The Politburo Diktat

Sorry That He Got Caught

Steve Schwenk (or perhaps someone posing as him) left this comment on Jeff Jarvis' blog:

For a man who bemoans the absence of civility on the left, Okrent sure has a strange way of dealing with it.

He not only distorted what I said in my e-mail, but he called me a coward and told the entire country who I am and where I live after very effectively making me out to be a monster.

My kids were terrified by the never ending phone calls and hang ups. My daughter asked what we should do if a mob came to the house to get us. And needless to say, the humiliation I now have to experience in responding to the repeated inquiries about whether that was really me will go one for weeks. Did I mention that I am looking for a job?

The worst part is that the bastard completely distorted what my e-mail said and why I was complaining. He left out the 99% that raised legitimate questions and focused only on the sensational words of anger I regretfully used.

Thanks, Daniel Okrent. And thanks, to you too, "Adam." I all but pleaded with them not to do it, that it would really harm me and was an unfair response to a private e-mail. Okrent's assistant hung up on me and Nagourney laughed me off, like it was his right to harm me since he works at the NYT and thinks he's a star.

And they wonder why people are angry.

Mr. Schwenk, how did Okrent "distort" your email? Oh, you answer that later on. "He left out the 99% that raised legitimate questions and focused only on the sensational words of anger I regretfully used." You raised legitimate questions, did you? Were those questions before or after you wrote,"I hope your kid gets his head blown off in a Republican war?"

And now, because Okrent had the temerity to quote your nastiness to the world, suddenly YOU are the martyr. All of a sudden these are mere "words I regretfully used." Maybe you should have used your time sending emails to prospective employers instead of shooting off threats to reporters.

Here are some words that I will unregretfully use: "Mr. Schwewnk, you are an immature child and you deserve every bit of abuse you get. 'People' are angry? No. You and your goddam Bush Derangement Sufferers are angry. Get a grip, you infantile whiner."

Jarvis presented this whole issue in a context of reprehensible mud-slinging all around, how regrettable it all is, and how Okrent could have handled it better. Jarvis is way off the mark.

People forget that assault is assault, whether expressed in email or in the public square. Forget the anonymity of emails, which clouds the issue. Suppose all this had happened in the public square. How laughable would be Schwenk's defense. What right should of privacy should be accorded to someone who threatens another's children? None. Zero. Zip. Schwenk is the guilty party. 100%. Nagourney and Okrent are wholly blameless, and better not recant or back down one step.

If we want to improve civility, I think the Times' guys got it right. Next time some overwrought decides to send a vile email, he does so with the notion that his name might end up in the New York Times. Good.

Schwenk is sorry he got caught.

Brownshirt Meter

Khorosho! All across the country, Revolutionary partizans are violently attacking Criminal Reactionary Repugnicans! To the barricades, comrades!!!

Please email or TB Commissar with more reports of Revolutionary Violence. Brownshirt meter is at 12. We can do better, comrades!

Spokane, Washington - Bush's campaign office in Spokane burglarized, vandalized, Oct. 11.

West Allis, Wisconsin - Dem. demonstrators stormed a Republican campaign office, Oct. 5.

Knoxville, Tennessee - Gunshots fired into Bush-Cheney headquarters, Oct. 4.

Orlando, Florida - Mob attacks Bush-Cheney office, Oct. 5.

Madison, Wisconsin - Swastika Burned Into Grass On Bush Supporter's Lawn, Oct. 1.

Vail, Colorado - Vandals chainsaw Bush-Cheney sign on Magnus Lindholm's yard, Sept. 29.

Columbus, Ohio - Purple Heart Iraqi vet attacked, Sept. 30.

Gainesville, Florida - Democrat slugs area GOP chief, Sept. 18.

In flight, over Canada - Drunken Kerry supporter assaults seatmate in flight, Sept. 16.

Dallas, Texas - Family of dead soldier harassed at candlelight vigil, Sept. 9.

Bozeman, Mont. - Bush campaign office vandalized, paint sprayed and rocks thrown, Sept. 4. (per reader Prakk)

Huntington, West Virginia - Gunshot fired at Republican headquarters, Sept. 2.

Seattle, Wash. - Veteran for Bush booed at parade, July. (per reader Jessica)

Clenched fist salute: Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, and Kerry Spot

Is Atrios Deranged?

Is Atrios clinically deranged? His response to Okrent's piece in the NYT leaves me shaking my head. I'll quickly note that tactically I have no complaint. If Atrios, an extreme Leftie, wants to go after the Times' Daniel Okrent and Adam Nagourney, two guys who claim to try to be impartial and at least one of whom admits to being a Kerry supporter, such an attack does my side no tactical damage.

This is strictly clinical. Or curious. Is Comrade Atrios unbalanced? Deranged? Lunatic? I don't mean "Is he a nasty, hate-filled, Leftie whose judgement is so bad that he is unreasonable?" We know that. But is he certifiable? Should he be fitted for a straight jacket and a padded cell?

By background, Okrent, in his defense of the Times objectivity, concluded that while both sides can be excessive, the Lefties seems to have new standards in vileness. For an example, he named one Steve Schwenk of San Francisco who emailed Adam Nagourney, "I hope your kids die in a Republican war."

Atrios, in response, went totally bat-guano. I think that "Fuck you, Adam Nagourney." was the nice part.

But the odd thing was his psycopathic repetition that Schwenk has "complained" or "disagreed with" Nagourney. He never hinted at the content of Schwenk's email. He just kept morbidly insisting on how evil Okrent was to name this guy. Then, he spent more paragraphs engaged in paranoid ranting about how HE, Atrios, had NEVER revealed anyone's identity, despite his volume of hate mail, etc. etc. Suddenly (and lengthily) the story is about HIM.

