Reflections on the Election

I am beginning to recuperate from my post-election malaise. Here are some of the things that have been rolling around in my head:

-- John Kerry has been my senator for years. Including his candidacy for lieutenant governor, I have voted for him 5 times. I've always liked his stands on the issues. But I never felt passionate about him. That's why I supported Howard Dean. He spoke clearly and persuasively about the issues I care about, including his clear stand against the war in Iraq. Once Kerry was the candidate, of course I supported him. But he wasn't my first choice, & I've voted for him 5 times in the past.

-- Why do we let Iowa & New Hampshire pick our Democratic candidates? Both of them are 50/50 states. Why aren't our first primaries in California, New York & Illinois? States filled with Democratic voters.

-- Will Rogers once said, famously, I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat. Boy, it felt that way a lot this summer. Waiting for Kerry to respond to the Swift Boat Liars. K/E trotted out all Kerry's boatmates at the convention & weren't prepared to put 'em on TV to counteract all the BS from guys who didn't even know Kerry in Vietnam? Even when they did respond, it wasn't very effective.

-- What was with the duck hunting expedition? First off, one of the late-to-the-party Clintonistas, Lockhart or McCurry, said flat-out to the press, This is a photo-op. Gee, thanks for all the expert help, guys.
Then, there's the ridiculousness of it. I don't own a gun & never have. But I grew up in the mountains where we got the first day of hunting season off every year. A girl in my class shot a deer when she was 12. I watched my neighbor up the street butcher his deer every year. It never bothered me, because in the mountains people hunt for food. That deer fed a family for the winter. I don't mind hunting for food. Hey, I'm a carnivore, I buy my meat in the grocery store, I'm no different from that deer hunter. But was Kerry really going to eat that Canada goose? Was anyone? Hunting for sport, I just don't get. When those pictures of Kerry were on TV my friend's 13-year old asked me, Why is Kerry killing a duck? What did that duck ever do to him? What's that have to do with being President? Good questions.

-- Where was the famous Kerry close? Where were the tough last-minute ads? Remember, Kerry went "dark" in August to save money for his all-out blitz before Election Day. Where was it? Just those boring "Stronger at Home, Respected in the World" ads.

-- And couldn't they come up with a better tag line than that? Where's the power in those words?

-- Why did Kerry concede so quickly? After telling us he would fight for every vote, why didn't he? He couldn't just wait until all the votes were counted? Both campaigns encouraged all their voters to vote early or to vote by absentee ballot. As this becomes more common, folks are going to have to get used to the fact that WE WON'T KNOW WHO WON ON ELECTION NIGHT. It's important. It's worth getting it right. Kerry should have hung in there until all the votes were counted.

Oops

US strikes raze Falluja hospital

The hospital was run by an Islamic charity

A hospital has been razed to the ground in one of the heaviest US air raids in the Iraqi city of Falluja.

Witnesses said only the facade remained of the small Nazzal Emergency Hospital in the centre of the city. There are no reports on casualties.

A nearby medical supplies storeroom and dozens of houses were damaged as US forces continued preparing the ground for an expected major assault.

What more can I say?

Fallujah Redux

Looks like we are getting ready to liberate/kill many more residents of Fallujah.

Freedom, it's a beautiful thing. I bet those 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians are really enjoying their liberation. Do you think they heard something dissonant when Georgie Porgie said to his base, "I believe in a culture of life"?

You just have to know the hierarchy of life.

1. Most important life: Life at conception.

2. Second most important life: American (preferably white)

3. Not so important life: Iraqi

When you understand the equation, you understand why 3,000 American lives lost on 9/11 is properly revenged by the deaths of 100,000 Iraqi civilians.

Looks like we are getting ready to lose even more of categories 2 & 3 in Fallujah, especially since a company commander of our crack Iraqi militia seems to have deserted, taking his copy of the battle plans with him.

Iraqi briefed on Falluja plans missing
Marines concerned captain could pass along information

Iraqi briefed on Falluja plans missing
Marines concerned captain could pass along information
From Karl Penhaul, embedded with the Marines
Saturday, November 6, 2004 Posted: 4:42 PM EST (2142 GMT)

NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- A company commander of the Iraqi security forces who received a full briefing on the expected Falluja assault is missing from a military base where U.S. and Iraqi troops are preparing for the possible operation.

The captain, a Kurd with no known ties to the Sunni city of Falluja, is thought to have taken notes from the battle briefing late Thursday. U.S. Marines and his fellow Iraqi officers found no sign of him Friday morning, except for his uniform and a weapon on his cot.

Marines are concerned that the information he knows could be passed along to insurgents. U.S. military sources believe insurgents have friends in the military and government.

The captain commands a company of about 160 men. He is among 10,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces expected to take part in the operation.

The incompetent boobs are still in charge, and Iraq is still FUBAR. Thanks, red states!

Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier!

Like Frazier, I am on the mat and can't get up. After spending a 14-hour day advising voters of their legal right to vote at a precinct in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida yesterday, I fell into bed exhausted at 10:00 p.m. last night. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to learn that it was probably all over but the shouting, that the worst president in the history of the United States of America has been elected to a second term.

Listening to TV today I have learned that as a Democrat I am "not part of mainstream America" (Tony Blankley, ENGLISH FUCK from Washington Times, former press secretary to Newt Gingrich, on CNN this afternoon); that I am part of a "fringe" group (David Gregory, incompetent Washington correspondent, on Hardball/MSNBC tonight) and that the Red states defreated the Blue states last night.

My response to all this: I am not going to spend ONE PENNY in a red state for the next four years. They don't need me anyway; I'm a fringe, out-of-the-mainstream loser.

My money will ONLY go to blue states where I am accepted.

Put that in your pipe & smoke it, SCLM!

Prediction Time

Another long-hair from Massachusetts leaves the field victorious on Tuesday. (Gratituous Red Sox reference.)

You heard it here first: 311 Electoral votes for Kerry to 227 for Bush. I'm sticking with my "Kerry in a Landslide" prediction.

Atrios says Kerry wins 284 (Gore states + New Hampshire & Ohio) to 254.

The Dick (Tucker Carlson), according to DailyKos, even has it for Kerry, 278-260.

Go Johnny go!

Zogby: It's Kerry

John Zogby, the only pollster who called Election 2000 correctly for Gore, guest on the Daily Show tonight, says Kerry will win.

Whoo-hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That village in Texas is getting its idiot back............

Florida 2.0

Posting will be sporadic for the next week as I head to Florida to volunteer with the Election Protection coalition. Just another warrior for democracy.

Steal an election once, shame on you; steal it twice, shame on me!

Polls can't measure this kind of determination

Passion and Election Disputes On Rise in Florida as Vote Nears (last page)

Herman Post, who said he divided his time between Connecticut and Boca Raton, said he called the Palm Beach County elections office 10 days ago to inquire about a ballot he requested in September, and was told it had been mailed on Oct. 12.

When Mr. Post still had not received the ballot by Wednesday, he said, he called back.

"They say they never mailed me one, that there's no record from me having applied for it," he said. "I think there's obviously some phony baloney going on down there."

Mr. Post, 82, said he would drive to Florida to vote, leaving Connecticut at dawn on Sunday.

Headline of the Day

Massachusetts Liberals Deal Busch Devastating Blow in the Heartland

Hopefully that will also be the case next Tuesday!

Note to Skippy: Leave out the last "e" in Massachusettes!

The Red Sox Are World Champions

I didn't get to post yesterday as I could not get on to blogger :::aargh::: but I KNEW the Red Sox would win the World Series last night. I couldn't even get very excited about the prospect after Game 2 because it was clear the Red Sox were confident and the Cardinals were reeling.

I gotta say, winning the World Series was somewhat anticlimactic after the Sturm und drang of the epic series win over the Yankees. Playing the Cardinals allowed me to breathe. No visions of Aaron Fucking Boone dancing in my head. I'm too young to remember 1946, and in 1967 I wasn't a Red Sox fan. My mom was rooting for the Cardinals. All I remember about that series was Bob Gibson, probably the most dominating performance in a World Series by a pitcher, ever. 1975 was just a great series, but the Red Sox lost to a great Reds team.

I do remember 1986, very well. I had red candles burning on the top of my TV when Dave Henderson hit that home run against the Angels in the ALCS. And, I'm embarrassed to admit, I had already opened the champagne when that ball went through Bill Buckner's legs against the Mutts. That was a real heartbreaker. I never blamed Buckner. He never should have been on the field that late in the game. Much like this year's Doug M (runs to google to get spelling of name right) Mientkiewicz, Dave Stapleton had been Buckner's late game defensive substitution all year. Inexplicably, John McNamara left Buckner and his immobile ankles on the field and we all know the result.

Finally, last year's game seven defeat by the Yankees in the playoffs was just devastating. I watched the game from Madison Square Garden where I was attending the New York Rangers home opener. My brother's friend got us into the Green Room where I was transfixed by the game. By the 7th inning it was down the the diehards -- me, my family, and many New Yorkers including Mike Richter, Brian Leetch & Rod Gilbert. I was the lone Red Sox fan in the room. Much fun was poked at my expense. As you will recall the Red Sox led throughout the game until Grady Little (Forrest Gump) was perhaps the only person on the planet not to realize that Pedro Martinez was gassed. (My other brother called me from St. Louis screaming, "Pedro's gassed! Pedro's gassed! What is Grady Little doing?")

