Holy Fox Jazeera!!!

Are you kidding me?

Follow this story Josh Marshall has.

Thought-o-Weekend

GuyS: do you know who the only people that don't change their minds are?
GuyS: DEAD PEOPLE!!!
WEINISH: pffff
WEINISH: and idiots.
WEINISH: apparently.
GuyS: Yup.

Head Spinning

TNR:

Reporters want to talk to the brand-name spinners. The first inkling that the Bushies know their man didn't do so well comes minutes after the debate ends when Karl Rove walks into the press filing center. Like a game of telephone, the conventional wisdom that Kerry won the debate is already seeping out across the sea of journalists in the room. Into this skeptical ether, Rove tries out a line: "It was one of the president's better debate performances and one of Kerry's worst." Vince Morris of The New York Post stares at Rove and asks, "Can you say that with a straight face?"

No, he can't. Then again, Rove never says anything with a straight face, so that was easy.

Birthday Boy Tonight?

A little birdie told me that Trey Anastasio will be sitting in with Tom Marshall and Amfibian tonight at the Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ.

I don't spread rumors and this isn't one.

Get Tickets.

Ouch!

This from Business Week (via Elmer Befuddled):

When Kerry, methodically making his case like the prosecutor he once was, said, "This President has made a colossal error of judgment" by invading Iraq, Bush looked like a 1960s teenager called on the carpet for cracking up the family Oldsmobile. At that moment, it was hard not to get the impression that young George wanted to be anyplace but where he found himself.

The poignancy of a man ill-prepared for and overwhelmed by his job was never more apparent than when Bush said, "I never wanted to commit troops. When we were debating in 2000, I never dreamed I'd have to do that."

The message that Kerry hammered home was that, in fact, Bush did not have to "do that," did not have to send our soldiers -- at least not to Iraq.

But Bush, the onetime black sheep of his family, wanted to wipe away the "wimp factor" stain that his old man had left on the Bush clan. And so he rebelled against the family mantra of prudence in all things. Last night, he looked for all the world like a sputtering screwup -- again.

There's more.

Coincidence

Reuters:

An audio tape attributed to Al Qaeda's deputy leader urged Muslims Friday to organize resistance against "crusader America" and its allies throughout the world.

The article goes on to give a lot of quotes, none from anyone in the US Government, and zero specifics about how the tape was obtained, etc.

It just happened to show up today!

He Made a Face! HE MADE A FACE!!!!

Thank to the DNC we have FACES OF FRUSTRATION!

All About the Children...

House Leader Tom Delay, major scumbag, sets up charities for Children, but is actually using the money for his own political purposes.

A must read.

Lucky for this douche bag there was a debate, or else he'd be all the talk.

Whoa!

Antonin Scalia:

Challenged about his views on sexual morality, Justice Scalia surprised his audience at Harvard University, telling them: "I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged."

Maybe we should allow Bush to appoint judges afterall?

In Case You Didn't Know...

PEOPLE ARE WORKING HARD!

Is George W. Bush one of them? Not so sure. But rest assured, people are working, and hard. How do I know this? Well, Bush mentioned it 6 times.

Initially there was talk that Senator John F. Kerry needed to go above and beyond to beat Bush. Low expectations for Bush would make it hard to defeat him. Nice country. But seriously, that couldn't be further from the truth.

Senator Kerry basically introduced himself to a lot of people who have been totally distracted by the media. I think he came across strong, and intelligent. Sure, some people goto one corner while others head to another, that's expected. When the media is calling it a draw it favors Kerry, not Bush. This is completely opposite of the media's take, and probably your own, but if you watched tonight you probably feel differently about Kerry now than you did at Noon. Most likely, that opinion is a better one. In fact, I can't see how anyone could feel worse about Kerry at this time.

As for Bush, he was his typical self. He made his case, one that we've heard time and time again in every other staged event he has taken part in, and this staged event was no different. He did lose himself a few times, and fall back on stock answers, but low expectations from the smartest to the dumbest Republicans allow him to do that (and the media).

At one point, I believe it was the second to last question, he actually didn't even understand the question, or chose not to answer it all. He fell back on his standard "Saddam Hussein was a threat and needed to be held accountable." That's not a direct quote, for sure. At this point I had asked my neighbor to grab the lamp and beat me senseless with it, so my mind had wondered.

Moderator Jim Lehrer did a decent job of attempting to roll with their answers in order to form what we call a "debate", but he can only do so much. Actually, it was odd that he had to stop the presses to announce the candidates agreed on something, in this case "Nuclear Proliferation." What's funny is they didn't agree. Sure, they both think it's a problem, just like we all think air is a necessity. However, one guy has a track record that is deplorable, and the other guy has goals that one has to believe are real. It's just plain common sense.

NP is the biggest issue in the world, and George W. Jesus doesn't treat it that way at all. I, and many others, have OBVIOUSLY made that case. Both consider it a primary issue and Bush has been completely disastrous on that issue. As for Lehrer and the coverage, considering the rules, it was as good as one could hope. But it's funny to hear Bush call it his big issue when he has sucked at tackling it in a big way.

I am not going to bore you with details because there's really no point.

However, HOWEVER, ISRAEL was mentioned once by John F. Kerry. This is a debate about foreign policy, and Bush has so totally ignored the Israeli/Palestinian problem that it wasn't even mentioned by the moderator. Hello?

This is STILL the biggest issue to people living in the Middle East, and most likely to Jewish Hawk Neo-Con Pricks who are all over Bush. ONCE it was mentioned, and not by Bush. That's the reality of the world.

At the end of the day Kerry had an opportunity to introduce himself to America, and he did fine. Bush on the other hand may have held onto people, but in no way do I think a rationale swing voter watches that and says, "THAT'S MY GUY! SOLD!!!" That's a bit of a stretch. Bush wasn't bad. He was Bush.

