The Passion of the Ritter
How many times have you read some version of the following sentiment: “Okay, okay, we admit Bush was wrong on Iraq’s weapons programs, but everybody was wrong about them.” More than a few times, yes? The argument starts to sound convincing after a while, just by the brute force of repetition. But it’s still false. Scott Ritter, who led the UN inspection teams for seven years in the 1990s, didn’t think so and you’d have to think he was pretty well positioned to judge. Ritter has op-eds in yesterday’s Guardian and today’s Independent regarding the just-released Duelfer Report. Both deserve your time. Starting with the Guardian piece:
Bush and Blair have argued that because the Iraqi government had failed to comply with previous security council resolutions regarding Iraq’s obligation to disarm, the right of enforcing these resolutions is implicit. Duelfer’s report slams the door on that line of thinking, since it is now clear that Iraq had in fact disarmed in compliance with security council resolutions. One of the tragic ironies of the decision to invade Iraq is that the Iraqi WMD declaration required by security council resolution 1441, submitted by Iraq in December 2002, and summarily rejected by Bush and Blair as repackaged falsehoods, now stands as the most accurate compilation of data yet assembled regarding Iraq’s WMD programmes (more so than even Duelfer’s ISG report, which contains much unsubstantiated speculation). Saddam Hussein has yet to be contradicted on a single point of substantive fact. Iraq had disarmed; no one wanted to accept that conclusion.
Charles Duelfer has to date provided no documentation to back up his assertion regarding Saddam’s “intent". Nor has he produced any confession from Saddam Hussein or any senior Iraqi official regarding the same. What has been offered is a compilation of hearsay and conjecture linked to unnamed sources whose identities remain shrouded in secrecy.
This, I believe, is the crux of the matter regarding Bush’s Iraq War Sequel. Time and again the president and his underlings have said that Hussein had to be removed because he refused to disarm. The pink elephant in the middle of the room that the administration still insists does not exist is the now plainly obvious fact that Saddam had already been disarmed. You cannot make a country give up weapons they no longer have, no matter how large of a saber you rattle. “Sanctions don’t work,” the hawks scream at every opportunity, but clearly, in this case, they did. Who disarmed Iraq? Why, that great appeaser of America-haters, Bill Clinton, and the treacherous, ineffectual United Nations. Makes your head hurt, doesn’t it, right-wingers?
The piece in the Independent is broader in scope and therefore harder to excerpt effectively, but makes the argument that not just Iraq but the entire world is now less safe than it was when Saddam was in power. You should read it all, but here’s the pivotal section for this post:
Continue reading…
Breaking…Oregonian to Endorse Kerry
We were cheering tonight when someone came in to say that the Portland Oregonian will endorse Kerry on its editorial page tomorrow. It is said that the editorial is very eloquent, but it hasn’t been posted on the web yet.
Four years ago, this is what they said:
But something else goes to the heart of our preference for Bush. To be successful, the next president must be more! than the sum of his views on the issues. He must have a talent for listening, setting priorities and he must be authentic.
During his tenure as governor, Bush has shown he can listen. He has been almost self-consciously bipartisan in Austin. His selection of a group of strong advisers – Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, foreign-affairs expert Condoleezza Rice, innovative Indianapolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith, Montana Gov. Marc Racicot – shows both moderation and a willingness to consider a wide range of views.
Tide’s turning!
Boycott the Media Manipulator !
With its decision to run a pseudo-documentary critical of John Kerry, under the claim that it’s ‘news’ instead of blatant propaganda, Sinclair Broadcast Group - which donates 97% of its campaign contributions to Republicans, is crossing the lines of fairness. Compelling its outlets to play hitmen on primetime between Oct 21-24 by airing the mockumentary, Sinclair - in conjunction with a former Moonie Times reporter - is demonstrating the arrogance of corporate media bias at its worst. (Note: and Bush, too, is doing end-runs around fairness by calling campaign speeches ‘press conferences’ and ‘radio addresses’ to gain absolutely free publicity that Kerry can’t access.)
Far be it from me to limit press freedoms by government fiat. I love our Constitutional protections too much to consider that. However, there is another, populist approach to lobby against this airing, by using popular will on the market that supports Sinclair.
Hitting them in their wallet with a consumer boycott is the only way popular will can be brought to bear on propagandists.
Bush Turns Radio Address Into Campaign Ad
Another episode of News in the News …
This is from the President’s Radio Address, today:
And to make sure America is the best place in the world to do business and create jobs, we will cut regulations, end junk lawsuits, pass a sound energy policy and make tax relief permanent. Senator Kerry takes a very different approach to our economy. He was named the most liberal member of the United States Senate, and that’s a title he has earned. Over the past 20 years, Senator Kerry has voted to raise taxes 98 times. He opposed all our tax relief, and voted instead to squeeze an extra $2,000 in taxes from the average middle class family. Now he’s running on an agenda of higher taxes and higher spending and more government control over American life. My opponent wants to empower government. I want to use government to empower people.
“Need some wood?”
From the debate last night:
Kerry: …But let me just address what the president just said.
Ladies and gentlemen, that’s just not true what he said. The Wall Street Journal said 96 percent of small businesses are not affected at all by my plan.
And you know why he gets that count? The president got $84 from a timber company that owns, and he’s counted as a small business. Dick Cheney’s counted as a small business. That’s how they do things. That’s just not right.
BUSH: I own a timber company?
(LAUGHTER)
That’s news to me.
(LAUGHTER)
Need some wood?
(LAUGHTER)
From Dick Cheney’s beloved Factcheck.ORG:
President Bush himself would have qualified as a “small business owner” under the Republican definition, based on his 2001 federal income tax returns. He reported $84 of business income from his part ownership of a timber-growing enterprise. However, 99.99% of Bush’s total income came from other sources that year. (Bush also qualified as a “small business owner” in 2000 based on $314 of "business income,” but not in 2002 and 2003 when he reported his timber income as “royalties” on a different tax schedule.)
(Oct 9; CORRECTION: What we originally reported as a “timber-growing” enterprise is actually described on Bush’s tax return as an “oil and gas production” concern, the Lone Star Trust. We were confused because The Lone Star Trust currently owns 50% of another company, “LSTF, LLC", described on Bush’s 2003 financial disclosure forms as a limited-liability company organized “for the purpose of the production of trees for commercial sales.” So, Bush does own part interest in a tree-growing company, but the $84 came from an oil and gas company and we should have reported it as such.)
Do’h! Need some wood indeed!
Be Careful How You Rewrite History
As always, Our Noble Leader made comments in last night’s debate which have been totally misunderstood:
Another example would be the Dred Scott case, which is where judges years ago said that the constitution allowed slavery because of personal property rights. That’s a personal opinion. That’s not what the constitution says. The constitution of the United States says we’re all – you know, it doesn’t say that. It doesn’t speak to the equality of America.Liberals have been gleefully playing “gotcha!” with this quote. They claim that the court actually denied Scott’s claims of citizenship not because of “property rights", but because his ancestors were brought from Africa as slaves. That phony leftist spin only proves the President was right. Continue reading…
The net result: now get the shirt
Lynda B. at Available Light has the link to the shirt defining the last debate.
It captures the new buzz of the under-30 voter.
Why We Need the Fairness Doctrine in Media
The Sinclair media company is planning to air “Stolen Honor", an anti-Kerry movie by Carlton Sherwood, a former reporter for the Washington Times (a right-wing newspaper owned by the infamous Reverend Moon) just a short time before the November elections:
Station and network sources said they have been told the Sinclair stations — which include affiliates of Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, as well as WB and UPN — will be preempting regular programming for one hour between Oct. 21 and Oct. 24, depending on the city. The airing of “Stolen Honor” will be followed by a panel discussion, which Kerry will be asked to join, thus potentially satisfying fairness regulations, the sources said.
