29 October 2004

We find it hard to believe that a born again saved Christian would do this, but then we remember Big Dick Cheney’s words to Senator Leahy on the floor of the Senate and wonder where the civility these folks promised is.

Bush's "one finger victory salute"

by kos
Wed Oct 27th, 2004 at 20:59:10 GMT

From Texans for Truth:

-------
WWJD?

And no, that's not a photoshopped image. It's real. Check out the video. And remember, this asshole is our president.

By the way the Texans for Truth website has been crashed by Drudge followers.

*****

From http://www.juancole.com/

Brown: 2004 Bremer Report on al-Qaqaa Looting

Professor Nathan Brown of George Washington University writes:

In the dispute between the Kerry campaign and the Bush administration over the disappearance of explosives at al-Qaqaa, the core of the Bush defense is that we don’t know when the explosives disappeared; it could have happened before American troops arrived. President Bush stated today: “Our military is now investigating a number of possible scenarios, including that the explosives may have been moved before our troops even arrived at the site. This investigation is important and it’s ongoing, and a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief.”

I have to admit that I am unsure why this is a defense. If the investigation is so important, why is it still ongoing? One CPA document (discussed below) makes clear that the extent of looting has been known—not merely suspected but documented and evaluated—for some time. The reason we don’t know when the explosives disappeared is that we were not securing or monitoring the site. In other words, our lack of knowledge about the date of the disappearance is itself an indication that nobody was watching one of the most important military production sites in the country. Thus, to proclaim now that we don’t know what happened is not evidence of an open mind; it is evidence of an open barn door. Why did Bush wait until October 2004 to look into the matter? The 18 ½-month gap is no more to Bush’s credit than the 18 ½-minute gap was to Nixon’s. It is the absence of evidence that is the problem.

But the absence of evidence is not evidence of absent-mindedness. There were people who said a year and a half ago that this needed attention. In particular, the IAEA was trying to examine the site from the very end of the war. We barred them. In other words, the failure to monitor was not an oversight but a policy decision. It may have been partly based on the size of the American force, but it was also based on an ideological hostility to the United Nations.

Actually, we do know a little bit more than has been reported. But the little evidence we do have hardly supports the Bush case. What has been widely reported is that during and immediately after the war, some American military units and journalists briefly visited the site. What has not been reported is that on 15 April 2004—a year after the war—CPA head Paul Bremer issued a regulation transferring the employees of some military industries to various parts of the Iraqi government. I assume the point was to ensure that these critical people would get paid and not defect to the insurgents. That regulation can be viewed here.

Annex A to the regulation mentions al-Qaqaa (see p. 3 of the annex) and the extent of damage and looting there. 37% of the buildings were destroyed and fully 85% of its machines were destroyed or looted.

In other words, the place was very utterly trashed as of this past April, a year into the Iraqi occupation.

What does this have to do with the flap between Bush and Kerry? Well, it seems to me that if damage to equipment was so remarkably extensive—with the vast majority of the equipment ripped out or destroyed—any of the military units or journalists visiting in April 2003 should have noticed it even in a cursory examination. One of the accounts (by Fred Wellman, a former spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade) does indeed mention that looting was underway on April 9. This was roughly when the Iraqi regime disintegrated and the looting began, so the observation makes sense. Looting was not mentioned in the accounts of the first American visit to the site, the previous week. I do not know how long it takes to loot such a site so thoroughly (according the original NY Times story, the looting was still going on quite recently), but it seems that almost all of it occurred during the period of the American occupation. When the explosives were taken cannot be ascertained from this. But we seem to have evidence that virtually everything at the site—even the stuff that was nailed down—was taken while it was under our nominal control.

- Nathan Brown

posted by Juan @ 10/28/2004 06:04:28 AM  

*****

The LA Times poll has Bush up by 6 in Florida. Maybe that is because of the 60,000 absentee ballots that are missing in Dade County, a Democrat area. And we have been watching the news reports of early voting in Florida where the lines are hours long. What confuses us is that the reports say there are plenty of polling places. Wouldn’t one think that the election officials could place more voting machines on line so citizens didn’t have to wait so long?

*****

A Minneapolis TV station was at the ammo dump and took pictures of the munitions that were there. Click on the LINK below to read the article. If the bloggers have any power it will be all over the news by the time you read this.

KSTP Exclusive: A 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew in Iraq shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein was in the area where tons of explosives disappeared.

Link:

28 October 2004

And so you would like to know why we think Kristof is a non starter as a columnist for the NYT. We know you didn’t ask but this line from today’s column will give a good idea.

“One example is Mr. Bush's determination since 9/11 to add to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, even though this pushes up gasoline prices. Mr. Bush's approach is foolish economically, and it is crazy politically. Yet his grim willingness to raise gas prices during his re-election campaign underscores a solidity of character and convictions.”

And so we are to think that Bush is steadfast and true because he does nothing to lower oil prices that are a huge profit center for his most loyal contributors and supporters. That is a true profile in courage for Bush according to Kristof

In the same article Kristof suggest that Kerry is a panderer for:

In fact, I'm convinced that Mr. Bush is not only smarter, but also a better man than his critics believes. Most important, he's not a panderer. While Mr. Kerry zigs and zags on trade and Middle East policy, Mr. Bush has a core of values and provides genuine leadership (typically, I believe, in the wrong direction, by trying to reshape America and the world according to a far-right agenda).

Kerry over the years has changed his mind on certain issues. That is now known as zigging and zagging in the intellectual writings of NYT columnists. Bush has core values? Bush’s core value is to get re-elected and he will say anything to get there, just like Kerry and every presidential candidate since George Washington. We know that since yesterday Bush said he was in favor of “civil unions’ and letting the states decide the issue when all summer and at the convention he said the opposite. But according to Kristof that isn’t pandering. So even though Kristof thinks Bush is wrong in his ideas Kristof believes Bush provides leadership. Stalin or Mussolini or Hitler all had real leadership under the Kristof standard.

*****

On Civil Unions A/K/A Gay Marriage the following from http://americablog.blogspot.com/

John writes:

- I'm growing increasingly fascinated by Bush's embrace today of gay civil unions. This is big. It shows that Bush now feels he needs to embrace his inner homo in order to win this election. It shows that at the same time it's the middle and not the base that they now believe they need. It shows that the Mary Cheney brouhaha of 2 weeks was planned - meaning, it was part of this larger "Bush loves the homos, he really is compassionate" message they seem to think will woo the middle.

It finally shows that perhaps now we know why Pat Robertson lost it last week and fired a shot across the bow of the White House over Bush having told him there would be on casualties in Iraq. I wonder if Robertson didn't get wind that Bush was going to embrace gay rights this week, and decided to warn them in advance that they'd better not mess with the far-right bigots.

Ok, this is turning into NOT an open thread. My main point is that we just won on marriage. Sure, we don't have gay marriage yet, but now Bush is saying he supports civil unions, so the argument is over. Now we're just haggling over a word. I word I want, but a word nonetheless. You can't say you support gay couples having equal benefits rights, and then not say they deserve equal employment protection, equal social security, etc. etc. Bush just gave us a win on everything. The religious right ought to be pissed as shit.

Will Bush screw us again? Of course he will. But that's not the point. We have one of the most conservative presidents of all time endorsing our equal rights, and we'll be able to quote it back every single time we have a future battle on any gay rights issue. Culturally, this is HUGE what Bush has done in his desperation to win re-election. He just fucked the religious right. Talk about October Surprise.

*****

From http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

All Ca-Ca  

That's how the Left Wing Media is treating our October Surprise: Iraq did too have Weapons of Mass Destruction! We just didn't find them right away because they hid them in a place with a yucky name.

Also, Our Leader is a manly man. He is so manly he isn't even threatened by men being manly with other men. Some of those girly-church-men are upset about this. Other girly-church-men are upset about how Our Leader must be manly, and part of being manly is killing lots of the other side's men.

One girly-church-man had these wimpy words:

"I want to know that my president is troubled about the war," he said. "Otherwise, we would in our future far too easily launch into international conflicts."

Rush to War  

Bob Taicher is giving away 40,000 copies of his documentary Rush to War to swing state voters this weekend. I haven't seen the film yet, but from the title, I'm guessing that it's a tribute to Rush Limbaugh for the many acts of courage he's performed as a valiant soldier in the 183rd Gasbag Battalion. I hope that's the case. Rush's many sacrifices have been overlooked for far too long.

Congressman upholds traditional values  

Rep. Pete Sessions
U.S. House of Representatives

Dear Rep. Sessions,

I see that the French are making hay about your love for running around naked. They're pointing to the fit you threw over the Great Superbowl Nipple Scandal of 2004 and calling you a hypocrite.

They just don't understand the meaning of the term, "traditional values." Nothing could be more traditional than running with your little soldier pointing strongly into the wind. It's an old tradition. One that can be traced back to the ancient warrior societies of Sparta.

The Spartans were a manly race, and they were never shy about displaying their manhood for all the world to see. They performed much of their combat instruction unhindered by clothing. Indeed, when Our Leader looks out from his bedroom widow he sees a statue of two Spartan warriors engaged in such instruction; the young recruit gently rubbing the tip of his commander's long stiff sword. I'm told that Our Leader excuses himself from his hard, hard work several times a day to gaze upon this monument to manhood for ten or fifteen minutes, alone with his thoughts.

According to your bio, you've never had the privilege of receiving military instruction. I am offering that to you now. Spend a week with me at my compound and I will teach you all the mysteries of manliness. I'll show you the pleasures of sword polishing by day and we'll watch gladiator movies and wrestle till dawn. You'll be a better man for it.

Heterosexually yours,

Gen. JC Christian, patriot

Thanks to Everett and the King of France for their tips.

