all the reports debunking the tubes theory when she first talked about it publicly in September 2002. Yet last Sunday, Ms. Rice said that while she had been aware of a "dispute" about the tubes, she had not specifically known what it was about until after she had told the world that Saddam was building the bomb.
Ms. Rice's spokesman, Sean McCormack, said it was not her job to question intelligence reports or "to referee disputes in the intelligence community." But even with that curious job disclaimer, it's no comfort to think that the national security adviser wouldn't have bothered to inform herself about such a major issue before speaking publicly. The national security adviser has no more important responsibility than making sure that the president gets the best advice on life-and-death issues like the war.
If Ms. Rice did her job and told Mr. Bush how ludicrous the case was for an Iraqi nuclear program, then Mr. Bush terribly misled the public. If not, she should have resigned for allowing her boss to start a war on the basis of bad information and an incompetent analysis.
The tubes-for-bombs theory was the creation of a low-level C.I.A. analyst who got his facts, even the size of the tubes, wrong. It was refuted within 24 hours by the Energy Department, which issued three papers debunking the idea over a four-month period in 2001, and by the International Atomic Energy Agency. A week before Mr. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, in which he warned of an Iraqi nuclear menace, international experts in Vienna had dismissed the C.I.A.'s theory about the tubes. The day before, the International Atomic Energy Agency said there was no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program and rejected the tubes' tale entirely.
It's shocking that with all this information readily available, Secretary of State Colin Powell still went before the United Nations to repeat the bogus claims, an appearance that gravely damaged his reputation. It's even more disturbing that Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, had not only failed to keep the president from misleading the American people, but had also become the chief proponents of the "mushroom cloud" rhetoric.
Ms. Rice had access to all the reports debunking the tubes theory when she first talked about it publicly in September 2002. Yet last Sunday, Ms. Rice said that while she had been aware of a "dispute" about the tubes, she had not specifically known what it was about until after she had told the world that Saddam was building the bomb.
Ms. Rice's spokesman, Sean McCormack, said it was not her job to question intelligence reports or "to referee disputes in the intelligence community." But even with that curious job disclaimer, it's no comfort to think that the national security adviser wouldn't have bothered to inform herself about such a major issue before speaking publicly. The national security adviser has no more important responsibility than making sure that the president gets the best advice on life-and-death issues like the war.
If Ms. Rice did her job and told Mr. Bush how ludicrous the case was for an Iraqi nuclear program, then Mr. Bush terribly misled the public. If not, she should have resigned for allowing her boss to start a war on the basis of bad information and an incompetent analysis.
Imus on Bush
.
"I'd rather be beheaded than vote for Bush. [snip] He's a war criminal. Well, maybe not a war criminal but he's taking advice from war criminals. [snip] He's delusional and he's way over his head."
"I'd rather be beheaded than vote for Bush. [snip] He's a war criminal. Well, maybe not a war criminal but he's taking advice from war criminals. [snip] He's delusional and he's way over his head."
Watch This Spot
In Other Words…Condileeza Rice Is A Liar
.
The Central Intelligence Agency said it believed that the tubes were intended for centrifuges used to enrich uranium, an important step in building a bomb. But the Energy Department said it believed that the tubes were more likely intended for rockets.
The difference is important: it would be more troubling if Iraq was rebuilding its nuclear weapons program than if it was acquiring small artillery rockets. The "principal part" of the C.I.A.'s conclusion in 2002 that Iraq was rebuilding its nuclear weapons program was its efforts to acquire tubes, a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee found this summer.
Ms. Rice was reacting to an article in The New York Times on Sunday about the debate. The article said she had been aware before her remarks in 2002 that government experts differed over whether the tubes were intended for nuclear weapons but that she knew that the nuclear theory was strongly backed at the highest level of the intelligence agencies. The article also said experts on her staff, though not Ms. Rice herself, had been told months earlier that Energy Department scientists believed that the tubes were more likely for rockets.
The Central Intelligence Agency said it believed that the tubes were intended for centrifuges used to enrich uranium, an important step in building a bomb. But the Energy Department said it believed that the tubes were more likely intended for rockets.
The difference is important: it would be more troubling if Iraq was rebuilding its nuclear weapons program than if it was acquiring small artillery rockets. The "principal part" of the C.I.A.'s conclusion in 2002 that Iraq was rebuilding its nuclear weapons program was its efforts to acquire tubes, a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee found this summer.
Ms. Rice was reacting to an article in The New York Times on Sunday about the debate. The article said she had been aware before her remarks in 2002 that government experts differed over whether the tubes were intended for nuclear weapons but that she knew that the nuclear theory was strongly backed at the highest level of the intelligence agencies. The article also said experts on her staff, though not Ms. Rice herself, had been told months earlier that Energy Department scientists believed that the tubes were more likely for rockets.
Dickweeds.
.
Bush Administration Officials Again Show No Desire To Stop Waste And Fraud From Their Backers. However, When It Comes To a TINY Public School Donation…Well THAT’s Different.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 - Public libraries and schools around the nation have suddenly stopped receiving any new grants from a federal program that is wrestling with new rules on how it spends $2.25 billion each year to provide high-speed Internet and telephone service.
The moratorium at what is known as the E-Rate program began two months ago, with no notice, and may last for months, causing significant hardships at schools and libraries, say state officials and executives at the company that runs the program.
The suspension came after the Federal Communications Commission, in consultation with the White House, imposed tighter spending rules that commission officials say will make it easier to detect fraud and waste in the program.
Bush Administration Officials Again Show No Desire To Stop Waste And Fraud From Their Backers. However, When It Comes To a TINY Public School Donation…Well THAT’s Different.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 - Public libraries and schools around the nation have suddenly stopped receiving any new grants from a federal program that is wrestling with new rules on how it spends $2.25 billion each year to provide high-speed Internet and telephone service.