Sinclair is not new to this kind of controversy:
The company made headlines in April when it ordered seven of its stations not to air Ted Koppel’s “Nightline” roll call of military dead in Iraq, deeming it a political statement “disguised as news content.” Sen. John McCain, the Republican from Arizona who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was among those who criticized Sinclair’s decision not to air the “Nightline” program, which featured the names and pictures of more than 700 U.S. troops.
The so-called liberal media in action, once again…
Scoring the Debaters on Women’s Issues
This is an easy one. Kerry won hands down. If you don’t believe me, note that Bush pretty much avoided referring to women at all, whereas Kerry spoke about the importance of the Supreme Court not only for reproductive rights but also for civil rights and as a guarantee of general fairness in the labor markets:
Kerry: What I want to find if I am privileged to have the opportunity to do it and the Supreme Court of the United States is at stake in this race, ladies and gentlemen, the future of things that matter to you in terms of civil rights: what kind of Justice Department you’ll have, whether we’ll enforce the law. Will we have equal opportunity? Will women’s rights be protected? Will we have equal pay for women, which is going backwards? Will a woman’s right to choose be protected? These are our constitutional rights.
And what did Bush say about the Supreme Court Justices he would appoint? He wants strict constructionists, but he won’t tell whom he’d appoint yet as he wants all their votes… Continue reading…
DEBATE REPORT!
Friday Funnies? Every day is Friday with Fafblog!
The Second Presidential Debate Ever this year took place tonight! Who won? Who lost? Who had presented a very presidential demeanor for much of the night until in the last moments of his closin statement began speakin in tongues, declarin war on the Dominican Republican an projectile vomiting on moderator Charlie Gibson? Here is a Fafblog Special Roundup for those a you who missed it.
Continue reading…
Weighing science against ethics
Ethics has to supersede science, and Bush made it clear last night that he’d maintain his decision that abortion was unethical, which will limit embryonic stem cell research if he’s re-elected. But all I could wonder as I consider all he did to rush us into war with cooked evidence, is ‘where was your ethical so-called pro-life position then, Mr. President?’ Is it here?
The Army chaplain had steeled himself for a week, knowing he was about to face the saddest funeral he’d ever performed.
After 19 years in the military, with dozens of eulogies behind him, Maj. Thomas McFarland still found it hard to compose himself during Friday’s double service for a Tucson soldier and his grief-stricken mother.
“It’s the hardest one I’ve ever done,” said McFarland, who broke down privately and wept shortly after performing final rites for Spc. Robert Unruh, 25, and his 45-year-old mother, Karen Unruh-Wahrer.
Unruh, a combat engineer with the 44th Engineer Battalion at Camp Howze, Korea, was killed in action in Iraq on Sept. 25. His mother collapsed and died a week later, shortly after viewing her son’s body.
Loved ones attributed her death to a broken heart. The medical examiner has not yet released an official cause.
And I wonder, too, where these so-called Christians are who readily compel us to meet their standards on abortion and the pledge of allegiance and gay marriage. Why are they silent on the lies, on the war profiteering of Dick Cheney and Halliburton and Custer Battles (begun by two active Republicans), on the bribes and corruption committed by Tom Delay, on years of detention for non-terrorists, on Abu Ghraib torture, etc.?
Surely, Jesus must be weeping at the silence and the way they use his name in vain.
Afghani Vote May Be Invalidated
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — All 15 candidates running against interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai boycotted Afghanistan’s historic election Saturday, claiming widespread fraud over the ink meant to ensure people voted only once.
The opposition candidates said they would not recognize the results of the vote because of what election officials described as a mix-up. The officials had said workers at a few voting stations mistakenly swapped the permanent ink meant to mark people’s thumbs with normal ink meant for ballots, but insisted the problem was caught quickly.
Massooda Jalal, the only woman in the field and one of the candidates to sign a petition boycotting the vote, said constituent complaints prompted her to act.
“In the morning I was prepared to vote, but within the past three hours I’ve received calls from voters that this is not a free and fair election,” she said. “The ink that is being used can be rubbed off in a minute. Voters can vote 10 times!”
Karzai’s spokesman, Khaleeq Ahmed, said any decision on whether or not to call off the vote should be made by the Joint Electoral Management Body, the U.N.-Afghan committee overseeing the vote. When Karzai had voted in Kabul, he even rubbed his thumb to show reporters the ink didn’t rub off.
Florida Follies Are Upon Us
With examples like these, I guess it’s time to invade Florida and restore democracy there.
I bet even the French and Iraqis would send help to our coalition.
Post-debate polls: Winner by a hair
USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll
Kerry 47%
Bush 45%
Tie 7%
ABC
Kerry 44%
Bush 41%
Tie 13%
It’s the Neoconomy, Bush
Some key points to the employment/unemployment pickle our country’s in:
A government jobs report released Friday shows the country fell short of generating the 150,000 jobs a month that some economists say is needed to absorb a growing labor force and keep the jobless rate steady. And among the most worrisome losers: factory jobs, which fell for the third time this year.
Manufacturing, a category that is critical in many of the so-called swing states in this year’s election campaign, lost 18,000 jobs, the most since December, according to Labor Department figures. The United States now has lost 2.71 million factory jobs since January 2001.
And 59,000 isn’t very much for 50 states when you’re looking for 150,000 just to break even with a growing labor pool:
Last month’s job gain was boosted by a 37,000 rise in government payrolls, meaning that private businesses’ hiring slowed to 59,000 last month after averaging 83,000 in the previous three months.
So more than 40% of the job growth was government jobs. I wonder who pays for that? And what do investment analysts and economists say?
Best debate analysis…
This time, Dave Pell’s thinking squares with my own, though he missed a couple of points I found important (Dred Scott and Kerry’s Missouri-based answers).
Be sure to click the ‘uh-oh’ link after his mention of Wonkette.
But can we bring these candidates to the level where the common rabble lives? Do either of these candidates know what a tank of gas costs these days? Daycare?
Here’s a softball question I’d ask George Bush: “Do you know what the minimum wage is? And… “Can you do the math and explain how people can afford necessities with a wage anywhere near that?” I bet he couldn’t even answer the first one.
Get to the level where the working class lives. Ask yourselves what will make an LPN or a sanitation worker or a short-order cook want what you have to offer. Then tie up your proposals into a universal theme that makes them say “Yeah!", that makes them say “I’d like an America like that.”
Kerry’s so close to it, I can feel it. But he’s gotta go the last mile to find it, to encapsule it, and make us want it.
Try us
Undecideds at the debate were impressed, but found little that shifted their opinion.
I still think it’s the vision thing. Other than attacking each other, neither side is opening themselves up to any grand summation of what America can be. Neither side is willing to say that the soldiers and their families are making all the sacrifices in these wars and in the quest to keep America safe and economically sound, it’s possible the rest of us will have to consider making a sacrifice or two.
Have we become such an entitlement society that the notion of sacrifice to aid our nation and its coming generations is beyond mention?
Create the appealling vision of where you’ll take us, Senator Kerry. And ask us to pitch in with work where necessary, and sacrifices that will surely be small next to those our troops are making.
Americans like inspiration and like to feel like they’re a necessary part of the solution. Try us.
Currie: Missouri “Back In Play” for Kerry
Teammate Chuck Currie was at the post debate rally and weighed in on the outcome. The money quote?
It was announced that the Kerry campaign – which had all but given up on Missouri – would start airing campaign commercials again here next week. That means this Midwest state is back in play.
Debate conclusion
Bush looked like a grownup tonight. This was a draw on performance.
On the factualness of their statements, however, Bush clearly lost. He misstated his Homeland Security spending, saying he tripled it when he didn’t quite double it. He never responded with specifics to key points Kerry made in several areas. One he never answers is about port security, which is exactly the way a nuclear bomb by terrorists would enter the country. Which is my major worry about terrorists.