It just seemed so disconnected and ... insane. He began by objecting to Okrent's piece, and it morphed into a vicious attack on Nagourney. For all Atrios knows, the outed Mr. Schwenk had copied Okrent on the "hope your kids die" email. Perhaps this was touched off by Okrent's conclusion that the Left was more vile, and suggested that Leftie bloggers tone it down a notch. As if to prove Okrent's point, Atrios tees off on this mad, paranoid diatribe. A normal person's reaction to Okrent's accusation would be to try to deflect it or argue with it, not prove it. Very odd.

Oh yes, Atrios' next entry, posted without comment, links to the joke site AdamNagourney.com, allegedly Nagourney's blog. Is comrade Atrios aware that this is a gag site, not authored by Nagourney, but merely some sort of Wonkette-ish joke?

I recall Atrios' last lunacy, of August, when he claimed that Glenn Reynolds, by posing in a black, red, green, & yellow "gun diversity" tee-shirt was advocating murder of blacks, those being the pan-African colors.

I don't think Atrios is a menace. I think he is insane.

Crisis Over, Afghanistan Heads for Vote Count

These despicable puppets bow to whims of Criminal Reactionary Bush. No true friends of the people will fall for these sham 'elections.'

With a threatened boycott its historic presidential election firmly relegated to the background, Afghanistan took first steps on Tuesday to begin counting votes.

During the day, the Afghan-U.N. Joint Election Management Body will decide which ballots are suspicious and how to deal with them. The actual count will begin on Wednesday morning, election officials said.

President Hamid Karzai's chief rival, Yunus Qanuni, said on Monday that he and several other candidates had decided to withdraw the call to boycott Saturday's landmark election that was issued after suspicions emerged of illegal multiple voting.

"We want unity in this election, not a boycott," he told reporters. "The people want it and we appreciate their feelings."

Yunus Qanuni will report to the Politburo, for "strict punishment."

ISOU has more. So does Beck. Jeff Goldstein measures success.

New to Blogroll

Letters from NYC

Another Michele (da, one "L"). Recent posts on:

Soccer

The Debate

Poem to her supporters

Aussi elections

An extremely retrograde, reactionary female, whose exposure to proper Party Line while living in Moscow-on-Hudson has not dented her Running Dog views.

This one bears watching, comrades.

TTLB Ecosystem Ehancements

NZ Bear has made some enhancements to the Ecosystem.

Key features include:

- a graph showing your rank and # unique links over time

- an expandable tree menu showing the links which the blog has received from other blogs

- an expandable tree menu showing the blog's ten most-linked-to posts and who linked to them (Sounds very cool, not yet yet visible for my blog)

NZBear notes that some of these fatures are still work-in-progress. He also notes

There is one caveat: for the moment, all of these new features are available to everyone. Starting sometime in the near future, however, I will be restricting some of them to only be displayed for weblogs that display a link back to their Ecosystem status. You can find instructions on how to do this on your blog's details page: it's simple, painless, and automatically shows your 'status' for your readers to see . I think this is a fair trade; I receive a little more visibility for my efforts around here, and you get the cool toys to play with showing your blog details.

Sound fair to me.

Spasibo to Chat Politburo

Fraternal Socialist regards to these members of the Chat Politburo whose insights on last Friday night's debate online chat contributed to the debate live-blogging.

Octopod

feste

kahoks

Elric, thesaur, DC-Diva, PagybnIvan, -Thief-, dsmtoday, Lune, and jackass.

Country Pundit

kdan1951

DougB

Unabrewer

Same plan this coming Wednesday.

NYT's Okrent: We're Fair

The NYT Public Editor: How Would Jackson Pollock Cover This Campaign?

Okrent spends a couple pages defending the neutrality of the Time's campaign coverage. Or perhaps it could be described as "attacking" those on both sides who attack the paper's coverage.

Actually, it's a fairly persuasive piece. Okrent is convinced that the NYT and he (in his ombudsman role) do their best to be neutral.

At one point he says:

I don't buy the argument a couple of Times editors have made, that because charges of bias come from both liberals and conservatives, the paper must therefore be doing things right. This makes as much sense as saying that a man with one foot on a block of ice and the other on a bed of hot coals must feel just fine.

An excellent point. In brief, Okrent's defense of the paper (or attack on its critics) reads thus:

But passion is a distorting lens that makes it hard to perceive the shape of things. Partisans will see the depredations committed against their man, but won't notice similar articles or headlines or photographs that may damage the other guy. Readers outraged by the Sept. 26 piece on Kerry's decision-making style ask when The Times will do a similar piece on Bush apparently because they didn't notice the one that ran Aug. 29 ("Bush Takes On Direct Role in Shaping Election Tactics").

Actually, I tend to agree with Okrent, Reporters are people, too, and cannot report in a total vacuum. In an article about the ISG's confirming no WMD's, is it biased to say something like "The Bush administration largely predicated its case for war on WMD's that seem not to exist?" Maybe. Maybe not.

At any rate, all members of the VRWC should take great comfort from Okrent's last two paragraphs:

But before I turn over the podium, I do want you to know just how debased the level of discourse has become. When a reporter receives an e-mail message that says, "I hope your kid gets his head blown off in a Republican war," a limit has been passed.

That's what a coward named Steve Schwenk, from San Francisco, wrote to national political correspondent Adam Nagourney several days ago because Nagourney wrote something Schwenk considered (if such a person is capable of consideration) pro-Bush. Some women reporters regularly receive sexual insults and threats. As nasty as critics on the right can get (plenty nasty), the left seems to be winning the vileness derby this year. Maybe the bloggers who encourage their readers to send this sort of thing to The Times might want to ask them instead to say it in public. I don't think they'd dare.

As I blogged recently, the Left is demonstrably more shrill and less civil. As for us conservatives? I will quote King Lear, "When others are more wicked: not being the worst, Stands in some rank of praise."

Update: Jack thoroughly spanks me in his "Relativism ..." Trackback. Go read it.

Puppet Election Update

Criminals in Afghanistan Stage Election Performance:

Afghanistan's historic presidential election closed on Saturday without any of the feared large-scale violence, but the vote was thrown into turmoil when most candidates said a flawed process made the poll invalid. All 15 of President Hamid Karzai's rivals said they were withdrawing from the election because systems to prevent illegal multiple voting had gone awry. The move effectively left Karzai, the favorite to win anyway, as the only candidate in the fray.