Digressing, Kerry needs to make clear is was not a debate. Say things like, "Sure, we had a debate, but that was no debate. I want to debate George Bush, not Jim Lehrer. We've heard Bush's stock answers before, and we just heard them again. We need to scrap these rules, and have a debate. America deserves to hear it."

Now I'm going to do something I've never done in my life: make my third meal of the day! Yes, never done that. Done two, done one, but never three.

Good Night, and God Bless America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Being that you're taking sides already...

BELOW ME!

This country can BEEEEEELOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHWWWWWW ME if they vote for BUSH.

I still think Kerry wins.

That's a debate?

Debates are when two people talk to each other.

Hey Lurch, check out the camera in the middle.

Btw, nice lighting. The blues were different; Bush's was brighter, so I guess I can say he certainly blew more. Thank you FOX who controlled the cameras for the first debate for ALL FEEDS.

Bush: People are working hard!

Kerry: Bush made the wrong choices!

Your call.

It's Tawcha

I swear, this team kills me. Prior strikes out 16 in 9 innings and they lose!

That's 5 losses in 6 games to the Mets and Reds.

I smell playoffs!!!

It Gets Better!

Adam Nagourney of the NYTIMES has his own Blog, and apparently people found it. Read the COMMENTS.

What a dick.

(thanks to Atrios)

INSANITY

AP just released an UPDATED version

------

They must have meant LAST thursday:

The Associated Press

CORAL GABLES, Fla. Sept. 30, 2004 — After a deluge of campaign speeches and hostile television ads, President Bush and challenger John Kerry got their chance to face each other directly Thursday night before an audience of tens of millions of voters in a high-stakes debate about terrorism, the Iraq war and the bloody aftermath.

The 90-minute encounter was particularly crucial for Kerry, trailing slightly in the polls and struggling for momentum less than five weeks before the election. The Democratic candidate faced the challenge of presenting himself as a credible commander in chief after a torrent of Republican criticism that he was prone to changing his positions.

Bush was expected to confront questions about leading the nation into war on the still-unproven premise that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He also has faced accusations that he lacked a strategy to deal with the violence and chaos that have left more than 1,000 Americans dead and that the Iraq war has diverted U.S. attention from al-Qaida and other terrorists.

With a record of four years in office to defend, Bush had a debate strategy of being optimistic about Iraq but acknowledging that times were tough. His stance is that Americans know he is a decisive leader even if they don't always agree with his decisions and that Kerry has taken conflicting positions on Iraq and can't be trusted to lead the nation.

Although Kerry voted to give Bush authority to invade Iraq, he says he would not have followed Bush's path to war a path that alienated allies and, the Democrat says, left Americans less secure. Kerry argues Bush is out of touch with reality, paints too rosy a picture about Iraq and lacks a strategy to end the crisis.

Kerry also says Bush has neglected other major problems like North Korea and Iran, two nations suspected of pursing nuclear weapons.

Kerry, in a taped interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Thursday, said, "George Bush is scaring America. He's talking terror every day, and people see terrible images of what's happening in the world, and they're real."

Bush spent the morning comforting hurricane victims on his fifth survey of Florida areas hit by storms. At the Martin County, Fla., Red Cross center, Bush thanked volunteers for showing "the true heart of America. We long to help somebody when they're hurting."

The debate's focus on Iraq was sharpened by bombings in Baghdad Thursday that killed three dozen children.

Ahead in the polls, Bush could afford to settle for a debate draw while Kerry needed something to break the status quo. Some Democrats saw the debates as the last chance for a Kerry breakout.

Thursday night's meeting at the University of Miami was the first of three Bush-Kerry debates over a two-week period. Neither side was underestimating its importance with a TV audience of 30 million to 40 million expected. Almost a third of people surveyed say the debates will be a deciding factor in how they vote.

The first debate drew the nation's attention to hurricane-battered Florida and its political importance. Florida swung the presidency to Bush in the disputed 2000 election and could determine whether he wins re-election.

The debates were staged under a rigid set of rules negotiated by the candidates' representatives to limit spontaneity and opportunities for back-and-forth exchanges.

Where were these people on 9/10/01?

Scottso

Most know, but I am obliged.

Scott Muni -- affectionately nicknamed "Scottso," "The Professor," "Fats" -- the gravel-voiced disc jockey whom former colleague Dennis Elsas called "the heart and soul of the place where rock lived" -- died Tuesday in New York Presbyterian Hospital at the age of 74 after a long illness.

He really was the legend of all legends when it came to Classic Rock. I can still hear Witz doing his impression, "Scottso with the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies!"

WAXQ/104.3 FM has obviously been doing dedications, and what not. You can check it out on their site. The guy has some of the most ledgy interviews of all time.

Ween?

Tickets for the Sunday night show in Trenton aren't cheap, and there are buyers.

Prediction: Last East Coast show.

You'll always be able to listen.

Absentees

More of the same.

Election officials concede that tens of thousands of Americans overseas might not get ballots in time to cast votes. Late primaries and legal wrangling caused election offices in at least 8 of the 15 swing states to fail to mail absentee ballots by Sept. 19, a cutoff date officials say is necessary to ensure that they can be returned on time, a survey by The New York Times shows. In Florida in 2000, late-arriving ballots became a divisive issue when some were counted and others were disqualified.

The tardy ballots are just one of several setbacks or missteps that have affected the ability of the estimated 4.4 million eligible voters overseas to participate in the presidential election. Some have been unable to send their registrations to a Pentagon contractor's computers, which are clogged by thousands of voter forms. Others were denied access to a Web site designed to help Americans abroad vote. And many voters simply have had trouble navigating the rules and methods that determine how and when to register and vote and that vary by state.