The moratorium at what is known as the E-Rate program began two months ago, with no notice, and may last for months, causing significant hardships at schools and libraries, say state officials and executives at the company that runs the program.
The suspension came after the Federal Communications Commission, in consultation with the White House, imposed tighter spending rules that commission officials say will make it easier to detect fraud and waste in the program.
In Other Words, Diebold Is Run By Liars.
.
Liars
Diebold, the much-criticized electronic voting machine company, got another black eye last week. A federal court in California ruled that it had violated federal law when it falsely charged two students with violating its copyrights by posting critical information about its voting machines on the Internet. The case raises more questions about Diebold's honesty and its commitment to transparency.
Liars
Diebold, the much-criticized electronic voting machine company, got another black eye last week. A federal court in California ruled that it had violated federal law when it falsely charged two students with violating its copyrights by posting critical information about its voting machines on the Internet. The case raises more questions about Diebold's honesty and its commitment to transparency.
Sunday, October 03, 2004
I Am Not Making This Up
Falcons 4-0
ROFLMAO
.
Bush advisers were described as stunned by how negative the reviews were of the president's performance, which many of them regarded as not his best but not so bad. Bush was portrayed as upbeat while acknowledging to supporters that he knew he could have done better. His aides indicated they plan some retooling before Friday's debate, but they maintained a sense of outward confidence.
I mean how utterly stupid do you have to be to ACTUALLY believe that Bush could out argue anyone over the age of 9?
Bush advisers were described as stunned by how negative the reviews were of the president's performance, which many of them regarded as not his best but not so bad. Bush was portrayed as upbeat while acknowledging to supporters that he knew he could have done better. His aides indicated they plan some retooling before Friday's debate, but they maintained a sense of outward confidence.
I mean how utterly stupid do you have to be to ACTUALLY believe that Bush could out argue anyone over the age of 9?
Jon Stewart: The Anti Murdoch
.
WARREN ST. JOHN
On Friday, Michael Hoyt, the executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, said that in some ways Mr. Stewart was providing a counterbalance to the conservatism of the Fox News Channel.
"People are hungry for some sort of attitude and guidance through an ocean of spin," he said. "Fox supplies it in one way, and Jon Stewart in another. Both are reactions to distorted objectivity, what I call a phony objectivity. They are pieces of the same puzzle."
Mr. Gabler said, "It's a form of humor that subverts media convention and reveals the pomposities and idiocies of politicians, but even more the pomposities and idiocies of the media that covers the politicians."
WARREN ST. JOHN
On Friday, Michael Hoyt, the executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, said that in some ways Mr. Stewart was providing a counterbalance to the conservatism of the Fox News Channel.
"People are hungry for some sort of attitude and guidance through an ocean of spin," he said. "Fox supplies it in one way, and Jon Stewart in another. Both are reactions to distorted objectivity, what I call a phony objectivity. They are pieces of the same puzzle."
Mr. Gabler said, "It's a form of humor that subverts media convention and reveals the pomposities and idiocies of politicians, but even more the pomposities and idiocies of the media that covers the politicians."
Rumor Has It DeLay Is Finished
.
Laura At Warandpiece Says Talk Has It DeLay Is Finished.
Was at a dinner party last night, with some veteran Hill and Brookings people. And among the notable observations and gossip from folks there, the word on the Hill is that Tom DeLay is finished. A downfall that couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. He's always struck me as an evil character from a David Lynch movie. Apparently, DeLay is in real life basically every bit as despicable as he appears. Works closely with a lobbyist from Hell who championed a loophole allowing no regulation of sweat shops and virtual slavery for Chinese workers working in horrendous sweat shop conditions on the Marshall Islands. An African lobbyist told me recently about DeLay's other tight associations with another right wing American lobbyist who co-owns a property with a South African apartheid era former defense official, where dogs were set on blacks for sport. May justice be done to these people. There is the redistricting issue, and that is odious in its own way. But then you get these reports from people who deal with DeLay on a daily basis that describe someone of such moral ugliness, who has the chummiest of ties with those who truly trample on the world's poor and most vulnerable. For me, that sort of ugliness overshadows what a demonic political operator DeLay has been.
Along those lines, Washington Post journalist Douglas Farah has an interesting recent post about blood diamonds merchant of death Victor Bout and his DoD contracts. Check it out.
Posted by Laura at October 2, 2004 12:02 PM
Laura At Warandpiece Says Talk Has It DeLay Is Finished.
Was at a dinner party last night, with some veteran Hill and Brookings people. And among the notable observations and gossip from folks there, the word on the Hill is that Tom DeLay is finished. A downfall that couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. He's always struck me as an evil character from a David Lynch movie. Apparently, DeLay is in real life basically every bit as despicable as he appears. Works closely with a lobbyist from Hell who championed a loophole allowing no regulation of sweat shops and virtual slavery for Chinese workers working in horrendous sweat shop conditions on the Marshall Islands. An African lobbyist told me recently about DeLay's other tight associations with another right wing American lobbyist who co-owns a property with a South African apartheid era former defense official, where dogs were set on blacks for sport. May justice be done to these people. There is the redistricting issue, and that is odious in its own way. But then you get these reports from people who deal with DeLay on a daily basis that describe someone of such moral ugliness, who has the chummiest of ties with those who truly trample on the world's poor and most vulnerable. For me, that sort of ugliness overshadows what a demonic political operator DeLay has been.
Along those lines, Washington Post journalist Douglas Farah has an interesting recent post about blood diamonds merchant of death Victor Bout and his DoD contracts. Check it out.
Posted by Laura at October 2, 2004 12:02 PM
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Oh By The Fucking Way
Why I Am A Democrat
.
Bush Administration: Putting Profits In Front Of People
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 - Over strenuous objections from the Bush administration, Congress is moving to increase protections for federal employees who expose fraud, waste and wrongdoing inside the government.
I mean doesn’t that say it all? Christ, why would we want to protect truth tellers when you consider how much money the corporate criminals might lose.