Three big areas of difference: Bush completely misstated the Dred Scott decision and what it was about. Every Black American with a minimal knowledge of history will find offense in Bush’s claim that the judge interjected a personal opinion into it by treating blacks as property. The judge made it clear the decision was because blacks were Africans and had no rights.
The second was on the issue of stem cells and abortions. Bush defined himself the same way, selling himself to his base. Kerry took the opportunity provided to define his Catholicism, his opinions on a slew of family planning issues, why he voted against a couple of abortion modifiers (both were clearly flawed) in clear and certain terms. I think many more women will be shifting to Kerry because he demonstrated that those flawed bills didn’t protect women’s safety and women’s lives.
The third was provincial. Bush played to the audience and to the national audience. Kerry did, too, but he also had his facts in order over and over about Missouri. It showed he cared enough to do his homework about them, the people, which is more than a handshake and smile can do.
If judged on performance as showmanship, they both looked good and the debate was a tie. After fact checking and news quotes get read in Saturday papers, by Sunday or Monday the polls will clearly show that Kerry won.
alternate liveblog (we are large, we contain multitudes. come to think of it, we do)
Debate 2: Liveblog
Overall, this was the most engaging and interesting debate I’ve ever seen. Both men were very energized, rather good stylistically, and misleading. Kerry did well on not impersonating Jon Stewart’s impersonation of him as a dull and rather boring Joe “Joementum” Lieberman clone. Bush did well on hitting Kerry on campaign themes such as the $87 billion vote. As non-partisan as I can be, I think that Kerry won this one both on substance and on persuasiveness, although not as definitively as the first debate. Both men were extraordinarily weak in going for the jugular and using high-faluting rhetoric to denounce the others position as incompassionate and offensive to the common man. They mentioned it–but they were no Tim Ryan.
10:37pm – Bush closing statement. Bush is echoing a campaign ad going through the history of his administration: corporate scandals, recession, 9/11, tax cuts, Afghanistan, healthcare reform, jobs, energy plan that blows, and securing our nation. The theme of the closing is obviously leadership and more of the same if I’m re-elected. To Bush, the greatest threat to the world is hatorade–how can I disagree with that.
10:36pm – Kerry closing statement. It’s rather boring as it mentions alliances and plan multiple times. Kerry is going for all the points by going from Iraq, to the economy, the eduation system, and the environment. Very stale closing.
10:33pm – Bush follows through on my prediction, obviously, but does not follow through with it to the end by going off-message and talking about Saddam.
10:32pm – Kerry is not doing well on this question, although it is open for a crotch shot to Bush like no other. He continues his talk about coalition-building and whatnot while not attacking him on the areas named below. It’s getting better, however, as he is talking about the lack of armor for the soldiers and for the humvees, which will open him up to an attack on the $87 billion line.
10:31pm – Bush is questioned on mistakes. The questioner is making Bush angry. You won’t want to see him when he’s angry. Naturally, he is having a lot of trouble answering this question, but continues to assert that he is accountable for whatever mistakes he is not willing to admit. To him, mistakes have been made, but the little ones don’t matter only the big ones. He believes that going into Iraq was a good decision, but whether or not to disband the Iraqi army, to invade Fallujah, to take care of Sadr, to fix the intelligence community, to not alter the tax cut, to not respect fiscal discipline are simply irrelevant. Of course, he doesn’t name any mistakes, completely ignoring the question.
Debate 2 Intro
As I watch the various networks for my pre-debate update, one thing is incredibly striking–it is as if Bush supporters have had the wind knocked out of them with a sledge hammer to the gut. While I had declared John Kerry the undisputed winner of the first debate, I did not expect it to have such a large impact on the electorate. Polls before and after show that the consequences of an hour and a half of prime time television greatly surpassed what either campaigns were able to accomplish with their plastic made-for-television party conventions. A rather stunning combination of mediocrity and, at times, brilliance from John Kerry coupled with a stumbling, bumbling, flip-fumbling, jingling, dingling, evangelical-Christian-mingling performance by our commander-in-chief served the essential purpose of contrast, which in light of media manipulation by Republicans and media-manipulating impotence by Democrats, was a breath of fresh air.
While today’s debate is unlikely to have the same impact as the first one, as it is forced to compete with MLB playoffs, permiscuity, ladies’ night, and happy hour across the country, it will certainly continue the momentum shift that began during the middle of last week, solidifying Kerry’s recent surge. On a normal day, I would present the shear futility of Bush’s position and execution on issues such as poverty, the economy, tax cuts, the energy industry, shafting children, and free trade, or even his plans for the future, but I don’t see the point. If the first debate showed anything, it was that outside his coccoon, Dear Leader is unable to withstand semi-serious scrutiny resorting to Jenna-type facial musings to get his point across.
Live-blogging will commence at 9:00pm.
Secretary of Army nominee raises speculation, hackles
For those who haven’t been to Cyndy’s mousemusings in awhile, she took some of her best art and redesigned her site into a beautimous thing.
She tipped me off to a post by our old teammate, Shari, about the pending appointment of a new Secretary of the Army who’s tied to companies under the wing of the Carlyle Group (the defense corporation overseer that had Pater Bush and the Bin Ladens on board, along with old spook Frank Carlucci, and others) at the time of 9-11.
The appointee has no military background at all, which has the military brass a’grumble.
Sixty-year-old fratboys
I’ve always admired fratboys–not for their education, but because of their ability to add a sense of importance to the silliest practices. Who else can make lying drunk in a puddle of puke seem like the ultimate college experience. They are able to accomplish this because they are born leaders, men so secure in their righteous arrogance that no one dares wonder aloud if there is any “there,” there. As consumers who prefer style over substance, we follow them without question.
Debating For Dummies
While surfing the ‘Net, I came across a Very Important Fact That Everyone Should Know About. Apparently, the United States of America is holding an election very soon, and it’s for, get this, the PRESIDENCY! Not only that, but the candidates will be on television … TONIGHT! I also noticed that quite a few people are doing pre-debate predictions, and because I strive to be Just Like Everyone Else, I came up with a few of my own.
1) Someone will lie. Oh, yes, they will, and often. Ordinarily, I consider lying to be a bad thing, but this is for the Presidency, pal, the gloves are off! I mean, in all honesty, what other job can you say words like ‘Haliburton’ and ‘Filibuster’ on a regular basis, and not be laughed at?
2) Someone will come across as cool, collected and intelligent. The other one will come across like Grover from Sesame Street on acid. This is determined by a large number of factors, such as what political camp you belong to, and whether you have ever worked for Fox News.
3) Scooby and the gang will pop up, pull off someone’s mask and announce that he is not really a Presidential candidate, but really Old Man Wankers from the glue factory.
4) There will also be some discussion about Important Issues, such as the war, Iraq, and that there is currently a war being fought in Iraq, which clearly means that the other guy should not be elected, but should, in fact, be taken out and beaten with sticks.
5) There will be no discussion about Really Important Issues, such as why Paris Hilton is allowed to operate a motorized vehicle, and why Celine Dion is allowed to remain in the United States.
Continue reading…
Time for Bush to Detox?
George W. Bush may fail to appear at Friday evening’s debate after checking into a power detoxification clinic. Bush was confronted Friday afternoon with an intercession by his family — his father, mother and brothers — and former political allies who believe he and Dick Cheney may have misunderstood their 2000 election “mandate.”
“Perhaps looking at the popular vote defeat in 2000 as a mandate for your agenda might not have been prudent at this juncture,” said former President George H. W. Bush, in joining an intercession with his son at the Oval Office. “At least you had the sense not to deliver any new taxes.”