Republicans care about democracy about as much as plantation owners cared about "niggers."

Let Them Eat Terror

More of the same.

Food industry lobbyists met privately with Bush administration officials 10 times while the government was crafting rules to protect the food supply from bioterrorism, and those congressionally required rules emerged in significantly weakened form as a result, a consumer group said yesterday after analyzing meeting records.

The meetings focused on proposed regulations to implement the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. The law requires companies importing food to give advance notice to the Food and Drug Administration about arriving shipments and to keep records of where the food came from and where it is going.

In the winter and spring of 2003, the FDA issued proposed regulations on both issues that consumer groups considered tough and effective. But the final rule on prior notice, issued in October 2003, greatly reduced the advance notice requirements on industry, and the final rule on record-keeping has not been released yet.

Seriously...

I am not sure I can handle 4 more minutes, let alone years.

The Bush administration, battling negative perceptions of the Iraq war, is sending Iraqi Americans to deliver what the Pentagon calls "good news" about Iraq to U.S. military bases, and has curtailed distribution of reports showing increasing violence in that country.

The unusual public-relations effort by the Pentagon and the U.S. Agency for International Development comes as details have emerged showing the U.S. government and a representative of President Bush's reelection campaign had been heavily involved in drafting the speech given to Congress last week by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Combined, they indicate that the federal government is working assiduously to improve Americans' opinions about the Iraq conflict -- a key element of Bush's reelection message.

I mean, obviously things are getting better. Just look at what happened today:

Separate bomb blasts across Iraq Thursday killed more than 40 people, most of them children, in a dramatic escalation of the country's violent insurgency that also injured hundreds of Iraqis and numerous American troops.

The most lethal attack appeared to be directed at a government-sponsored ceremony marking the reopening of a water treatment plant in the Baghdad neighborhood of Bayaa. But among the victims were at least 34 children, who had gathered excitedly in anticipation of candy and cake being handed out by U.S. troops, according to people on the scene.

They never really said "better than" anything in particular. I agree, better than a Nuclear Holocaust.

Happy Birthday!

From Hammer's favorite site:

Ernest Giuseppie "Trey" Anastasio III (born 9/30/64) grew up in Princeton, NJ, playing drums. He worked with his mother, an editor for Sesame Street Magazine, developing stories and songs of fantasy and fun and meaning. (His father was an executive with the Princeton-based Educational Testing Service, who adminster the SATs etc.)

I wonder if he shoots up 40 times?

A Bush Film

I didn't even know about this.

The propagandists of "Faith in the White House" argue, as others have, that the president's invocation of religion in the public sphere, from his citation of Jesus as his favorite "political philosopher" to his incessant invocation of the Almighty in talking about how everything is coming up roses in Iraq, is consistent with the civic spirituality practiced by his antecedents, from the founding fathers to Bill Clinton. It's not. Past presidents have rarely, if ever, claimed such godlike infallibility. Mr. Bush never admits to making a mistake; even his premature "Mission Accomplished" victory lap wasn't in error, as he recently told Bill O'Reilly.

Funny, for a guy who never goes to church that this movie is being peddled to thousands of them says enough for me.

Thought-o-Day

I just watched Senator Kyl (AZ-R) on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and Richard Holbrooke. Kyl continued the Cheney-like Pary Line that there's a connection between not only Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, but 9/11 and Hussein.

Really is incredible.

Riddle me this: John Kerry is a nuancer, according to Team Bush. But when it comes to connecting 9/11 to Saddam, the biggest issue of them all, the Republican argument is the most nuanced of all time.

I guess it's just irony, or coincidence...or bullshit.

LEGALIZING TORTURE

That's what REPUBLICANS ARE DOING.

This is INSANE! Probably the most important post I've had.

Eff the French

Expos are moving to Washington D.C. We need a good team name. I'm going with the PREEMPTORS.

Got any better?

The Debates

My boy TK (even though he's avoided discussing things with me like the plague) is concerned about the debates. So is NPR. So should you be. Checkout #5!

(5.) All members of the studio audience must be certified as "soft" supporters of Bush and Kerry, under selection procedures they approve.

"It's not enough to rig the debate -- they have to rig the audience, too? The contract reads: 'The debate will take place before a live audience of between 100 and 150 persons who... describe themselves as likely voters who are soft Bush supporters or soft Kerry supporters.' We should crash this charade and jump up in the middle to declare ourselves hard opponents of this Kabuki dance."

I Know

You don't know whatcha got til it's gone.

revlon: i want to go see an indoor phish show
revlon: i want to go to the knick and get blown away
WEINISH: yeah, yeah, i feel your pain...

My medicine.

Spaceballs?

Good news.

Mel Brooks revealed in a recent interview with Playbill magazine that he is working on a sequel to his 1987 Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs, the Ain't-It-Cool-News Web site reported. "I'm writing myself back into the Spaceballs sequel that I'm now writing, so you haven't seen the last of my face," Brooks said. "Why another Spaceballs? It wouldn't feel right to have anyone else play Yoghurt, and the first one was the best experience I've had making a movie since Blazing Saddles."

Coincidentally, Wolfowitz was heard uttering "May the Schwartz be with us..." before we invaded Iraq. That was his exit strategy.

The Other Guy

The one with more votes.

The biggest single difference between the debates this year and four years ago is that President Bush cannot simply make promises. He has a record. And I hope that voters will recall the last time Mr. Bush stood on stage for a presidential debate. If elected, he said, he would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. He promised that his tax cuts would create millions of new jobs. He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington. Above all, he pledged that if he put American troops into combat: "The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well defined."