Bush Administration: Putting Profits In Front Of People
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 - Over strenuous objections from the Bush administration, Congress is moving to increase protections for federal employees who expose fraud, waste and wrongdoing inside the government.
I mean doesn’t that say it all? Christ, why would we want to protect truth tellers when you consider how much money the corporate criminals might lose.
Frank Rich On The Passion Of The Bush
In this spring's classic "South Park" parody, "The Passion of the Jew," in which Mr. Gibson's movie tosses the community into a religious war, one of the kids concludes: "If you want to be Christian, that's cool, but you should focus on what Jesus taught instead of how he got killed. Focusing on how he got killed is what people did in the Dark Ages, and it ends up with really bad results." He has a point. It's far from clear that Mr. Bush's eschatology and his religious vanity are leading to good results now. The all-seeing president who could pronounce Vladimir Putin saintly by looking into his "soul" is now refusing to acknowledge that the reverse may be true. The general in charge of tracking down Osama bin Laden, William G. Boykin, has earned cheers in some quarters for giving speeches at churches proclaiming that Mr. Bush is "in the White House because God put him there" to lead the "army of God" against "a guy named Satan." But all that preaching didn't get his day job done; he hasn't snared the guy named Osama he was supposed to bring back "dead or alive."
Thomas Friedman Is Back
.
Being away has not changed my belief one iota in the importance of producing a decent outcome in Iraq, to help move the Arab-Muslim world off its steady slide toward increased authoritarianism, unemployment, overpopulation, suicidal terrorism and religious obscurantism. But my time off has clarified for me, even more, that this Bush team can't get us there, and may have so messed things up that no one can. Why? Because each time the Bush team had to choose between doing the right thing in the war on terrorism or siding with its political base and ideology, it chose its base and ideology. More troops or radically lower taxes? Lower taxes. Fire an evangelical Christian U.S. general who smears Islam in a speech while wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army or not fire him so as not to anger the Christian right? Don't fire him. Apologize to the U.N. for not finding the W.M.D., and then make the case for why our allies should still join us in Iraq to establish a decent government there? Don't apologize - for anything - because Karl Rove says the "base" won't like it. Impose a "Patriot Tax" of 50 cents a gallon on gasoline to help pay for the war, shrink the deficit and reduce the amount of oil we consume so we send less money to Saudi Arabia? Never. Just tell Americans to go on guzzling. Fire the secretary of defense for the abuses at Abu Ghraib, to show the world how seriously we take this outrage - or do nothing? Do nothing. Firing Mr. Rumsfeld might upset conservatives. Listen to the C.I.A.? Only when it can confirm your ideology. When it disagrees - impugn it or ignore it.
Being away has not changed my belief one iota in the importance of producing a decent outcome in Iraq, to help move the Arab-Muslim world off its steady slide toward increased authoritarianism, unemployment, overpopulation, suicidal terrorism and religious obscurantism. But my time off has clarified for me, even more, that this Bush team can't get us there, and may have so messed things up that no one can. Why? Because each time the Bush team had to choose between doing the right thing in the war on terrorism or siding with its political base and ideology, it chose its base and ideology. More troops or radically lower taxes? Lower taxes. Fire an evangelical Christian U.S. general who smears Islam in a speech while wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army or not fire him so as not to anger the Christian right? Don't fire him. Apologize to the U.N. for not finding the W.M.D., and then make the case for why our allies should still join us in Iraq to establish a decent government there? Don't apologize - for anything - because Karl Rove says the "base" won't like it. Impose a "Patriot Tax" of 50 cents a gallon on gasoline to help pay for the war, shrink the deficit and reduce the amount of oil we consume so we send less money to Saudi Arabia? Never. Just tell Americans to go on guzzling. Fire the secretary of defense for the abuses at Abu Ghraib, to show the world how seriously we take this outrage - or do nothing? Do nothing. Firing Mr. Rumsfeld might upset conservatives. Listen to the C.I.A.? Only when it can confirm your ideology. When it disagrees - impugn it or ignore it.
Those Pesky Facts
.
Reuters Says:
But many of these assertions have met with scepticism from key lawmakers, congressional aides and experts, and Pentagon documents, given to lawmakers and obtained by Reuters, paint a more complicated picture.
The documents show that of the nearly 90,000 currently in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training. Another 46,176 are listed as "untrained," and it will be July 2006 before the administration reaches its new goal of a 135,000-strong, fully trained police force.
Six Army battalions have had "initial training," while 57 National Guard battalions, 896 soldiers in each, are still being recruited or "awaiting equipment." Just eight Guard battalions have reached "initial (operating) capability," and the Pentagon acknowledged the Guard's performance has been "uneven."
Training has yet to begin for the 4,800-man civil intervention force, which will help counter a deadly insurgency. And none of the 18,000 border enforcement guards have received any centralised training to date, despite earlier claims they had, according to Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.
They estimated that 22,700 Iraqi personnel have received enough basic training to make them "minimally effective at their tasks," in contrast to the 100,000 figure cited by Bush.
Bush Says:
There's 100,000 troops trained: police, guard, special units, border patrol. There's going to be 125,000 trained by the end of this year."
President George W. Bush
Presidential Debate
September 30th, 2004
Reuters Says:
But many of these assertions have met with scepticism from key lawmakers, congressional aides and experts, and Pentagon documents, given to lawmakers and obtained by Reuters, paint a more complicated picture.
The documents show that of the nearly 90,000 currently in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training. Another 46,176 are listed as "untrained," and it will be July 2006 before the administration reaches its new goal of a 135,000-strong, fully trained police force.
Six Army battalions have had "initial training," while 57 National Guard battalions, 896 soldiers in each, are still being recruited or "awaiting equipment." Just eight Guard battalions have reached "initial (operating) capability," and the Pentagon acknowledged the Guard's performance has been "uneven."
Training has yet to begin for the 4,800-man civil intervention force, which will help counter a deadly insurgency. And none of the 18,000 border enforcement guards have received any centralised training to date, despite earlier claims they had, according to Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.