The younger Bush was surrounded by many of his former top advisers, led by Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Treasury Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neal, and former National Security Advisor Richard Clarke, as well as Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa. “It’s time to put a cork into your bat,” Sosa advised the son of the man who emancipated him from the Texas Rangers. “Your coming up to bat in the ninth inning on November 2, and right now, it looks like you’re going to have a very long winter in Crawford without a newspaper subscription.”
Jeb Bush warned his brother that Florida might be going South in this election. “People are beginning to remember that they were never hit by as many hurricanes when Clinton was President.”
But it was Clarke who drew first fire from the commander-in-chief. “Good grief, Dick, after all these years since your memos, you never put out the fire in your hair?”
“I still believe that America should be on red alert,” Clarke responded. Continue reading…
The Kerry Campaign makes a slight tactical error…
Bringing Delusionocracy to America
“The Bush Administration’s economic policies continue to fail to generate the jobs that the administration claimed would be created. When President Bush argued for his “Jobs and Growth” tax cut plan last year, his Council of Economic Advisers predicted the creation of millions of jobs. Thus far, the national economy has fallen over two million jobs short of what was projected, with only two states ahead of projections. ” (Jobs Watch)
Unemployment Rate Unchanged in September.
No Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq since 1991
Contrary to Cheney’s claim, he’s met Edwards on at least three previous occasions, including a prayer breakfast where they were seated next to each other for two hours.
France offerred 15,000 troops to coalition; Bush declined.
Nuclear proliferation to rogue regimes done by Pakistani scientist. Al Qaida trained at Pakistani Madrassass. Pakistani nuclear scientists visited Taliban.
15 of 19 hijackers on 9-11 were Saudis. Al Qaida funding funnelled through Saudi charities. Saudi economy booms on record high oil prices.
Not waving, but drowning
George Bush, John Snow and all the Governors of the Federal Reserve have been out on the propaganda circuit of late, talking up the US economy to anyone who will listen. It’s just a “soft patch,” they say; robust growth is just around the corner.
To anyone interested in cutting through the bull and looking at the actual numbers, however, this “soft patch” is far from over. In fact, it’s spreading (for all your deflating-economy-news needs, stop by General Glut’s Globblog).
The latest evidence is the lackluster jobs report from September, released today by the Labor Department. Last month the US economy produced just 96,000 new jobs. Lest you think this is a good number and thus become a victim of Bush administration spin, note that we need around 150,000 new jobs just to keep up with population growth. Thus in September the US economy generated only about two-thirds of the jobs necessary just to tread water.
This chart shows the number of nonfarm jobs in the US from January 2001 to the present to the left of the vertical black line. As you can see we’re still well short of the March 2001 high – 940,000 jobs short to be precise. The trend line (to the right of the horizontal black line) from the last four months tracks a pretty sad path. At the rate we’re going, the US economy will simply make it back to the March 2001 jobs level in July 2005! From peak to recovery, that’s a 52-month jobs recession.
Here’s a bit of perspective. The Carter jobs recession lasted 11 months. The Nixon/Ford jobs recession lasted 24 months. The Reagan jobs recession lasted 26 months. The GHWBush jobs recession lasted an amazing 38 months (remember the “jobless recovery” of the 1990s?). Dubya’s is 42 months and counting.
Herbert Hoover, eat your heart out.
Forget what Bush and his cronies say today. We’re not waving, but drowning.
Congratulations
… on winning the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari
Showdown At The Tempe Corral
[With apologies to Sir Walter Scott.]
Oh! young Dubya Bush is come out of the west,
Through all the Lone Star State his spin was the best;
And with his connections mere votes he could shun.
Though second in ballots, the Court said he won.
So saved from his sin, and so former a lush,
There never was Prez like the young Dubya Bush.
He paused not for U.N. and stopped not for Pope,
He bombed the Euphrates and made leftists mope,
But ere he wore flight suit to his third debate
The people were misled, the hero came late:
For a tosser of medals and spewer of mush
Was seducing the voters from young Dubya Bush.
Continue reading…
Cheney Claims Saddam Had Ties to Rumsfeld
Stung by charges that he distorted information in Tuesday’s debate with Senator John Edwards, Vice President Dick Cheney today opened a two-pronged offensive against what he called “out-of-touch Democrat appeasers and liberally-biased facts.”
Cheney first took aim at Charles Duelfer’s report, released Wednesday, which found that Iraq had “‘essentially destroyed’ its illicit weapons ability by the end of 1991, with its last secret factory, a biological weapons plant, eliminated in 1996.” In response, Cheney argued that the report bears out the Bush Administration’s claims about Iraq and WMD:
MIAMI (AP) – Vice President Dick Cheney asserted on Thursday that a finding by the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq that Saddam Hussein’s government produced no weapons of mass destruction after 1991 justifies rather than undermines President Bush’s decision to go to war.
The report shows that “delay, defer, wait wasn’t an option,'’ Cheney told a town hall-style meeting.
While Democrats pointed to the new report by Charles Duelfer to bolster their case that invading Iraq was a mistake, Cheney focused on portions that were more favorable to the administration’s case.
“The headlines all say no weapons of mass destruction stockpiled in Baghdad. We already knew that,'’ Cheney said.
Cheney’s statement put him at odds with other high-ranking Administration officials, notably Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who argued in February 2003 that Iraq possessed “more lethal and dangerous” biological and chemical weapons than in 1991:
Continue reading…
Librarians of the Revolution: Amend the Patriot Act!
Defending democracy begins at the library, as Rod at Proof Through The Night points out. (I had to scroll a ways to get to the content)
The Whatcom County, Washington librarians are as much patriots as the Minutemen at Lexington and Concord.
I propose an action to wake up our government.
Here’s how to contact its Director:
Afghani Women Voting
Saturday, Bush will try to claim he’s done an amazing thing for Afghanistan, as they head to a vote in their new democracy. Our Goddess, Echidne, has some thoughts about the womens’ vote there.
In some ways the ability to vote may not matter very much to most Afghan women. Their lives are so affected by tradition, religion and their immediate family members that any distant political changes in Kabul might go completely unnoticed. A country which imprisons a twelve-year old for refusing her father’s decision to marry her off to an old man has a long way to go before it can be called a democracy, whether women vote or not.
I also believe that Karzai would have won by such a huge margin that it’d look staged. So he got his good friend, the Education Commissioner, to resign and run against him. He’s telegenic and talks well and is widely considered to be his primary contender.
This could drop Karzai to, say a 58% win and make things look all hunky dory. If he unexpectedly loses, well, the Education Minister is largely the same puppet. As well, as Echidne points out, the women are likely to vote as they’re told to. In a society like that, do you think any have faith in the concept of a secret ballot? Not very bloody likely. Which means the warlords will get votes from their minions as ordered, the women will vote as their hubbies instruct them, etc.
I’m secretly hoping they elect George Bush, because I have so many Texan friends and I hate to make them nervous with him living so near after January.
EMERGENCY !!!!!
I just noticed this message in the sidebar ad for Ginny Schrader!
The GOP is so scared of losing PA-08 that they dumped HALF A MILLION DOLLARS into TV ads against Ginny Schrader.
We need to get Ginny the money she needs to reserve TV time ASAP to counter these ads.
Make an emergency contribution today!
Together, we can win this
Click on the first link to see what the GOP is up to. THEN COME BACK HERE AND PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE send money to Ginny RIGHT AWAY!
I’m not gonna play nonsense games like adding 13 cents so she knows where it came from. Just give what you can. Every bit we can raise as a fast response will show the GOP we’re not letting such a great candidate go without one HELLUVA fight!
DON’T FORGET !!!!
Tomorrow is our Friday Funnies, featuring General JC Christian, the fafblog trio, Ayn Clouter, Barbara Sehr, Corey Anderson and Tom Burka.
