The 18½ Minute Gap

Um....yeah.

Is this guy ready for a job in the Bush administration, or what?

Quote of the day...

Go Read it for February 1

Maybe you should vote absentee..

When Maryland decided to buy 16,000 AccuVote-TS voting machines, there was considerable opposition. Critics charged that the new touch-screen machines, which do not create a paper record of votes cast, were vulnerable to vote theft. The state commissioned a staged attack on the machines, in which computer-security experts would try to foil the safeguards and interfere with an election.

They were disturbingly successful. It was an "easy matter," they reported, to reprogram the access cards used by voters and vote multiple times. They were able to attach a keyboard to a voting terminal and change its vote count. And by exploiting a software flaw and using a modem, they were able to change votes from a remote location.

Critics of new voting technology are often accused of being alarmist, but this state-sponsored study contains vulnerabilities that seem almost too bad to be true. Maryland's 16,000 machines all have identical locks on two sensitive mechanisms, which can be opened by any one of 32,000 keys. The security team had no trouble making duplicates of the keys at local hardware stores, although that proved unnecessary since one team member picked the lock in "approximately 10 seconds."

What a tangled web we weave...

David Kay's report has now shown quite clearly that Powell's "facts" were, indeed, not "assertions", but something much closer to "wishful thinking" based on a willingness to accept a large quantitiy of dubious information from Iraqi defectors, many of them supplied by Ahmed Chalabi and his INC, and cherry-picked intelligence driven by Douglas Feith and the Office of Special Plans. The OSP, recall, was set up by Cheney specifically because the initial intelligence from the CIA refused to supply the conclusions that the warmongers wanted.

Who's going to be held accountable for this? Who is going to hold anyone accuntable for this? It seems that in the Bush administration, the only firing offense is the telling of unpleasant truths.

That was then, this is now

This morning Post columnist James Hoagland endorses the 'CIA sold the president a bill of goods' defense. Hoagland is willing to concede that the president may have "inflated" the "flawed intelligence that [his] spy bosses and senior aides provided."

But still, he writes, "Credulity, not chicanery, would be the plea, your honor."

As I said, or rather as Hoagland says, the Agency sold the president a bill of goods.

Now, here I am at my favorite cafe, laptop on my knees, latte at the ready, trying to make sense of the world. And this all throws me, because Hoagland spent the last two years telling me that the president and his top aides had to bully the Agency and the rest of the career types in the Intelligence Community and the national security establishment into getting religion on the Iraq threat.

And now I hear it's just the opposite?

For instance, take Hoagland's October 20th, 2002 column ("CIA's New Old Iraq File"). That's where he said that the Agency's record of underestimating the Iraqi threat was so dire that "it is no surprise that Bush has until now relied little on the Langley agency for his information on Iraq. There is simply no way to reconcile what the CIA has said on the record and in leaks with the positions Bush has taken on Iraq."

January 31, 2000

• Polls showed tightening races in both parties in New Hampshire, with polls showing both the Gore/Bradley and Bush/McCain contests basically even.
• Gore attacked the Bradley campaign, saying Instead of the promised character, courage and commitment, we have manipulative attack after manipulative attack.
• Bradley returned the favor, calling Gore and his fellow Democrats' methods of raising money in the latest campaign disgraceful.
• On the Republican side, the National Right to Life PAC sent a mailing to New Hampshire residents urging them not to vote for McCain, quoting an interview McCain did with The [San Francisco] Chronicle's Editorial Board last year in which he said that Roe vs. Wade -- the landmark Supreme Court decision that upheld a woman's constitutional right to abortion -- should not be immediately repealed because it might force thousands of women to undergo illegal and dangerous operations. McCain contradicted that position yesterday, saying the decision should be reversed, and pointed to his 17-year voting record against legal abortions.

Just a reminder

You have to pay attention

'You're going to have to go on record. The Holocaust happened, right?" Peggy Noonan asks of Mel Gibson in the Reader's Digest for March.
Gibson: "I have friends and parents of friends who have numbers on their arms. The guy who taught me Spanish was a Holocaust survivor. He worked in a concentration camp in France. Yes, of course. Atrocities happened. War is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps. Many people lost their lives. In the Ukraine, several million starved to death between 1932 and 1933. During the last century, 20 million people died in the Soviet Union."