When Boone hit that home run off Wakefield I just began moaning. Wake had been heroic in the series. He had won games 1 and 4 and the Sox wouldn't even have been in that position if it weren't for him. And Aaron Bleeping Boone of all people. I went home, put my "Cowboy Up" shirt in a drawer and never took it out again.

And like all optimistic Red Sox fans, in March I said "This is the Year" and went out & bought a brand new Red Sox cap & shirt so I could say "I bought these the year the Red Sox won the World Series." Mission accomplished.

Great moments from last night's win:

Johnny Damon's lead-off home run. WWWJDD? What Would Johnny Damon Do? Drive a stake in the heart of the Cardinals and their fans at the earliest possible opportunity.

Derek Lowe tagging out Scott Rolen along the first base line in the bottom of the first. Did anyone else visualize A-Fraud's big white Mickey Mouse glove hacking the spindly arm of Bronson Arroyo at that moment?

The dirty boy Trot Nixon's clutch double in the 3rd, scoring Varitek & Ortiz.

Albert Pujols off-balance throw to the plate.

Pedro hugging Derek Lowe in the dugout after the 7th inning.

The final out -- Foulke almost juggling the ball he was so nervous.

Curtis Leskanic making snow angels on the infield grass.

Jason Varitek kneeling to kiss the infield.

Theo Epstein shaking the champagne bottle as he watched his bosses interviewed by the Fox nitwit in her ill-fitting suit.

The local sports guys interviewing everyone on the Busch Stadium infield for hours. They even interviewed Theo's parents.

Ah, it was a magic night.

Things That Made Me Smile This Week

A sign at Fenway Park: WWJDD? (What Would Johnny Damon Do?)

Q: What's the difference between Iraq and Vietnam?
A: George W. Bush had a plan for getting out of Vietnam.

(Alternate answer: Both Bush & Cheney had a plan for getting out of Vietnam)

Mosh

Let's hope this song helps GOTV for young voters!

MOSH

by Eminem

Imagine it pouring, it's raining down on us,
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone's trying to tell us something, maybe this is God just saying
we're responsible for this monster, this coward, that we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head nodding,
How could we allow something like this, Without pumping our fist
Now this is our, final hour
Let me be the voice, and your strength, and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme, just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify the times it, and multiply it by six
Teen million people are equal of this high pitch
Maybe we can reach Al Quaida through my speech
Let the President answer on high anarchy
Strap him with AK-47, let him go
Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our soil
No more psychological warfare to trick us to think that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes, it's all lies, the stars and stripes
They've been swiped, washed out and wiped,
And Replaced with his own face, mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you'll know why, because I told you to fight.

Leopards Never Change Their Spots

Police commander is said to fire at crowd
Among four officers with pepper pellets

The police commander in charge of the Kenmore Square area, including Fenway Park, when a 21-year-old college student was shot and killed was one of four officers who fired pepper pellets into the raucous crowds celebrating the Red Sox American League pennant victory, according to two people familiar with the investigation of the shootings.

Deputy Superintendent Robert E. O'Toole commands the Boston Police Department's Special Operations Unit, which includes the tactical team that used new high-force pepper-pellet guns early Thursday for the first time outside training. In addition, on this night, he was in charge of the massive deployment of all officers surrounding the ballpark, according to deployment records.

Shots from the pepper-pellet guns killed Victoria E. Snelgrove and tore a hole in the cheek of 24-year-old Cambridge resident Paul Gately. Pepper pellets fired by officers that night also pierced the skull of 19-year-old Boston University student Kapila Bhamidipati.

*************

Robert O'Toole was also commander of special operations during the 1986 World Series and was overseeing security at Fenway Park when a television news crew filmed him as he slapped a handcuffed prisoner. O'Toole was demoted by Commissioner Francis M. Roache the following year and spent the next 17 years on different assignments until Kathleen O'Toole named him deputy superintendent of special operations in April.

Why oh why was this jamoke reinstated?

Who You Gonna Believe, Me Or Your Lying Eyes?

Nickel and Diming Homeland Security

Read this article to see statistics like this:

Amount needed to help local firefighters prepare for terrorist attacks: $36.8 BILLION
(Iraq equivalent: 122 days)

Bush budget allocation for firefighter grants: $500 MILLION
(Iraq equivalent: 40 hours)

Friggin' Prayin'

The Red Sox are up 2-0 in the World Series.

The Red Sox are up 2-0 in the World Series.

Can this be real? Can I let myself believe it's real? I can't get excited yet. I can't let myself get excited yet. I was one of those fools who had opened the champagne during Game 6 in 1986, because it was all over, in the bag, just a few easy outs away. And then it all slipped away, the agony, the howling, poor Billy Buckner driven out of town by the wrath of Red Sox Nation.

Curt Schilling was amazing last night. I keep thinking about that poor cadaver they practiced on with the tendon sheath stitches. Was the dead guy a Red Sox fan? Is he up there in heaven lording it over the other Red Sox fans about how he's helping break the 86-year-old curse? Or was he a Yankee fan & God is involved here -- a Yankee fan had to be sacrificed to break the Curse of the Bambino?

Speaking of religion, we enjoy Curt's frequent references to God. He's an avowed Christian and for example in last night's post-game press conference, he said "I'll never use the words unbelievable and the Lord in the same sentence again." Very Christian.

Righty-oh, there, Curt. I watched Letterman last week the day after the Sox vanquished the hated Yankees and saw our God-Squadder Curt read the Number One reason the Sox beat the Yankees: "We got Babe Ruth's ghost a hooker and now everything's cool." OK, if Curt's a Christian, I guess that's a very Christian statement.

My friend heard him interviewed on WEEI (our local sportstalk radio station) a few days back. In a short interview he said the word "frigging" at least a dozen times. Now, when I was a kid & I used that word, my parents treated me as though I had said "f**king". Because that's really what you're saying when you're saying frigging. So I guess using "frigging" is very Christian, too.

Last night I finally realized what Curt is doing when he sits in the dugout between pitches with his head in his hands. He's praying. They did a close-up from the side, and he has a chain around his neck (cross? saint?) in his fingers, his eyes are squeezed shut, and his lips are moving. Curt Schilling, praying between innings.

Frigging praying. Frigging praying. That's what all of Red Sox Nation is doing today.

Go Sox.

For further reading, try Schilling Gives Boston a Leg to Stand On by Tom Boswell in the Washington Post; Schilling again prevails on blood and guts alone by Sean McAdam in the Providence Journal; Fans get Curt-ain call: Ace's morning pain gives way to night of life by Stephen Harris in the Boston Herald; and Painful day, then win sewn up by Jackie MacMullan in the Boston Globe.

UPDATE: How could I forget George (not hack Peter) Vecsey? Schilling May Become Another Gimpy Legend

George W. Bush: The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Have you seen the new Bush/Cheney '04 commercial? A pack of wolves leaping ferociously in a field?

The message: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Be afraid of The Boy Who Cries Wolf.

1546 Reasons to Vote Against Bush

One Thousand Reasons

This the numbered list to end all numbered lists. It is still being updated, so the number may be higher than 1546 when you check in.

What Hunter S. Thompson Says

Some people say that George Bush should be run down and sacrificed to the Rat gods. But not me. No. I say it would be a lot easier to just vote the bastard out of office on November 2nd.

'Fear and loathing, Campaign 2004'

A 9/11 Mother's Grief & Anger

Donna Marsh O'Connor: 'An open letter to George W. Bush'

On the Thirty-third Anniversary of My Daughter's Birth

I can't even imagine this woman's pain.

Sometimes, Mr. Bush, it's the smallest of details that makes everything click. The smallest of details. Right now, Mr. Bush, I am looking at your watch. It's an item of clothing accessory and, unlike your other costumes, it is one that is particularly revealing.

On Halloween my daughter would be thirty-three years old. Her child would be almost three. Seven weeks before her twenty-ninth birthday, Vanessa, four months pregnant, ran from the falling towers of the World Trade Center. She did not make it. Her body, and in it the small body of her unborn child, was pulled from the rubble of the fallen towers on September 24th, just ten feet from an alley between towers IV and V. It is important for me to tell you that she was on the phone to her uptown office five minutes after the first plane hit tower I, explaining how she and others in tower II were "safe."

Here is what you did regarding specifically the events of that morning: You vacationed before, during and after August 6th, the day you were handed the presidential daily briefing that said very clearly Vanessa Lang Langer and many other Americans were not safe. After the first plane hit tower I, the fact of the PDB did not click in your mind, did not cause you to act, to turn on a television, to contact the Pentagon. You sat so that you did not frighten a group of children. You did not worry about Vanessa's brothers, or the young children who would certainly be directly affected by that event. You did not, like her fourteen year-old brother, rush from your seat and head for a phone, desperately trying to reach out, to fix, to save. You sat.