Election officials refused to halt the process, which appeared to have been embraced enthusiastically by most voters across the rugged Islamic nation despite fears of violence by Taliban militants.

"Halting the vote at this time is unjustified and would deny individuals the right to vote," said election official Ray Kennedy. He said the allegations would be investigated but other officials said it will take weeks to complete the process.

Counting, which may take three weeks, will continue. U.S.-backed Karzai also said the vote could not be negated.

"It's too late in the day for a boycott," he told a news conference. "Millions have voted in the rain, the snow and the dust storm and we should respect their decision. Just because 15 people have said 'No', we can't deny the votes of millions."

Partizans in Iraq Kowtow

Iraq's plans to hold elections in January gained traction on Saturday after a Shi'ite militia agreed to disarm in Baghdad and delegates from rebel-held Falluja said the Sunni Muslim city wanted to vote in the polls. The Mehdi Army militia led by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr agreed to hand over weapons to Iraqi police from Monday under a deal that could defuse the Baghdad flashpoint of Sadr City. Karim al-Bakhati, a tribal leader negotiating for people in Sadr City, told Reuters U.S. forces had promised to stop bombarding the vast Shi'ite slum area with immediate effect.

Falluja delegates said the city wanted to take part in the elections and could accept the return of Iraqi security forces.

"A delegation from Falluja is now discussing the entry of Iraqi National Guards to the city with the defense ministry," chief Falluja negotiator Khaled al-Jumaili told Reuters.

Do not tell Terry McAuliffe.

Rasmussen: Bush 50, Kerry 46

This daily tracking poll shows:

President George W. Bush with 50% of the vote and Senator John Kerry with 46%. Today is the first time all year that either candidate has hit the 50% mark in our survey.

The Tracking Poll, updated daily by noon Eastern, is based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, more than 95% of the interviews for today's update were completed before the conclusion of last night's Presidential debate.

I have avoided posting every single day of the Rasmussen Poll, which I have been following obsessively for months. It may be the most useful poll out there, for two reasons:

1) It does not swing wildly. In early September, when some polls showed Bush up by 11 or more points, Rasmussen continued to show a narrow lead for Bush.

2) It has always showed a narrow race, which "feels" right this election.

I'll go out on limb here. Today's Rasmussen Poll, essentially a pre-debate survey, now shows Bush with a four-point lead. Over the next three days, given Bush's superior performance in the debates (a view NOT confirmed by the snap polls, but agreed by Kevin here and here), he will move ahead 2 or 3 more points in Rasmussen. By Rasmussen's standards, that would be a very significant margin.

Show Trial #12

Terror was the basis of all their activities, it was the basis of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite union. This was quite unanimously testified to by people who were not directly connected with each other in their underground work. This was not only admitted here by Zinoviev and Gordonov, Stev and Spectatov, Whiskey and Karol; it was stated also by Catalanov, Shacklefordov, Willov, Benov, and David, that peculiar citizen of the Republic of Costa Rica, paid agent of Trotsky and simultaneously of the Amerikan secret police. *

Gordon for inserting himself and his subversive wrecker tendencies into the people's work force.

Steve for over-working the bloggetariat. First, blogers just blogged. Then, live-blogging. Now Bloodsucker Steve raises the bar with his "live-photo-blogging."

Spectator for continuing to distract the people with lengthy diatribe about the draft. Come, comrade, do we not already have a "back-door" draft?

Michele for defending outrageous sham of puppet elections in Afghanistan, and of course for her ongoing denigration of people's RED Sox.

Whiskey for this slander of MiniTruth officer Halperin.

Karol for giving aid and comfort to Enemy of the People Bush. Do not put your lies in the mouths of anonymous French journalists.

Rusty Shackleford for panicking the people of the Northwest with rumors of Mt. St. Helens imminent eruption. Is nto Bush responsible? Is this not ploy to deny Comrade Kerry Washington state's electoral votes?

Madfish Willie for attacking smaller members of proletariat.

David Anderson for understating Criminal Bush's crimes. Only $84 dollars? Comrades can do better! Dangerous Right Deviationist tendencies!

Ben for also trying to excuse Bush for his Plutocratic Lumber Baron activities.

Bloggers who Trackback to this Show Trial will be investigated and indicted at next Show Trial. (Repeat offenders may not be prosecuted in consecutive Trials.)

KERRY: Prevent unwanted children.

I thought I heard that. But didn't believe my ears.

Kerry's response on abortion:

You'll help prevent AIDS.

You'll help prevent unwanted children, unwanted pregnancies.

You'll actually do a better job, I think, of passing on the moral responsibility that is expressed in your question. And I truly respect it.

Full transcript here. Scroll 7/8 way down for the abortion question.

I wonder what my (adopted) children would think of that statement?

Revenge

An Afghan veiled woman walks as Afghan men queue to attending their first direct presidential election before opening of vote time in Herat in Afghanistan on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004.

Allah posted a priceless one.

Election in Afghanistan. I can't overstate how great that makes me feel. In October, 2001, when we started bombing the Taliban, that felt pretty good. But this is better. A lot better.

Live Blogging 2nd Debate

10:50 - Summary: Bush connected with ordinary people. Kerry connected with economists. Bush wins decisively. Allah rounds up blogosphere opinion.

10:45 - The spinners at CNN are trying their best to call it a draw. The President was "screaming??" Schneider does his "fact-checking," which is reasonably fair - two for each.

10:33 - Kerry finishes the way he started "slush fund for halliburton." His closing statement is still trying to deal with the "I won't surrender our security" question.

10:28 - Last question: "Name three wrong decisions." Interesting choice of Charlie to finish with that. Bush: "No mistakes on major decisions. I'll accept history's judgement. Did make some mistakes on appointments." Kerry decides to hammer on Bush's mistakes. I guess he feels that he doesn't have to answer for any of his. Bush: "one of the most amazing quotes in political history".