They estimated that 22,700 Iraqi personnel have received enough basic training to make them "minimally effective at their tasks," in contrast to the 100,000 figure cited by Bush.
Bush Says:
There's 100,000 troops trained: police, guard, special units, border patrol. There's going to be 125,000 trained by the end of this year."
President George W. Bush
Presidential Debate
September 30th, 2004
CIA (Vampires) Secret War With Neo Cons (Werewolves)
.
Secret War Between CIA and Bush
From some conservative voices, including the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, the response has been furious. An editorial published by the Journal on Wednesday under the heading of "The C.I.A.'s Insurgency" said that Mr. Bush "now has two insurgencies to defeat: the one that the C.I.A. is struggling to help put down in Iraq, and the other inside Langley against the Bush administration."
"Rather than keep this dispute in-house," it said, "the dissenters have taken their objections to the public, albeit usually through calculated and anonymous leaks that are always spun to make the agency look good and the Bush administration look bad."
Secret War Between CIA and Bush
From some conservative voices, including the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, the response has been furious. An editorial published by the Journal on Wednesday under the heading of "The C.I.A.'s Insurgency" said that Mr. Bush "now has two insurgencies to defeat: the one that the C.I.A. is struggling to help put down in Iraq, and the other inside Langley against the Bush administration."
"Rather than keep this dispute in-house," it said, "the dissenters have taken their objections to the public, albeit usually through calculated and anonymous leaks that are always spun to make the agency look good and the Bush administration look bad."
Insurance Executives: The New Satan Spawn
.
Air Force Stymies Criticism
If you're a military officer, you can't miss First Command Financial Planning of Fort Worth.
It sells life insurance and investments to young officers serving around the world. Many of its executives and most of its agents were officers once themselves, and they let you know it. A parade of retired generals and admirals serve on its advisory boards. With more than 300,000 customers, virtually all of them current or former officers, the company depends on the military for its very existence.
And in a smaller way the military relies on First Command. The company, like others in this market, has long sponsored popular events like the Marine Corps Marathon and the Air Force talent show, Tops in Blue.
So First Command was not happy a year ago when it discovered that a legal office at Air Force headquarters had put out a notice asking military lawyers in the field for feedback on "reports of possible unethical or overly aggressive" sales practices by the company's agents. The notice also raised questions about the suitability of the company's core product, an archaic and expensive type of mutual fund with sales fees that eat up half of an investor's first-year contributions.
First Command fought back: it complained to the second- most-powerful general in the Air Force. And it was heard.
The New York Times has found that within three weeks of the legal office's posting, the Air Force issued a retraction, which it had allowed the company to edit. It gave the company a letter of exoneration, signed by the Air Force's top legal officer, after letting the company edit that, too. The Air Force legal staff stopped cooperating with a securities industry investigation into the company's practices and products. And the Air Force effectively abandoned a broad inquiry of its own, letting local base authorities handle complaints.
Air Force Stymies Criticism
If you're a military officer, you can't miss First Command Financial Planning of Fort Worth.
It sells life insurance and investments to young officers serving around the world. Many of its executives and most of its agents were officers once themselves, and they let you know it. A parade of retired generals and admirals serve on its advisory boards. With more than 300,000 customers, virtually all of them current or former officers, the company depends on the military for its very existence.
And in a smaller way the military relies on First Command. The company, like others in this market, has long sponsored popular events like the Marine Corps Marathon and the Air Force talent show, Tops in Blue.
So First Command was not happy a year ago when it discovered that a legal office at Air Force headquarters had put out a notice asking military lawyers in the field for feedback on "reports of possible unethical or overly aggressive" sales practices by the company's agents. The notice also raised questions about the suitability of the company's core product, an archaic and expensive type of mutual fund with sales fees that eat up half of an investor's first-year contributions.
First Command fought back: it complained to the second- most-powerful general in the Air Force. And it was heard.
The New York Times has found that within three weeks of the legal office's posting, the Air Force issued a retraction, which it had allowed the company to edit. It gave the company a letter of exoneration, signed by the Air Force's top legal officer, after letting the company edit that, too. The Air Force legal staff stopped cooperating with a securities industry investigation into the company's practices and products. And the Air Force effectively abandoned a broad inquiry of its own, letting local base authorities handle complaints.
Fannie Mae Corrupt Just Like The Rest
.
I am so disappointed in Fannie Mae. I once defended them as targets of Republican businessmen who hated the fact that richer insurance companies and mortgage underwriters were losing share to this company that put people in homes. Turns out, they are lying cocksuckers just like the rest of the corrupt corporate culture here.
The problems are piling up at Fannie Mae. On the heels of a federal regulator's report detailing earnings manipulation and other accounting problems, the Justice Department has launched a probe into possible accounting fraud at the giant mortgage company, according to The Wall Street Journal.
I am so disappointed in Fannie Mae. I once defended them as targets of Republican businessmen who hated the fact that richer insurance companies and mortgage underwriters were losing share to this company that put people in homes. Turns out, they are lying cocksuckers just like the rest of the corrupt corporate culture here.
The problems are piling up at Fannie Mae. On the heels of a federal regulator's report detailing earnings manipulation and other accounting problems, the Justice Department has launched a probe into possible accounting fraud at the giant mortgage company, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Friday, October 01, 2004
1059
Liberal Media My ASS!!!!
.
David Brock On Pre and Post debate Spin
CNN host Wolf Blitzer:
PRE-DEBATE:
A pivotal night in this presidential campaign, perhaps a decisive moment. A key opportunity for the Democratic challenger, John Kerry, to break through, to try to establish himself as a formidable candidate in this race.
That's a huge audience. A lot of people, of course, most of that audience has already made up their minds. But those undecided voters are still critical.