You said, two weeks to the day before the general election of 2004, that you would protect Americans; that is, according to you, your primary responsibility as Commander-in Chief; no terrorists would get us, no terrorists would attack us (you said this with your arm extended), and I you said and I quote, on your watch. You said this with no sense of irony, no sense, no indication of how that text would sound to those you failed miserably to protect. You never notified officially the airlines, flight schools, persons who lived or worked in our tallest structures. You failed in your watch and on it.

They're Feeling a Draft, Talking About It On Their Cell Phones

Jimmy Breslin: 'Election rides on the cell phone vote'

Not one cell phone has been called during the presidential campaign. This is because there is no method for polling cell phones. Nobody has their numbers. Nor do they know who the users are, where they live and what they do. You have 170 million phones and you talk to none of them and then try to say you know what the public is thinking.

A month ago, pollster John Zogby said he had discontinued telephone polls because cell phones had made any and all results meaningless. Now if you pay attention to polls, you are insane.

Yesterday, the polls showed a Bush surge. It never happened because they were basing it on thin air. There also were figures showing Kerry winning states like Ohio in the Midwest. They came up with the percentages without calling one cell phone of the millions and millions of them in the area. I believe nothing.

**********

They talk on cell phones, and when they talk they say, "Where are you? Did you hear George Bush saying the jobs are improving? Where? And for how much? He is making this a $9-an-hour country. Did you hear his idea on Social Security? We can give it to a stock broker to steal. Did you hear him saying a word about the guys getting killed in Iraq? No. He wants to make like it never happens. So long. I'm going into the building, and I'm going to lose you."

I'm with Jimmy. Kerry in a landslide.

The Ex-Cubs Factor

A Wise Decision Brings Boston Home

Murray Chass says Francona out-managed Torre. Personally, I think he just had better pitching, but who am I to say.

The really interesting part of his article is this:

Lowe certainly worked to the Red Sox' advantage. So might have the ex-Cubs factor.

A Cornell professor named Ronald Seeber raised the ex-Cubs factor in an e-mail message to friends yesterday, and one of them forwarded it here.

The ex-Cubs factor was brought to light years ago to explain why some teams won and some lost in the World Series. If a team had at least five players who had previously played for the Cubs and had more former Cubs than its opponent, that team would lose the World Series.

The barometer has since been expanded to other postseason series. Applying the factor to this series, the Yankees were in trouble. They had five ex-Cubs, the Red Sox only two.

On the Yankees' roster were the ex-Cubs Tom Gordon, Jon Lieber, Miguel Cairo, Kenny Lofton and Felix Heredia. On the Red Sox' roster were Bill Mueller and Mark Bellhorn, whose three-run homer was the decisive blow in Boston's 4-2 victory that tied the series.

I wonder how many ex-Cubs the Cardinals & Expos have? That will determine who I root for in their Game 7 tonight.

Why Not Us?

Still exulting over the Red Sox win over the MFY this morning. Yee-hah!

I especially enjoyed those obnoxious commercials with George Steinbrenner's arm in a cast because he has to write all those checks. I was screaming at the TV, "You're gonna be writing a lot of checks in this off-season, a**hole!!!" Gee, I guess the Yankees could have used Clemens, Pettite, or even David Wells. Kevin Brown lasted, what, two innings? hahahaha

The New York Times agrees with me.

More Changes Certain After Yankees' Defeat

The Yankees almost certainly will spend wildly to win; Steinbrenner has shown no tendency to do otherwise. The obvious target is the Houston free agent Carlos Beltran, whose agent, Scott Boras, is widely expected to ask for more than $100 million. Such a demand would lead Beltran straight to Yankee Stadium, where another Boras client, Bernie Williams, would have to cede center field.

happy, happy, happy

hahahaha

Sox win! Sox win! Sox win!

Time to sleep the sleep of the just.

Rethuglicans

Colorado Republican caught stealing campaign signs after he trips over a chain & hits concrete, knocking himself unconscious.

Truly poetic, n'est pas?

A Doctor Weighs in on "Frivilous" Lawsuits

Political malpractice

By Dr. W. Dudley Johnson, M.D.

His subtitle: All the talk about “frivolous lawsuits” is itself quite frivolous in the face of the real medical crises in the United States.

Read the article. He's right.

They're Feeling a Draft

MTV has published the results of their Choose or Lose poll, the PRElection, and as expected, Kerry won in a landslide with votes from (mostly) young voters.

Overall Votes
John Kerry 59,660 (61.1 percent)
George W. Bush 38,025 (38.9 percent)

A-Rod - Bush League Play from a Bush-Leaguer

You gotta believe. The Sawx are gonna win tonight in the Bronx, completing the greatest series comeback in baseball history.

The high & lowlight of last night's game for me was watching A-Rod get caught swatting the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's glove in the 8th inning. A-Rod is a big Bush man (see previous post) & this was definitely a bush-league play. He's a paper MVP, after all, never really won anything, and this is the kind of play that lets you see why. Kevin Millar called it "unprofessional," and other commentators have weighed in their disapproval. Ugly moment almost sullies a classic series

The other interesting thing about the game to me was hearing Schilling's post-game comments saying that he had become a Christian 7 years ago & dedicating this win to God. I didn't know Curt played on the God Squad though it doesn't surprise me.

And like so many other members of the God Squad, he believes that Bush is the messiah. On an appearance on ESPN radio today, he corrected the host who called A-Rod's play "bush-league" to say it was a Kerry-league play.

I forget sometimes that every one of these ballplayers is a millionaire. They're all part of Bush's base. The haves.

Stick to baseball, Curt.

Go Sox!

He's a 19th Century Bush

Not a 20th Century Fox, our Bush.

Via uggabugga:

He's against anti-trust laws, progressive taxation, the direct election of senators, the estate tax, the regulation of energy, the regulation of the public airwaves, regulating the securities market, social security, bipartisan foreign policy, the separation of church & state, the right to policy, and abortion rights.

Defend America. Defeat Bush.

Only a Bubble Boy Could Believe He Could Wage a War WIthout Casualities

'One Guy in a Bubble'

An excerpt:

"I have no outside advice" in the war on terrorism, President Bush told Bob Woodward in December of 2001. In an interview that Woodward revealed to Nicholas Lemann in last week's issue of the New Yorker, Bush insisted that, "Anybody who says they're an outside adviser of this Administration on this particular matter is not telling the truth. First of all, in the initial phase of the war, I never left the compound. Nor did anybody come in the compound. I was, you talk about one guy in a bubble."

Indeed. By every available indication, George W. Bush's is the most inside-the-bubble presidency in modern American history. It's not just that his campaign operatives exclude all but the true believers from his rallies, or that Bush, by the evidence of his debate performances, has grown utterly unaccustomed to criticism.

With each passing day, we learn that once Bush has decided on a course of action, he will not be swayed by mere intelligence estimates, military appraisals or facts on the ground. We already knew that when Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki told Congress during the run-up to the war that occupying Iraq would require hundreds of thousands of troops, he sealed his ticket to an early retirement. We've recently learned that Paul Bremer had told the president we needed more troops to secure postwar Iraq and the safety of our troops already there, and that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez had pleaded for more armored vehicles to better shield our soldiers.

But these and other such assessments and pleas ran counter to the idea of the war that Bush, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had lodged in their heads. This would be our lightning war, and after Saddam Hussein was deposed, resistance would cease and U.S. forces could pack up and go home. A report in Tuesday's New York Times documents a Defense Department plan to shrink the number of U.S. forces in Iraq by 50,000 within 90 days of the taking of Baghdad. There were estimates aplenty from the State Department, the CIA and the Army suggesting that we'd need more forces for the occupation than for the war, but they were all blithely ignored.

Let's pop that bubble on November 2nd. Let America rejoin the Reality-Based Community of planet earth.

Kerry in a landslide.

Welcome to Bush-Mart

Fred Cederholm: 'Getting beyond the spin, the hype, the Bushing'

A good summary of Bush's tenure, from a reporter who admits he voted for Bush/Cheney in 2000. I guess this time his brain is in gear.

Here's the beginning; click the link to read the rest:

I've been thinking about packaging-about spinning, hyping, and "Bushing" in the context of what the public is being told/sold during the 2004 Presidential Election. You see, "spinning" takes a negative-twists, turns, blends, and gyrates it -- morphing it into a positive. "Hyping" takes a minor positive-whips, froths, magnifies, and fluffs it -- morphing it into some big deal; unless the target-topic involves your opponent, then hyping takes his minor negative and morphs that into an epic catastrophe. "Bushing"? well, read on.

Cherry-picking favorable facts/figures, redefining words/terms, and ignoring all harmful data/information did not begin with the Bush administration; they just elevated it to an art form. The past four years and the current campaign have gone far beyond Slick's "that depends on what the meaning of the word 'is,' is." The "W team" now deserves their own gerund--"Bushing"--to describe what they're doing to win re-election. This bothers me, since four years ago, I voted for Bush-Cheney because I bought their package--hook, line, and sinker; but the boxes proved empty--at least their contents were lacking, misrepresented, unreal, and/or non-useable.