10:25 - Kerry's gonna waffle on abortion. So he's a Catholic. He does NOT answer the question about spending Federal money on abortions. ... Okay, maybe he does. "You'll help prevent unwanted children."

10:22 - Judges - booooorrrrriiinnggggg!

10:16 - Kerry: "USE THOSE BABY PARTS, DAMNIT!" Nancy Reagan and Michael J. Fox (Canadian, btw) are medical experts? "I know Chris Reeve. Chris Reeve is friend of mine; and Mr President, you're no Chris Reeve!" The nature of the human spirit is to harvest other humans for spare parts and repairs.

10:10 - Kerry: "I wont do that because that would be pandering." LOL. Bush gets in a joke about him owning a lumber company. "Wanna buy some wood?"

10:08 - Kerry just keeps repeating these huge numbers. "Two billion lost jobs. Six million dead children. Three trillion dollars on prescription drugs. Three hundred million unemployed." "Energy independence in 10 years." His base will buy it, but who else will?

10:04 - Bush's first answer on environment was good. His follow-up was weaker. Kerry: "We walked away from 160 nations." Good one for kerry. All 17 undecided voters that care about Kyoto will now vote Kerry.

9:59 - People are starting to smile when Bush talks. Kerry invoking McCain. I'm digging Gibson's deficit hard-on. The split camera on Cspan drives me nuts when Bush walks onto Kerry's camera.

9:56 - "Read my eyebags: No new taxes..." I can't see his other hand, show me the fingers, Senator!

The Party requires you to continue reading ......"Live Blogging 2nd Debate"

Shrill Meter

Who's shrill? Who's uncivil? Both parties claim the other side is more shrill, less civil.

Google can help make an objective judgement. I measured the number of Google hits
for "John Kerry" and "George Bush," and then searched for their names in combination
with some shrill, uncivil, hot words.

Here are the Google searches using "Hitler" as the hot word:
"John Kerry" - 6,220,000 pages
"John Kerry Hitler -Bush" - 25,800 (0.4% of "John Kerry" pages)
"George Bush" - 7,870,000
"George Bush Hitler -Kerry" - 277,000 (3.5% of "George Bush" pages)

Putting "-Kerry" or "-Bush" in the hot word queries give more meaningful results. Otherwise
"John Kerry Hitler" search would include pages with content like "Bush = Hitler. Vote for
John Kerry."

Since Bush is President, he gets more absolute hits (7,870,0000 versus 6,220,000), but
not as many more as I had suspected. Nevertheless the relevant measure is to compare
a Bush "hot word percentage," (3.5% for "Hitler") to Kerry same "hot word" percentage
(0.4%). Bush is eight times more likely to be included with Hitler than Kerry.

Who's shrill?

But let's not leave it at "Hitler." Here is a table of Bush vs. Kerry Hot Word Combinations:

Hot Word	# with Bush	% of Bush Hits	# with Kerry	% of Kerry Hits	Anti-Bush Shrill Factor
Hitler	277,000	3.5%	25,800	0.4%	8.5
"war criminal"	23,100	0.3%	2,470	0.0%	7.4
idiot	135,000	1.7%	26,700	0.4%	4.0
liar	79,200	1.0%	15,700	0.3%	4.0
moron	47,300	0.6%	9,460	0.2%	4.0
"son of a bitch"	8,530	0.1%	1,910	0.0%	3.5
murderer	66,900	0.9%	17,100	0.3%	3.1
shithead	1,960	0.0%	535	0.0%	2.9
criminal	529,000	6.7%	147,000	2.4%	2.8
asshole	41,000	0.5%	11,600	0.2%	2.8
motherfucker	12,400	0.2%	3,820	0.1%	2.6
waffles	6,290	0.1%	3,880	0.1%	1.3
flip-flopper	1,770	0.0%	1,560	0.0%	0.9
douchebag	2,200	0.0%	2,410	0.0%	0.7
	1,231,650	15.6%	269,945	4.3%	3.6

Bush is almost FOUR TIMES as likely to be the object of shrill, uncivil usage. Is
it any surprise that the Shrill Meter leads to the Brownshirt Meter?

Afghans say inevitable trouble won't stop vote

The people will not be fooled by this charade of Criminal Bush and his Zionist Puppets. Da, is time to "kick it up a notch," and roll out MiniTruth Mideast Canard Number 6: "Karzai is Zionist Lackey. He plans to convert all Afgan madrassahs to synagogues" You read it here first comrades.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has vowed that a historic presidential election would be successfully held this weekend and reflect the people's wishes despite inevitable sabotage attempts by Taliban fighters.

U.S.-backed Karzai is the favourite to win Saturday's poll, which should legitimise his rule and mark a turning point for a country shattered by more than a quarter-century of war.

He said in a BBC interview he was aware guns and intimidation would play a role in the election.

"How long can we wait for the guns to go before we have elections?" Karzai said on Thursday. "No election in the world is free of tension. Afghanistan is in a more serious situation because we are emerging out of war.

"But because of the massive enthusiasm and will of the Afghan people to go toward this election and to build their country in a democratic way, I very much hope this election will provide a result that they will like."

Taliban threats to attack anyone taking part in the vote have not stopped more than 10.5 million Afghans of a population of about 28 million, from registering to directly elect their president for the first time.

Women make up more than 40 percent of those who have registered, organisers say. An additional 1.3 million refugees in Pakistan and Iran are also eligible to participate.

Confused Communists

INDC Journal: When Satire Goes Terribly Right - Er, "Left"

Read Comrade Bill's post. Who says Liberals are humor-impaired?

Generalissimo Francisco Franco Still Dead

BBC: ISG Report concludes no WMD in Iraq

ISG Report concludes no WMD in Iraq

Iraq had no stockpiles of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons before last year's US-led invasion, the chief US weapons inspector has concluded. Iraq Survey Group head Charles Duelfer said Iraq's nuclear capability had decayed not grown since the 1991 war. But in a 1,000-page report his group said Saddam Hussein intended to resume production of banned weapons when UN sanctions were lifted.