Comparing these grandiose promises to his failed record, it's enough to make anyone want to, well, sigh.

President Gore.

Actually...

I think this part of what the Crawford Iconoclast wrote is important.

The Social Security Trust Fund actually lends money to the rest of the government in exchange for government bonds, which is how the system must work by law, but how do you later repay Social Security while you are running a huge deficit? It’s impossible, without raising taxes sometime in the future or becoming fiscally responsible now. Social Security money is being used to escalate our deficit and, at the same time, mask a much larger government deficit, instead of paying down the national debt, which would be a proper use, to guarantee a future gain.

Privatization is problematic in that it would subject Social Security to the ups, downs, and outright crashes of the Stock Market. It would take millions in brokerage fees and commissions out of the system, and, unless we have assurance that the Ivan Boeskys and Ken Lays of the world will be caught and punished as a deterrent, subject both the Market and the Social Security Fund to fraud and market manipulation, not to mention devastate and ruin multitudes of American families that would find their lives lost to starvation, shame, and isolation.

Kerry wants to keep Social Security, which each of us already owns. He says that the program is manageable, since it is projected to be solvent through 2042, with use of its trust funds. This would give ample time to strengthen the economy, reduce the budget deficit the Bush administration has created, and, therefore, bolster the program as needed to fit ever-changing demographics.

Our senior citizens depend upon Social Security. Bush’s answer is radical and uncalled for, and would result in chaos as Americans have never experienced. Do we really want to risk the future of Social Security on Bush by spinning the wheel of uncertainty?

This is all nuance.

The Latest Blow

Oh snap!

A key part of the Patriot Act, a central plank of the Bush Administration's war on terror, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge on Wednesday, in the latest blow to U.S. security policies.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marreo ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the power the FBI has to demand confidential financial records from companies that it can obtain without court approval as part of terrorism investigations.

The legislation bars companies and other recipients of these subpoenas from ever revealing that they received the FBI demand for records. Marreo held that this permanent ban was a violation of free speech rights.

In his ruling, Marreo prohibited the Department of Justice and the FBI from issuing special administrative subpoenas, known as national security letters. But he delayed enforcement of his judgment pending an expected appeal by the government. The Department of Justice said it was reviewing the ruling.

The ruling was the latest blow to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies.

That shit be illegal, and shit.

So they pass this act, like 6,543,211 pages, like 20 minutes after the towers fell. Sha think maybe it was written before 9/11? No, NO, never...

Iconoclast

The website was down all morning, but now it's up. Here's their take on the local boy, George W. Bush.

Few Americans would have voted for George W. Bush four years ago if he had promised that, as President, he would:
• Empty the Social Security trust fund by $507 billion to help offset fiscal irresponsibility and at the same time slash Social Security benefits.
• Cut Medicare by 17 percent and reduce veterans’ benefits and military pay.
• Eliminate overtime pay for millions of Americans and raise oil prices by 50 percent.
• Give tax cuts to businesses that sent American jobs overseas, and, in fact, by policy encourage their departure.
• Give away billions of tax dollars in government contracts without competitive bids.
• Involve this country in a deadly and highly questionable war, and
• Take a budget surplus and turn it into the worst deficit in the history of the United States, creating a debt in just four years that will take generations to repay.
These were elements of a hidden agenda that surfaced only after he took office.
The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda.
Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John Kerry, based not only on the things that Bush has delivered, but also on the vision of a return to normality that Kerry says our country needs.

If I was an editor over there I'd arm myself, which in those parts is something you can do at 7-11.

WOH-IO!

UPDATE!!!

No Joke.

With only a few days left before the registration deadline here in Ohio, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell is trying re-instate selective voting. His controls on the voting process will prohibit thousands of Ohioans from voting in the upcoming election.

He will not allow people to cast votes on provisional ballots if they go to the incorrect polling place, even if the voter is not at fault!

Citing an arcane ruling that requires voter registration cards be printed on 80 pound stock paper, Blackwell is threatening to void registrations submitted on a lighter weight paper, demanding they re-apply. There is no time to reapply and thousands of voters could be left off the rolls.

This is not only unethical, it’s illegal. The 14th Amendment grants every citizen the right to vote—regardless of race, gender, creed—or polling location or paper stock.

Republicans in Ohio are scared—with good reason—ACT’s Get-Out-the-Vote effort is working --in Ohio we’re out-registering Republicans by 10 to 1.

Tell all your Ohio friends to get involved HERE.

Flip Flopper

David writes:

As son of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years, through the election of 2000, I was. With the current administration’s decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, however, I changed my voter registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry.

I bet Kerry takes New Hampshire.

Name That Topic

Your call:

Projections were overly optimistic, technical challenges were underestimated, designs were faulty, and workmanship was poor. Repeatedly over the past few years, officials have declared the corner turned, only to acknowledge months later, with renewed frustration, that problems have persisted.

Iraq? If you guessed Iraq then you are...well, correct, but actually this is a quote about the failed SDI booster for missiles.

Soros

When morons stop calling him a drug dealer, maybe they'll listen to what it is he's saying.

"If I could contribute to repudiating Bush's policies it would be the greatest good deed I could do for the world," says the philanthropist who has spent billions promoting democracy all over the world...

"I find the Bush campaign quite reprehensible," he says. "Instead of discussing issues, they attack people who espouse those issues. It reminds me of my childhood, when you were discussing something with the communists and they say you're a bourgeois capitalist so what you say doesn't count. There has to be some respect for the truth."

One would think.

Unfortunate

It's too bad that 9/11 Widow Kristen Breitweiser has been dragged into the campaign, but she has made a choice.