Shortly after the 9-11 attack the administration identified the 19 culprits. Since then, at least six of them have been found alive and kicking in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Pakistan--the victims of identity theft. If not them, who were on those planes?

We got the Patriot Act(s) and the Homeland Security Act to protect us. Read the full text of them (our Congressmen and Senators didn't) and you will learn that never in history has there been such a blatant assault on the heart /soul of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Have these made our freedoms more secure, or did they take them from us by default?

It's All About the Numbers, Baby

Democrats register more new voters, analysis finds

The Democrats appear to be gaining the upper hand in the battle to sign up new voters in the all-important swing states, an Associated Press analysis suggests.

The AP analysis of the most up-to-date figures from across the country found that in every state where complete data are available, the Democrats have registered more new voters than Republicans. They have the edge in Arizona, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada and New Hampshire.

Hah!

Living in La-La Land

Robertson: I warned Bush on Iraq casualties
President's response: 'We're not going to have any'

OK, so we here on the left know Bush is a nut job. Now even his supporters are saying he's nuts. Pat Robertson (yes, THAT Pat Robertson, the one who blamed 9/11 on the ACLU, gays & lesbians, feminists, secular humanists, and People For the American Way, among others) says he warned George W. Bush against the war in Iraq:

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."

GOTV people. We got to get this crazy guy a one-way ticket to Palookaville where he belongs.

It's In The Numbers

"Top 35 Trends that say Kerry will Take the White House in November"

As my readers know, I love a numbered list! This one's from dailykos.com.

Here are my top 4 from the list:

4)Kerry Has Large Lead in Swing States: ....

10) Democrats Won the Registration Wars: Voter Registrations have heavily favored the Democratic party this cycle.

28) The 50% Rule: If an incumbent is experiencing approval ratings below 50%, he or she usually loses. The latest CBS News/NY Times poll gave Bush only a 44% approval rating. The average of the last 5 polls shows Bush's job approval even further below 50%:...

35) The left is fired up!: This is the key ingredient to ensure maximum turnout by the left on election day. This is one thing we can all thank Bush for. The left is so outraged and disgusted with the policies, lies and crimes of this administration, that we wouldn't stay home on election day if it was raining darts (which is something I'm sure the GOP is working on.)

Only a Fool Goes to War Without a Post War Plan

Post-war planning non-existent

Here are the first four paragraphs; you must read the entire article.

WASHINGTON - In March 2003, days before the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, American war planners and intelligence officials met at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina to review the Bush administration's plans to oust Saddam Hussein and implant democracy in Iraq.

Near the end of his presentation, an Army lieutenant colonel who was giving a briefing showed a slide describing the Pentagon's plans for rebuilding Iraq after the war, known in the planners' parlance as Phase 4-C. He was uncomfortable with his material - and for good reason.

The slide said: "To Be Provided."

A Knight Ridder review of the administration's Iraq policy and decisions has found that it invaded Iraq without a comprehensive plan in place to secure and rebuild the country. The administration also failed to provide some 100,000 additional U.S. troops that American military commanders originally wanted to help restore order and reconstruct a country shattered by war, a brutal dictatorship and economic sanctions.

A village in Texas is missing its idiot. Let's send him back to Crawford on November 2nd.

You Say Loofah, I Say Falafel, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

Fark.com has some great covers for Bill O'Reilly's book.

Gallup's Record of Screwing up Presidential Polls

On October 27, 2000 the Gallup Poll showed George W. Bush with a 13% lead over Al Gore. A 13 percent lead!

And days later Al Gore won the popular vote by 500,000 and lost the presidency by one vote in the Supreme Court 6 weeks later.

Don't believe the polls. They're all for shit, & they don't have any validity.

I watched Sean "Puffy" Combs "Choose or Lose" half-hour special on MTV this morning. It was great. Do you think Gallup is calling the hip hop voters? I don't think so.

I voted for John Kerry today, via absentee ballot. On election day I'll be in Jacksonville, Florida with my brother, monitoring the polls for fairness with the Election Protection Coalition.

John Kerry in a landslide.

Another Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community

Read Matthew Yglesias and join the Reality-Based Community voting for John Kerry.

The phrase is from yesterday's New York Times article by Ron Suskind, Without A Doubt, about Bush's policies being informed by faith, not substance.

Here's the fantasy-land section of the article (it's on page 7 of the online version):

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

Who besides guys like me are part of the reality-based community? Many of the other elected officials in Washington, it would seem. A group of Democratic and Republican members of Congress were called in to discuss Iraq sometime before the October 2002 vote authorizing Bush to move forward. A Republican senator recently told Time Magazine that the president walked in and said: ''Look, I want your vote. I'm not going to debate it with you.'' When one of the senators began to ask a question, Bush snapped, ''Look, I'm not going to debate it with you.''

Let's get the messianic nut-jobs out of the White House.

Hypocrisy Part II

Did you know that Lynne Cheney denied her daughter was openly gay 4 years ago?

LINK

On Sunday, when ABC's Cokie Roberts started to ask the GOP vice presidential nominee's wife about having a daughter who has "declared she's openly gay," an irate Lynne Cheney shot back: "Mary has never declared such a thing." Cheney then blasted the media for its interest in the story, and chided Roberts: "I'm surprised, Cokie, that even you would want to bring it up on this program."

"I have two wonderful daughters. I love them very much. They are bright; they are hard-working; they are decent. And I simply am not going to talk about their personal lives," Cheney told Roberts.

Don't Believe the Polls

We're bringing in the crowds.

LINK October 14th, Des Moines

Indeed, on Thursday night in Des Moines, Mr. Kerry and his running mate, Senator John Edwards, were greeted by a huge and roaring crowd which endured traffic jams and a four-hour wait in 35-degree temperature to see them at an outdoor, nighttime rally on the State Fairgrounds.

**********

Still, Mr. Bush's own post-debate rally at the US Cellular Center here on Friday drew a notably smaller and less enthusiastic crowd than Mr. Kerry drew the night before in Des Moines. Swatches of seats and patches of the arena floor were empty, even though the event took place inside a heated building, during the day, and downtown.

LINK October 15th, Milwaukee

In a speech before a lively, partisan audience at Milwaukee Area Technical College, the Democratic presidential candidate pressed his case that the Bush administration has ignored the rising costs of healthcare, child care and college education that he said are squeezing middle class families.

***********

The Bush campaign, speaking to several thousand supporters in a half-empty sports stadium in Cedar Rapids for which aides had no ready explanation, countered by arguing that Kerry's policies would hurt the economy, citing his past support for tax increases. Bush tried to play off many of the comments that Kerry had made during their three debates.

Maybe that's why Bush stayed home from the campaign trail today -- half-empty venues? Or perhaps it was to get that all-important photo-op of him going to church, something he almost never does. I wonder if he had ever met that minister in the photo before today?

Plus, Gore was behind Bush in the polls before 2000, and we know who WON the popular vote.

Kerry in a landslide.

Apropros of Nothing

Do you think Bill O'Reilly handled his falafel before he interviewed George W. Bush?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Who Is That Man Behind The Curtain?

George Bush Bulges

Who is speaking into the transmitter, and what is he telling Georgie Porgie?

Look at these pictures of George's transmitter, then tell me, who you gonna believe, me, or your lying eyes?

Dick & Lynn Cheney: Hypocrites

The Cheneys = Hypocrisy personified

Posted by beaconess on Democratic Underground:

Pat Robertson: Blames Mary Cheney, by extension, of responsibility for 9/11 terrorist attacks. "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen."(September 2001)

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: Silence

Rick Santorum: Accuses Mary Cheney, by definition, of immorality comparable to polygamy, adultery and incest. "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything." (April 2003)

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: Silence

Alan Keyes: Specifically accuses Mary Cheney, by name, of being a "selfish hedonist." (August 2004)

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: Silence

John Kerry: Sympathetically and eloquently explains that the Cheney's gay daughter is "she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as."

Lynn and Dick Cheney's response: THIS IS NOT A GOOD MAN!!!! WHAT A CHEAP AND TAWDRY POLITICAL TRICK!!! YOU SAW A MAN WHO WILL DO AND SAY ANYTHING TO GET ELECTED!!!

See also this post from blogactive, reminding us that before Mary Cheney signed on as campaign director for her father, she was an out lesbian activist for Coors. TAKE ACTION: There's Something About Mary. She was the paid lesbian diplomat for Coors Beer!

GWB: Another Debate Lie

Wednesday night George W. Bush alleged that lawyers and the potential for lawsuits hurt the production of vaccines. However, as a trade off over the polio vaccine, in 1986 Congress gave vaccine manufacturers partial immunity from lawsuits. The program has been in effect since 1988.

Any action against a vaccine manufacturer is pre-empted by the claims procedure set forth in the National Vaccine Compensation Act. Claimants have only three years to submit a claim for vaccination injury, and only two years to file a claim if death results.

The Department of Justice defends the claims for the government, & here's what they say about the program:

Another positive result of the program is that costly litigation against drug manufacturers and health care professionals who administer vaccines has virtually ceased. Although an individual who is dissatisfied with the Court’s final judgment can reject it and file a lawsuit in state or federal court, very few lawsuits have been filed since the program began. The supply of vaccines in the U.S. has been stabilized, and the development of new vaccines has markedly increased.