A defining night. I think everybody agrees potentially. This certainly could be a defining night. Historians will be writing about this for many years to come. [CNN, live debate coverage, 9/30/04]
POST-DEBATE:
So even if John Kerry decisively won the debate, we shouldn't jump to any conclusions, let alone on the final outcome on November 2, but even if there will be a significant movement in the poll numbers, the real polls, not these instant polls over the next three or four or five days. [CNN, News From CNN, 10/01/04]
CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield:
PRE-DEBATE:
So you're planning to spend 90 minutes watching the candidates debate tonight? Millions of you say this is going to help you decide who you are for. [CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, 9/30/04]
For all of the hype, and God knows there's been a ton of it, this is the most important night of John Kerry's presidential campaign. He knows he's behind. He knows that 60 to 80 million people will be watching, and whether or not he can make that connection that he apparently has not yet made may be the pivotal point of the whole campaign. It actually is one of those events that we're not overhyping. [CNN, live debate coverage, 9/30/04]
POST-DEBATE:
I think John Kerry did a better job in debate terms. That's what -- you know, that's what the snap polls showed. That's what most of the experts, even the New York Post, a very pro-Bush paper, had its bipartisan panel say that Kerry actually did better.
But that's a different question from asking did they sway voters, because it's entirely possible that if a voter -- if enough voters have made up their minds, if the undecideds are smaller than our poll and the Bush campaign thinks it is, then it's perfectly consistent for people to say, well, I think Kerry won the debate, but I'm still voting for Bush because I think he's better on terror or Iraq or whatever. That's what we're not going to know for another two or three days.
And remember, four years ago the first snap polls of the first debate showed that Al Gore had -- quote -- "won on points." But two days later when the stories appeared about his sighing and a couple of mistakes he made, then the opinion changed.
So, I really think, you know, much as I know, we're all fascinated by snap polls and voters with dials, we've got to wait a day or two to see whether or not this is going to have a political effect. [CNN, American Morning, 10/1/04]
CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider:
PRE-DEBATE:
BILL HEMMER (CNN American Morning anchor): Well, here's an interesting question, too, that we posed in our debate on the screen for our viewers. "Will debates make much difference in your vote?" Only 18 percent say yes, which in a tight race could make the difference in this election. But if you notice the decline going back to 1996, do the debates no longer matter? Or do they no longer matter as much as they once did -- Bill [Schneider].
SCHNEIDER: What we're looking at here is evidence of the small number of undecided voters and the intense division of the electorate. Even more divided than in the Clinton years. Eighteen percent can make a difference if there's a strong tide pulling them in one direction. You know, that 18 percent of people who still aren't clear exactly how they're going to vote and are going to be watching those debates, the campaigns are spending tens of millions of dollars chasing them through every cornfield in Iowa and every factory in Ohio. They're a very big prize. [CNN, American Morning, 9/28/04]
POST-DEBATE:
Well, the viewers of this debate still think President Bush is tougher, more decisive than John Kerry. They do think John Kerry is a smoother talker. He explained himself, he presented himself better. But I've always said winning a debate does not automatically mean you get to become president.
You know, in previous elections, the first debate was often won by the candidate who didn't end up winning the election. Al Gore beat George Bush in the first debate in 2000. Walter Mondale was considered by viewers to have won the first debate in 1984.
And you know who won the first debate in 1992? A gentleman named Ross Perot. None of them got to be president.
Americans see other qualities that they want in a president, like decisiveness and toughness, not just debating skills. I think Kerry did himself a lot of good. I think there's going to be a lot of buzz about this debate. I think we've got a real contest on our hands, but people are going to wait and see the next couple of debates before they firmly make up their minds. [CNN, American Morning, 10/1/04]
CNN news anchor Miles O'Brien:
PRE-DEBATE:
[T]he debates are now set. That obviously is going to be a pivotal moment in this campaign. [CNN, Live From..., 9/21/04]
POST-DEBATE:
Well, by now we've seen the numbers, the major post-debate polls indicating the winner was Senator John Kerry over President Bush, but not to sound flip -- or flop, for that matter -- so what? What does Kerry's apparent win in the first of three debates mean for the race for president? [CNN, Live From..., 10/1/04]
— K.B., J.C., & N.C.
Posted to the web on Friday October 1, 2004 at 4:56 PM EST
David Brock On Pre and Post debate Spin
CNN host Wolf Blitzer:
PRE-DEBATE:
A pivotal night in this presidential campaign, perhaps a decisive moment. A key opportunity for the Democratic challenger, John Kerry, to break through, to try to establish himself as a formidable candidate in this race.
That's a huge audience. A lot of people, of course, most of that audience has already made up their minds. But those undecided voters are still critical.
A defining night. I think everybody agrees potentially. This certainly could be a defining night. Historians will be writing about this for many years to come. [CNN, live debate coverage, 9/30/04]
POST-DEBATE:
So even if John Kerry decisively won the debate, we shouldn't jump to any conclusions, let alone on the final outcome on November 2, but even if there will be a significant movement in the poll numbers, the real polls, not these instant polls over the next three or four or five days. [CNN, News From CNN, 10/01/04]
CNN senior analyst Jeff Greenfield:
PRE-DEBATE:
So you're planning to spend 90 minutes watching the candidates debate tonight? Millions of you say this is going to help you decide who you are for. [CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, 9/30/04]
For all of the hype, and God knows there's been a ton of it, this is the most important night of John Kerry's presidential campaign. He knows he's behind. He knows that 60 to 80 million people will be watching, and whether or not he can make that connection that he apparently has not yet made may be the pivotal point of the whole campaign. It actually is one of those events that we're not overhyping. [CNN, live debate coverage, 9/30/04]
POST-DEBATE:
I think John Kerry did a better job in debate terms. That's what -- you know, that's what the snap polls showed. That's what most of the experts, even the New York Post, a very pro-Bush paper, had its bipartisan panel say that Kerry actually did better.