27 October 2004

The missing 380 tons of explosives is going to be the turning point of the last week of the campaign.

*****

The October 25 Talking Points Memo has an exhaustive discussion of the subject including why the Bushies lame denial doesn’t compute at http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

*****

Prime Minister Allawi of Iraq has blamed the U.S. Coalition for ‘great negligence’ in the killing of the Iraqi soldiers yesterday. We wonder if Bush will attack him now.

*****

The New Yorker, the best general interest magazine in the country has endorsed Kerry for President. This is the first endorsement in its history. It’s long but worth the read. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?041101ta_talk_editors

26 October 2004

Bush doesn’t want to scare you but: "I am worried about it (terrorist attack on Election Day) and we should be worried about it. On the other hand, I don't want people to say, that he knows something I don't know and therefore, something is imminent," Bush told ABC News' Charles Gibson on "Good Morning America."

*****

Rehnquist turned 80 earlier this month, a milestone reached by only one other chief justice of the United States. The only older chief justice was Roger Taney, who presided over the high court in the mid-1800s until his death at 87. Taney was the jurist who wrote the Dredd Scott decision. Two of a kind.

*****

A SIX-YEAR-OLD boy MAY HAVE been cured of a rare blood disorder after receiving blood cells from a baby brother born to save him, it was revealed last night.

Doctors believe the recovery of Charlie Whitaker from the condition known as Diamond Blackfan anaemia is a major step forward in stem-cell treatment and gives families new hope of saving their sick children. He is believed to be the first child in Britain, and among only five in the world, to receive a successful transplant from a sibling born to help cure an illness. His parents received initial treatment, including IVF, from the Assisted Reproduction and Gynecology Centre, in London.

But a ruling by Britain’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) meant the couple was forced to turn to a clinic in Chicago to complete the procedure. In 2002, two embryos were implanted in Mrs. Whitaker. In June last year, she gave birth to Jamie, a genetic match for his brother. It meant stem cells from his umbilical cord could be used to treat Charlie. Three months on from the transplant at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, tests on his bone marrow have produced promising results.

"All the indications now are that he is almost cured," said Mohamed Taranissi of the Assisted Reproduction and Gynecology Centre. "It’s very positive news."

*****

We aren’t surprised that the top civilian contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers, charging that the Army granted the Halliburton Company large contracts for work in Iraq and the Balkans without following rules designed to ensure competition and fair prices to the government, has called for a high-level investigation of what she described as threats to the "integrity of the federal contracting program." Calling Dick Cheney.

*****

350 tons of explosives are missing in Iraq on Bush’s watch.

John Kerry’s comment:

""Now we know that our country and our troops are less safe because this president failed to do the basics," Kerry said, according to the LA Times. “This is one of the great blunders of Iraq, and one of the great blunders of this administration. And the incredible incompetence of this president and this administration has put our troops at risk, and put this country at greater risk than we ought to be."

Unnamed senior official of the Bushies says:

"In the grand scheme -- and on a grand scale -- there are hundreds of tons of weapons, munitions, artillery, explosives that are unaccounted for in Iraq," the official said. "And like the Pentagon has said, there is really no way the U.S. military could safeguard all of these weapons depots or find all of these missing materials." So why try?

Joe Lockhardt’s (Kerry’s press spokesperson) comment:

 “Today, the Bush administration must answer for what may be the most grave and catastrophic mistake in a tragic series of blunders in Iraq. How did they fail to secure nearly 380 tons of known, deadly explosives despite clear warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency to do so? And why was this information unearthed by reporters -- and was it covered up by our national security officials?

“These explosives can be used to blow up airplanes, level buildings, attack our troops and detonate nuclear weapons. The Bush administration knew where this stockpile was, but took no action to secure the site. They were urgently and specifically informed that terrorists could be helping themselves to the most dangerous explosives bonanza in history, but nothing was done to prevent it from happening.

“This material was monitored and controlled by UN inspectors before the invasion of Iraq. Thanks to the stunning incompetence of the Bush administration, we now have no idea where it is.

“We need to know what the administration knew about this and when. We need to know why they failed to safeguard these explosives and keep them out of the hands of our enemies. The National Security Advisor should be at her desk in Washington tomorrow to work this problem and answer these questions, instead of giving speeches in battleground states.”

*****

Keep the faith, we are going to win. Back in 2000 Zogby showed Bush gaining while Gore was dropping and the polls were wrong. From http://americablog.blogspot.com/

Here's what Zogby showed at this time in 2000 - Bush going up, Gore going down, and Bush getting further ahead. Oops.

Permanent Link

It is obvious to us at least that the way the Iraq troops are being gathered to train to take over from U.S. soldiers is an open invitation for insurgents to join and screw up things. The 50 Iraqi soldiers were probably spotted or killed by infiltrators according to press reports by the AP.

*****

Psalm 2004

Bush is my shepherd, I shall be in want.
He maketh me to lie down on park benches;
He leadeth me beside the still factories.
He restoreth my doubts about the Republican Party.
He leadeth me onto the paths of unemployment for His cronies' sake.
Yea, though no weapons of mass destruction have been found,
     He makest me continue to fear Evil.
His tax cuts for the rich and His deficit spending discomfort me.
He anointest me with never-ending debt:
Verily my days of savings and assets are kaput.
Surely poverty and hard living shall follow me all the days of His
    administration,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever
Charm and beauty are worthless if your heart is cold and your head empty.

*****

25 October 2004

The Bushies have a new commercial where they use wolves to supposed scare folks about John Kerry. We guess it works for them? Last night on CNN Candy Crowley and John King made a big deal about how the commercial was made five months ago but that it tested so well in focus groups that the Repubs saved it for a special now. Well we haven’t seen it but with all the terror and atrocities in the world including that poor Care Worker in Iraq we doubt that five wolves are going to scare us. Besides we have already voted.

Anyway the wolves want to have their say and you can go to their website and find out that they thought they were making a Greenpeace Commercial. It figures coming from the Bushies.  Irony is not dead.

Here is the website http://www.wolfpacksfortruth.org/

*****

Q. What's the difference between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War?

A. George W. Bush had a plan to get out of the Vietnam War.

*****

Bush supporters are wildly misinformed.

– 75% believe Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda.

– 74% believe Bush favors including labor and environmental standards in agreements on trade.

– 72% believe Iraq had WMD or a program to develop them.

– 72% believe Bush supports the treaty banning landmines.

– 69% believe Bush supports the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

– 61% believe if Bush knew there were no WMD he would not have gone to war.

– 60% believe most experts believe Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda.

– 58% believe the Duelfer report concluded that Iraq had either WMD or a major program to develop them.

– 57% believe that the majority of people in the world would prefer to see Bush reelected.

– 56% believe most experts think Iraq had WMD.

– 55% believe the 9/11 report concluded Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda.

– 51% believe Bush supports the Kyoto treaty.

– 20% believe Iraq was directly involved in 9/11.

(Program on International Policy Attitudes)

*****

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/ and Josh Marshall has an October 22 post that explains that the Bushies are revising history when they deny that the Pentagon and CIA thought Osama was at Tora Bora when they hired locals to try and get him. It made no sense then not to have the 10th Mountain Division go after them as John Kerry has said repeatedly, and the Bushies revisionism of those events is part of the very dangerous pattern of never admitting a mistake.

*****

We thought this comment from the great electoral vote count website that you should bookmark was cute: http://www.electoral-vote.com/

If you ever write some document and can arrange for 600,000 proofreaders, I highly recommend it. You catch all the errors that way.

*****

22 October 2004

Oh the humanity
by John in DC - 10/21/2004 11:23:53 AM

   |  Permanent Link |  

The big story of our day is the Reverend Pat Robertson saying that before the War in Iraq Bush told him there would be no casualties. The White House of course went ballistic and denied the story without calling Robertson a liar.

We don’t know the truth or falseness of Robertson’s statement but with friends like him the Bushies are in big trouble.

By the by www.talkingpoints.com has this tidbit describing another time Robertson said close to the same thing:

As Andrew Sullivan notes this evening, back in June on Hardball Robertson said...

I felt very uneasy about [the war] from the very get-go. Whenever I heard about it, I knew it was going to be trouble. I warned the president. I only met with him once. I said, you better prepare the American people for some serious casualties. And he said, oh, no, our troops are, you know, so well protected, we don't have to worry about

*****

From Tom Friedman:

In British politics there used to be a standard test for candidates for prime minister: Would you want to go on a tiger hunt with this person? That is, would this candidate kill the tiger or try to reason with the tiger? Graham Allison, the Harvard international relations professor who just published a book called "Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe," said to me the other day that the tiger hunt is even more relevant in America today.

"The big question about Kerry is, Will he pull the trigger?" Mr. Allison said. "And the big question about Bush is, Can he aim? With Bush, we know he can pull the trigger, but it's like he shot himself in the foot - and the tiger is still out there. It's the tiger who needs to be shot, not us."

Well Kerry pulled the trigger when is counted in Vietnam, while Bush pulled stateside duty in the National Guard. Then Kerry had the guts to protest the war while Bush descended into the gutter for 15 years.

*****

From Maureen Dowd:

What does it tell you about a president that his grounds for war are so weak that the only way he can justify it is by believing God wants it? Or that his only Iraq policy now - as our troops fight a vicious insurgency and the dream of a stable democracy falls apart - is a belief in miracles?

Miracles make the incurious even more incurious. People who live by religious certainties don't have to waste time with recalcitrant facts or moral doubts. They do not need to torture themselves, for example, about dispatching American kids into a sand trap with ghostly enemies and without the proper backup, armor, expectations or cultural training.