About the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

Here's how Kerry should have responded to this one of Bush's many lies:

1. The health of the American people is too precious to be left to the resources of only two suppliers. Common business practice is always to have a back-up plan. It was rank negligence, therefore, for there not to have been at least two companies contracted to produce the vaccine.

A top flu researcher, W. Paul Glezen of Baylor Medical Center, said the administration should be faulted for allowing just two companies to supply the nation's flu vaccine.

Candidates inject politics into flu vaccine debate

2. With all of the fine companies in the United States, the American public must ask why we had to go to an American company that outsourced jobs overseas to get a vaccine so crucial to the health and wellbeing of American people.

3. Moreover, outsourcing of this service is a matter of national security. Why is a decision so important to the health of the American people being made by Britain?

4. Finally, there are scientists and other highly skilled professionals who are unemployed and under-employed in this country. The revenues to this economy from production of such a vital product here on this soil could have stimulated our economy, certainly in the places where the vaccine might have been produced.

The administration's negligence and poor judgment cost the American people economically and now will hurt the country's health as well.

More Reasons Kerry Will Be President

94 REASONS NOT TO VOTE FOR GEORGE W. BUSH

Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside U.S. is my Number One reason to vote for John Kerry. He wouldn't have stayed on vacation for 4 weeks after he read that memo.

Maybe that's the key. Kerry would read the memo. Bush has a flunky summarize the paperwork for him while he's rolling his ball bearings in his fingers & whistling.

Kerry in a landslide.

Bush Sucks

OK, I like this article just for the title:

59 Reasons Why Bush Sucks
Why you’d have to be a freaking idiot to vote for this guy

GWB: Accidental Poet

If Bush Wrote Poetry

A poem created using actual statements of Prances in Flightsuit.

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?

How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.

I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!

By Washington Post writer, Richard Thompson.

Cheney's Top Ten Lies

Here's the short version, click on the link above for the list with proper citations:

LIE # 1: I Have Never Met Edwards Before

FACT: Cheney Had Met Edwards on At Least Three Prior Occasions

LIE # 2: Cheney Claimed He Had Never Linked Iraq and 9/11

FACT: Cheney Has Repeatedly Made This Claim

LIE # 3: The Khan Smuggling Network has been Shutdown

FACT: Recent Arrests Show the Network May Be Still Active

LIE # 4: Bush's War in Iraq Convinced Libya to Disarm

FACT: Libya Was Already Moving to Disarm Before Iraq War

LIE # 5: Cheney Claimed They've Never Let Up on Osama Bin Ladin

FACT: Bush quote: "I don't know where he is. Nor — you know, I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you. I…I truly am not that concerned about him." [Bush Remarks, 3/13/02]

LIE # 6: 10 Million Voters are Registered in Afghanistan

FACT: Human Rights Watch Found Registration Numbers Exaggerated

LIE # 7: Kerry Voted for Higher Taxes 98 Times

FACT: 98 Times Figure Has Been Repeatedly Debunked

LIE # 8: Kerry Wants to Raise Taxes on Small Businesses

FACT: That Claim Has Been Roundly Debunked By the Press

LIE # 9: Kerry-Edwards Flip-Flopped on No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

FACT: Kerry-Edwards Want to Properly Fund, Not Abandon, NCLB

LIE # 10: Minority Achievement Gap Is Shrinking

FACT: No Evidence to Support That, Bush Policies Will Expand the Gap

Elizabeth Edwards: Smackdown!

Edwards' Wife Delivers Tough Security Talk

Quoting a phrase that President Bush used frequently in the first presidential debate, she said, "'The world has changed since 9/11.'"

"Well, duh. The world has changed, and you need to do something about it," she said.

**********

She said too little money - or none - is being spent to secure the border with Canada, to inspect shipping containers at ports and to improve security on trains, subways and at chemical and nuclear plants.

"This is not fear-mongering," she said. "It's being honest with you. ... Look at your government and see if they're protecting you."

Bush/Cheney put kids in danger

I just watched a Bush/Cheney04 ad on CNBC. A woman (security mom?) is driving her minivan, listening to a male voice on talk radio (980 is shown on her minivan's radio dial) talk about higher taxes under Kerry. The woman begins to squirm in her seat, looking over her shoulder to the back seat (I'm thinking, LOOK AT THE ROAD!), worrying about these Kerry taxes. Then the shot cuts to her car, where her kid in the front seat is throwing a basketball to another kid in the back seat. Then Prances in Flightsuit is shown standing in the Oval Office where he says "I'm George W. Bush & I approved this message."

Uh, President Dumba**, no one in their right mind would drive around with a kid that young in the front seat of a minivan. In an accident that kid would be killed by the airbag.

In most states it is illegal for a child of a certain age or height to ride in the front seat of a car. And never mind the legality, in a modern SUV with airbags, there is a giant warning on the dash that says, no one under 5'0" should ride in the front seat, & especially children should not ride in the front seat because they could be injured when the airbag deploys.

I guess when the Secret Service drives you around in bulletproof limos you don't need to know the rules about how to protect real kids lives. Nice example, W.

It's A Wonderful Life

I spent much of the morning surfing the blogs, & can't remember which blogger inspired me to go to the script of It's a Wonderful Life for the following:

Last night's debate, short form:

EDWARDS: Just remember this, Mr. Cheney: that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?

CHENEY: Look at you. You used to be so cocky! You were going to go out and conquer the world! You once called me a warped, frustrated old man. What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk, crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help.

EDWARDS: You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Cheney. In the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider.

CHENEY: Isn't it wonderful? I'm going to jail!

EDWARDS: Happy New Year to you... in jail!

Is Dick Cheney's Secret & Undisclosed Location in Wyoming?

I hope John Edwards asks Dick Cheney why Wyoming gets so much more in anti-terrorism funds than New York -- where the terrorist attacks actually happened. Here's a question suggested by Morton Mintz of PBS:

The administration's latest distribution of funds to localities for anti-terrorism preparations gives New York State $5.47 per person, or $2.30 below the national average Wyoming, gets $38.31 per person, or $30.54 above the national average. In fact, New York gets less than any state other than California, which is also far below the national average.

Why are seven times more security dollars, on a per capita basis, going to Wyoming, a remote prairie state with a population of a half-million that happens to be home to Vice President Cheney, than to New York, where thousands died in a terrorist attack on its — and the nation's — largest city, population 8 million?

Bremer Agrees With John Kerry -- BushCo F**ked up

Bremer Criticizes Troop Levels

Now he tells us:

The former U.S. official who governed Iraq after the invasion said yesterday that the United States made two major mistakes: not deploying enough troops in Iraq and then not containing the violence and looting immediately after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, administrator for the U.S.-led occupation government until the handover of political power on June 28, said he still supports the decision to intervene in Iraq but said a lack of adequate forces hampered the occupation and efforts to end the looting early on.

"We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," he said yesterday in a speech at an insurance conference in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. "We never had enough troops on the ground."

Bremer's comments were striking because they echoed contentions of many administration critics, including Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, who argue that the U.S. government failed to plan adequately to maintain security in Iraq after the invasion. Bremer has generally defended the U.S. approach in Iraq but in recent weeks has begun to criticize the administration for tactical and policy shortfalls.

Lick Dick in 04

10 Questions for Dick Cheney

Here's my favorite.

7.) No corporation has been more closely associated with the invasion of Iraq than Halliburton. The company, which you served as CEO before joining the administration, moved from No.19 on the U.S. Army's list of top contractors before the Iraq war began to No. 1 in 2003. Last year, alone, the company pocketed $4.2 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars. You said when asked about Halliburton during a September 2003 appearance on "Meet the Press" that you had "severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest." Yet, you continue to hold unexercised options for 233,000 shares of Halliburton stock, and since becoming vice president you have on an annual basis collected deferred compensation payments ranging from $162,392 to $205,298 from Halliburton. A recent review by the Congressional Research Service describes deferred salary and stock options of the sort that you hold as "among those benefits described by the Office of Government Ethics as 'retained ties' or 'linkages' to one's former employer." In the interest of ending the debate about whether Halliburton has received special treatment from the administration, would you be willing to immediately surrender any claims to those stock options and to future deferred compensation in order to make real your claim that you have "severed all my ties with the company."

I wish I had no financial interest in a company that paid me $175,000 a year!

If Bush/Cheney are Re-Elected, Only Halliburton Will Have Lawyers

The insurance industry & the business community spent millions to convince the public that personal injury lawsuits are killing American business. It's a crock -- they just want to be able to operate without checks on their power. If tort reform (which should be known as tort deform) is passed, only businesses will have lawyers. But the court system won't be any faster. The people will be shut out, but folks with money will always find a way in.

U.S. Businesses File Four Times More Lawsuits Than Private Citizens And Are Sanctioned Much More Often for Frivolous Suits

But Corporate America and Their Political Allies Bush and Cheney Campaign to Limit Citizens' Rights to Sue

WASHINGTON - October 4 - American businesses file four times as many lawsuits as do individuals represented by trial attorneys, and they are penalized by judges much more often for pursuing frivolous litigation, according to a report issued today by Public Citizen.