But that's a different question from asking did they sway voters, because it's entirely possible that if a voter -- if enough voters have made up their minds, if the undecideds are smaller than our poll and the Bush campaign thinks it is, then it's perfectly consistent for people to say, well, I think Kerry won the debate, but I'm still voting for Bush because I think he's better on terror or Iraq or whatever. That's what we're not going to know for another two or three days.
And remember, four years ago the first snap polls of the first debate showed that Al Gore had -- quote -- "won on points." But two days later when the stories appeared about his sighing and a couple of mistakes he made, then the opinion changed.
So, I really think, you know, much as I know, we're all fascinated by snap polls and voters with dials, we've got to wait a day or two to see whether or not this is going to have a political effect. [CNN, American Morning, 10/1/04]
CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider:
PRE-DEBATE:
BILL HEMMER (CNN American Morning anchor): Well, here's an interesting question, too, that we posed in our debate on the screen for our viewers. "Will debates make much difference in your vote?" Only 18 percent say yes, which in a tight race could make the difference in this election. But if you notice the decline going back to 1996, do the debates no longer matter? Or do they no longer matter as much as they once did -- Bill [Schneider].
SCHNEIDER: What we're looking at here is evidence of the small number of undecided voters and the intense division of the electorate. Even more divided than in the Clinton years. Eighteen percent can make a difference if there's a strong tide pulling them in one direction. You know, that 18 percent of people who still aren't clear exactly how they're going to vote and are going to be watching those debates, the campaigns are spending tens of millions of dollars chasing them through every cornfield in Iowa and every factory in Ohio. They're a very big prize. [CNN, American Morning, 9/28/04]
POST-DEBATE:
Well, the viewers of this debate still think President Bush is tougher, more decisive than John Kerry. They do think John Kerry is a smoother talker. He explained himself, he presented himself better. But I've always said winning a debate does not automatically mean you get to become president.
You know, in previous elections, the first debate was often won by the candidate who didn't end up winning the election. Al Gore beat George Bush in the first debate in 2000. Walter Mondale was considered by viewers to have won the first debate in 1984.
And you know who won the first debate in 1992? A gentleman named Ross Perot. None of them got to be president.
Americans see other qualities that they want in a president, like decisiveness and toughness, not just debating skills. I think Kerry did himself a lot of good. I think there's going to be a lot of buzz about this debate. I think we've got a real contest on our hands, but people are going to wait and see the next couple of debates before they firmly make up their minds. [CNN, American Morning, 10/1/04]
CNN news anchor Miles O'Brien:
PRE-DEBATE:
[T]he debates are now set. That obviously is going to be a pivotal moment in this campaign. [CNN, Live From..., 9/21/04]
POST-DEBATE:
Well, by now we've seen the numbers, the major post-debate polls indicating the winner was Senator John Kerry over President Bush, but not to sound flip -- or flop, for that matter -- so what? What does Kerry's apparent win in the first of three debates mean for the race for president? [CNN, Live From..., 10/1/04]
— K.B., J.C., & N.C.
Posted to the web on Friday October 1, 2004 at 4:56 PM EST
Eleanor Clift On Kerry’s Win
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Oct. 1 - George W. Bush didn’t look at his watch the way his father famously did during a presidential debate, but he might as well have. The president had the air of a man who couldn’t bother being there. Response shots aired by the networks captured his smirking dismay at his rival’s answers, much the way Al Gore sighed in disgust at Bush four years ago.
Republicans thought they had the race wrapped up. All their candidate had to do was repeat his road-tested slogans. But 90 minutes of Bush is a long time. There’s a reason why he has held fewer press conferences than any other modern president. He is incapable of conceptual thinking, and he came across as agitated and annoyed that more was expected of him now that he’s the self-styled “war president.” He repeatedly said he is “working hard” and “it’s hard work,” as though that alone should silence his critics.
If Republicans were overconfident going into the debate, Democrats had begun preparing themselves for defeat. Kerry had given up so much ground that he was close to being written out of the race. Voters had absorbed the image of Kerry as a flip-flopper without core convictions. A very different Kerry showed up in the debate hall. He was calm and disciplined while Bush was “slouching and praying for the light to go on so he wouldn’t have to think of anything else to repeat,” said a Democratic strategist.
Kerry spoke crisply and clearly, and he looked presidential. He defended his position on Iraq as consistent—agreeing with Bush that Saddam Hussein was a threat, but saying he would have handled the situation differently. When Bush confronted him with that old saw about how he voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it, Kerry scored big, saying, “I made a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse?”
This was Kerry’s best performance since, perhaps, ever. Like Lazarus, he is back from the dead..
Oct. 1 - George W. Bush didn’t look at his watch the way his father famously did during a presidential debate, but he might as well have. The president had the air of a man who couldn’t bother being there. Response shots aired by the networks captured his smirking dismay at his rival’s answers, much the way Al Gore sighed in disgust at Bush four years ago.
Republicans thought they had the race wrapped up. All their candidate had to do was repeat his road-tested slogans. But 90 minutes of Bush is a long time. There’s a reason why he has held fewer press conferences than any other modern president. He is incapable of conceptual thinking, and he came across as agitated and annoyed that more was expected of him now that he’s the self-styled “war president.” He repeatedly said he is “working hard” and “it’s hard work,” as though that alone should silence his critics.
If Republicans were overconfident going into the debate, Democrats had begun preparing themselves for defeat. Kerry had given up so much ground that he was close to being written out of the race. Voters had absorbed the image of Kerry as a flip-flopper without core convictions. A very different Kerry showed up in the debate hall. He was calm and disciplined while Bush was “slouching and praying for the light to go on so he wouldn’t have to think of anything else to repeat,” said a Democratic strategist.
Kerry spoke crisply and clearly, and he looked presidential. He defended his position on Iraq as consistent—agreeing with Bush that Saddam Hussein was a threat, but saying he would have handled the situation differently. When Bush confronted him with that old saw about how he voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it, Kerry scored big, saying, “I made a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse?”