Any president relying more on facts than faith could have seen that his troops would be sitting ducks: Donald Rumsfeld's experiment - sending in a light, agile force (more a Vin Diesel vehicle than a smart plan for Iraq) - was in direct conflict with the overwhelming force needed to attempt the neocons' grandiose scheme to turn Iraq into a model democracy.

*****

We didn’t run this picture yesterday but after reading about Bush’s conversation with Robertson we think it has value. Visit the website too.

Say hello to Enjoy the Draft, by Blogpac. You can take the graphics and put them on your own site. E-mail the page to your friends.

Love this picture of GW with Jenna and Barbara...

*****

Muscatine, Iowa – Today, Senator John Edwards issued the following statement about all of the Bush Administration’s political activity this campaign season:

“There’s a problem when our troops are in harm’s way, fighting for a secure Iraq and our national security adviser is out on the stump campaigning instead of working.

“There’s a problem when the Vice President is warning of a nuclear attack and the Homeland Security Secretary who has declared that he is separate from politics spends the bulk of his time traveling battleground states.

“There’s a problem when there is a flu shot shortage and the Secretary of Health and Human Services is too busy advocating for George Bush instead of those who most need these shots.

“There’s a problem when the economy has lost 800,000 jobs and the Treasury Secretary is out on the stump calling these losses a myth instead of focusing on bringing them back.

“There’s a problem when the Chinese are playing fast and loose with our trade agreements and the Commerce Secretary is acting like it’s having no impact on our manufacturing companies here at home.

“But I know how to fix this problem – it’s called Election Day. On November 2, we’re going to cast the votes to put John Kerry into the White House and we’re going to nip this problem in the bud.”

*****

This is from http://americablog.blogspot.com/ 

Why is our National Security Advisor out campaigning?
by David - 10/21/2004 08:15:00 AM

Missed this in all the hubbub yesterday...

Condi Rice is uncharacteristically giving speeches in battleground states like Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Interesting that it coincides with Cheney’s return to mushroom-cloud talk.

Before anyone gives me any crap about the need for her to go outside the beltway, the Post article above has a picture of her at the CLEVELAND BROWNS PRACTICE FIELD in Berea, Ohio. What, does Jeff Garcia need a briefing on the threats to the West Coast Offense?

These are the same people who criticize John Edwards for being "senator gone?" Our National FREAKIN' Security Advisor is out campaigning!!! How many briefings is she missing? How many reports is she not reading?

And most importantly, does she have a copy of "my pet goat" handy if anything happens while she's out?

Comments (19)  |  Permanent Link |   

*****

This Frank Rich article is a must read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/arts/24rich.html

21 October 2004

We were amused yesterday by the charge by Tommy Thompson, the know nothing former governor of Wisconsin who blamed the flu crisis on guess who? Yes you are correct if you guessed Bill Clinton. Tommy also wants to help Chiron, the biotech company that screwed up, to raise capital so that next year’s flu vaccine will be available.

*****

The final irony is that all the flu vaccine available in the U.S. this year is being made by a French company Adventis Pasteur. Don’t see folks raising the nothing French cry now.

*****

Bill Frist the Senate Majority Leader thinks that all members of Congress should get flu shots because they mingle with a lot of people. Who doesn’t?  Joe Lieberman, who is 62, plans to get the shot so that he doesn’t spread the disease to constituents. Lieberman sounds more like a Republican prevaricator every day.

*****

During the debates Bush made a comment that one reason for the lack of flu vaccine was lawsuits by trial lawyers. But, the NYT about a week too late comments on that and on similar charges by Tommy Thompson and Dick Cheney:

Mr. Thompson said that more had been done to fight the flu by this administration than by any previous one. Echoing comments made in recent days by Vice President Dick Cheney, he said that tort reforms proposed by the administration were needed to help vaccine manufacturers even more.

But Congress in 1986 passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act that largely shields vaccine manufacturers from serious legal liability. Congress voted this year to add flu vaccines to the program, a bill that only awaits President Bush's signature, according to a spokesman for the program.

*****

Nader has fallen to 1% in most polls. It is our contention that those folks who are going to vote for Nader this year probably wouldn’t vote if he weren’t on the ballot.

*****

Listening to CNBC this morning the talking heads were commenting on the poll by the WSJ that had Kerry and Bush tied among Likely Voters. Only they didn’t mention that part of the poll, they were content to talk about the poll that had Bush up by 2 among registered voters. For the last month the talking heads have been content to talk about the polls of Likely voters because they showed Bush with the largest lead.

*****

Cheney charged yesterday that Kerry didn’t have the strength to lead the country in a time of terrorism. Cheney was in Carroll, Ohio, when he raised the specter of terrorists with biological, chemical or even nuclear weapons attacking U.S. cities.

Cheney said Kerry is trying to persuade voters he would be the same type of "tough, aggressive" leader as Bush in the fight against terrorism and the vice president said. "I don't believe it."

This charge against Kerry is being leveled by a fellow who spent 7 years avoiding being drafted to fight in a war he believed in because he “has better things to do.”

*****

The chutzpah of the Republicans is a wonder. Cheney did all he could to avoid the draft and Bush ran election campaigns while in the national Guard and yet the two of them have spent the last week questioning Kerry’s bravery and commitment to the United States. There are special places in the afterlife reserved for folks like these.

*****

When Allan Murray, a political guru of the WSJ, appears on CNBC he often refers to some internet trading exchange where bets on who will win the presidency are traded. The unit of trading is $100 and it has consistently shown Bush leading Kerry by a 60/40 margin or larger. Referring to this betting as any indication of true voter sentiment is a symptom of the lack of sophistication of the press corps or of their contempt for the intelligence of folks who are viewers/readers of their comments.

*****

Notice how Bush says he will preserve Social Security for Seniors. That is the only promise he makes. If the Bushies truly believe that Social Security will be insolvent unless folks are allowed to invest in the stock market then why doesn’t the Social Security Administration earmark a percentage of funds to a broad participation in the stock market? To complete the rearrangement make Congressional pensions contingent on the returns and solvency of the Social Security Fund and not on a percentage of the salaries the Congressmen pay to themselves. We know that is too simple a concept.

*****

Pat Robertson was interviewed on the Paula Zahn show on CNN and since he is a preacher you know he would never lie. In that interview he said:

Pat Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, said he had that conversation with the president in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 invasion. He described Bush in the meeting as "the most self-assured man I've ever met in my life."

"You remember Mark Twain said, 'He looks like a contented Christian with four aces.' I mean he was just sitting there like, 'I'm on top of the world,' “Robertson said on the CNN show, "Paula Zahn Now."

"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' "

Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."

*****

One final Bush quote: George W. Bush on sacrifice:
"I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I
had a choice, I'd rather go to war."
Houston Chronicle, January 2002

*****

We wonder how this clown missed contraception. Before “Choice” was recognized by the Supremes as residing in the Constitution, “contraception” was the ‘biggy’ that got you excommunicated. Before that it was that the “world was round”.

There is no element of the common good, no morally good practice, that a candidate may promote and to which a voter may be dedicated, which could justify voting for a candidate who also endorses and supports the deliberate killing of the innocent, abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, euthanasia, human cloning or the recognition of a same-sex relationship as legal marriage," Raymond Burke, archbishop of St. Louis, Mo., said in a pastoral letter.

But then Burke thinks contraception is abortion so it is included but he doesn’t want to say contraception because then 50% of those who still go to church would stop. That litany of proscribed stuff reminds us of the TV ad the Repubs were running about

“Latte drinking, sushi eating, NYT reading, Garrison Keilor listening, Volvo driving Liberals.”

Both descriptions fit us to a tee.

*****

20 October 2004

This blogspot gives the breakdown of the latest Gallup poll that showed Bush leading by 8 points. It is worth reading if you are worried about Kerry not being in the lead.

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/003054.html

We’ve been watching CNN at night and Candy Crowley is the reporter covering the Kerry Campaign. She seldom has a nice word for the Kerry folks. The CNN/Gallup poll is called an outlier in that it is so far out of synch with other polls being taken at the same time. But that doesn’t stop the reporters and talking heads from announcing that Bush is building a lead over Kerry.

At least it isn’t as bad as the 2000 race and the way the media skewered Gore. It did have an effect and still Gore won the election. Our take is that Kerry and his folks are much better prepared to fight any vote count shenanigans. But Bush controls the While House and the judicial machinery in this country and so we hope that Kerry can make it too much to steal.

We are tired of presenting polls et al. we believe that Kerry is doing great and running the type of campaign in the last two weeks that should be run. The long lines for flu shots and the Bush foisting of responsibility for the fiasco on the company that screwed up rather than on the Tommy Thompson and the Bush health folks that have let this problem fester for years is typical Bush stuff.

Today we present some Cheney comments from two days ago as well as from several years ago to show how the Bushies prevaricate.

From comments made by Cheney on 0ctober 18, 2004

Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday blamed the threat of lawsuits, the yearlong efficacy of flu vaccines and limited company profits for the shortage of the medication.

The Republican also argued that the presidential ticket of Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards -- two Democratic lawyers -- would thwart medical liability reform.

"Given John Edwards' background and John Kerry's voting record, there is not going to be serious medical liability reform as long as the two of them are in business," Cheney said at a campaign stop at a West Virginia restaurant.

During a discussion with local residents, Cheney was questioned by a physician about the limited supply of the flu vaccine. Nationwide, people have lined up at pharmacies and supermarkets for the vaccine since Chiron Corp., which usually provides half the nation's supply, announced it will not supply any this season because of problems at its plant in Britain.

"It's a combination of the economics of the business. They produced millions of doses, but if people don't take it, they have to throw it out," Cheney said. "The other problem is liability concerns."