The survey of case filings in two states (Arkansas and Mississippi) and two local jurisdictions (Cook County, Ill., and Philadelphia, Pa.) in 2001 found that businesses were 3.3 to 5.8 times more likely to file lawsuits than were individuals. This comes as businesses and politicians are campaigning to limit citizens' rights to sue over everything from medical malpractice damages to defective products. By way of comparison, the number of American consumers (281 million) outnumbers the number of businesses in America (7 million) by 40 times.

The report also found that businesses and their attorneys were 69 percent more likely than individual tort plaintiffs and their attorneys to be sanctioned by federal judges for filing frivolous claims or defenses. The report, Frequent Filers: Corporate Hypocrisy in Accessing the Courts, is available at http://www.citizen.org/congress/civjus/tort/myths/articles.cfm?ID=12369 .

I Love Jimmy Breslin Part II

Jimmy Breslin: 'Bush ignores value of a straight face'

When I grow up, I wanna write like this:

The other night, George Bush hunched so low that he seemed to be using the lectern as a bunker. His eyes crinkled, his mouth opened like a trout's.

**********

....George Bush revealed for all to see what a calamity the news reporting business has been for at least the last four years. Here we had a president who was aware of only one thing: that you have the gall to ask questions about himself. A member of the Bush royalty. He got in the White House with minimal votes and thought and a maximum of thievery.

From that day on, neither television nor newspapers nailed him for what he is. I remember Tom Brokaw going through a day in the White House with Bush, and it all seemed so pleasant and wonderful, we two guys enjoying all of this. Then I remember Tim Russert had a big interview with Bush, and all these Washington Pekinese of the Press said it was such a marvelous interview. He might as well have stayed home. If you can't get Bush to show himself as a dangerous dolt, you've done nothing. These are only two of an industry full of abject failures.

And this Bush, this shaky dimwit, as seen on Thursday night, got this country into a war where we lose the lives of young people, and many thousands lose their arms and legs and private parts, and we bomb children in Iraq. Not one person in this American news industry stood up and screamed that this man putting us in war is probably the one dumbest man we ever had as president.

"We're makin' progress. It's hard work. We're makin' progress. It's hard work."

We Get E-Mails. It's Hard Work.

I got this one today from Ken Mehlman of Bush/Cheney04; the stuff in italics is mine:

Dear truth1,

Over the next few days, at the office (It's hard work), at your children's football or soccer games, (that's hard work) and in your homes, people will be talking about last night's debate. Here are some important facts to keep in mind as you're talking with friends and neighbors about the exchange. (Other than the butt-whupping Kerry put on The Smirking Chimp.)

President Bush spoke clearly and from the heart last night (OK, I admit I am beginning to laugh) about the path forward - toward victory and security - in the War on Terror. The President spoke candidly about the difficulties facing our troops in Iraq (It's hard work) and Afghanistan (It's hard work) as these countries prepare for their first free elections. The terrorists will continue to fight these steps toward freedom because they fear the optimism and hope of democracy. They fear the prospects for their ideology of hate in a free and democratic Middle East.

President Bush detailed a path forward in the War on Terror - a plan that will ensure that America fights the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan - not in America's cities.

John Kerry failed the one test he had to pass last night: he failed to close the credibility gap he has with the American people as his record of troubling contradiction and vacillation spiraled down to incoherence.

People have a clear choice between President Bush's clarity (He Knows Who Osama Bin Laden Is, Even Though He Prefers He Not Be Named!!!!) and strength to fight and win the War on Terror and John Kerry's attacks and reversals - born out of political calculation, not a vision for winning the War on Terror. People saw for themselves last night where John Kerry would lead our military, our allies and the world in the War on Terror - down a bumpy road paved with indecision, vacillation and cynicism. (Funny thing, Ken, you're the only one who saw this vision. Do you need your meds adjusted?) John Kerry has a record of wavering in the face of real challenges.

Truth and optimism are not competing ideals. The War on Terror is difficult - there will be good days and bad days, but the war is essential to our safety at home and victory is the only option.

Sincerely,

Ken Mehlman


Hey, Kenny-boy, that's why I'm voting for Kerry!

George W. Bush: Dumb Liar

Tony Karon: 'Reality check: George Bush'

The Claim:
"The A.Q. Khan network has been brought to justice." (Khan is the Pakistani nuclear scientist who shipped nuclear weapons technology to North Korea, Iran, Libya and possibly other states.)

Reality Check:
Observers generally concur that there's no way Khan could have acted without the authorization and support of Pakistan's military leadership, yet the U.S. accepted an outcome in which Khan received a slap on the wrist and wasn't even made available for questioning by U.S. officials, nor was any obvious attempt made to hold his superiors accountable — perhaps because of Pakistan's crucial role in hunting al-Qaeda.

In point of fact, Khan received a pardon. Bush says he was brought to justice. So when Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, he brought him to justice?

The Claim:
Bilateral talks with North Korea would be a fatal mistake that would precipitate the collapse of the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Reality Check:
Some of the key parties to those talks, including China, Russia and South Korea, are in favor of the U.S. talking directly to North Korea in order to provide Pyongyang with security guarantees that would improve the prospects for success in the six-party process.

Plus, why do we need China at the table? Are they going to pelt North Korea with cheap plastic consumer goods? Is South Korea going to march across the DMZ? I don't think so.

The Claim:
We have 100,000 Iraqi troops trained now.

Reality Check:
There are around 100,000 people currently recruited to various Iraqi security forces, although the number who've been fully trained is closer to 20,000. And the number on whom U.S. commanders believe they can currently rely in frontline combat situations against the insurgencies is thought to currently number no more than 5,000.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

The Claim:
We have 30 nations in our coalition; our coalition is strong.

Reality Check:
There isn't a single Arab country in the coalition, in contrast to the wide Arab participation in the Gulf War. And the U.S. and Britain between them provided more than 90 percent of the troops. Moreover, eight of the countries that initially joined the U.S. have since pulled out their soldiers, and more are expected to follow. Efforts to persuade Muslim countries to send troops have foundered.

Instead, we are joined by those powerhouse countries Afghanistan (If we have 11,000 troops in Afghanistan, what help are they sending us? our own guys???), the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia.

I Love Jimmy Breslin

Jimmy Breslin: 'A leader showed up; his name was Kerry'

George Bush reiterated time and again last night that it was hard work to run this government. It was hard work to lead a country out of tyranny and into democracy. It was hard work to read casualty reports. The war was hard work. And he made it plain that talking with somebody about his record as president was the grueling, hardest work you could want.

**********

And don't tell me he's not dumb. Yes, he was matched against an absolutely first-rate mind last night. But he could have done a little bit better at covering his helplessness than flusters of college boy anger.

He whined and brayed about consistency. He used that word so he could underline his famous "flip-flop" attacks on John Kerry. He said that by opposing the way the war in Iraq is going, Kerry was sending "mixed messages" and they are harmful to our troops. I, Bush, never change.

There were problems to this. One, Kerry cheated on him and turned a fine line: "Don't confuse the war with the warriors." Then in the middle of Bush's reiteration of dusty phrase after dusty phrase, we should remain as we are, was Ralph Waldo Emerson's, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen ..."

It was better than anything you are going to read from anybody from now to the end of the election, and you will see that Emerson quote come alive whenever Bush opens his mouth and starts the same old lines. George Bush writes in crayon.

**********

[T]hey opened the night with John Kerry talking. He was strong, passionate, sending a fine intellect out into the night. And when he got tough, he looked like a guy who could kill somebody if he had to for the country. Again. And that wimp next to him looked like he would, again, flee to the dentist.

Kerry wins

Pre-debate: Bush has never lost a debate.

Tonight, 12:41 a.m. EST: Howard Fineman on Scarborough: 'Bush has never been a good debater. He proved that tonight.'

Why Isn't there a DNC Commercial that Asks, "Why Did Bush Threaten to VETO the $87 Billion for Our Troops?

Why didn't I know this? Read this article.

Joe Conason: 'Here's what Kerry needs to tell us'

Question: What about your vote on the $87 billion appropriation for the war? You said you voted for it before you voted against it. Weren't you having it both ways?

Kerry: You're asking all my favorite questions tonight. But I hope you will ask the President why he repeatedly threatened to veto that same $87 billion bill. I suspect most Americans still don't know about his veto threat.

He told us he would veto the $87 billion if we tried to share the burden with the Iraqis by making a loan instead of a grant. He said he would veto that bill if we allocated money to provide medical care for our veterans, and for our National Guard and Reserve families. He threatened a veto unless we agreed to add that $87 billion to the deficit, rather than reduce his most profligate tax cuts.

In the Senate, we knew that the needs of our troops would be met one way or another, but we sharply disagreed over the best way to do that. I wanted a fiscally responsible bill that provided medical care for military families. The President cared more about preserving tax cuts for those who need them least. And now we know that he has failed to spend nearly all of the $20 billion in reconstruction funding that Congress appropriated--while the costs of the war balloon toward $200 billion. The administration's incompetence is costing American and Iraqi lives.