This was Kerry’s best performance since, perhaps, ever. Like Lazarus, he is back from the dead..
Administration wants upbeat reports, will 'curtail' bad news about Iraq.
No link. Christian Science Monitor
Pentagon wants 'uplifting accounts' about Iraq
by Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
Thursday morning in Baghdad multiple car bombs and rocket attacks killed at least 40 people, including many children and several US soldiers. The Bush administration, The Washington Post reports Thursday, worried that negative stories like these are dominating the news headlines during an election period, has decided to send out Iraq Americans to bring what the Defense Department calls "the good news" about the situation in Iraq to US military bases.
The Post also reports that the administration is moving to "curtail distribution" of reports that show the situation in Iraq growing worse. In particular, the US Agency of International Development said this week that it will "restrict distribution" of a report by its contractor, Kroll Security International, that showed the number of attacks by insurgents had been increasingly dramatically over the past few months. Attacks have risen to 70 a day, up from 40-50, since Iraqi Prime Minister Alawi took office in June.
But the Guardian reports on Thursday that the Kroll documents aren't the only ones prepared by a private security contractor in Iraq that say things are getting worse.
The insurgency in Iraq appears to be more widespread and deadly than Iraqi leaders are prepared to admit, according to military officers and a report by a private security company, Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group. The company says there have been 2,300 attacks in the past 30 days, stretching from Mosul in the north through the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad and central Shiite towns around Babylon down to Basra in the south. The weapons ranged from car and time bombs to rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades, gunfire, mortars and landmines. They averaged 80 a day.
In one sign that the administration and the military are working harder to keep a lid on negative stories, Salon reports that an Army Reserve staff sargent from Texas, with 20 years experience who is now serving in Iraq, may face up to 20 years in prison for "disloyalty and insubordination."The reason? He wrote an article criticizing the occupation of Iraq on an anti-war website.
Pentagon wants 'uplifting accounts' about Iraq
by Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
Thursday morning in Baghdad multiple car bombs and rocket attacks killed at least 40 people, including many children and several US soldiers. The Bush administration, The Washington Post reports Thursday, worried that negative stories like these are dominating the news headlines during an election period, has decided to send out Iraq Americans to bring what the Defense Department calls "the good news" about the situation in Iraq to US military bases.
The Post also reports that the administration is moving to "curtail distribution" of reports that show the situation in Iraq growing worse. In particular, the US Agency of International Development said this week that it will "restrict distribution" of a report by its contractor, Kroll Security International, that showed the number of attacks by insurgents had been increasingly dramatically over the past few months. Attacks have risen to 70 a day, up from 40-50, since Iraqi Prime Minister Alawi took office in June.
But the Guardian reports on Thursday that the Kroll documents aren't the only ones prepared by a private security contractor in Iraq that say things are getting worse.
The insurgency in Iraq appears to be more widespread and deadly than Iraqi leaders are prepared to admit, according to military officers and a report by a private security company, Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group. The company says there have been 2,300 attacks in the past 30 days, stretching from Mosul in the north through the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad and central Shiite towns around Babylon down to Basra in the south. The weapons ranged from car and time bombs to rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades, gunfire, mortars and landmines. They averaged 80 a day.
In one sign that the administration and the military are working harder to keep a lid on negative stories, Salon reports that an Army Reserve staff sargent from Texas, with 20 years experience who is now serving in Iraq, may face up to 20 years in prison for "disloyalty and insubordination."The reason? He wrote an article criticizing the occupation of Iraq on an anti-war website.
Even The Industry Appointed EPA HEad Hates Bush
What Does SAT Stand For? Saturday? Close Enough. You’re In.
Army Lowers Entry Standards
To help meet its recruiting objectives at a time when its forces are strained by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army's recruiting command has lowered some goals for recruits.
To help meet its recruiting objectives at a time when its forces are strained by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army's recruiting command has lowered some goals for recruits.
"I think we're losing slowly but steadily"
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Ted Carpenter of the Cato Institute think tank noted the number of daily attacks launched by insurgents against U.S. and other foreign troops and Iraqi security forces are surging, indicating a further deteriorating security situation.
Ted Carpenter of the Cato Institute think tank noted the number of daily attacks launched by insurgents against U.S. and other foreign troops and Iraqi security forces are surging, indicating a further deteriorating security situation.
Kerry Hands Bush His Ass
.
"Well, you know, when I talked about the $87 billion, I made a mistake in how I talk about the war, but the president made a mistake in invading Iraq," Kerry said, pausing dramatically. "Which is worse?"
"Well, you know, when I talked about the $87 billion, I made a mistake in how I talk about the war, but the president made a mistake in invading Iraq," Kerry said, pausing dramatically. "Which is worse?"
Network Debate Polls
Digby’s Taking Notes On Who’s Saying What About The Debate
.
Kondrake just said that Kerry looked like a commander in chief.
Barnes feels that Kerry helped himself with his base.
Kristol said that this race now a real race.
Brokaw said that Kerry renergized the base and gave undecided voters a good reason to vote for him.
Russert said John Kerry was the candidate that Democrats thought they were nominating in Iowa.
Matthews said Bush elected to receive instead of taking it to his opponent.
Kondrake just said that Kerry looked like a commander in chief.
Barnes feels that Kerry helped himself with his base.
Kristol said that this race now a real race.
Brokaw said that Kerry renergized the base and gave undecided voters a good reason to vote for him.
Russert said John Kerry was the candidate that Democrats thought they were nominating in Iowa.
Matthews said Bush elected to receive instead of taking it to his opponent.
A Rare Reprinting Of An Entire Opinion
.
If you had heard John Kerry and George Bush for the first time in this first debate, it would've been hard for you to figure out which one was the president, and which one the challenger struggling to coalesce his campaign.
That is very bad news for George Bush.