"I know in my heart that this is what needs to be done," Breitweiser said, clenching her jaw. "I have a 5-year-old that lost her father and thinks a dad is an image in a photo. She has no idea that a dad is supposed to be real and hug you. I want to know that she's going to be safer. That when she grows up, she's not going to die because of payback for a bad foreign policy."

Since Team Bush politicized the issue it has forced others to do the same. Keep in mind, she voted for Bush/Cheney last time.

A Little Place Called The World!

Others:

"If foreigners could vote, there's no question what the result would be," said Guillaume Parmentier, director of the French Center on the United States. "Bush's image, even before the war in Iraq, was not good. The way he comports himself, the vocabulary he uses -- good versus evil, God and all that -- even his body language, most people think is not presidential." He added, "I've never seen such hostility."

I'm a believer that when Republicans hear that "foreigners" don't like Bush it actually emboldens them against Democrats.

It gets back to the "WE MUST WIN!" rationale. While some people like allies, and having people view us positively, they care not. They think America is never wrong (unless Clinton is leading), and the more these polls show how disliked we are, the further they dig in.

The most absurd thing about America right now is how Republicans, especially Bush, look down on people who are intelligent. Intelligence to Bush is not a good thing. While educated people around the world speak out against Bush, we look down upon them as elitist. Here in America the President and his allies often refer to people from New England, or liberals, as "the Harvard elite." John Kerry doesn't speak in simplistic terms, and is "nuanced," so that is clearly a negative thing. The fact that he thinks, that's bad.

Bush has convinced a lot of Americans that he is just like them, a simple man, with simple ideas, that even in the face of evidence that he is clearly wrong, he goes forward. He doesn't think, he does. Somehow this is good to Republicans.

Moderates, and Independents, they vote for Bush not because of his simplistic ideas, or thoughts, but because they seemingly agree that tax cuts are good, Iraq was necessary, etc. It's not because of the simplistic message, assuming these are the independents who held out and looked for differences, or are still holding out.

Point is, Bush and Republicans have made going to Harvard a bad thing, and being simple minded a good thing. Europe celebrates their intellectuals while we bash ours. No wonder we keep falling lower in the world educational rankings.

Such fucking idiots.

Improving

Bush says Iraq is improving:

People at the CIA "are mad at the policy in Iraq because it's a disaster, and they're digging the hole deeper and deeper and deeper," said one former intelligence officer who maintains contact with CIA officials. "There's no obvious way to fix it. The best we can hope for is a semi-failed state hobbling along with terrorists and a succession of weak governments."

"Things are definitely not improving," said one U.S. government official who reads the intelligence analyses on Iraq.

"It is getting worse," agreed an Army staff officer who served in Iraq and stays in touch with comrades in Baghdad through e-mail. "It just seems there is a lot of pessimism flowing out of theater now. There are things going on that are unbelievable to me. They have infiltrators conducting attacks in the Green Zone. That was not the case a year ago."

People not up for election say otherwise.

We Had to Do Something!

WaPo:

"A system is being deployed that doesn't have any credible capability," said retired Gen. Eugene Habiger, who headed the U.S. Strategic Command in the mid-1990s. "I cannot recall any military system being deployed in such a manner."

You must have missed a decade called the Eightees when Missile Defense was first being rolled out, unsuccesfully.

Rumsfeld disagrees:

Senior officials at the Pentagon and the White House insist the system will provide protection, although they use terms such as "rudimentary" and "limited" to describe its initial capabilities. Some missile defense, they say, is better than none, and what is deployed this year will be improved over time.

"Did we have perfection with our first airplane, our first rifle, our first ship?" Rumsfeld said in an interview last month. "I mean, they'd still be testing at Kitty Hawk, for God's sake, if you wanted perfection."

That's the Bush strategy regardless. Something is better than nothing! We had to do something after 9/11! So we attacked Iraq!

While more money has gone into missile defense under Bush than into any other military R&D project, the Pentagon has exempted the missile defense program from the traditional oversight rules meant to ensure that new weapons serve the needs of military commanders.

Nice.

Western White House Press

Straight Outta Crawford:

The newspaper in President George W. Bush's adopted hometown of Crawford threw its support on Tuesday behind Bush's Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry.

The weekly Lone Star Iconoclast criticized Bush's handling of the war in Iraq and for turning budget surpluses into record deficits. The editorial also criticized Bush's proposals on Social Security and Medicare.

"The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda," the newspaper said in its editorial. "Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John Kerry."

It urged "Texans not to rate the candidate by his hometown or even his political party, but instead by where he intends to take the country."

Remember, the heart and soul of America isn't found in Hollywood.

Soon to be Dead

NYTIMES:

On the fourth anniversary of the Palestinian uprising, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei urged both Palestinians and Israelis today to reassess strategies they have adopted during the grinding conflict.

Ever heard the phrase "ring hollow?"

Maybe he should start telling his young people, "72 virgins do not await you, and they don't exist. And even if they did exist, who the fuck wants to deal with a virgin? Have you ever been with a virgin? She'll keep calling you, and calling you, over and over and over. And 72 of them? I mean, who has that kind of time?

"I suggest to all of you to focus on the present and the living, and look for girls who have been around some. I mean, someone who has had it once, even if just for a night, is better than a virgin! Trust me, I am your newly elected Prime Minister."

Gropernator

Smoke Free Cali:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Monday that bans tobacco at California prisons, despite complaints that the law would simply drive tobacco use underground.

The bill's author, Republican Assemblyman Tim Leslie, predicted the legislation would "drastically reduce" prison health care costs.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Monday that bans tobacco at California prisons, despite complaints that the law would simply drive tobacco use underground.

The bill's author, Republican Assemblyman Tim Leslie, predicted the legislation would "drastically reduce" prison health care costs.

I predict that inmates will kill each other at a higher rate, and that will reduce health costs.