Terry MacAuliffe, wake up & make this commercial (right after the Kristen Breitweiser commercial.)

Big Networks Won't Run Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD Release Ads

Nikki Finke: 'When might turns right: Golly GE, why Big Media is pro-Bush'

Surprise, surprise, the SCLM won't run ads for the Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD release.

Read the article & see how the major television networks are all owned by the far right who have a vested interest in seeing Prances in Flightsuit get four more years.

L.A. Weekly has learned that CBS, NBC and ABC all refused Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD advertising during any of the networks' news programming. Executives at Sony Pictures, the distributor of the movie for the home-entertainment market, were stunned. And even more shocked when the three networks explained why.

"They said explicitly they were reluctant because of the closeness of the release to the election. All three networks said no," one Sony insider explains. "It was certainly a judgment that Sony disagrees with and is in the process of protesting."

**********

WHERE IS THE LEVEL playing field? Gone, thanks to the shenanigans of Big Media. Nor is it an exaggeration to state that the networks increasingly look like they're doing everything possible to help George W. win re-election. At least that wily old codger Sumner Redstone had the balls to come out this weekend and say what everyone already knows is true: "There has been comment upon my contribution to Democrats like Senator Kerry. Senator Kerry is a good man. I've known him for many years. But it happens that I vote for Viacom. Viacom is my life, and I do believe that a Republican administration is better for media companies than a Democratic one."

Like, duh! Who else but Dubya and his FCC frown posse, led by Michael Powell, is never going to meet one media merger after another they didn't like? And in return for all that conglomeration and consolidation, all Big Broadcasters have to do is fork over minor fines whenever they deflower the virgin ears and eyes of the public.

Another RIAW (Read It And Weep) article.

Gallup Inconsistencies

Donkey Rising has a great post about the ridiculous Gallup poll methodology, The "How Can Gallup........" Game

Like, for example:

How can Gallup......have Bush up by 13 nationwide, when he's only up by 2 points among Florida RVs?--and according to their own poll!

How can Gallup.....have Bush up by 13 nationwide, when he's only up by 2 points among Nevada RVs?--again, according to their own poll.

How can Gallup....have Bush up by 13 nationwide, when he's only up by 3 points in Ohio, according to Fox News?

How can Gallup....have Bush up by 13 nationwide, when he trailing by 5 points in Pennsylvania and 2 points in Michigan, according to Fox News?

DNC: Where is the Kristen Breitweiser commercial?

Terry MacAuliffe: Listen to the people. Unholster one of your best weapons. Get Kristen Breitweiser out front of the Kerry campaign. She's bright, she's articulate, she speaks from her heart & she knows more about September 11th than either of the candidates.

Sept. 11 Widow Joins Campaign

On Tuesday, the 33-year-old New Jersey widow was stumping in swing states with Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards for the second day in a row. It's here that Breitweiser's fresh face and emotional story are becoming an integral part of an effort to convince "security moms" that the Democratic ticket of Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and Edwards can make them safer and that four more years with President Bush is dangerous.

Wearing her husband's wedding band, the only evidence of his life to be recovered at Ground Zero, Breitweiser said she steeled herself to hit the campaign trail this week with Edwards, a North Carolina senator. She fought back a fear of flying born out of the World Trade Center disaster and overcame her jitters about public speaking to become a blunt instrument of attack against a president she once supported.

"I would love to have heard President Bush and the Republicans in Congress say, 'Here's what we'll do better.' But they didn't do that. They circled the wagons, they stonewalled, they blocked, they foot-dragged," she said in an interview aboard the Edwards campaign plane.

Before large, sympathetic crowds here, as well as in Iowa and New Hampshire, she offered a blistering account of the obstacles she says she faced during a three-year battle to start the nation toward a new intelligence system. Her presentation is raw with anger and grief, and it registered strongly with the Democratic loyalists. At a town hall meeting, under a hot midday sun in downtown Manchester's Victory Park, she moved museum volunteer Fran Gordon, 84, to tell Edwards: "You should put her on a TV commercial. People need to hear her."

On the rope line later, as Edwards shook hands, Breitweiser was swamped. Jane Ryan, 54, of Hollis, Maine, begged her to stick with the campaign. "They need you," Ryan said. "You are so powerful."

My email to Keith Olbermann

I like Keith Olbermann. I always liked him when he was on ESPN. Now, he's one of the few reporters on television who isn't giving the Republican talking points of the day as the news.

So, I am trying to get him to cover this scandal of the Gallup poll numbers being cooked to favor Bush. Here's the email I sent him today, under the heading "Gallup Poll using skewed sample -- Who Will Report the Truth?"

Dear Keith Olbermann,

Please report the actual numbers behind the current Gallup Poll. If you do so, you will probably be the ONLY reporter on television giving Americans this story.

Today the media is reporting a Gallup poll that says President Bush has an 8 % lead over John Kerry.

What the media hasn't reported is that the Gallup polls are based on a sample that has 12 % more Republicans than Democrats! Here are the actual numbers behind the Gallup polls.:

Likely Voter Sample Party IDs – Poll of September 24-26
Reflected Bush Winning by 52%-44%

Total Sample: 758
GOP: 328 (43%)
Dem: 236 (31%)
Ind: 189 (25%

source: http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/002881.html

Republicans don't outvote Democrats by 12%. In the last two elections Democrats outvoted Republicans by 5%. Here are the numbers on voters from 1996 & 2000 from John Zogby:
According to John Zogby himself:

If we look at the three last Presidential elections, the spread was 34% Democrats, 34% Republicans and 33% Independents (in 1992 with Ross Perot in the race); 39% Democrats, 34% Republicans, and 27% Independents in 1996; and 39% Democrats, 35% Republicans and 26% Independents in 2000.

sources: http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/002806.html, http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=859

Please report the truth. The American voters need someone to give them the facts.

Very truly yours,

Gallup: Lies, Damn Lies, & Statistics

Gallup Is At It Again - Yesterday's National Poll Had 12% GOP Bias

Likely Voter Sample Party IDs – Poll of September 24-26
Reflected Bush Winning by 52%-44%

Total Sample: 758
GOP: 328 (43%)
Dem: 236 (31%)
Ind: 189 (25%)

So based on only 758 voters, 12% more Republicans than Democrats (even though in the last 2 elections 5% more Democrats than Republicans voted), every major news organization today reported with a straight face that Bush has an 8 percent lead.

Well, if you poll 12% more Republicans than Democrats, Bush does have an 8 percent lead. But if you weight those votes properly, Kerry probably has the same lead!

Who is the SCLM will report this fact? None I fear.

P.S., to my reader, I hope to see a LETTER published in the Packet soon pointing out this outrageous distortion.

Gallup is Wrong Because It's Owned by the Far Right

Gallup polls: Conditioning the public for vote rigging?

Gallup is owned by a rich right-winger. Maybe that's why they're showing Bush with a huge lead though Zogby (who was right in 2000) doesn't. The author's conclusion is that the false Gallup poll numbers will make the public more ready to accept a rigged election with the same false numbers.

While most political analysts predict the largest Democratic voter turn-out in history, Gallup is predicting in their methodology that Republicans will be 7-8% more of the total electorate than Democrats actually voting on election day. Based on the most recent elections, Democrats have usually been 7-8% more of the total electorate when the actual votes were counted. The swing in numbers using Gallup's distorted methodology would tend to give Bush a "fake" lead in the neighborhood of 15%.

As voters, we need to ask ourselves "why Gallup would use a methodology that would almost definitely mean that their election predictions would be wrong?" These writers are somewhat baffled in answering that question. Why would Gallup want to give the false impression of a Bush lead?

It is interesting to note that James Clifton, who bought the Gallup organization, is a big Republican donor. He gave thousands to Right Wing Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herman Cain. (See http://www.opensecrets.org) Cain ran as a huge backer of cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans. This is essentially the same tax position supported with vigor by the Bush-Cheney ticket.

The Bush Administration has been re-writing the tax codes, labor regulations and business laws to give more wealth and power to large corporations along with wealthy and powerful individuals since their first days in office. Polling outfits, media companies and their owners have benefited as never before in history. Many of these entities and individuals are doing everything in their power to keep the Bush Republicans in power.

More News CBS Won't Report

Key Bush Assertions About Iraq In Dispute

Disputed by internal Pentagon documents, no less.

Liar, liar, go back to Crawford Texas.

Gump 2.0

OK, now I'm ready to deal with Friday night's nightmareish replay of Grady Little's managerial swan song last October.

Sox fans are calling new manager Terry Francona "Gump 2.0" because of his eerie resemblance to Grady (who had an eerie resemblance, verbally at least, to Forrest Gump.)

Friday night Francona embraced the role, choosing to send Pedro Martinez back onto the mound in the 8th inning, 101 pitches under his belt, a fine bullpen sitting on its keesters out past right field, & Hideki Matsui at the plate. Predictably, Matsui hits a home run. So it's time for Pedro to go, right? We're tied, he's tired, time for a pitching change. Oh, no. Bernie Williams doubles, Ruben Sierra brings him in to score with a single, & suddenly the Red Sox are not winning, they're losing.