The vice president also pointed out that manufacturing the flu vaccine has not been a money-maker for drug companies. "The problem we have run into, producing vaccine is not a very profitable business," he said.

Amy Shuler Goodwin, a Kerry-Edwards spokeswoman, said Bush has ignored warnings dating to 2001 from the FDA, the General Accounting Office and others of a possible shortage. "Because the Bush administration failed to develop an effective plan, millions of Americans at risk from influenza must go without a flu vaccine," Goodwin said.

From http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

Inoculation Priorities

This shortage of flu vaccine is ironic in light of the fact that the vice president himself spearheaded a (luckily) failed effort to force every American to get vaccinated against smallpox which would have cost billions upon billions and killed at least a thousand people. He was said to have been messianic in his zeal to make vaccinations mandatory because of Saddam's alleged stockpile of smallpox that, needless to say, never turned up.

And, he didn't care any more about the potential deaths from the vaccine that he cares about all the deaths that have taken place in Iraq.

MR. RUSSERT: One of your many tasks in the administration, the point person on bioterrorism; you’ve been spending some time at the Center for Disease Control. Do you believe that all Americans should eventually be vaccinated against smallpox?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: We’re in the middle of improving our capability to do that. A year ago, we had enough vaccine for maybe 15 million people. We’re now well on the way to producing enough vaccine for 350 million people. There is serious consideration now being given to what kind of vaccination program we want. You go to first responders, people who have to deal with this when it first arises. Do you do a broader group than that? Do you do it on a voluntary basis for anybody who would like to have it? These are issues under active discussion, deliberation. Tommy Thompson over at HHS has been actively involved in it as well, too. It’s not a zero sum kind of proposition; that is, it’s not a cost-free operation. There are side effects and consequences for most vaccines. And you have to weigh those against the benefits that would be derived by protecting the population.

MR. RUSSERT: If you vaccinated 300 million Americans, a thousand would die from side effects.

VICE PRES. CHENEY: I don’t remember the exact numbers, but clearly there would be some people who would be harmed as a result of the vaccination.

MR. RUSSERT: But the risk may be such we may come to that.

VICE PRES. CHENEY: That’s entirely possible.

It was only because the medical community put it's collective foot down that Cheney was stopped from forcing everybody to get inoculated against a disease that's been wiped out and to which Saddam had absolutely no access.

More than 80 hospitals from every region in the USA, including leading teaching hospitals and large, urban public hospitals, are forgoing the vaccinations. The dissenters are a tiny fraction of the 3,000 hospitals recruited by state health officials to vaccinate doctors, nurses and other hospital staff members who are most likely to care for smallpox patients.

But their numbers are growing as doctors and administrators at hospitals around the USA are concluding that the known health risks from the vaccine, which can cause illness and even death, outweigh the unquantifiable risks of smallpox being used as a terrorist weapon.

The refusal to vaccinate raises new questions about the president's plan just as the first phase is expected to begin this week. And some health care experts and government officials fear that any reluctance to participate in the first phase could lessen the willingness of others to participate in the second phase -- and undermine the administration's goal of eliminating smallpox as a viable option for terrorists.

Richard Wenzel, chairman of internal medicine at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals of Virginia Commonwealth University, finds the resistance neither surprising nor unwarranted.

"This is not an issue that should be framed in terms of patriotism," he says. "This is an issue that's medical risk-benefit. We haven't seen this disease for more than 25 years. We are reacting to a perceived threat that's not well defined."

The hospitals are reaching their decisions individually after their own in-house infectious diseases specialists study the Bush plan.

Almost as a rule, hospital administrators say they are reluctant to make some of their employees sick to protect them from a disease that no longer exists and would reappear only in the chance of a terrorist act.

The administration did all of this at the very same time that the public health officials were warning of a shortage of the flu vaccine.

"The thing that stops you from doing this is the complexity of the smallpox vaccine, which is not a safe vaccine," says William Schaffner, head of the preventive medicine department at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, one of the hospitals that is opting out. "There's a real disease that kills people unnecessarily: the flu. Mr. President, I would love to see you endorse a national flu vaccine campaign with the same vigor."

Cheney never did learn his lesson from that. They spent millions and millions to get a stockpile of vaccine for which there is absolutely no use and ignored the professionals who warned that the flu vaccine was in short supply. And, a pouting Dick Cheney obviously still harbors resentment about that:

Q: Are there any lessons for you in the way the smallpox vaccine program sort of ran into public opposition? Is that an example of where the public is less aware of the dangers than they ought to be?

CHENEY: Well, we — I'm trying to be careful here so I don't start another wave of concern out there about smallpox. People clearly were concerned about the side effects of the vaccine. I think there was a certain amount of complacency in terms of people not being willing to take it as seriously as we thought it should be taken. And so far we've been fortunate. Hopefully we will continue to be fortunate. It's to some extent the responsibility, though, of those of us in government to think about the what-ifs, to worry about the worst case, to look at the evidence that's out there and connect the dots.

And we were criticized, the government was criticized generally prior to 9/11 for, "you didn't connect the dots." I think we did, but that charge is made. Here you're in a situation where you clearly want to make certain that you take all the intelligence available, you look at the capabilities of your adversaries, you draw reasonable conclusions, and you act on those conclusions. And that's what we did with respect to smallpox.

And the main effort there, the focus was to try to get enough people in the medical community, first responders, inoculated, so that if we did get hit, we could move aggressively to implement a national immunization program. We're better off now than we were before we started, but clearly we fell short of what we had originally anticipated, in terms of the numbers of people we would like to have seen inoculated.

Yes. And luckily they fell short of killing about a thousand people that wouldn't have had to die because of a threat that didn't exist. Smallpox is a disease that has been eradicated. There is a very remote possibility that a small amount could escape from the controlled storage facility, but we have absolutely no evidence that it has happened. Dick Cheney tried to strong-arm the CDC into demanding that every person in American be vaccinated because he was trying to scare the country into supporting a war with Iraq and as with everything else in that run-up he was willing to say anything to make that happen. It is unconscionable that he actively fought against the prevailing medical opinions that this country could deal with a real smallpox outbreak without a full scale inoculation scheme in order to advance his paranoid vision. (That it might have benefited a certain vaccine manufacturer is something we might also ponder...)

After 9/11, the administration, Dick Cheney among the most hysterical, with their friends the lapdog media were in the throes of a delusional fit busily chasing phantom threats and science fiction scenarios instead of showing adult leadership. The disaster in Iraq and the shortage of flu vaccine of a piece. They are the result of the leadership of this country falling to pieces after 9/11 and losing sight of the nation's priorities. They have proved that they cannot be depended upon to keep their heads when all around them are losing theirs.

digby 2:01 PM

19 October 2004

As of yesterday according to Zogby, who had the best track record in the 2000 election, the race is tied at 45/45.

The latest three-day tracking poll showed Kerry and Bush deadlocked at 45 percent apiece barely two weeks before the Nov. 2 election. The president had a 46-44 percent lead over the Massachusetts senator the previous day, and a four-point lead the day before that.

About 7 percent of likely voters say they are still undecided between the two White House rivals.

"This is, as I have said before, the same kind of roller coaster ride we saw in 2000 with the lead changing back and forth and neither candidate able to open up any kind of lead," pollster John Zogby said.

Kerry campaigned Sunday in Ohio and Florida while Bush took a day off in Washington. Ohio and Florida top a list of about 10 tightly fought swing states where the race for the 270 electoral votes needed to claim the White House will be decided.

With both candidates battling for every last vote, Bush holds a four-point edge in the suburbs and the two candidates are tied in small cities, the poll found. Kerry comfortably leads Bush among urban voters and Bush holds a strong lead among rural voters.

Kerry, who is Catholic but has sparked opposition among some Catholic bishops by supporting abortion rights, now leads among Catholic voters by 4 percentage points.

The poll of 1,211 likely voters was taken Friday through Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The rolling poll will continue through Nov. 1 -- the day before the election.

A tracking poll combines the results of three consecutive nights of polling, then drops the first night's results each time a new night is added. It allows pollsters to record shifts in voter sentiment as they happen.

Go to this website for a complete rundown as of yesterday: http://www.emergingdemocraticmajorityweblog.com/donkeyrising/

If Halliburton made flu shots there would be more flu shots than oranges. That’s a Kerry quote. We do think as we said last week that Kerry missed a good chance at the last debate to skewer Bush over the flu shot crisis. We do like the fact that Kerry is going after Bush on Social Security, he should be on that subject every day between now and election day.

Reuters is reporting that a contingent of 95 riot police from China arrived in Haiti on Sunday to help restore order in the Caribbean nation plagued with gang and political violence that has killed more than 50 people over the past two weeks. The police joined a small advance team of Chinese who arrived last month. They will become part of a Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping mission to stabilize the country.

We can’t send troops or police to Haiti but the Chinese can???

The Iraqi government continues to buy arms from the insurgents and local folks in Iraq. Then the folks go and join the army and police force and get new arms and then eventually they will desert or refuse to fight and take their new guns home with them. Well at least it gets some money to the non working population which is probably the whole point of the exercise.

Lockhart Statement on "Major Speech"

Washington, DC – Kerry-Edwards campaign Senior Advisor Joe Lockhart released the following statement today on the president’s speech in New Jersey, which the Bush campaign has billed as a “major address:”

“What the Bush campaign considers to be a major address provides a telling window into this President and his priorities: He considers a nasty, vitriolic attack line to constitute a significant address. What might have been new and significant would have been the President addressing a health care crisis that has forced New Jersey to hold a lottery to decide who should get flu shots. But no, that would involve being straight with the American public and taking responsibility for his Administration’s inaction.”