Looks like we will have "October Reprise" on this topic, eh, comrades? I can see the upcoming headlines.

Oct. 7 - Kofi Annan reads report concluding no WMDs; announces that he is "shocked and dismayed."

Oct. 9 - Saturday Night Live does skit about Bush looking for WMDs.

Oct. 12 - ISG report translated into French, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Portuguese, and 50 other languages, by the "Bush Is Hitler In Any Language" foundation, set up by George Soros.

Oct. 15 - Kerry reads report, after it has been translated into French; announces, "Hey, I just found another W!"

Oct. 16 - The Daily Show does skit about Bush looking for WMDs. And he doesn't find them.

Oct. 18 - Michael Moore anounces new film "Sarin & Me" in which he travels all over Iraq looking for WMD's, while Martin Sheen narrates the entire text of the ISG report during the five hour film.

Oct. 20 - CBS "News" re-announces the Oct. 6 ISG Report. By way of explanation for recycling the two-week old news, Dan Rather says, "I wanted to break that story."

Oct. 23 - SNL does another skit about Bush looking for WMDs. Bush dressed as chimp, and when he finds a banana (instead of WMDs), he holds up sign saying "Misssion Accomplished."

Oct. 26 - KE04 announces "Exploitation Expo 04," in which Max Cleland reads aloud selected passages from the ISG report while amputee vets from both Gulf Wars help him turn the pages, while overlooking 100 coffins and a display of mock amputated limbs. During the reading, seven Humvees are blown up, symbolizing "the seven days left for us to get out there and amputate the Bush-Cheney campaign."

Oct. 30 - The Daily Show does another skit about Bush looking for WMDs, but this one is really funny because he's looking for them in POLAND!!!

Do Not Piss in the Millenium Falcon

Dear Mr. Ruffini,

Please do not send me any more BC04 official emails, offering debate responses and other talking points.

While I strongly support the President's re-election, I have no need nor desire for the campaign party line. I am a blogger, typically described as "fiercely independent," or "quirky," or "personal." Bloggers scan the internet, looking for interesting, provocative items to write about. We also get emails from other friendly bloggers and from interested readers. There's no place in that process for official spin from a campaign, except, perhaps as an object of satire. This leads to my second point.

Emails like this betray an ignorance of what motivates bloggers. They suggest a certain tone-deafness that you may not be aware of. Here's an example. During last month's Rathergate uproar, bloggers (mostly conservative) crawled all over that stoty. That effort had no central organizer. Hundreds of bloggers approached the issue independently, with extraordinary creativity, with personally-driven intensity, and at light speed. These sprang from the deep outrage of many individuals, which fueled their initiative, energy, and tenacity. When Liberals predictably whined that the uproar was a partisan political attack directed by Karl Rove, I laughed.

A few days later, I began receiving your spin emails.

Please don't kid yourself by pretending, "Any blogger who doesn't want to use these emails can delete them." That is not the point at all. You do not want to alienate individualistic bloggers. The Bush campaign will do far better with the enthusiastic, personal, if at times, unpredictable support of many Han Solo bloggers, than it will with an army of clones, amplifying official spin.

Post title expropriated from ASV.

Draft Bill Defeated in the House - "Cheap Political Ploy"

The Commissar does not fisk, but this NYT article about the draft vote begs for it:

Trying to quiet fears of a return of the draft, the House Republican leadership engaged in a hasty call-up of its own on Tuesday. The Republicans brought to the floor a Democratic-sponsored proposal to reinstate mandatory military service and presided over its overwhelming defeat on a vote of 402 to 2.

Clever introduction. Starting off with "trying to quiet fears" conjures up hints of car bombs in Baghdad. "Engaged in a hasty call-up" is equally clever.

"We're going to put a nail in that coffin," said the House majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas. He accused Democrats of generating opposition to President Bush - especially on college campuses - by raising the idea that the draft might be re-established after the November election to provide troops for service in Iraq.

"Delay accused" -- baselessly and falsely we presume. I mean, since it's Tom Delay, and he's "accusing." It's not like the Dems actually did raise this idea to attack the President. That would be shocking.

Democrats were outraged at the tactic, charging Republicans with a cynical political ploy on a matter that merited more thoughtful hearings and debate. The Democrats originally introduced the measure early last year as a way to protest the war, even before it began, and to spotlight how low- and middle-income Americans shoulder much of the burden of serving in the military.

This is the ruble-quote, comrades. Read it over. The Dems introduced the measure "as a way to protest the war." But of course, to bring a piece of legislation to the floor of the House for such purpose must not be confused with a "cynical political ploy." Nyet. That is what you call it if someone actually tries to bring your fear-mongering bill to a vote ...

"It is a prostitution of the legislative process to take a serious issue and use it for political purposes on the eve of the election just to say they are against the draft," said Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, the author of the bill, who ended up voting against it.

... and even Charlie Rangel the author of the bill, votes against it. Got it? Rangel introduces a bill that is so bad that even he votes against it. He undeniably introduced it to make a political point, but should the House leadership force the thing to a vote, well ... that is a "cheap political ploy."

The Party requires you to continue reading ......"Draft Bill Defeated in the House - "Cheap Political Ploy""

Final Flights

Recently, four noted aviators have "slipped the surly bonds."

Gordon Cooper - one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts

Jack Bolt - USMC ace of WWII and the Korean War

Dan Rehm - US Navy ace of World War Two

James Stewart - US Army Air Force ace

The Party requires you to continue reading ......"Final Flights"

Show Trial #11

Bloggers have been busy, supporting Zionist Running Dogs, engaging in rampant Capitalism, promoting Imperialism, and generally acting as Enemies of the People, who, of course, demand that they be brought to justice promptly!

These Internet Oppressors include:

Barking Moonbats for this Great Eye.