Also, because I’m gainfully unemployed and tired of people making fun of me, I’m happy to introduce someone unemployed and funnier than me to the festivities: HappyFunBall of The Un-Common Tater
Bring your whoopie cushions folks; there’ll be more surprises in forthcoming Fridays, because, dammit, we’re gonna make you laugh, to stop that incessant whining.
And be sure to go pee first.
An end to the conflict means the next awaits
Texas. Arkansas. Texas. Southern California. Georgia. Southern California. Texas.
Anyone see a pattern here? Any idea what the next three in the sequence are?
Massachusetts, sort of. Kansas. Missouri.
Perhaps this will explain it better:
Terror Alert! They’re After Your Kids!
Predictably, the Bush Administration is trying to ratchet up the fear quotient in an attempt to turn our attention from the campaign. This time, they’re using the Education Department:
The Education Department has advised school leaders nationwide to watch for people spying on their buildings or buses to help detect any possibility of terrorism like the deadly school siege in Russia.
…"The horror of this attack may have created significant anxiety in our own country among parents, students, faculty staff and other community members,” Deputy Education Secretary Eugene Hickok said in a letter to schools and education groups.
This shameless use of the Education Department doesn’t really surprise me. I expect the Agriculture Department to be warning us about threats to crops and livestock next.
Rolling to Overcome Poverty Isaiah Platform Bus Tour
Call To Renewal, a Christian anti-poverty group run by Jim Wallis (see related post on his recent visit to St. Louis) this week launched their “Rolling to Overcome Poverty Isaiah Platform Bus Tour“. The bus will visit 13 cities in swing states in an effort to focus the attention of religious voters on poverty.
Tour Details
10/06/2004
Jim Wallis, Dr. Tony Campolo and recording artist Carrie Newcomer to kick-off bus tour in Minneapolis.10/12/04 and 10/13/04
Donald Whitehead Executive Director of National Coalition for the Homeless to join tour in Detroit and in Cincinnati10/10/04 and 10/16/04
Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, to speak in Chicago and PhiladelphiaEmerging Christan Leaders Join the Bus Tour:
Call to Renewal is making a special effort to reach out and support today’s emerging Christian leaders. Meet the five young leaders–ages 30 and under–who will join us on the bus tour. Be sure to check back to read their blogs chronicling their experiences through America’s heartland to make poverty a religious and moral issue.
Those involved are asking voters and candidates to endorse the Isaiah Platform:
Based on a portion of Isaiah 65, Call to Renewal’s “Isaiah Platform” is a three point policy commitment that links religious values with economic justice, moral behavior with political commitment.
Check out their site and if the bus is in your city go meet them and hear the word.
Blame France
As Baghdad burns, “President” Bush on television explaining to the world that the Duelfer Report, which says there were no WMDs in Iraq and haven’t been for a long time, confirms that he was right to order the invasion of Iraq.
Kinda horribly awesome, ain’t it? Who could make this shit up?
The spin, as near as I can reconstruct it, is that Saddam Hussein was gaming the system. He had corrupted the UN food-for-oil voucher program and this would somehow lead to the removal of sanctions, and when those sanctions were removed he was gonna build weapons of mass destruction and new-cue-lar weapons and attack Amurrica because he hates our freedoms. Therefore, it was absolutely essential that Iraq be invaded in March 2003, and not one minute later, because there was no time to wait until this scheme was carried out and Saddam Hussein had reconstituted all of his weapons of mass destruction and became a threat to world peace. Therefore, we had to start a war right away.
There’s a fellow on television saying that as a member of the UN security council, the US could have blown the UNscam open to the world and put a stop to it at any time, and that the US has known about it for awhile, but it couldn’t say anything because it might have pissed off France. Yeah, that makes sense. No, wait, the reason the United States had to stay mum about UNscam is that if we had pissed off France the UN might have lifted sanctions on Iraq. So war was the only option. Oh, yes, that makes so much more sense.
Breaking News
I’m watching CNN, and I’m watching a firefight at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Baghdad. Lots of journalists stay there. Still, this is distressing news.
The voiceover is saying something about urban warfare unfolding before our eyes. What’s Bush been saying about conditions in Iraq getting better and better? Lordy, there’s tracer fire whizzing across the screen. This is Baghdad, mind you.
No WMDs. No connection between Zarqawi and Saddam Hussein. No connection to 9/11. Edwards met Cheney before this week. Wow.
Just how far can cognitive dissonance be stretched?
What’s Hype Got to Do With It?
(or: Why so many critics miss the message of Fahrenheit 9/11)
There’s a scene in the classic sci-fi novel The Space Merchants that is so damn perfect.
First of all, like most science fiction, we have the futuristic but recognizable dystopia. There’s no public/private, commerce/government sectors anymore; commercial values are the only values, and you are either living good at the top of the food chain scamming the common people or you are an unaware consumer scrambling for your next artificially induced fix. The brainwashers and the brainwashees.
Of course, the whole setup rests on the acceptance of commercial exploitation by the people at the top – the sharp characters not unlike many a marketing guru in the here and now.
The protagonist of the novel is one of these slick individuals, an advertising executive and expert “copysmith,” until a rival has him stripped of his identity and sent to work as a common laborer in a suitably horrific, sci-fi version of a third-world sweatshop. It’s there that he meets members of an underground resistance movement.
Thugs to the Right of Us, Thugs to the Left of us …
Rightie blogger Professor Bainbridge chronicles incidents of intimidation of Bush-Cheney campaign workers and vandalism against Bush-Cheney campaign offices. Severity of incidents ranges from teens trashing yard signs to battery – somebody punched a Republican committee chairman. Bainbridge writes,
If this sort of thing were happening to Democrats, both the Michael Moore-types and the mainstream media would be screaming about Republican stormtroopers directed by Reichsführer-SS John Ashcroft. Since it’s happening to Republicans, however, it is mostly covered just by local media. In any event, it cerainly gives one pause about putting up a Bush yard sign or putting on a Bush bumpersticker.
This sort of thing has happened to Democrats, of course, but I don’t know if anyone is keeping tabs. I did a news google and came up with a few recent incidents: Continue reading…
CNN Playing Games With Public Trust
Raw Story is reporting that CNN has purged the results of the poll which they were offering after Wednesday night’s VP debate. I took part in that poll myself directly after the debate, and at the time I took it, the result was 77% for an Edwards win.
Here is proof of results from the poll they removed.
CNN replaced the original poll in the 12 p.m EDT hour yesterday, completely eliminating all previous results.
The original poll, which asked simply, “Who do you think won the vice presidential debate?” was replaced with “Did the vice presidential debate help you decide which way you will vote?” (A ridiculous question with no potential for analysis favoring one candidate or the other). Then, Raw Story alleges the original question was reinstated by CNN, but the results from the original poll, about 200,000 responses, were discounted altogether.
The new poll has Cheney with nearly twice as much support. CNN has not returned Raw Story’s request for comment. It appears that CNN is playing games with the numbers and with the public trust.
While we’re on the subject of CNN, I keep thinking about the gruesome possibilities and potentiality of pillow talk between date-mates Daryn Kagan and Rush Limbaugh. The way I see it, because of her love connection, CNN’s Kagan may cop a de facto attitude, and it’s not a possibility that fosters trust among rational viewers. Every time I see Kagan deliver the news, I trust CNN less and less. I believe it’s only natural that people would feel this way.
Latest Tennessee Poll
Knoxville TV station WBIR reported a statewide SurveyUSA poll last night (which is curiously not on their web site or in the local paper) that shows Bush ahead by 19 points in Tennessee, 58% to 39%.
According to the poll taken between 10/3 and 10/5, Kerry leads by 2 points in West Tennessee, Bush leads by 23 points in Middle Tennessee and by 30 points in East Tennessee. Bush is up 5 points overall from the previous SurveyUSA poll taken 9/20-9/22. This is the strongest lead for Bush to date in Tennessee.