18 October 2004

From http://americablog.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Maureen
by David - 10/17/2004 09:51:31 AM

I'll confess: Maureen Dowd is not my favorite columnist at the NY Times. (Thomas Freidman is. Yes, I'm a globalization geek, I know.)

But I was raised as a Catholic. That's why this morning's column by Dowd is so important to me. I've been so absolutely disgusted with the so-called leadership at my church I don't go anymore. Those who were raised as I was understand how personally difficult it is to challenge your church leaders. I've long wanted a spiritual outlet, and I've often wanted it to be the church in which I grew up. Now of course, for reasons that make no moral sense to me, I feel excluded.

Catholic leaders tell me that if I support, as Dowd puts it, "the Catholic candidate and one-time Boston altar boy who carries a rosary and a Bible with him on the trail" I'm not a Catholic. If I support the war-mongering liar who supports executing mentally-ill 16-year-olds and guts funding for things like domestic violence prevention and welfare, I'm suddenly a good Catholic again.

It's no secret that the leadership of the Catholic church is still suffering from a credibility gap with many of its followers. I'm sure that some leaders in that church believe they still have an obligation to provide moral and spiritual guidance to their followers, regardless of current events. But when that guidance is so twisted, so obviously hypocritical as it is today, I'm even more convinced that the same arrogance and flawed judgment that allowed them to shield pedophiles and shame victims into silence is at work today, supporting the incumbent.

They've learned nothing.

This is from http://www.dailykos.com/

Another Misfired Election...Only Reversed?!

by Tom Schaller
Sun Oct 17th, 2004 at 22:10:30 GMT

Building upon DemFromCT's super post below , which points out the disparity between the national race and the battleground state polls, I raise anew a question I posed in a Washington Post op-ed last April: Could Kerry actually lose the popular vote yet win the Electoral College?

With each passing day I'm more convinced that this scenario is at least possible. Not probable, nor even likely - because such "misfired" elections are rare. (Although we had two of them within three cycles, in 1876 and again in 1888.) But it's possible, especially given that the battleground v. non-battleground poll discrepancies ratify the fact that the economies of the swing states are performing worse than national averages.

How might Kerry win by losing, just as Bush did four years ago?

Well, for starters, in the nine states that gave Al Gore his widest total vote margins - which, by definition, are either large states or overwhelmingly Democratic ones (or both) - Kerry is currently leading Bush, but by smaller margins. In terms of net popular votes, those nine (California through Pennsylvania) alone gave Gore a 5.8 million-vote lead over Bush in 2000. Here they are, listed in order of Gore's 2000 "surplus" votes (it is a winner-take-all, so we can call them surpluses), followed by Kerry's current polling lead (according to electoral-vote.org, as of Oct 17), and Gore's winning margin from 2000:

1. New York: 1,704,442 surplus Democratic votes; 23 percent Kerry lead [25 percent Gore margin]
2. California: 1,293,774; 8 [12]
3. Massachusetts: 737,985; 14 [27]
4. Illinois: 569,605; 16 [12]
5. New Jersey: 504,677; 2 [16]
6. Maryland: 331,985; 15 [16]
7. Connecticut: 254,921; 9 [17]
8. Michigan: 217,279; 8 [5]
9. Pennsylvania: 204,840; 3 [4]

Notice that in seven states (Illinois and Michigan excepted), Kerry's lead at the moment is less than Gore's final margin. If the numbers hold, Kerry will not lose any of these nine states - aside from the post-reapportionment net loss of six Democratic electoral votes. Notice, too, that the difference between Gore's margin and Kerry's poll numbers are dramatic in Massachusetts, New Jersey and, though smaller by percentage, still significant in California and New York because just a few percentage points in the two biggest Democratic states translates into hundreds of thousands fewer Democratic votes.

You may be inclined to say, "So what? That's just the nine biggest Democratic margin states." Ok, so let's multiply the current poll numbers for Kerry-Bush in all 50 states+DC against either the total votes cast in each state in 2000, or even the two-party subset of Gore+Bush (minus Nader, et al.) net votes cast. Well, guess what: Bush would win the popular vote by 712K votes in the first case, and 761K in the second. That wouldn't mean much, but for this fact: Based on those very percentages, as electoral-vote.com has them for today, Kerry is ahead of Bush in the Electoral College, 253-247, with Florida, Iowa and New Hampshire tied.

If Bush closes in Florida, he'll almost certainly win the electoral vote as well as the popular vote. But if Kerry ekes out a win either in Ohio or Florida, both of which are tight races, and carries those big nine states by narrower net margins that Gore did at the same time Bush is holding or even improving his margins in his own 2000-victory states, the president could find himself leaving office the same way he arrived: With a surplus of votes in the wrong states.

Wouldn't that be a hoot?

General 2004 :: Link & Discuss (43 comments)

15 October 2004

Bill O’Reilly is being sued for sexual harassment and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving pompous jerk. From the complaint it is obvious that the woman who was his producer has his harassing comments on tape. O’Reilly and Fox are countersuing for extortion. O’Reilly had fun with Martha Stewart and her lies. So did Limbaugh. The screw turns slowly but it may provide some amusement.

The O’Reilly folks defense is that the woman came back to work at Fox after leaving so the harassment couldn’t have been that bad. We don’t know whether Fox is aware that harassment is wrong the first time and the last time and all the times in between and it is their responsibility to provide a harassment free workplace.

The Washington Post reports that vaccine suppliers are marking up doses of the flu vaccine to as much as $90 per dose for hospitals and nursing homes. Where is the Bush administration on this? By the way Kerry flubbed the answer to the vaccine question at last night’s debate. It shows the cocoon these guys live in. When Bush said that flu manufacturers could be sued he showed his lack of knowledge that a law has been passed by Congress preventing lawsuits. And Kerry missed that point early in the debate to place Bush on the defensive. Moreover, the fact that the flu vaccine is not ordered and distributed by the Federal government is a scandal and a sop to private enterprise that won’t do the job properly.

Lynne Cheney is all out of joint because Kerry referred to Mary her daughter who is a lesbian when the question of whether homosexuality comes from choice (or from genes) was asked last night. The Repubs are such hypocrites on this issue that it is unnecessary to reply. But anyway that is their attack on Kerry point today. So sad.

The following from http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

“He was, I think, on the side, maybe with his pompoms?”

No, he had a great big megaphone:

And cheerleading was serious business for Junior. It's the one thing he is trained for and the only thing he's ever been good at:

digby 5:24 PM Comments (22) | Trackback (0)

Today’s men cheerleaders are all weightlifters or gymnasts because of the strength they need to perform the routines of modern cheerleading.

More good stuff from Digby:

Paging William Bennett. Outrage Is Dyin' Over Here

We stand for a culture of responsibility in America. This culture of our country is changing from one that has said, if it feels good do it, and if you've got a problem blame somebody else, to a culture in which each of understands we're responsible for the decisions we make in life. George W. Bush August 10, 2004


A middle aged Democrat had a consensual affair with a young female employee.

A middle aged Republican crudely groped and humiliated numerous women for over twenty years on movie sets.

A middle aged radio superstar Republican bought hard drugs on the black market and threatened his housekeeper if she fails to help him score.

A middle aged TV gasbag Republican grossly sexually harrassed an employee and threatened her with terrible retaliation if she spoke up.

Which of these middle aged men was vilified, derided and degraded as an immoral misogynist who had soiled the very fabric of America?

Man, is this a great country to be a Republican or what? Par-tay down, Dough Boyz! Anything Goes!!! IOKYAR, baby!!!

digby 4:56 PM Comments (11) | Trackback (1)

William Saletan has an excellent discussion of the last debate at http://slate.msn.com/id/2108121/

14 October 2004

Three for three is as good as one can do

CNBC is running film footage of the new CTX International Harvester Pickup Truck that looks like a miniature over the road Cab Truck. $54 per barrel oil, a supposed war brought on by the necessity to secure our oil supplies, and American business introduces another behemoth. They want to attach an emotion to a commercial application. The retail price of $95,000.

This is the headline in the October 13 Online WSJ regarding the latest Furious George tax cut for business:

BIG COMPANIES WILL USE much of their windfall from tax legislation passed this week to reduce debt, buy back shares or make acquisitions, although they lobbied Congress for the measure on the grounds that it would spur job growth. Lawmakers also tucked big tax breaks for energy-related industries into the legislation.

The headline says it all.

From The Guardian at http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1326037,00.html

Bush special envoy embroiled in controversy over Iraq debt

Consortium plans to cash in as Baker asks countries to end £200bn burden

Read the documents

Naomi Klein
Wednesday October 13, 2004
The Guardian

President Bush's special envoy, James Baker, who has been trying to persuade the world to forgive Iraq's crushing debts, is simultaneously working for a commercial concern that is trying to recover money from Iraq, according to confidential documents.

Mr Baker's Carlyle Group is in a consortium secretly proposing to try to collect $27bn (£15bn) on behalf of Kuwait, one of Iraq's biggest creditors, by using high-level political influence. It claims Mr Baker will not benefit personally, but the consortium could make millions in fees, retainers and commission as a result.

Other countries, including Britain, have been urged by Mr Baker to relieve the new Iraq regime of its $200bn debt burden. Iraq owes Britain approximately $1bn.

One international lawyer described the consortium's scheme as "influence peddling of the crassest kind".

13 October 2004

Last debate Tonight at 8pm.

Let’s all look for the black box on Ferocious George’s back. By the way Bush’s tailor is named ?   Mr. Bush’s tailor, George de Paris, was even called on to dismiss the rumors. He said that the bulge was nothing more than a pucker along the jacket’s back seam. Bush has a Frenchman for a tailor?