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good Grief.

Bonus points for keeping a straight face.

"Listen," he began at another point. "Government has got plenty of money, and it needs to stay focused and principled. We need to be wise with the taxpayers' money."

This is the man whose administration just announced a half triillion dollar expected deficit for 2004. By what bizarro world definition is that "enough money"?

And where have you been?

create your own visited states map or write about it on the open travel guide

GOP GOTV

Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie today declared the week of March 6-13 National Voter Registration Week and announced the Republican Party will launch a massive effort to register one million new voters during that week.

1. The Fox News break room
2. Cheney's secure undisclosed location
3. Every country club in the nation
4. Mars
5. Bob Jones University

Dean was right.

US combat deaths in Iraq have risen sharply during January despite a drop in the number of attacks and the capture of former dictator Saddam Hussein over a month ago.

As of Thursday, 33 American soldiers and one civilian had been killed by hostile fire during the month. That compares with 24 US combat deaths in December, and a total of 32 coalition combat deaths.

The figures appear to show that the security situation in Iraq is not improving, contrary to earlier claims from the US military and politicians.
(from the Financial Times)

Go Read It for January 30

Americans have heard much about the growing problem of identity theft. Mr. President, what we have before us is perhaps the most costly case of identity theft imaginable. It appears that the big spenders in Washington have all but stolen the credit card numbers of every hard-working taxpayer in America and gone on a limitless spending spree for parochial, pork-barrel projects, leaving the taxpayers to pay and pay. These big spenders view the federal budget as a virtual shopping mall where they can buy their way to re-election. Please join me as we walk through this shopping mall.

This is just...wrong.

Surprise!

A: Are you kidding?

Go Read It for January 29

Nothing to see here, move along...

"I think that what we have is evidence that there are differences between what we knew going in and what we found on the ground," Rice told CBS television, brushing aside calls for an independent investigation.

Well, duh. The much more interesting question is, why the huge discrepancy? You'd think that the party that wants to claim they can be trusted on national security would clamoring to get to the bottom of that. But you'd be wrong. They're much more concerned about embarassing Dubya in an election year.

Jonah says, "Hand Iraq to the UN"?

How about, "don't use our product"?

The most effective step that you can take to help protect yourself from malicious hyperlinks is not to click them. Rather, type the URL of your intended destination in the address bar yourself. By manually typing the URL in the address bar, you can verify the information that Internet Explorer uses to access the destination Web site. To do so, type the URL in the Address bar, and then press ENTER.

Personally, my answer is use Opera.

Science. Bah. Who needs it?

Charlotte Observer | 01/29/2004 | Ga. plans to make `evolution' extinct

Georgia students could graduate from high school without learning much about evolution, and may never even hear the word in class.

New middle and high school science standards proposed by state Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox strike references to "evolution" and replace them with the term "biological changes over time," a revision critics say will further weaken learning in a critical subject.

Campaigning

1. I'm still supporting Dean
2. I think there's a reasonable chance that any of Dean, Kerry, Edwards, or Clark could be the eventual nominee.
3. My preferences in November are:

   1. Dean
   2. Any of Kerry, Edwards, or Clark
   3. Any other Democrat (yes, even Lieberman)
   4. Krusty the Clown
   5. The rest of the cast of The Simpsons. Including Santa's Little Helper.
   6. Most barnyard animals.
   7. Most other vertebrates.
   8. George W. Bush.

4. Thanks, Joe Trippi, for getting us this far. Remember, Moses didn't get to go to the Promised Land.

Umm....

You can't make this stuff up.

News Flash

January 29, 2000

• Sigh. The Goring of the VP continues, as Bradley attacks him as a "tricky" politician who can't be trusted. (story)

State of who...?

Lying, or stupid?

"I was hoping the United Nations would enforce its resolutions, one of many. And then we went to the United Nations, of course, and got an overwhelming resolution -- 1441 -- unanimous resolution, that said to Saddam, you must disclose and destroy your weapons programs, which obviously meant the world felt he had such programs. He chose defiance. It was his choice to make, and he did not let us in."

Yep, that's about the size of it.