SurveyUSA uses an automated telephone polling system with pre-recorded announcers and randomly sampled telephone numbers. The poll was contracted by WBIR.
That Middle Tennessee number seems a little suspect to me. In fact, the entire poll seems suspect. Unfortunately, though, the final SurveyUSA poll for the Governor’s race on 10/28/2002 correctly predicted a win for Democrat Phil Bredesen.
On the bright side, SurveyUSA significantly under polled Democrats (and maybe independents) in the 2002 governor’s race. Their final poll showed Bredesen 48% to 44%. The final result was Bredesen 55% to 44%. Hopefully they are under polling Democrats in this case, too, but either way a 19 point lead is a pretty tough row to hoe for Kerry.
Maybe Kerry has seen these numbers and that’s why he won’t campaign here. Or maybe these numbers reflect the fact that he won’t campaign here. Who knows? Anyway, we need to work harder and do whatever we can here in Tennessee but I’m beginning to wonder if us Tennessee Democrats shouldn’t pack up and go help in Ohio or Pennsylvania or Florida.
At one point Tennessee was in play. We have gone from basically tied (exactly tied in a July Zogby/WSJ poll) to this. I don’t know what happened. I know that Tennessee Democrats are working hard and the level of enthusiasm is high. There are Kerry/Edwards signs all over Knox County and Blount County here in GOP stronghold East Tennessee, including all the major highways going in and out of Knoxville. I see very few Bush/Cheney signs on the highways. Turnout has been good at Kerry/Edwards rallies and events. Kerry/Edwards campaign voter registration drives are producing record numbers of new voters. Democrats in Blount and Knox counties are as organized as I have ever seen them for a presidential election.
On the other hand, the Blount Co. Kerry/Edwards campaign chair told me the local Democratic party organization is MIA. We seem to be getting little support from them, at either the state or local level. Even our Governor, Democrat Phil Bredesen, appears to be sitting this one out. Curiously, we’re not hearing much from him in support of Kerry. The DNC is helping out, but I have heard that the Kerry/Edwards campaign has been slow to get campaign swag and other support to the local offices here.
Moreover, Republicans are highly organized and running like a well-oiled machine. They get anything they need and are flush with GOP cash. Here in East Tennessee the mayors of Knoxville and Knox County and all the big money players are strong Bush supporters and have the party organization in line. Bush has been to Tennessee at least five times for fundraising and campaign events disguised as official visits (so the taxpayers can foot the bill).
Despite all this, I think Democrats will make a better showing than this latest poll suggests. We are as energized and organized as I can remember. Hopefully it will be enough, but either way we aren’t going down without a fight.
OK, then.
MAJOR UPDATE: Much better news here. The latest Zogby/WSJ poll for Oct. 6th (yesterday) of 983 respondents has it Bush 48.7% and Kerry 47.8%, which is a tie. Let’s hope this one is more accurate.
not enough jet for hannity
thanks to romenesko, we found this item from the washington u. in st. louis student life newspaper detailing the facts about sean hannity…which apparently, are that if the jet ain’t good enough, he ain’t comin’:
Continue reading…since he can’t fly in style, sean hannity says he won’t come to st. louis at all.
after promising to counter michael moore’s speech this friday, the conservative commentator pulled out of the deal less than a week before his scheduled appearance-but reportedly asked that the media not be informed of his motivations for the decision.
hannity cited personal reasons for his cancellation, said law student ruth hollander after speaking with the right-wing pundit over the phone yesterday. hannity, hollander said, requested a private jet to fly him to st. louis for the speech, but then rejected “several” different jets offered by a private donor. he told hollander about a “bad experience” with the prominent company that had manufactured all the jets offered for his trip.
“[hannity’s agent] said he thought we should say that because of the short time frame involved, it didn’t work out,” said hollander. “i said i didn’t think that was the truth, and…i really felt we had met all of our commitments and we were going to be honest when asked.”
The Rise of Pseudo Fascism
Part 1: The Morphing of the Conservative Movement
Part 2: The Architecture of Fascism
Part 3: The Pseudo-Fascist Campaign
Its whole purpose being the acquisition of raw power through any means necessary, the discrete “conservative movement” and its dealings can at times be extremely disorienting. The proliferation of Newspeak as a political propaganda strategy by the American right, in particular, has created a milieu in which up is down, wrong is right and ignorance is strength.
At times, is seems as if factuality has no real basis. Truth has no objective value; it is instead a mutable thing, readily manipulated through repetition of propaganda talking points.
Think back, if you will, to the 2000 election fiasco in Florida, resulting in the abominable Bush v. Gore ruling (whose continuing significance was recently limned in detail by Jeffrey Rosen of the New Republic). Al Gore, you may remember, chose – instead of calling for an extralegal statewide manual recount, which would have been the fairest solution – to follow Florida state law to the letter and filed for recounts in only a handful of given counties.
This led, of course, to Republicans claiming that Gore tried to “steal” the election by “cherry-picking” enough votes in a handful of counties. It’s a popular meme that maintains a steady life on the right today.
But if Gore had chosen the other course – calling for a statewide manual recount in all counties – Republicans would have just as certainly attacked him for failing to follow the letter of Florida law.
The truth – that Gore had legitimate reasons for following either course – had no chance in this case. What mattered was that regardless of his choices, Republicans were prepared to accuse him of trying to “steal” the election.
Then, of course, they proceeded to march forth and steal the election themselves.
Determinedly fair-minded liberals were largely left utterly baffled by this bizarre twist of events. They have been even more baffled by the subsequent course of the Bush presidency, in which – despite a manifest lack of a mandate – a radical right-wing agenda has marched relentlessly forward, culminating in the disastrous invasion of Iraq. Throughout it all, the steady drumbeat of the right has been to blame everything wrong with the world on liberals.
Today we have a milieu in which this administration’s manifest incompetence is hailed as moral clarity; in which the torture of prisoners at American hands is dismissed as a fraternity prank; in which the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II is defended as a necessary step (that may need to be repeated); in which a policy to further denude America’s forests is called the Healthy Forests Initiative, and the evisceration of the nation’s public education system is named No Child Left Behind. We’re relentlessly sold an image of Bush himself as strong and resolute, and yet when he appears for a national debate on TV, what we see instead is a “peevish and bored” caricature of a leader, a man more likely to remind us the feckless pointy-haired boss we all once had than an actual president.
At times it seems, when dealing with the modern conservative movement, as if we’ve entered a gigantic and remorseless mirror funhouse. Or more to the point, a dark and labyrinthine cavern, twisting in an endless maze, whose architecture we can only vaguely discern through upheld torches.
Every now and then, though, someone within the movement hierarchy – often one at the very top – will let slip a bit of the curtain, flashing a little light on the vastness and shape of the metastatic architecture of the conservative movement. When it happens, it can be a little like the scene in Aliens when Ripley’s flamethrower lights up the interior of the lair into which she has wandered.
Continue reading…
When Predictions Go Bad…
Good News from PA
In the latest survey of 594 registered voters released late Wednesday, Kerry jumped in front of Bush by 48 percent to 41 percent. Independent candidate Ralph Nader received 3 percent, and 8 percent of respondents said they were undecided. The survey, conducted between Sept. 30 and Monday by Franklin and Marshall College’s Center for Opinion Research in Lancaster County, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The race is slightly tighter among likely voters, with Kerry ahead by 49 percent to 43 percent.
There’s more good news than that:
About 15 percent of the respondents are military veterans, and a majority of them appear to be breaking for Kerry. Of the veterans surveyed, 53 percent said they will vote for Kerry, compared to 39 percent for Bush. That’s a reversal from last month’s poll in which Bush led Kerry among veterans by a margin of 13 percentage points.
Things are SO Much Better for Women
Via Wilfred’s DailyKos diary: Oprah, who reaches 30 million viewers, did a show on what it was like to be female and 30 in various parts of the world.