If an inmate is on death row, or life, chemo shouldn't be an option, that I know.

TNR

O'Reilly getting hard with Bush. I hesitate to publish the whole thing here, but what the fuck.

For those who've been complaining that George W. Bush doesn't grant enough interviews, the president's decision to appear on "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Dr. Phil" this week has proven that he's prepared to undergo the sort of grilling rarely seen since Leonardo DiCaprio took off the gloves with Bill Clinton in 2000. (President Clinton: "Just by changing the lighting in this whole building [the White House] we lowered our electric bills by $100,000 a year." DiCaprio: "Wow.") There was always the chance, however, that Bill O'Reilly--who despite a reputation for toeing the Fox News party line (not that there is one, of course) considers himself "one of those independent men"--might actually ask a couple of hard questions and even follow them up. But with Fox News having aired about one third of O'Reilly's interview with Bush last night--the rest is on the way tonight and tomorrow--it's pretty clear that hopes for a genuinely tough interview must now rest with Dr. Phil.

At first, O'Reilly seemed a bit awed by the occasion and jabbered a bit: "I've got 15 questions for you. If they're dumb, tell me they're dumb. Because the audience will like that. If they're dumb questions, say, 'Look, O'Reilly, that's just dumb.'" (Bush seemed amused but did not reciprocate the invitation.) Then the first question: "According to a poll taken by the Coalition Authority last spring, only 5 percent of the Iraqi people see the United States as liberators. Are you surprised they don't appreciate the American sacrifice more?" Well, okay, this was a decent start, even if the emphasis on Iraqi ingratitude was a trifle unseemly. (Hey, it is Fox.) Bush answered with a standard riff about things being "tougher than heck right now," but progress, he said, was being made, and one day Iraqis will "look back and say, 'Thank God for America.'"

And, to be fair, O'Reilly's follow up was solid, too: "But can they vote when people are being blown up, and these guys are threatening them?" To which Bush replied, "That's when you're supposed to vote"--an unwelcome surprise to voters who still rely on more traditional means of marking election dates.

But then the tough talk stopped. O'Reilly--who once declared: "If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean. He has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again"--evidently feels it would be unwise to rush to any conclusions. The exchange with Bush on the subject of WMD in Iraq went as follows:

O'REILLY: What happened to Saddam's chemical arsenal, do you know?

BUSH: No. I don't. We thought we'd have stockpiles. Uh, we do know he had the capability of making weapons. And that capability could have been passed on to terrorists, and that was a risk, after 9/11, we could not afford to take.

O'REILLY: No I understand that. But you, to this day, don't know what happened to his chemical weapons. He didn't tell us, and, and....

BUSH: No. Not yet.

O'REILLY: He hasn't given us much, has he?

BUSH: No ...

And Bush went on to agree that, true enough, Saddam Hussein has provided us with no information on the missing weapons and that Saddam will continue to be uncooperative, since he has no incentive to tell the truth. What soon became obvious, unfortunately, was that this sort of exchange would characterize the entire interview. O'Reilly's thorniest questions had a curious habit of morphing into marshmallows:

O'REILLY: The mission-accomplished statement in May 2003, if you had to do it all over again, would you not have done it?

BUSH: Uh, well first of all, the statement said, thank you for be--serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, thank you for being on one of the largest, longest cruises in our nation's history. Thank you for serving our country, and we've still got tough work in Iraq. Now I'm, I'm going to go and thank our troops every chance I get.

Here a conscientious interviewer might have pointed out that--even accounting for tricks of memory--such a statement would have been a bit lengthy for a two-word banner. O'Reilly, however, took a different path:

O'REILLY: But the press spinned it, you know how they spinned it.

BUSH: Well, they spin everything.

So there it was: The press had once again victimized the president, a gentle naïf in a world of spin.

Most impressive of all was O'Reilly's follow-up technique, which consisted of sternly--very sternly (O'Reilly runs a "no spin" zone, after all)--asking the president if he was sure. Call it the "You sure? Okay" method:

O'REILLY: Do you think the Iraqis are going to fight for their freedom?

BUSH: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: You do.

BUSH: No question in my mind, they will, you bet. [Bush elaborates.]

O'REILLY: Okay.

Or, on the subject of Bush's landing on the aircraft carrier:

O'REILLY: Would you do it again?

BUSH: You mean have the sign up there?

O'REILLY: No, no, but go in there with the flight jacket.

BUSH: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: You would.

BUSH: Of course. [Bush elaborates.]

O'REILLY: Okay.

And so on. O'Reilly did manage to squeeze an assurance out of Bush that Iran would not be permitted to build a nuclear weapon, but where the host truly regained his nerve was on the topic of the greatest concern to Americans--well, greatest concern after the economy, terrorism, health care, Iraq, taxes, the deficit, foreign affairs, the environment, and corporate corruption, according to a February 2004 Gallup poll. We speak, naturally, of illegal immigrants. O'Reilly remained persistent on this subject. When Bush asserted, for instance, that the "long-term solution for this issue on our border is for Mexico to grow a middle class--that's why I believe in NAFTA," O'Reilly responded with, "We'll be in the grave."

More tough stuff tonight, I'm sure.

Too Funny

Props to Gawker for some O'Leilly/Stewart perspective:

When Fox News' rabid figurehead Bill O'Reilly called Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" viewers "stoned slackers," we thought it was funny because, well, we were ridiculously high...

Um, maybe this was just our experience, but doesn't the four years of college indicate an increased likelihood of drug use? It's not like O'Reilly's farmhand viewers were blowing rails off of their organic chemistry books to pull an all-nighter.

$50 a Barrel and Liberation Combo! 

Freed

I'm convinced the terrorists had a staring contest with Ms. Pari and lost, hence why they let her go.