From http://corrente.blogspot.com/

Time to Render Unto Caesar, Boys 

Tax 'em, dammit. Tax every last one of 'em, the dress-wearing, child-molesting, woman-hating, collar-wearing, donation-hustling, selective-scripture-reading, power-lusting lot of 'em.

(via NYT)

DENVER, Oct. 9 - For Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic prelate in Colorado, a swing state, there is only one way for a faithful Catholic to vote in this presidential election, for President Bush and against Senator John Kerry.

"The church says abortion is a foundational issue,'' the archbishop explained to a group of Catholic college students gathered in a sports bar here on Friday night. He stopped short of telling them whom to vote for, but he reminded them of Mr. Kerry's support for abortion rights. He did not explicitly endorse Mr. Bush, but pointed out the potential impact his re-election could have on Roe v. Wade.

To the dismay of liberal Catholics and some other bishops, traditional church concerns about the death penalty or war are often not mentioned.

Archbishop Chaput said a vote for a candidate like Mr. Kerry who supports abortion rights or embryonic stem cell research would be a sin that must be confessed before receiving Communion.

"If you vote this way, are you cooperating in evil?" he asked. "And if you know you are cooperating in evil, should you go to confession? The answer is yes."

Archbishop Chaput says he has had no contact with either campaign or political party. He says his sole contact with the White House has been his appointment to the President's Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Oh yeah. No conflict there, no sirr-ree bob.

I know, I know. We're supposed to make nice with the Invisible Cloud Being's earthbound buddies, and if we say anything mean about them their feelings will get an ouchie and they'll pout and go vote for their Jesus-talk-spouting Preznitwit.

My apologies to anybody who thinks the only reason peace, freedom and justice are Good Things is because Jehovah said so. I prefer the "we hold these truths to be self-evident" angle myself. But I'm just a little bit steamed right now.

# posted by Xan :   10:57 PM | Comments (20) | Trackback (0)

By now we presume folks know that Sinclair Broadcasting which owns 62 television stations has ordered its general managers to replace prime time programming with a pseudo-documentary negative to Sen. Kerry. The stations are to run this 45 minute documentary in the final weeks of the campaign.

From http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/

WASHINGTON POST MISSES SWIFTEE-DOCUMENTARY LINK

This is from yesterday's Washington Post story about Sinclair's decision to air the anti-Kerry documentary Stolen Honor:

The documentary's producer -- a small production company in Harrisburg, Pa., headed by a former journalist, Carlton Sherwood -- has no official connection to the Swift boat group.

Apologies for repeating myself, but let me give you this link again -- it's to a September 29 press release that acknowledges a direct connection between the Swift boat liars and this film:

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a non-partisan, non-profit group representing more than 250 Swift Boat veterans who served with Senator John Kerry in Vietnam, announced today they are joining forces with a group of American prisoners of war who were held captive by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. The merger coincides with a new $1.4 million television ad campaign released by the new group Swift Vets and POWs For Truth...

The POWs also released a new 40 minute documentary titled Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, produced by Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award winning journalist Carlton Sherwood (www.stolenhonor.com)....

So what's going on here? It seems to me that the mechanism for attacking Kerry's war record may well have been designed months ago: The Swift boat guys organize themselves as a 527, do a book, and run ads, and at roughly the same time Sherwood does a documentary "independently" (while arrangements are made with GOP-friendly Sinclair to show the film on TV in the fall). Then, in the closing weeks of the campaign, the Swiftees' 527 join forces with a heretofore distinct group to release Sherwood's "independent" film.

If the documentary had been made under the aegis of the Swift boat guys' 527, it would be seen as a political ad and couldn't be shown on TV as "news" during the campaign. Conversely, if the Swiftees hadn't organized as a 527, they couldn't have run ads.

And yes, I think Karl Rove called this elaborate square dance.

posted by Steve M. | 10:04 AM

COUNTERSPIN ACTIVISM: One of Sinclair's affiliates in Minneapolis is asking people to vote on whether they should air the anti-Kerry "documentary."
You know what to do.
[Don't forget to post this information in the comment sections of your favorite blogs and message boards either].
ADDENDUM: If folks want to check the station websites for other Sinclair affiliates in swing states for similar polls, please do so and post links to them in the Kvetch section.
Go here to find them.

UPDATE: Their stations in Flint (scroll down), Milwaukee, Cincinnatti, Columbus, and almost every other station have the same poll:

Reply To The Pro-Coat Hanger Crowd  

Dr. Alison Murdoch, who directs a fertility center in England is the mother of 4 children. In the Times today:

"To those people who say a life is a life is a life, ask them this question," she said. "There is a house, and their 2-year-old child is asleep in bed upstairs, and in their basement they have 10 embryos that are cryo-stored. The house catches fire, and they can go and save either their child upstairs or their embryos in the basement, but not both. Which would they go to?

"I can pretty well guarantee, certainly in the U.K. audience, that 100 percent would say, 'I'll save my child.' They'll not let their child burn to death in order to save 10 embryos that are cryo-stored."

posted by tristero permanent link to this entry 10:46 AM

The collapse of the flu vaccine this year is a true indictment of planners not seeing the forest for the trees. Chiron is being thanked  for working with HHS. Say what? They screwed up and we thank them. The lack of the flu vaccine is going to kill and injure many more additional folks than were killed on 9/11.

According to reports, influenza kills 36,000 Americans in an average year and

makes 200,000 sick enough to go to the hospital.

12 October 2004

A new Zogby poll for Reuters has Kerry up by 3 Points over Bush 47/44.

From: http://community.democrats.com/forums/discussions.cfm?forumid=170&topicid=139646

Here's a side-by-side look at Bush's back in the two debates so far:



Here is the AP original, at least until they scrub it.

On Friday, the NY Times, the Washington Post, and Knight-Ridder tried to get an explanation for the "T" - but none did very well (see below). If the White House couldn't explain the "T", how will they explain the "hump"?

Many people believe it's a communications device to feed answers to Bush (see http://isbushwired.com/).

But it could also be a medical device, which might explain why Bush refused to take his physical this year, just like he did in 1972 when he deserted the National Guard.

Stay tuned...

The new name for Bush has changed from Dubya to Furious George.

And AMERICAblog visitor Andrew sent me this version he created:

Another Furious George Resume

This individual seeks an executive position.

>   He will be available next January, and is

>   willing to relocate.

>

>

>   RESUME

>

>   GEORGE W. BUSH

>   1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

>   Washington, DC  20520

>

>   EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

>

>   Law Enforcement:

>   I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine,

>   in 1976 for driving under the influence of

>   alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my

>   driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving

>   record has been "lost" and is not available.

>

>   Military:

>   I joined the Texas Air National Guard and

>   went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or

>   answer any questions about my drug use. By

>   joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid

>   combat duty in Vietnam.

>

>   High School:

>   Never once made Honor Roll, but gained

>   admission to Yale.

>

>   College:

>   I graduated from Yale University with a

>   low C average. I was a cheerleader.

>

>   PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:

>   I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began

>   my career in the oil business in Midland, Texas,

>   in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't

>   find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt

>   shortly after I sold all my stock. I bought the

>   Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal

>   that took land using taxpayer money. With the

>   help of my father and our friends in the oil industry

>   (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected

>   governor of Texas.

>

>   ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS:

>

>   - I changed Texas pollution laws to favor

>   power and oil companies, making Texas the most

>   polluted state in the Union. During my tenure,

>   Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most

>   smog-ridden city in America.

>

>   - I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas

>    treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed

>   money.

>

>   - I set the record for the most executions by

>   any governor in American history.

>

>    - With the help of my brother, the governor of

>   Florida, and my father's appointments to the

>   Supreme Court, I became President after losing

>   by over 500,000 votes.

>

>   ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:

>

>   - I am the first President in U.S. history to enter

>   office with a criminal record.

>

>   - I invaded and occupied two countries at

>   a continuing cost of over one billion dollars

>   per week.

>

>   - I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively

>   bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.

>

>   - I shattered the record for the largest

>   annual deficit in U.S. history.

>

>   - I set an economic record for most

>   private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month

>   period.

>

>   - I set the all-time record for most foreclosures

>   in a 12-month period.

>

>   - I set the all-time record for the biggest drop

>   in the history of the U.S. stock market.

>

>   - In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans

>   lost their jobs and that trend ontinues every month.

>

>   - I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the

>   richest of any administration in U.S.  history. My

>   "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron

>   oil tanker named after her.

>

>   - I set the record for most campaign fundraising trips

>   by a U.S. President.

>

>   - I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for

>   receiving the most corporate campaign donations.

>

>   - My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and

>   one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided

>   over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S.

>   History, Enron.

>

>   - My political party used Enron private jets and

>   corporate attorneys to assure my success with the

>   U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.

>

>   - I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton

>   against investigation or prosecution. More time and

>   money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky

>   affair than has been spent investigating one of the

>   biggest corporate rip-offs in history.

>

>   - I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S.

>   history and refused to intervene when  corruption

>   involving the oil industry was revealed.

>

>   - I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.

>

>   - I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals

>   to be awarded government contracts.

>

>   - I appointed more convicted criminals to administration

>   than any President in U.S. history.

>

>   - I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest

>   bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.

>

>   - I've broken more international treaties than any

>   President in U.S. history.

>

>   - I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United

>   Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

>

>   - I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.

>

>   - I refused to allow inspector's access to U.S. "prisoners

>   of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by

>   the Geneva Convention.

>

>   - I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations

>   election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).

>

>   - I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences

>   of any President since the advent of television.

>

>   - I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any

>   one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August,

>   I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.

>

>   - I garnered the most sympathy ever for the U.S. after the

>   World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made

>   the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure

>   of diplomacy in world history.