While the Brazilian woman mentioned the importance of bikini-waxing, the Iraqi woman said this:
…the situation for women in Iraq has never been worse than it is now.
“I mean, welcome to the real world,” she says. “For me, as an Iraqi woman, I don’t feel safe. Anyone can attack me. Anyone can rape me. Anyone can even kill me, you know? We are full of fear. Iraqi women are losing their freedom instead of gaining freedom, because there is a lack of security. Now we’re supposed to be free. But now we are more afraid.”
For those of you who read Baghdad blogger Riverbend the description rings true. From the time the war started, Riverbend, who was employed as a software engineer, saw her world shrink smaller and smaller and smaller.
Coupled with NYT’s columnist Kristof’s reports that Afghan women still face beatings, forced marriages, and a 3-year jail sentence for not having an intact hymen, the Oprah segment really shows what a great job we’re doing in making life better for women wherever we go.
I sincerely hope Oprah will focus more attention on this. With a 30-million member audience, she can clue women in on the fact that W stands for Wrong, not Women.
Winning the Peace: Bush-style
Winning through better targeting.
And this was the reason Iraq was such a threat? He wanted love, recognition and power. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get anyone to pull strings to get him into the Texas Air National Guard and Yale.
Give Me a Job, or I’ll Bomb
I’m starting to wonder about the connection between terrorism and unemployment. If people don’t have work and can’t support their families, aren’t they more likely to engage in terrorism?
My morning paper held a small story, buried behind debate spin, about the inauguration of Major-General Alu Alkhanov as president of Chechnya. I was struck by this paragraph:
lkhanov’s installation is a key part of the strategy of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government for dealing with Chechnya – by fighting rebels while promoting elections and other measures aimed at stabilizing a region where nearly three-fourths of the estimated 1 million residents are unemployed.
Stifling Dissent with ludicrous claims
When a local GOP building gets shot at in the dead of night, is it the fault of a blogger critical of George Bush?
One Third Right blogger levels such a charge at South Knox Bubba.
BIG MEDIA VACUUM
It’s terribly frustrating that articles like this appear in local papers and never break through to the big media outlets.
MARSHFIELD - A group of veterans, some who served with Sen. John Kerry, met Thursday afternoon to defend the Democratic presidential nominee’s war record and urge supporters to get out the vote.
…“The John Kerry I knew was a brave, honorable, determined man,” said Rich McCann, who said he served with Kerry in Vietnam.
…Another speaker, Foster Wright, who said he knows Kerry personally, said TV ads against the Democratic nominee were blatant political attacks of the very worst kind.
“For people to come out and say John (Kerry) didn’t serve commendably is outrageous,” Wright said.
“This country is at a pivotal (point) in history.” Chad Vance, a 14-year member of the National Guard in Oklahoma who returned from Iraq this year, said conditions for U.S. troops in Iraq haven’t been portrayed accurately.
MORE ABOUT COMMUNISTS FOR KERRY
I think that the Faux News article about Communists for Kerry is worse than we think.
I should have written about them during my convention blogging, but I was so tired and bummed and bad-karmaed out during that weekend that I let it slide.
I encountered this group at the big convention demo. I marched with a contingent that got wedged up against them for a block or two.
It was quite obvious to me and to everyone else that they were troublemakers. I even asked the leader, a very big dude about 6′3″, whether they were for real. He gloweringly advanced upon me, leered, and loomed over me (I’m 5′6″), blatantly invading my personal space. We were at a point in the demo were the crowd had thinned out and people were relieved to be able to give one another some space.
His goal was obvious: personal, physical intimidation. I was face to face with a thug who was accustomed to muscling people. So I backed down and away.
I don’t remember exactly what he said because I was so startled. Something like, “We’re Communists, we support Kerry.” Leering and peering down at me in a nasty way. A kindofsortof rapist way. I’ll never forget him: a plump, shiny-lantern face, asty little fanglike teeth, unshaven and unhealthy. Behind him and slightly to the left was a truly horrible looking woman, who resembled Ann Coulter dressed like the Lisa Kudrow character in ‘Friends’. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a colder look on a woman’s face. She made a bride at an Episcopalian wedding look Brazilian.
I did not suspect that they were Republicans in drag. I thought that they were some kind of far left Spartacist group, the “Vote Fascist! The worse it is the better it is!” types (I believe that’s a Leninist concept – pushing the corrupt system to the brink.)
Whatever the case, WE ALL KNEW that they were bogus and off-whack from the moment we saw them, and all of us tried as much as was possible to stay away from them. It was screamingly obvious.
Why couldn’t this damn Fox reporter see that as easily as we did? She is either a prize asshole, or – more plausibly – she knew what they were and went along with the hoax. I’m inclined to go with the latter. At this point I’m not extending Faux News the benefit of any doubts.
Whom can we complain to? The chairman of the board of Fox?
The head of the FCC?
McGreevy Covers the Debate
Joyce’s take on the Sunshine Senator vs. the Veep of Creep. A great read. Sit through the ad, or better yet, buy a subscription to Salon. They’re on our side.
The man known as “only a heartbeat and a jumpstart” away from the presidency called Democratic Sen. John Edwards to account for his impertinent truth-telling Tuesday evening in a debate at Case Western University.
…Throughout the 90-minute debate, Cheney drew on his long experience, carpet-bombing the proceedings with magnificent mendacity. Whether claiming never to have met John Edwards or denying that he had frequently made a false connection between Iraq and September 11, the front end of the Cheney-Bush racehorse was out to show that he could have his yellowcake and delete it too.
Another Lying Liar
Via Diana Moon at Letter from Gotham – Remember John O’Neill? He recently got into an altercation at a book signing with another Vietnam Vet, and the ever-unswift O’Neill defended himself by smearing the other guy. Continue reading…
New evidence of terror weapons
It was reported today that, shortly after the debate , during Dick Cheney’s nightly visit to the Washington Monument reflecting pool, while standing there in his rolled up knickers and Victoria’s Secret corset, moments after affixing the tinfoil pie-hat, he intercepted radio transmissions from the Planet Kvarq.
According to Cheney, who transcribed them, a translation expert from an AOL chatroom - Larry2Long - has determined that not only did Saddam Hussein create Reality TV, but he was personally responsible for the 1962 Mets, and painful rectal itch. Furthermore, he supported terrorist organizations known to visibly sneer at Friday catblogging.
Photographic evidence of a Cheney lie
From the debate transcript:
Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.
Oh really? The photographic evidence speaks for itself:
Fox News has more:
On Feb. 1, 2001, the vice president thanked Edwards by name at a Senate prayer breakfast and sat beside him during the event.
On April 8, 2001, Cheney and Edwards shook hands when they met off-camera during a taping of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” moderator Tim Russert said Wednesday on “Today.”
On Jan. 8, 2003, the two met when the first-term North Carolina senator accompanied Elizabeth Dole to her swearing-in by Cheney as a North Carolina senator, Edwards aides also said.
Dick Cheney is so disconnected from reality that even Fox News is fact checking him.
Your Tax Dollars at Work!
The Bush Administration is converting the entire government into support structure for The Party and a communications organ for its ideology.
Via Magpie at Pacific Views, citing Nathan Newman, we learn that the Office of Management and Budget website has been converted into a Bush Campaign ad.
How about this page at WhiteHouse.gov? Is this a website of a government agency, or a privatization think tank?
The Iraqi Freedom page send us to RESULTS IN IRAQ: 100 DAYS TOWARD SECURITY & FREEEDOM (sic), including (not Letterman’s) 10 Ways the Liberation of Iraq Supports the War on Terror, with almost every item explaining how we are fighting al Quida in Iraq.
Continue reading…
What are you more afraid of?
While the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates have been absorbed thus far by questions of national security, particularly Iraq and terrorism, the Bush administration has exposed the country to a serious threat that we’re only just now appreciating.