Vote Now!

Anyone can vote in Florida right now!

Thank you, Dee.

OutFOXed, Again

Stoners watch Stewart. Idiots O'Reilly?

The folks at Comedy Central were annoyed when Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly kept referring to “The Daily Show” audience as “stoned slackers.”

So they did a little research. And guess whose audience is more educated?

Viewers of Jon Stewart’s show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch “The O’Reilly Factor,” according to Nielsen Media Research.

O’Reilly’s teasing came when Stewart appeared on his show earlier this month.

“You know what’s really frightening?” O’Reilly said. “You actually have an influence on this presidential election. That is scary, but it’s true. You’ve got stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night and they can vote.”

There's more.

Commercials

Putting Swift Boats aside, the other night ESPN was running two ads during Sunday Night Football.

The first is a Nike Ad featuring a new ride, "The Michael Vick Experience." Kudos to Phinale Dees and WK for creating that for it is a riot.

Second, is probably the most absurd ad I've ever seen and it's for Comcast Cable. I know many of you reside outside Jersey, but if you have Comcast you may have seen it.

The ad features a black guy driving around town (we'll call him Brian), describing his work for Comcast. But on a day unlike any other he noticed some smoke rising from a nearby house. Cut to an old couple standing on the front lawn of their home, describing the terror taking over the house. Now we go back to Brian who has just noticed the smoke and he's saying something to the effect, "I saw the smoke, and knew I had to do something."

Old Woman, "Next thing I know there's something pulling me out of the house."

Brian, "I was just doing my job."

Old Husband, "If that's the way Comcast trains all their employees, well golly gee, I can't imagine them providing us with bad service."

I swear to god!!! That is the gist of the commercial!

Aside from installing cable and internet service, COMCAST SAVES LIVES!!!

If I see it again I'll be sure to keep my eye out for an American Flag which has to be waving in the wind somewhere in the background.

Tell Grammy

NYTIMES:

Federal investigators said Monday that the Bush administration had improperly allowed some private health plans to limit Medicare patients' choice of health care providers, including doctors, nursing homes and home care agencies.

The investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, also said that the private plans had increased out-of-pocket costs for the elderly and had not saved money for the government, contrary to predictions by Medicare officials.

I can't remember a day when there was this much shit against one administration. Well, at least shit that matters.

Yet at the same time the polls show Bush leading. Really is a Bizzaro world.

Exactly

VP Candidate, Senator John Edwards:

"They will absolutely lie about anything."

She's Been There

Former Texas Governor Ann Richards on Bush, George Bush:

"If we in this country have become the kind of people that we don't want to know anything more than some simplistic answer or non-answer to questions, then God help us," she said. "If we want to elect people to public office whose whole purpose and goal is to avoid controversy and avoid answering the tough questions about government, then we're in terrible shape."

I guess we'll find out.

The Promiser

WaPo:

In his convention address in New York, President Bush announced a new $1 billion initiative to enroll "millions of poor children" in two popular government health programs. But next week, the Bush administration plans to return $1.1 billion in unspent children's health funds to the U.S. Treasury, making his convention promise a financial wash at best.

The loss of $1.1 billion in federal money means six states participating in the State Children's Health Insurance Program face budget shortfalls in 2005; it is enough money to provide health coverage for 750,000 uninsured youngsters nationwide, according to two new analyses by advocacy organizations.

D-Town News

From the Detroit News:

DETROIT — The Bush administration and Congress have scaled back programs that aid the poor to help pay for $600 billion in tax breaks that went primarily to those who earn more than $288,800 a year.

To offset the loss of the tax revenue, the administration has amassed record federal deficits and trimmed social spending.

The affected programs — job training, housing, higher education and an array of social services — provide safety nets for the poor. Many programs are critical elements in welfare-to-work initiatives and were already badly underfunded.

A six-month Detroit News investigation showed that as a result of the withering government assistance, working poor and destitute Americans are increasingly likely to be placed on waiting lists for help, receive reduced services, or be denied service entirely...

The number of Americans living in poverty has risen 10 percent since 2000, after falling in the late 1990s. Nearly 36 million Americans — one in eight — now live in poverty and tens of millions more are considered working poor.

I'm shocked.

Can't help but wonder why the people with the most to lose aren't the ones paying for this war. In fact, they're getting more tax cuts. Spare me the trickle down, since Bush and this Congress have also spent the most money as well.

The Official Mailer

Banning the Bible.

It's rumored there's a movement in some Red States to ban reruns of the Flintstones to avoid the possibility that children will have a "gay old time."

It's all about the children.

Left Something Out

Typical story about how we're not fighting the War on Terror efficiently:

Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 120,000 hours of potentially valuable terrorism-related recordings have not yet been translated by linguists at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and computer problems may have led the bureau to systematically erase some Qaeda recordings, according to a declassified summary of a Justice Department investigation that was released on Monday...

Overhauling the government's translation capabilities has been a top priority for the Bush administration in its campaign against terrorism. Qaeda messages, saying "Tomorrow is zero hour" and "The match is about to begin," were intercepted by the National Security Agency on Sept. 10, 2001, but not translated until days later, underscoring the urgency of the problem...

With $48 million in additional financing since the Sept. 11 attacks, the number of linguists at the F.B.I. rose to 1,214 as of April 2004 from 883 in 2001, with sharp increases in the number of translators of Arabic, Farsi and other languages considered critical to counterterrorism investigations. But Mr. Fine's report made clear that the expansion had not eliminated the management and efficiency problems that dogged the bureau even before Sept. 11.

Maybe we're having problems because they GET RID OF TRANSLATORS WHO ARE GAY?