January 28, 2000

• Bill Clinton, last night, gave the last State of the Union address to date delivered in English.(story).
• Bill Bradley and George Bush agree on one thing: they can attack Al Gore on honesty. (story)
• In a statement that no one could today deliver with a straight face, the Republican responce to the SotU "assailed as spendthrift the agenda President Clinton outlined yesterday for his last year in office, and they heralded the GOP as the true steward of fiscal responsibility, guardian of senior citizens and champion of uninsured Americans." (story)

Lying, or Stupid: Special Edition

"We know he was a dangerous man in a dangerous part of the world," Bush said. "We know that he defied the United Nations year after year after year. And given the offense of September 11, we know we could not trust the good intentions of Saddam Hussein because he didn't have any." [emphasis mine]

They're not even pretending any more.

The Republican contempt for the law and the American people is now so blatant that they don't even bother trying to hide it.

January 27, 2000

• Both the Republicans and Democrats had debates last night, with the leaders trading shots in both. Bush said McCain's budget plans sounded like Al Gore's, to which McCain responded, "If you're saying that I'm like Al Gore, then you're spinning like Bill Clinton.''
• The evening's most surreal moment came when GOP candidate Gary Bauer questioned rival Alan Keyes about his jumping into a mosh pit earlier this week after a rally, as supporters passed him hand over hand to the sound of blaring rock 'n' roll music. (story)
Posted by Mike Jones at 01:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Lying, or Stupid?

"Make no mistake about it, the decision that the President made was the right decision. Saddam Hussein was a dangerous and gathering threat," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Yeah, Me Too.

Lying, or Stupid?

Saddam Hussein's past use of "evil chemistry" and "evil biology" and the threats they posed justified the war in Iraq even if no weapons of mass destruction are ever found, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday.

Ashcroft, in Vienna for talks with top Austrian officials on measures to fight terrorism and drug trafficking and improve air travel security, told reporters that Saddam's arsenal remained a menace and was sufficient cause to overthrow his regime.

Ah, Those Kiddies

At a Women for Dean rally early today (I caught on FNC, I think), Howard Dean complained about the out-of-touch, white, heavyset males president Bush surrounds himself with. I, assume he was talking about Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. But then he went on to note that there is not a woman among them. Huh? Has Dean not noticed Condi Rice, Karen Hughes...Hate to complicate the knee-jerk stumping, but...

Well, he probably hasn't, given that Karen Hughes has been back in Texas for most of Bush's term and Condi, well, seems to only get trotted out when there's some political angle to it. But maybe K-Lo can refresh her memory with photos like this one, from when Bush signed the partial birth abortion ban:

It's All About the Election

"The United States told us that as long as the timetable is respected, they are ready to listen to any suggestion," a senior U.N. official said.

Cue Rod Serling

via Pharyngula

Why isn't this a lie?

21st Century Pony Express

This is really amazing to me. It sounds like something out of a Bruce Sterling novel, but it's really happening.

Dirty Tricks in NH

Apparently someone is making harassing phone calls to NH voters and claiming to be from the Dean campaign. Here's the official statement from the Dean NH campaign:

Statement from State Director Karen Hicks
Posted by Timothy Jones
on Sun, 01/25/2004, 12:50 pm

Today, Karen Hicks, Dean For America's New Hampshire State Director, made the following statement:

"In recent days, our campaign has been hearing reports from New Hampshire voters that they are receiving:

• phone calls early in the morning and late at night;
• "robo calls" from soulless machines, not calls from considerate people;
• calls claiming to originate from the Dean campaign, but do not;
• and even harassing calls and bigoted messages.

Let me be very clear. The Dean campaign does not call New Hampshire homes before 8:30 am or after 8:30 pm. Our calls are made by respectful people, not droning machines. Our callers tell the truth.

We call on the other campaigns to make the same commitments.

We are grateful for the extraordinary engagement of New Hampshire's people in this race. But our campaign believes that everyone deserves some peace, some respect, and a truthful message."

If you are in NH, or know anyone in NH, who has been getting these kind of calls, please (a) tell them they're not from the Dean campaign, and (b) encourage them to call the telephone company and complain. Let's find out who's doing this.

January 25, 2000

• Gore and Bush win the Iowa caucuses. Gore gets 65%, while Bush gets 41% to surprising Steve Forbes' 30% and Alan Keyes' 14%.
• Democrats court the gay vote, Republicans try to avoid talking about it. Bauer, Hatch, and Keyes openly bash homosexuals.