Doug for this fisking of purveyor of false opiates.

EdWonk for his misplaced tears over Criminal Reactionary Bush's picture.

Thomas Galvin, for this screed against Comrade Kerry, falsely accusing him of lies. The people are outraged at this slander.

Both GIJoel and Centerfeud for pushing lies of Zionist conspirators, against Global People's Soviet (aka UN).

Janes, at Armies of Neocolonialism, for suggesting that UN exclude Hamas partizans.

blogoSFERICS, for allowing himself to fall into hands of Trotskyite wreckers at Websense.

The LLama Butchers, for perpetuating "patriarchal repressive social order."

Ihath, at Iraq Blog Count, for engaging in Capitalism with Amazon.com. Please comrade, do not encourage Necolonialist Imperialist Oppressive Occupiers by joining into their so-called market economy.

Redhunter, for indulging those revanchist Poles.

In Bill's World, for attempting to emulate teknical advantages of Marxist Teknology.

Bloggers who Trackback to this Show Trial will be investigated and indicted at next Show Trial. (Repeat offenders may not be prosecuted in consecutive Trials.)

Great Minds Think Alike

"I tell all Muslims that this act is a sin, it is one of the greatest sins," he said in a statement. "Aiding, calling for, or facilitating the murder of a Muslim is tantamount to involvement in murder and all who do so will be thrown by God into the flames of hell, for so dear is the sanctity of Muslim blood." - Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh.

"Back when I was making Fahrenheit, I was offered the same documents that were given to CBS but I didn't use them because we couldn't verify them." The anti-Bush filmmaker said that he was unhappy with CBS for using the fakes in a report, implying that the Memogate controversy had aided the president's reelection campaign. - Michael Moore

Interview With Swift Boat Vet Van Odell

Dean Esmay interviews a Swift Boat Vet.

DE: The impression I get from news reports is that Kerry's actual crew are standing by him, while those criticising him are other Swift Boat skippers and their crews. If true, what is your best guess as to why that should be so?

VO: It's not true. Steve Gardner served on Kerry's boat longer than anybody else and he's one of our guys. He served with Kerry longer than any other crew member with Kerry, knew him better than any of those guys.

I would also say I don't know how Kerry cultivated those guys two years ago. When I knew them in Viet Nam they couldn't stand him, and even if you read Kerry's book Tour of Duty, that even says his crew couldn't stand him then.

We don't know how much they support him. Of those who are with him, the only one that will come out and talk to the press is Del Sandusky. The rest are never in the press. Whereas all 60 of us who served with Senator Kerry in our group are all out on the road and talking about why we oppose the Senator.

There's more comrade, lots more.

Reactionary Alert

Noted Reactionary Captain Ed has been spreading his foul lies throughout the blogosphere for one year now. Unless you are interested in Instapundit-linked items, Swift Boat Vet coverage, and extended commentary on MainStream Minitruth, do not inspekt this enemy of the people.

Afghanistan Pre-Election Spin

IHT: by Madeleine K. Albright - "deeply disturbing ... stumble along ... armed warlords ... resurgent Taliban ... fearful ... unacceptable ... turmoil ... low priority ... failed"

BBC - "'Heavy poll bias' towards Karzai"

Boston Globe - "surge of Taliban attacks ...ominous ... nasty irony ... intimidated .. discouraged ... silenced .. sobering .. gangster-like"

Pak Tribune - "mockery of democracy ... empty claims ... thuggery ... bribery ... abuse ... repression ... coerce voters"

Indianapolis Star - "toll rises"

LA Times - "post invasion chaos"

"CHAOS," comrades "CHAOS"

Embrace the Essence

This email has been circulating the net:

With only six weeks before the Presidential election, I feel compelled to share this idea. I am an author, activist, and former science writer. I enjoy the intersection of physics and culture - never more obvious than this fall. And what today's most sage scientists are saying is that when we focus on something, we attract more of it. So with only six weeks left, we need to focus on what we really, really want.

Let's join together in the "60 Seconds a Day for 6 Weeks Campaign." To turn the tide now, we need to do something unstoppable. We need a critical mass of us to stop railing against what is and reach for what we want. What do we want? We want John Kerry as our next President. Give up focusing on George Bush. We don't have to agree with him or support him in any fashion. Instead, we have to turn our thoughts now to something greater. We have to do something unstoppable. In the legacy of Einstein and all great thinkers, we have to harness the power of our thoughts to get the outcome we desire in November.

If only 3 percent of the U.S. population takes 60 seconds to do this exercise every day, we can make a massive difference. This is how it works: for 60 seconds each day visualize John Kerry elected as our next President of the United States. See the celebrations and excitement and sense of fulfillment all across America. See yourself rejoicing with people in your home, neighborhood, and workplace. See us all rejoicing with people all over the world! See John Kerry being sworn into office. Feel the hope, joy, and gratitude. Feel it in your hearts. Believe it is possible.

Now, imagine John Kerry restoring greater wellbeing in America. See people streaming back to work. See young children getting the support they need. Visualize our teachers, police officers, single mothers, the mentally ill, and many others getting the help they deserve. See our soldiers coming home to their families. Imagine our leaders establishing greater trust and good will with other nations. See peace spreading across the world. See the Iraq conflict ending.
Feel how good it will be for the environment to be protected and renewed. See hope rising across the world in the hearts and souls of all of us. See these pictures in your mind for 60 seconds every day between now and November. Be grateful that you have the gift of participating in shaping a greater country. Be grateful that you care. Believe that all this is possible -- and more! And be sure to vote!

Pass this on to six more people. 60 Seconds a Day for 6 Weeks!

In peace, Susan Skog,
author of Embracing Our Essence : Spiritual Conversations with Prominent Women

"Embrace the Essence," comrades. Resistance is Futile.

Clenched Fist Salute: Swamp City

Show Trial #10

Dzerzhinsky Edition

Felix Dzerzhinsky was first head of the Cheka. And KGB headquarters is located in Dzerzhinsky Square. (In case anyone cares.)