>

>   - I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to

>   simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people),

>   shattering the record for protests against any person in the

>   history of mankind.

>

>   - I am the first President in U.S. history to order an

>   unprovoked, preemptive attack and the military occupation

>   of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United

>   Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community.

>

>   - I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and

>   support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops

>   and their families in wartime.

>

>    - In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our

>   reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on

>   our British friends.

>

>   - I am the first President in history to have a majority

>   of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest

>   threat to world peace and security.

>

>   - I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical

>   Bunker Buster," a WMD.

>

>   - I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring

>   Osama Bin Laden to justice.

>

>   RECORDS AND REFERENCES:

>

>   -All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now

>   in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view.

>

>   - All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading

>   and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and

>   unavailable for public view.

>

>   - All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my

>   Vice-president, attended regarding public energy policy

>   are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

>

>   PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN

>   2004!

>

>   PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY VOTER YOU KNOW!

8 October 2004

Town Meeting tonight at 8pm CDT.

From http://americablog.blogspot.com/

No comment necessary
by John in DC - 10/7/2004 04:09:05 PM

Comments (8)  |  Permanent Link

As in this release by the Department of Education:

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.

7 October 2004

Cheney sent listeners to www.factcheck.com telling listeners that is where they could  they could find the truth about what Edwards was saying about Halliburton. At www.factcheck.com there is a message from George Soros asking folks to elect John Kerry President. Cheney meant to send folks to www.factcheck.org. And factcheck.org has a message saying that what Edwards said about Cheney is basically correct. Oops!

In order to get in a zinger, Cheney claimed he never met Edwards: from http://atrios.blogspot.com/2004/10/cheney-lied.html

Cheney Lied

Claimed he'd never met Edwards. LIIIIAAAAAAARRRRRR. February, 2001:

Congressman Wamp, Senator Edwards, friends from across America, and distinguished visitors to our country from all over the world: Lynne and I are honored to be with you all this morning.

-Atrios 11:21 PM
Comments (254) | Trackbacks (12)

And another time from www.dailykos.com:

Senator Edwards Escorted Elizabeth Dole When She Was Sworn In As North Carolina's Other Senator.  Elizabeth Dole was sworn in as North Carolina's other senator on January 8, 2003.  Gannet News Service wrote:  "As per Senate tradition, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., escorted her."

Dole Took The Senate Oath Administered By Vice President Dick Cheney.  According to Gannet News Service: "[Dole] raised her right hand and took the oath administered by Vice President Dick Cheney, the Senate president."  [Gannet News Service, 1/8/03]

GOP goes after Moore over underwear

October 6, 2004

LANSING, Mich. -- Republicans say filmmaker Michael Moore should be prosecuted for offering underwear, potato chips and 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 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.

Moore, a Michigan native, is touring the country and imploring ''slackers'' who usually don't vote to head to the polls this year.

During each program, habitual nonvoters are invited on stage to pledge to vote. First-time student voters are offered gag prizes such as clean underwear. The GOP said Moore also offered students a clean dorm room, a year's supply of Tostitos and a package of Ramen noodles.

At this website is an example of how bad the voting shenanigans are going to be this year. Follow the arrows. If you vote for the Kerry/Edwards arrow you will be voting for Bush/Cheney. Atrocious! http://www.livejournal.com/community/2004_elections/306938.html#cutid1

Cheney acted as President of the Senate on Tuesdays two times in the last four years. That’s as many times as Edwards was President Pro Tem. During the debate Cheney said he was at the Senate most Tuesdays. The interesting thing is that Cheney lied about never meeting Edwards since research shows he has met him at least three times and he lied about being presiding over the Senate on Tuesdays when he said he was up there most Tuesdays. He lied, just as he has lied about so many things in the last four years. So strange!

From: http://www.aolwatch.org/backup/densityland.shtml

From Air America Radio is the news Dick Cheney made a bizarre misstatement in Wednesday's debate.

Cheney was repeating one of his campaign's standard attacks against John Kerry....

And with respect to this particular operation, we've seen a situation in which, first, they voted to commit the troops, to send them to war, John Edwards and John Kerry, then they came back and when the question was whether or not you provide them with the resources they needed -- body armor, spare parts, ammunition -- they voted against it.

But this time, Cheney added a bizarre theory.

I couldn't figure out why that happened initially. And then I looked and figured out that what was happening was Howard Dean was making major progress in the Democratic primaries, running away with the primaries based on an anti-war record. So they, in effect, decided they would cast an anti-war vote and they voted against the troops.

Now if they couldn't stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to stand up to Al Qaida?

Air America Radio pointed out that Howard Dean wasn't "running away" with any primaries. As the contests were held, he placed 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 5th, 5th... Eventually racking up a whopping 170 delegates (out of 2162 needed.) Kerry placed first in the first nine primaries.

But there's another more important fact. This all-crucial vote that Dick Cheney focused on, that he "looked" at to "figure out why that happened." The vote was held four months before the primaries even started.

FactCheck.org identifies that vote as occurring in October of 2003.

Air America theorized that the conservatives love making crazy connections between their opponents and Howard Dean.

6 October 2004

Tie goes to the mean old man!

The shortage of flu vaccine is atrocious and a true blot on Health & Human Services. The Republican Congress only gave 50% of HHS request for flu vaccine needs which was a measly $50 million.

Paul Bremer, former chief honcho of Iraq, made John Kerry’s day yesterday when he confirmed Kerry’s assertion that too few troops were committed to securing the peace in Iraq. To quote Bremer, "We never had enough troops on the ground." It seems that some folks in the Republican camp are going off the reservation. As of this time the White House hasn’t commented on Bremer’s statement. Bremer says he didn’t know he would be quoted. He was speaking, we presume for a nice fat fee, to some insurance executives Monday night.

This is a roundabout report that we recently received. The source of the report is given as: From my friend at the LA Times who received this from his friend at the WSJ:

[Wall Street Journal reporter] Farnaz. We just read WSJ won't have Farnaz Fassihi reporting on Iraq until after the elections since they have suspended him. So the email really is from Farnaz.

Subject: From Baghdad

Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under
virtual house arrest. Forget about the reasons that lured me to this job: a chance to see the world, explore the exotic, meet new people in far away lands, discover their ways and tell stories that could make a difference.

Little by little, day-by-day, being based in Iraq has defied all those reasons. I am house bound. I leave when I have a very good reason to  and a scheduled interview. I avoid going to people's homes and never  walk in the streets. I can't go grocery shopping any more, can't eat in restaurants, can't strike a conversation with strangers, can't look for stories, can't drive in any thing but a full armored car, can't go to scenes of breaking news stories, can't be stuck in traffic, can't speak English outside, can't take a road trip, can't say I'm an American, can't linger at checkpoints, can't be curious about what people are saying, doing, feeling. And can't and can't. There has been one too many close calls, including a car bomb so near our house that it blew out all the windows. So now my most pressing concern every day is not to write a kick-ass story but to stay alive and make sure our Iraqi employees stay alive. In Baghdad I am a security personnel first, a reporter second.

It's hard to pinpoint when the 'turning point' exactly began. Was it April when the Fallujah fell out of the grasp of the Americans? Was it when Moqtada and Jish Mahdi declared war on the U.S. military? Was it when Sadr City, home to ten percent of Iraq's population, became a nightly battlefield for the Americans? Or was it when the insurgency began spreading from isolated pockets in the Sunni triangle to include most of Iraq? Despite President Bush's rosy assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a 'potential' threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to 'imminent and active threat,' a foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come.

Iraqis like to call this mess 'the situation.' When asked 'how are thing?' they reply: 'the situation is very bad."

What they mean by situation is this: the Iraqi government doesn't  control most Iraqi cities, there are several car bombs going off each day around the country killing and injuring scores of innocent people, the country's roads are becoming impassable and littered by hundreds of landmines and explosive devices aimed to kill American soldiers, there are assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings. The situation, basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war. In four days, 110 people died and over 300 got injured in Baghdad  alone. The numbers are so shocking that the ministry of health -- which was attempting an exercise of public transparency by releasing the numbers -- has now stopped disclosing them.

Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day.

A friend drove thru the Shiite slum of Sadr City yesterday. He said young men were openly placing improvised explosive devices into the ground. They melt a shallow hole into the asphalt, dig the explosive,  cover it with dirt and put an old tire or plastic can over it to signal to the locals this is booby-trapped. He said on the main roads of Sadr City, there were a dozen landmines per every ten yards. His  car snaked and swirled to avoid driving over them. Behind the walls sits an angry Iraqi ready to detonate them as soon as an American convoy gets near. This is in Shiite land, the population that was supposed to love America for liberating Iraq.

For journalists the significant turning point came with the wave of abduction and kidnappings. Only two weeks ago we felt safe around  Baghdad because foreigners were being abducted on the roads and  highways between towns. Then came a frantic phone call from a journalist female friend at 11 p.m. telling me two Italian women had  been abducted from their homes in broad daylight. Then the two  Americans, who got beheaded this week and the Brit, were abducted from their homes in a residential neighborhood. They were supplying the entire block with round the clock electricity from their generator to win friends. The abductors grabbed one of them at 6 a.m. when he came  out to switch on the generator; his beheaded body was thrown back near the neighborhoods./CONTINUED BELOW


WSJ reporter Fassahi's e-mail to friends /2
9/29/2004 2:47:12 PM

The insurgency, we are told, is rampant with no signs of calming down.  If any thing, it is growing stronger, organized and more sophisticated every day. The various elements within it-baathists, criminals, nationalists and Al Qaeda- are cooperating and coordinating.