Side Issue

AP:

North Korea says it has turned the plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons to serve as a deterrent against increasing U.S. nuclear threats and to prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia.

Krugman adds:

There's also North Korea, which Mr. Bush declared part of the "axis of evil," then ignored when its regime started building nuclear weapons. Recently, when a reporter asked Mr. Bush about reports that North Korea has half a dozen bombs, he simply shrugged.

No biggie.

Sorta funny

So today an Iraqi judge drops charges against Ahamd Chalabi, the former US Point man in Iraq. Last week PM Ayad Allawi was here bullshitting about the situation in Iraq.

What's funny is these two are on two completely different sides of the issues, and believe Iraq should go in different directions. They admittedly are practically enemies.

So for the US to now glorify him is now the greatest flip-flop in modern history.

I guess I'm too nuanced.

Google News

I was commenting about Google News last week, and I think I've moved close to an answer.

I had wondered if the top stories were chosen by Google or were based on hits. I have to assume it's based on what someone over at Google News wants to highlight because right now at 6:28 on Monday the top news story at Google is by Daily Kos, a blogger.

Certainly interesting.

Right?

Noam Scheiber:

If you think presidents get too much blame for a bad economy and too much credit for a good one, just wait till you see that same dynamic applied to terrorism. ...

He's referring to this piece by Milbank in the WaPo today.

Problems

Another Jewish conspiracy?

A former Roman Catholic bishop has been indicted on child rape charges in Massachusetts.

Prosectutors are accusing Thomas Dupre (doo-PRAY') of molesting two boys in the 1970s while he was a parish priest.

Dupre becomes the first Roman Catholic prelate indicted in the church-wide sex abuse scandal in the U-S.

I think there are bigger problems than supposed "liberals" who want to "ban the bible."

He Continues

Friend sends me another email:

Listen I am not trying to start this thing up again
although it is entertaining but I am at work and was
checking daves website when I found one of my emails
to him posted on his site. Listen this the forum i
choose to speak my mind on not some liberal blog where
nothing but commies read. Gluck wheres my back?

All you commies should be ashamed for a) reading b) making money and c) well, being commies.

Friend, I thought you relied on the other party to find your back?

Ruh Roh

US Senate candidate from Illinois, Alan Keyes, called Dick Cheney's daughter a "selfish hedonist" because of her gay lifestyle.

I mean who knows better than Alan since his own daughter is apparently gay?

Your Interests at Work

NYTIMES:

After a case of mad cow disease surfaced in Washington State late last year, federal regulators vowed to move swiftly to adopt rules to reduce the risks of further problems and restore confidence in the nation's meat industry.

Some rules were adopted this year. But a few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration, after heavy lobbying from the beef and feed industries, took steps to delay - and to the concern of food safety groups, possibly kill - completion of the most controversial and perhaps most expensive proposal for cattle companies.

That proposal would sharply restrict what could be included in animal feed. Shortly after the administration slowed its consideration of the rule, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association broke its nonpartisan tradition and endorsed President Bush for re-election.

The F.D.A. decision was part of a broader pattern.

In recent weeks, federal agencies across the vast Washington bureaucracy have delayed completion of a range of proposed regulations from food safety and the environment to corporate governance and telecommunications policy until after Election Day, when regulatory action may be more politically palatable.

The delays come after heavy lobbying by industry organizations, including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the cattle and feed industries, the four regional Bell operating telephone companies, big health care providers and timber and mining interests...

"Generally, regulatory submissions often get pushed off in election years,'' said Gene Kimmelman, a senior director of public policy at Consumers Union.

"What is unusual this time,'' he added, "is the clear pattern of holding back regulatory decisions that will benefit the largest industry players and will drive up prices and market place risks for consumers, ranging from telephones to drugs to the risks of contaminants of food. The pattern of slow rolling will ultimately benefit the largest players and hit consumers in the pocketbook.''

Ho hum.

"Developing..."

MSNBC:

Although the edited piece never ended up identifying Martino by name, the story, narrated by “60 Minutes” correspondent Ed Bradley, asked tough questions about how the White House came to embrace the fraudulent documents and why administration officials chose to include a 16-word reference to the questionable uranium purchase in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech.

But just hours before the piece was set to air on the evening of Sept. 8, the reporters and producers on the CBS team were stunned to learn the story was being scrapped to make room for a seemingly sensational story about new documents showing that Bush ignored a direct order to take a flight physical while serving in the National Guard more than 30 years ago.

“This is like living in a Kafka novel,” said Joshua Micah Marshall, a Washington Monthly contributing writer and a Web blogger who had been collaborating with “60 Minutes” producers on the uranium story. “Here we had a very important, well-reported story about forged documents that helped lead the country to war. And then it gets bumped by another story that relied on forged documents.”

So damaging story about the President and his lies about Iraq were about to hit TV when a crazier fake story preempts the larger more important story ends up on TV instead, discrediting the network and any future story they may run...

I'm sure everything is just as it seems.

Fresh

Yesterday after brunch my friend Andy, who's an interior designer, tells me he has to take a trip to a client's place. The client was none other than Doug E. Fresh!

So we head up to Harlem where he resides and we go room to room talking about what needs to be done, like I know. I do know a lot needs to be done. Mr. Fresh is going to be featured on CRIBS, or a program like it in a month, so time is of the essence.

Good times.

Jimmy Carter

WaPo:

After the debacle in Florida four years ago, former president Gerald Ford and I were asked to lead a blue-ribbon commission to recommend changes in the American electoral process. After months of concerted effort by a dedicated and bipartisan group of experts, we presented unanimous recommendations to the president and Congress. The government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002. Unfortunately, however, many of the act's key provisions have not been implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes.

The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair.

Voting, it's soooo overrated.