And then I read this hideous fact in the New York Post this morning.

Friday's Fenway Freakout was the 1,918th regular-season game played between the teams. That number, 1918, keeps rearing its ugly head here, which means the Yankees can rejoice for the next 1,918 games between the two rivals.

That's the kind of thing that can make you believe in curses.

We won 12-5 last night, Schilling is on the mound tonight, this IS the year, but nights like Friday do give me the chills.

The Media Are Failing US

The Media, Losing Their Way, by David Broder

Even the SCLM know they've fallen & they can't get up.

Don't believe the polls

A Big Increase of New Voters in Swing States

Voter registration of new Democrats far outstrips registration of new Republicans in the critical states of Ohio & Florida.

Don't believe the SCLM. We're gaining. We will win if we outwork the bast**ds & never give up.

Too Afraid or Too Impaired?

Fear of flying: Woman says nerves ended W's National Guard Service in Texas

This woman says her husband replaced George W. Bush in the Texas Air National Guard because Bush developed a paralyzing fear of flying.

Interesting, but why would he skip his physical if he was just afraid of flying? I still think there's substance abuse behind this whole thing.

And if GW wasn't in Alabama like he said, where was he?

Stories You Won't See on CBS

Because we're not watching, & they're not reporting.

Bush Twists Kerry's Words on Iraq (From AP, in the New York Times.)

The bubble boy
Bush lives in a world immune from the realities of Iraq. (From Salon, registration required.)

Bush Flip Flops On Strategic Reserves (From Yahoo, headline from Raw Story blog)

UPDATE: The SCLM strikes again: AP has changed the headline in the first story referenced above to "Bush, Kerry Twisting Each Other's Words" -- over the same article about how Bush is twisting Kerry's words. Can you say journalistic integrity? Oh, right, that doesn't exist any more.

Boycott CBS

'60 Minutes' Delays Report Questioning Reasons for Iraq War

CBS News said yesterday that it had postponed a "60 Minutes" segment that questioned Bush administration rationales for going to war in Iraq.

**********

The Iraq segment had been ready for broadcast on Sept. 8, CBS said, but was bumped at the last minute for the segment on Mr. Bush's National Guard service. The Guard segment was considered a highly competitive report, one that other journalists were pursuing.

CBS said last night that the report on the war would not run before Nov. 2.

**********

"We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election," the spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards, said in a statement.

**********

The CBS statement followed a report in the online edition of Newsweek that described the frustration of CBS News reporters and producers who said the network had concluded that it could not legitimately criticize the president because of the questions about the National Guard report.

OK, now this is me again, although blogger (aargh) won't let me get rid of the blockquote here. This is no longer from the New York Times. This is me:

CBS is now suppressing the story about the fake 'Iraq has been trying to buy yellowcake (uranium) from Niger' documents the Bush Administration relied upon in making their case for war. The publication & reliance upon these fake documents caused tens of thousands of deaths. Apparently, the fake Bush Texas Air National Guard documents have killed a network. CBS is dead.

So, since they aren't going to report both sides of the story any more, why should we watch them? Boycott CBS. The BS network.

What Is John Kerry's Ten Word Telegram?

The Candidates, Seen From the Classroom

This is a great article by Stanley Fisher, dean emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, on the clarity of the speeches by candidates Bush & Kerry. His freshmen writing class voted overwhelmingly for George W. Bush after doing a side-by-side comparison of Bush & Kerry's speeches as they were excerpted in the September 8th New York Times. Kerry may be smarter, but he gives a lazy & unfocused speech that wanders all over the place.

He concludes:

So what? What does it matter if Mr. Kerry's words stumble and halt, while Mr. Bush's flow easily from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph? Well, listen to the composite judgments my students made on the Democratic challenger: "confused," "difficult to understand," "can't seem to make his point clearly," "I'm not sure what he's saying," and my favorite, "he's kind of 'skippy,' all over the place."

Now of course it could be the case that every student who voted against Mr. Kerry's speech in my little poll will vote for him in the general election. After all, what we're talking about here is merely a matter of style, not substance, right? And - this is a common refrain among Kerry supporters - doesn't Mr. Bush's directness and simplicity of presentation reflect a simplicity of mind and an incapacity for nuance, while Mr. Kerry's ideas are just too complicated for the rhythms of publicly accessible prose?

Sorry, but that's dead wrong. If you can't explain an idea or a policy plainly in one or two sentences, it's not yours; and if it's not yours, no one you speak to will be persuaded of it, or even know what it is, or (and this is the real point) know what you are. Words are not just the cosmetic clothing of some underlying integrity; they are the operational vehicles of that integrity, the visible manifestation of the character to which others respond. And if the words you use fall apart, ring hollow, trail off and sound as if they came from nowhere or anywhere (these are the same thing), the suspicion will grow that what they lack is what you lack, and no one will follow you.

Nervous Democrats who see their candidate slipping in the polls console themselves by saying, "Just wait, the debates are coming.'' As someone who will vote for John Kerry even though I voted against him in my class, that's just what I'm worried about.

I have to agree with him on this. As a trial attorney, I am a professional persuader. I have to make a majority of jurors vote for me, or I lose. So I have to have a tight focused message for every case.

While the best way to prepare a case is to go over my evidence & arguments again & again & again, I can't spill out all the evidence every time I talk to someone about the case. I need to boil it down to its essence.

I use a simple exercise called the ten word telegram. (Taught to me by a great drama teacher.) For a legal case, that theme must identify the parties, the wrong, & the solution that only the jury can provide. My teacher's example was "Greedy developer poisons village well; he must pay." The words in the telegram must be the most powerful words for conveying what I am trying to say. I write this ten word telegram as soon as I get the case, & then I use it to lead off EVERY COMMUNICATION I have with the court & with opposing counsel until the case is over. Until I hear them repeating it back to me. Then I know I'm in their heads, & they're seeing the case my way.

Unfortunately, John Kerry doesn't have a ten word telegram yet. Why is John Kerry running for President? He can't tell you in a a sentence, or in a paragraph. Not even a chapter. He has to give you the entire book, every time. Aaargh!

John Kerry has been campaigning for the job of President of the United States for over one year now, but he hasn't boiled down his argument one bit. Today I turned on MSNBCCBNNBC & CNN a few time during the morning while Kerry was speaking live. Once again he was giving a 45 minute to one hour policy speech. That's just a crazy way to campaign. Modern communication has come a long way since Daniel Webster could stand in a village square & pontificate for 8 hours or more. People just don't have that kind of attention span any more.

Worse than that, as Mr. Fisher rightly points out, that kind of speech tells me that Kerry hasn't really focused in yet. He doesn't know what the core of his message is yet. What are the crucial contested issues in this election? Why should I vote for John Kerry?

So I offer this word of advice to the Kerry campaign. Boil it down. Say to the candidate when he goes off, "Give it to me a sentence." Give me the ten word telegram.

Debate questions

Daily Kos asked his readers to come up with debate questions. This one is my favorite of their suggestions:

"If Andrew Card came to you in that Florida classroom and told you that your family had been carjacked on September 11, would you still have sat there for seven minutes and done nothing?"

Personally, I think we should plant Kristen Breitweiser in the audience & let her ask ALL the questions.

Imagine

If America Were Iraq, What Would It Be Like?

A great article by Juan Cole trying to explain to Americans how dire the situation in Iraq is.

President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting the pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country.

What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics would have to be multiplied by that number.

Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last week? That is a number greater than the deaths on September 11, and if America were Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly or monthly toll.

Read it and weep.

I've Got Five Good Reasons to Vote for Kerry

55 Reasons to Vote for Bush and Republicans in 2004

Or you can take my five reasons, the Lucy Van Pelt School of Persuasion.

More Poll Shenanigans

Now we find out that Gallup is basing those ridiculous double digit leads for Bush on faulty data. The left coaster blog looks behind Gallup's numbers & finds they are basing their numbers on a sample that contains a higher percentage of GOP voters than Democratic voters -- even though in both the 2000 & 1996 elections a higher percentage of Democrats voted than Republicans.

Yup, if you ask more Republicans than Democrats how they will vote, Bush does have a double digit lead.

The polls are crap. But of course the SCLM can't go 1 inch behind the polls themselves, that would be reporting & they don't do that anymore.

Polls Are WRONG

Jimmy Breslin sets me straight. I KNEW there was something wrong with these crazy polls showing Bush doing so well, & here's why: They don't call CELL PHONES!

Anybody who believes these national political polls are giving you facts is a gullible fool.

Any editors of newspapers or television news shows who use poll results as a story are beyond gullible. On behalf of the public they profess to serve, they are indolent salesmen of falsehoods.

This is because these political polls are done by telephone. Land-line telephones, as your house phone is called.

The telephone polls do not include cellular phones. There are almost 169 million cell phones being used in America today - 168,900,019 as of Sept. 15, according to the cell phone institute in Washington.

There is no way to poll cell phone users, so it isn't done.