Kerry still fell periodically into the quicksand of his familiar Senatespeak, still sometimes must have blinded viewers with his ellipses, still occasionally had to have had them banging their ears to clear out his lapses back towards the unnecessary role of East Coast Distributor of Statesmanship. But for ninety minutes at the University of Miami, the Senator never once seemed off guard, never once seemed the wannabe victim of a practiced and seasoned incumbent, never seemed like he was in anything worse than a tie ballgame.
From his first bold statement, accusing Mr. Bush of a "colossal" mistake in judgment in Iraq, through his ominous pronouncement that "certainty can sometimes get you into trouble," to his last stiletto twist of quoting the poet laureate of conservatism George Will about Russian democracy's lost momentum, John Kerry never seemed to flip-flop, never seemed flustered, never seemed out of focus.
President Bush, once unfairly described as sounding like a 2nd Grade Teacher frustrated because Kindergarten students didn't intuitively understand him, at times came close to justifying that bitter evaluation. Twice at least he seemed visibly exasperated by Kerry— ready to turn on seeming softballs, but unable to connect. "Course we've done everything to protect this country," he began one reply, then petered out. Later offered another opportunity to pound Kerry after the Senator reminded the audience that Osama Bin Laden had attacked this country, not Saddam Hussein, Mr. Bush began "I know Osama Bin Laden attacked us," and then paused as if that statement had led him not towards an easy parallel between threats realized and threats pending, but rather down a dead-end alley. He took the alley.
In trying to explain his own previous use of the term "miscalculation" in regards to Iraq, the President appeared to get lost in the kind of entangled nuance which his party has so effectively criticized in Kerry. His explanation of the fact of the insurgency might've been boiled down to 'we won too fast'— and by that point, the President's breathing itself seemed labored.
By the time Mr. Bush made perhaps his most important news, in his concluding remarks— that in a second administration, the military would remain all-volunteer— the meaningfulness of the remark had lost its impact. It had been fifteen minutes since Kerry had proclaimed that a "backdoor draft" had already been instituted in this country, and that the nation's armed forces were "overextended." The President's forceful answer was so delayed as to be relegated to an afterthought, the kind of mot juste that comes to you on the way home from the party.
It is impossible to gauge, in an era recently and aptly described as the time when vast numbers of the electorate don't want to hear what they don't already believe, if Kerry's forcefulness and the president's frequent struggles will have any profound effect on the polls, or on the election itself. But it is impossible to believe that undecideds, or even Mr. Bush's supporters, could have watched this debate and thought that the president had put his opponent away, or made Senator Kerry seem unpresidential.
A personally popular, image-creating and image-employing president— man who has triumphed, rightly or wrongly, by rendering the complex issue into the simple and stalwartly-held belief—should have looked at least as in command as his challenger. And he simply did not. By Joe Scarborough's count, the president fell back no less than eleven times on the cliche "It's hard work."
Tonight, for him, it certainly seemed to be exactly that.
If you had heard John Kerry and George Bush for the first time in this first debate, it would've been hard for you to figure out which one was the president, and which one the challenger struggling to coalesce his campaign.
That is very bad news for George Bush.
Kerry still fell periodically into the quicksand of his familiar Senatespeak, still sometimes must have blinded viewers with his ellipses, still occasionally had to have had them banging their ears to clear out his lapses back towards the unnecessary role of East Coast Distributor of Statesmanship. But for ninety minutes at the University of Miami, the Senator never once seemed off guard, never once seemed the wannabe victim of a practiced and seasoned incumbent, never seemed like he was in anything worse than a tie ballgame.
From his first bold statement, accusing Mr. Bush of a "colossal" mistake in judgment in Iraq, through his ominous pronouncement that "certainty can sometimes get you into trouble," to his last stiletto twist of quoting the poet laureate of conservatism George Will about Russian democracy's lost momentum, John Kerry never seemed to flip-flop, never seemed flustered, never seemed out of focus.
President Bush, once unfairly described as sounding like a 2nd Grade Teacher frustrated because Kindergarten students didn't intuitively understand him, at times came close to justifying that bitter evaluation. Twice at least he seemed visibly exasperated by Kerry— ready to turn on seeming softballs, but unable to connect. "Course we've done everything to protect this country," he began one reply, then petered out. Later offered another opportunity to pound Kerry after the Senator reminded the audience that Osama Bin Laden had attacked this country, not Saddam Hussein, Mr. Bush began "I know Osama Bin Laden attacked us," and then paused as if that statement had led him not towards an easy parallel between threats realized and threats pending, but rather down a dead-end alley. He took the alley.
In trying to explain his own previous use of the term "miscalculation" in regards to Iraq, the President appeared to get lost in the kind of entangled nuance which his party has so effectively criticized in Kerry. His explanation of the fact of the insurgency might've been boiled down to 'we won too fast'— and by that point, the President's breathing itself seemed labored.
By the time Mr. Bush made perhaps his most important news, in his concluding remarks— that in a second administration, the military would remain all-volunteer— the meaningfulness of the remark had lost its impact. It had been fifteen minutes since Kerry had proclaimed that a "backdoor draft" had already been instituted in this country, and that the nation's armed forces were "overextended." The President's forceful answer was so delayed as to be relegated to an afterthought, the kind of mot juste that comes to you on the way home from the party.
It is impossible to gauge, in an era recently and aptly described as the time when vast numbers of the electorate don't want to hear what they don't already believe, if Kerry's forcefulness and the president's frequent struggles will have any profound effect on the polls, or on the election itself. But it is impossible to believe that undecideds, or even Mr. Bush's supporters, could have watched this debate and thought that the president had put his opponent away, or made Senator Kerry seem unpresidential.
A personally popular, image-creating and image-employing president— man who has triumphed, rightly or wrongly, by rendering the complex issue into the simple and stalwartly-held belief—should have looked at least as in command as his challenger. And he simply did not. By Joe Scarborough's count, the president fell back no less than eleven times on the cliche "It's hard work."
Tonight, for him, it certainly seemed to be exactly that.