I went to an emergency meeting for foreign correspondents with the military and embassy to discuss the kidnappings. We were somberly told our fate would largely depend on where we were in the kidnapping chain once it was determined we were missing. Here is how it goes: criminal gangs grab you and sell you up to Baathists in Fallujah, who will in turn sell you to Al Qaeda. In turn, cash and weapons flow the other way from Al Qaeda to the Baathisst to the criminals. My friend Georges, the French journalist snatched on the road to Najaf has been missing for a month with no word on release or whether he is still alive.

America's last hope for a quick exit? The Iraqi police and National Guard units we are spending billions of dollars to train. The cops are being murdered by the dozens every day-over 700 to date -- and the insurgents are infiltrating their ranks. The problem is so serious that the U.S. military has allocated $6 million dollars to buy out 30,000 cops they just trained to get rid of them quietly.

As for reconstruction: firstly it's so unsafe for foreigners to operate that almost all projects have come to a halt. After two years, of the $18 billion Congress appropriated for Iraq reconstruction only about $1 billion or so has been spent and a chuck has now been reallocated for improving security, a sign of just how bad things are going here.

Oil dreams? Insurgents disrupt oil flow routinely as a result of sabotage and oil prices have hit record high of $49 a barrel. Who did this war exactly benefit? Was it worth it? Are we safer because Saddam is holed up and Al Qaeda is running around in Iraq?

Iraqis say that thanks to America they got freedom in exchange for insecurity. Guess what? They say they'd take security over freedom any day, even if it means having a dictator ruler.

I heard an educated Iraqi say today that if Saddam Hussein were allowed to run for elections he would get the majority of the vote. This is truly sad.

Then I went to see an Iraqi scholar this week to talk to him about elections here. He has been trying to educate the public on the importance of voting. He said, "President Bush wanted to turn Iraq into a democracy that would be an example for the Middle East. Forget about democracy, forget about being a model for the region, we have to salvage Iraq before all is lost."

One could argue that Iraq is already lost beyond salvation. For those of us on the ground it's hard to imagine what if any thing could salvage it from its violent downward spiral. The genie of terrorism, chaos and mayhem has been unleashed onto this country as a result of American mistakes and it can't be put back into a bottle.

The Iraqi government is talking about having elections in three months while half of the country remains a 'no go zone'-out of the hands of the government and the Americans and out of reach of journalists. In the other half, the disenchanted population is too terrified to show up at polling stations. The Sunnis have already said they'd boycott  elections, leaving the stage open for polarized government of Kurds  and Shiites that will not be deemed as legitimate and will most  certainly lead to civil war.

I asked a 28-year-old engineer if he and his family would participate  in the Iraqi elections since it was the first time Iraqis could to  some degree elect a leadership. His response summed it all: "Go and vote and risk being blown into pieces or followed by the insurgents and murdered for cooperating with the Americans? For what? To practice democracy? Are you joking?"

-Farnaz

Just in time for Friday’s debate the White House is going to adjust upwards by 300,000 the number of jobs it says the economy created in March 2003- March 2004 period. This is not the Labor Department’s number it will be the White House number which has been carefully arrived at through much soul searching and the need to say that Bush did not lose jobs on his watch.

A nice story about John Kerry:

Former U.S. Sen. Chic Hecht of Nevada is a staunch Republican, but he thanks his lucky stars for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

On July 12, 1988, Hecht was attending a weekly Republican luncheon when a piece of apple lodged firmly in his throat.

Hecht stumbled out of the room, thinking he might vomit but not wanting to do it in front of his colleagues. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., thumped his back, but Hecht quickly passed out in the hallway.

Just then, Kerry stepped off an elevator, rushed to Hecht's side and gave him the Heimlich maneuver -- four times.

The lifesaving incident made international news, and Dr. Henry Heimlich, who invented the maneuver in 1974, called Hecht to say that had Kerry intervened just 30 seconds later Hecht might have been in a vegetative state for life.

"This man gave me my life," the 75-year-old Hecht said Thursday.

Hecht said he was amazed that Kerry acted so quickly -- some people were assuming that he was having a heart attack.

"He knew exactly what to do," he said. "But a lot of people know what to do. They just don't size up the situation immediately."

The story has a twist of irony: Hecht was up for re-election that year, and Kerry, who was serving as the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, had pegged Hecht as one of the most vulnerable Republican seats.

Indeed, the Democratic nominee for Hecht's seat, then-Gov. Richard Bryan, beat Hecht, who served just one term in office.

"Only in America can this happen, where he's working against me to get me defeated and then saves my life," Hecht said.

Hecht, who prides himself on having one of the most conservative records on the books during his six years in the Senate, said he and his wife, Gail, see politics as "a secondary issue" when it comes to Kerry.

"We've had a wonderful life, and it would have all been down the tubes," said Hecht, who is about to celebrate his 45th wedding anniversary with his wife.

Every year the Hechts call Kerry's longtime personal secretary, who tracks down Kerry wherever he is.

Then they recount some of their experiences in the last year. Hecht and his wife thank Kerry for thinking so quickly in the Senate halls that day. And Kerry tells them that their phone call is one of his favorites of the year.

"He's so nice and appreciative," Hecht said.

5 October 2004

Debate tonight: Darth Vader versus Luke Skywalker

4 October 2004

From http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/ : Friday, October 01, 2004

CNN's "undecided" voter is actually a patriot  

I needed to calm down after George drove the John Deere into my bedroom yesterday, so I kicked on CNN. I find American Morning very reassuring. A few minutes of Bill Hemmer, Heidi Collins, and Jack Cafferty telling me that Our Leader is boldly and resolutely handling the challenges facing America is all the tonic I need to put me in a proper frame of mind for the rest of the day.

Early in the program, Mr. Hemmer interviewed three undecided Florida voters about their hopes for last night's debate. The fact that at least two of the three seemed to be fairly intelligent made me wonder just how undecided they really were--after all, you'd have to be a complete idiot to be unable to choose between one of the candidates by now.

I found it more than a bit curious that one of undecideds, Edward Martos, is a graduate student in public administration at the University of Miami. Public administration? You'd think that he'd certainly be a bit more informed about politics and public policy that the average guy. How could he still be undecided?

After a little googling, I learned that Mr. Martos seems to be leading a double life. While claiming to be the politically independent president of a non-partisan campus group called the Council for Democracy, he is also very involved with the College Republicans, having served on committees to draft the UMCR constitution and organize a veterans memorial committee. He has also served as the Assistant Editor in Chief for the CR newsletter, Eye On Politics.

"Perhaps," I thought, "There are two Edward Martoses attending UM," but then I learned that the College Republican Edward Martos promoted Council for Democracy events at College Republican meetings. Certainly, it's the same guy.

The picture sealed it for me. The College Republican Edward Martos is the guy I saw on CNN. He's supposed to be on again this morning. Watch it and see for yourself.

Edward Martos is my new hero. He's been able to fool a lot of people, including Bill Hemmer, into believing that he's an independent when he's actually a GOP foot soldier and patriot. He'll go far in a party that reveres Karl Rove.

From http://jackpinesavage.blogspot.com/2004/10/post-debate.html

I'm not going to say a whole lot about this, but one of those candidates looked like a President. I'm going to let you figure out which one.

A humorous side note, the GOP held a "conference call" with Ken Mehlman in which campaign "Team Leaders" call in to be told what to think and get their talking points for the debate. Atrios , bless his heart, posted the number and the password to be accepted to the conference call. I got in without a problem and, after enduring ten minutes of painful smooth jazz, got to hear firsthand how the Bush campaign was going to spin this.

Mehlman said Kerry started with a credibility gap and ended with a credibility canyon, and babbled in and around this point for five minutes or so. Then they announced that they were going to take three questions. The first was from a "young Republican in Washington." She proceeded to say that Kerry was very credible and that she had decided to vote for him. The second caller said she thought Kerry would make a credible Commander in Chief and the third call took Bush to task for not mentioning the al Quida members not captured.

Mehlman apologized to the Bush supporters listening and acknowledge that the call had obviously attracted some Democrats. We had, essentially, hijacked their own spin distribution and thrown it in the GOP's face. A small, yet hilarious victory for the blogosphere.

An interesting tidbit is that on all the polling websites like CNN and the LA Times Kerry is winning the unscientific polls by a large margin. That means that the Democrat Kerry supporters are energized by last night and the Bushies are not. It may mean nothing but our feeling is that Bush support is lukewarm and that if he doesn’t do well in the next debates that his support may erode by Election Day. We aren’t counting our chickens just observing. We are amazed that folks actually thought Bush would do well. He hasn’t had to defend a position ever in a debate and all his appearances this year are totally scripted. Even his press conferences are scripted. The debate last night put the White House Correspondents to shame and maybe now Candy Crowley of CNN will be kinder to Kerry since she gets to go to the White House if he wins.

From www.salon.com

"Boondocks" cartoonist rates Bush

While pundits on the left, right, and center agreed that John Kerry beat George Bush in the opening debate, none was more emphatic than “Boondocks” cartoonist Aaron McGruder. “Bush got his ass whupped,” McGruder told CNN’s Aaron Brown.

But the outspoken McGruder, who was relegated to “The Contrarian” segment of Brown’s news show, was not finished. “The elephant in the room” that no TV pontificators will dare acknowledge, he observed, is that Bush “is incredibly dumb...he can’t articulate, he can’t complete a full sentence, and he’s our president.”

Brown, being a member in good standing of the pontificator class, rushed to challenge McGruder, asserting that Bush was a man of strong beliefs, blah, blah, blah. But McGruder was unimpressed. Convictions don’t mean a thing if you’re just plain stupid, he pointed out.

And with that, Brown bade The Contrarian farewell.

-- David Talbot

1 October 2004

But fear not-or fear a lot -‘cause he is workin hard for all of us.