Donovan, for his list of ugly airplanes. The Commissar would offer the Curtiss SB2C dive bomber, aka "Son of a Bitch, 2nd Class."

Zounds! for Ironbear's Instalanche. Very bourgeois, comrade.

Expanded rules of Mamamontezz' Debate Drinking game. Comrade Mama, is "hard work" synonomous with "won't be easy?" In which case Commissar consumed 12 shots of vodka.

Retrograde (Digital) for his obvious forgery. Comrade Eric, ... please, you are not Comrade Burkett.

Zero Gravity, to be experienced by capitalist Space Ship One, shamelessly promoted by Synthstuff.

Hard Times, for his nekulturniy call on the debates. "W plays the Jenna card."

Invasion of Mexico, per Llamabutchers. If you find Trotsky, please alert Politburo; your sentence maybe commuted.

New skins at Right on Red. We find all of them lacking in respect for People's house organ.

Seldom Sober, for blotto poetry. Suspiciously anti-Party in its orientation.

Kerry's Double at Tacjammer.

You-topia, for his dangerously Right Deviationist thinking on Rathergate. He should support Comrade Bill, Comrade Hailey, and Comrade Rather without hesitation.

Bloggers who Trackback to this Show Trial will be investigated and indicted at next Show Trial. (Repeat offenders may not be prosecuted in consecutive Trials.)

Polls and Party Self Identification

After every poll that shows numbers disappointing to one side or the other, some partisans inevitably claim that their Party was under-sampled. Whether made by Reps or Dems, such claims misunderstand the nature of "party self-identification" (PSI) in polls. PSI is a result, not a cause. It more resembles an opinion than a demographic.

Pollsters asks respondents which Party (or Independent) they consider themselves to be members of. Unsurprisingly, when Bush's number go up, so does Republican PSI. When Kerry has a good week, Democrat PSI goes up. That's all that is going on. There is nothing wrong with polling methodology. Nor are pollsters biased; almost uniquely amongst the mainstream media, pollsters are only concerned with 'getting it right.' How newspapers and broadcasters present polling data is another issue.

Many commentators (and bloggers) seem to expect party self identication to be a 'hard' demographic characteristic, like age or sex, or voting history. But PSI is not like those. it's just how people describe themselves 'today." Consider a counter-example. Suppose our society required people to be card-carrying members of a political party, perhaps with an option to be a 'card-carrying' registered Independent. Further suppose that active membership in such parties six months before an election was required to vote in that election. In such a scenario, party affiliation would be a matter of record, it would be quite stable from month-to-month, and poll responses could be weighted to match the current, defined demographic of "registered party membership."

Clearly, that's not the case. People identify themselves as they like, and within 10-15 percent of the population, there's considerable swing (from week-to-week) between Rep and Independent, between Independent and Democrat, etc.

Polls move around; they are subject to inevitable imprecision and error. But differences in party self identification (compared to last week's poll, the last election, or census data) is NOT one of their problems.

I see that Dick Morris agrees with me (see bottom of his article).

The First Amendment

Perhaps Eleanor Clift and Tom Brokaw should re-read it. Just in case: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

According to Clift, Rather, Brokaw, and their ilk, cartoons of Ariel Sharon eating babies are fine. Endless comparisons of Bush = Hitler are just ducky. Twisting headlines on poll results is khorosho.

And, when, they, the mainstream media want to spread lies and disinformation based on forged documents and email rumors, that is a public service which rivals, and perhaps exceeds,that of our military.

But ... But ... God forbid if anyone else, in this case bloggers, try to call them on their outrageous, politically motivated falsehoods. No way.

Then "conservatives are trying to intimidate the media." And bloggers are engaged in a "political jihad."

Comrades Eleanor, Dan, and Tom sure don't like anyone but themselves exercising their First Amendment rights. "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others."

Clenched Fist Salute: Allah, who has been "intimidating the media" repeatedly, harshly, and (of course) on instruction from Karl Rove.

The Army of Ansar Alsunnah website

The Army of Ansar Alsunnah

It is almost entirely in Arabic. Can anyone translate?

Here is a Verbatim Translation of Ansar al-Sunnah Army's "Banners of Truth". An excerpt:

By a secular Iraqi or a puppet agent. Of the Americans working to fulfill their plans and programs then we return another time to the rule of puppet governments that rule with the laws of infidels in the name of Islam and is in fact controlled by Jews and Christians . A faithful does not get bitten twice. . Because of this, a group of resistance fighters and knowledgeable people who have the political and military savvy and who have the record in managing the Islamic struggle against the enemies of Islam have got together a number of the divided groups and platoons of resistance that operated in the field from the north to the south to make up a huge army that comes under a unified command. A command that will establish a locally devised unimported practical plan based on their knowledge and closeness of the battlefield. On the basis of the shari'ah in the Koran and the Sunnah and we called it the Ansar al-Sunnah Army. We call on our brethren in faith and jihad to come together under the banner of this army to fulfill the hope of an Islamic nation that honors Islam and Muslims, Allah hand is with the group; the devil is the company of the single, and the wolf attacks the straggler sheep.

More background on the Ansar Al-Sunnah Army below.

The Party requires you to continue reading ......"The Army of Ansar Alsunnah website"

Photos in Samarra

Photos from Yahoo:

More below:

The Party requires you to continue reading ......"Photos in Samarra"

Self Criticism

TTLB Ranking of The Politburo Diktat

My rankings at TTLB Ecosystem are grossly inflated, by about 91 false inbound links.

Many months ago I changed URLs.

Formerly:
http://www.acepilots.com/opinion/blogger.html

The re-direct at that URL seems to be generating a unique link to every post since Sept. 17 (adding up to 91 links).

I emailed NZ Bear:

I respect that you are minimizing your work on the Ecosystem. And I'm happy to take any steps I can to clean this up. (I'm not getting significant traffic redirected from that old link.) Should I delete that old link from the Ecosystem? Should I remove the redirect set up on my server? Should I remove the link on that OLD home page that points to my new URL? Again, I'm happy to do any/all of these, if that would be helpful. Please advise.