No kidding.A public health crisis faces the US as the influenza season begins, after US drugmaker Chiron was blocked from shipping half the expected US flu vaccines by UK regulators. . . .
“This season is gone,” said Howard Pien, Chiron chief executive. Mr Pien said the regulators’ unexpected decision was likely based on concerns that the facility did not meet comprehensive new drug manufacturing standards.
The US now faces a shortage of vaccine doses. Chiron and Sanofi Aventis, the Franco-German drugmaker, are the two of the primary flu vaccine providers for the US. Chiron had been expected to ship 48m doses to the US, representing about half of the country’s supply. MedImmune, a small US group, also makes a nasal spray vaccine.
Tommy Thompson, secretary of the US department of health and human services, said the Chiron move would not affect the supply of pediatric flu vaccine to young children between 6 and 24 months, which is produced by Sanofi Aventis.
He said the US had been surprised by the UK decision.
Lies and the Lying Liar …
“Dick Cheney spent 90 minutes lying.” – Don Imus on MSNBC this morning.
Last night the MSNBC pundit crew was spinning a Cheney victory, but this morning Imus was putting that to rest. Not that he was crazy about Edwards, either. But the central message was: Cheney lied. About everything. Continue reading…
Give him a car Oprah, for that answer
It appears Bill Scher’s pre-debate analysis puts him in league with Nostradamus, or even beyond, as he was pinpoint correct.
Freep This Poll!
MSNBC online poll: Who’s Your Choice for President?
Bush is winning as of this writing.
Did Cheney Break the Law on 9-11?
In its November issue (obtained by War Room), the magazine reports that after Bush and Cheney’s all but hermetically sealed session with the 9/11 Commission, some of the bipartisan investigators remained highly skeptical of the duo’s testimony that Cheney cleared his order with the president on 9/11 to have U.S. fighter jets shoot down hijacked civilian aircraft.
“Some members of the 9/11 commission and its staff are convinced that Cheney acted on his own – before receiving the president’s approval – which would mean he broke the chain of command and, by exceeding his constitutional powers, acted unlawfully,” the story says. “The final report of the 9/11 commission stops just short of saying that the conversation with the president before Cheney gave the order never happened … the report goes as far as to say ‘there is no documentary evidence for this call …’ Only after Cheney twice issued a shootdown order is there clear evidence that he called Bush and received authorization to order fighter jets to shoot down hijacked aircraft.”
As one commission member told Vanity Fair on condition of anonymity, the panel was concerned about how to handle the politically explosive issue: “We purposely did not reach a conclusion. We just laid it out. Some people may read what we wrote and conclude the authorization call had not preceded the [shootdown] order. People can come to their own conclusion. We didn’t want to be in the position of saying the president and the vice president were lying to us.”
I guess it all depends on who really is the President.
As near as I can tell, President Gore should have made the call.
Isn’t it just peachy that neither Bush and Cheney made the calls to go after Bin Laden before 9-11, never took out Zarqawi when they had the chance, yet Cheney was apparently willing to break the law to shoot down a US passenger jet because he didn’t want to interrupt the boss’ reading of My Pet Goat.
No proof, but plenty of evidence. Sorta like Ken Lay’s Enron story so far. It makes for a great campaign slogan:
Bush/Cheney 2004: You Ain’t Proved Nuthin’ Copper!
And why not? It got Nixon re-elected.
Michael Moore Charged with Bribery
LANSING, Mich. - Republicans say filmmaker Michael Moore should be prosecuted for offering underwear, potato chips and Ramen noodles to college students in exchange for their promise to vote.
The Michigan Republican Party has asked four county prosecutors to file charges against Moore, charging that his get-out-the-vote stunt amounts to bribery.
“We want everyone to participate in this year’s election, but not because they were bribed or coerced by the likes of Michael Moore,” said Greg McNeilly, executive director of the state Republican Party.
Underwear, Ramen noodles and potato chips. The GOP is running scared if it thinks that’s all it takes to buy votes away from their record these days.
Next week: Michael invites the CEO of Diebold to a duck hunt.
Ifill
The moderator’s cleverest zing moment:
IFILL: Whichever one of you is elected in November – you mentioned those three electoral votes in Wyoming and how critical they’ve turned out to be.
But what they’re a sign of also is that you’re going to inherit a very deeply divided electorate, economically, politically, you name it.
How will you set out, Mr. Vice President, in a way that you weren’t able to in these past four years, to bridge that divide?
Although she could have used that clause on every question on every issue she asked of Cheney.
A Union Protest Gone Bad
In Orlando, a group of anti-Bush protestors, angered about the loss of overtime pay, stormed a Bush/Cheney HQ office.
While in the building, some of the protestors drew horns and a mustache on a poster of President George W. Bush and poured piles of letters in the office, according to the report.
“We told them to leave, they broke the law,” Republican headquarters volunteer Mike Broom said.
Two protestors received minor injuries when the crowd stormed the building, including a Republican volunteer.
Was it Don Rumsfeld who said that looting is to be expected when folks stuck in a despot’s regime get their first taste of freedom?
Granted, it’s not something I condone at all and will make our side look bad. And I’m glad no one was seriously hurt. They should have saved it for Election Day at Katherine Harris’ office and the Florida Secretary of State, after they try to steal another election.
The WMD report
Another government official who was briefed on the report said that many U.S. officials had thought Hussein would “get down to business” in developing weapons when the U.N. inspectors left. “There’s no evidence of that,” the official said.
The official said that Iraq’s nuclear-related activity in particular had been dormant for years before the invasion. “They probably didn’t have a program for some period of time, well before we went in there,” he said.
The Bush administration has held out the possibility that illicit weapons and their components were secreted by Hussein across the border into Syria. This may still be true, but Duelfer’s team did not find any proof to support this notion, the official said. “They have no evidence of this,” the official said. “It’s an unresolved issue.” Syria denies it aided the hiding of illicit materials.
It appears there were no mushrooms growing in all the bullshit. And the UN sanctions, despite flaws, did what they were supposed to do: it stopped his WMD programs and weakened Saddam.
Those damn freaking commies!
They threw out the gay marriage ban in the People’s Republic of, of …… Louisiana.
CBS poll is more meaningful
It used uncommitted voters, not partisans. The undecided will be the ones who decide it. Here’s what the CBS poll showed:
Talking points I missed
Events caused me to miss about 20% of the debate, but I’m glad to see Paul Begala recorded two biggies I missed:
Posted: 10:27 p.m.
Gwen Ifill just asked Cheney to talk about AIDS in America.
She specifically asked Cheney not to talk about AIDS overseas. But all Cheney’s talking about is AIDS overseas. He hasn’t been programmed on it, and candidly told Gwen he didn’t know about how African-American women have been hurt by the disease.
Posted: 10:20 p.m.
Edwards is going into the details of his own med mal reform. He’s now telling the story of the little girl who was disemboweled because a dirtbag corporation could’ve prevented it with a two-cent screw.
But why didn’t Edwards point out that it takes a lot of nerve for Bush and Cheney to want to limit anyone’s right to sue, when the only reason they’re in office is because they won a lawsuit.
They lost the vote but won the lawsuit. Now they want to keep consumers from defending their rights. You can bet they don’t want to limit the rights of politicians to sue to block recounts in Florida.
Jessi Klein’s take was funnier.
And Tucker Carlson? He blogs like, well, like it hurts to touch the keyboard, never revealing if somewhere beyond the hairspray, he ever met a personality that he could acquire.
But Begala’s points deserve to be noted by the Kerry campaign.
Also, I note that Elizabeth Edwards confronted Cheney onstage to point out two previous times they’d met, including one where they’d sat together for two hours. That spells trouble for Cheney in the afterspin. And people were worried about what Theresa might say!
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