In any case, this syndrome probably affects other bloggers, and (if there is a systematic overstatement of blogs with re-directs) I thought you would like to be alerted to it.

Bloggers with re-directs from old URLs might look at the details of their TTLB Rankings. If this gets fixed, you should be prepared for a potentially rude awakening.

Update: I removed the redirect yesterday. Today the extra 91 links are gone. I do not know if removing the redirect resolved it, or if NZBear did something.

Bloggers Take Over CBS

Cranky Neocon: Blogging Goes Mainstream?

What if bloggers toppled the "media industrial complex?" What if... (Begin dream sequence. Harp music begins and the scene blurs.)

Heh. Inspekt it all, comrade.

Bush won the debate with Kerry

Bush won the debate with Kerry

I'LL CONCEDE, style counts. It was fair game for critics to say Democratic candidate Al Gore's demeanor defined his performance in the 2000 presidential debates. In that spirit, my verdict is: On the demeanor question, George W. Bush lost Thursday night. But he won on substance. You can count me in agreement with the 37 percent of Americans who told the CNN/Gallup poll that Bush got the better of John Kerry.

From the San Francisco Chronicle????

Debate Reaction - A Pyrrhic Victory?

The Gallup Poll reveals some interesting reasons why many voters felt that Kerry "won" the debate. In sum, they say: "Kerry won because he expressed himself more clearly, but Bush is more likable, more believable, and is tough enough for the job."

Viewers saw Kerry as more articulate in the debate than Bush (60% to 32%), though they divided equally as to which candidate had a better understanding of the issues (41% each).

Thinking about the following characteristics and qualities, please say whether you think each one better described John Kerry or George W. Bush during tonight's debate. How about -- [Random Order]?

2004 Sep 30 (sorted by advantage for Kerry)		Kerry	Bush	Advantage
		%	%	pct. pts.
Expressed himself more clearly		60	32	+28
Had a good understanding of the issues		41	41	0
Agreed with you more on the issues you care about		46	49	-3
Was more believable		45	50	-5
Was more likable		41	48	-7
Demonstrated he is tough enough for the job		37	54	-17
+	Advantage indicates Kerry lead
-	Advantage indicates Bush lead

Viewers leaned toward Bush on which candidate agreed with them on issues, who was more believable, and who was more likable. And by 54% to 37%, viewers said Bush better demonstrated he is tough enough for the job.

"One more such victory and I am lost." *

Appointment in Samarra

A merchant in Baghdad sent his servant to the market. The servant returned, trembling and frightened. The servant told the merchant, "I was jostled in the market, turned around, and saw Death.

"Death made a threatening gesture, and I fled in terror. May I please borrow your horse? I can leave Baghdad and ride to Samarra, where Death will not find me."

The master lent his horse to the servant, who rode away, to Samarra.

Later the merchant went to the market, and saw Death in the crowd. "Why did you threaten my servant?" He asked.

Death replied,"I did not threaten your servant. It was merely that I was surprised to see him here in Baghdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."

(old parable as told by Somerset Maugham)

Live Blogging First Debate

10:50: Kerry on points, but he needed a knockout. (Thanks for the mention, Allah, who rounds up bloggers opinions).

Kerry hit Bush hard on Iraq; he sounded reasonable and decisive. He did not get stuck in complex Senate-ese. Bush held his ground, reinforcing his image as steadfast and determined. His best monent - anecdote about talking with the the wife of the soldier lost in Iraq. Best Bushism - "MOO-lahs."

Most worthwhile, informative disagreement - bilateral versus six-party talks on North Korea.

Llamabutchers sees a Bush win.

10:35: CNN Talking heads: Kerry did not come across as a wonkish waffler. Bush did not put Kerry away. But Kerry did not 'transform the race.' Now they're talking about 'cut-away' shots; Bush was showing emotion, but Kerry was 'Presidential.' "Kerry could have done more to refute the flip flopper label." "Bush showed impressive command of the details."

Uh-oh. Schneider. Ugh. Moving on ...

Another talking head picked up Kerry on the "OBL is in Afghanistan." "NOPE. He's in Pakistan and they won't let our troops in."

10:30: At the conclusion, the wives come up. And the Bush twins -- maybe Bush's best part?

10:28: Closing statements. Kerry keeps claiming he'll get more foreign troops in Iraq. Well-phrased overall , but that bit does not persuade. Bush - We will strengthen our "all-volunteer" military. We have done a lot of hard work. By being steadfast and resolute and strong, we can achieve the peace we all want. Good closing for him too.

10:26: Bush drops the ball on a North Korea question and turns it on himself.

10:25: Kerry talks about old KGB files. FINALLY. Something of interest to The Commissr.

10:21: Kerry repeats the "13 vs 4 year bit" on securing Russian nukes.

10:20: Bush claims to have increased spending. He more-or-less agrees with Kerry, but comes off as a hesitant, me-too on this issue. "We .. uh ... convinced Libya to disarm." Score another one for Kerry.

10:17: Kerry hits the 'nuclear proliferation' issue again. "The President has cut non-proliferation money."

10:14: Kerry starts with an equally graceful comment about personal question. Neither picks up on the "character" issue. This may go down as the only civil 90 seconds of a two-year campaingn.

10:12: "I won't hold it against him that he went to Yale."

10:11: Bush gives a coherent thoughtful anser to Sudan question. He's come a long way in four years, when he couldn't even name Musharraf.

10:09: Lehrer gives them a good question on Sudan. Kerry talks about other stuff. Including "back door draft." Hinting that Bush is starting up the draft.

10:07: Bush and Kerry finally disagree on a substantive issue : six-party vs. bilateral talks on Korea.

10:05: Bush refers to Iranian "MOO-lahs." Heh. Twice. "MOO-lahs."

10:03: My son - "What's Kerry doing? Trying to bring Bush down? Or build himself up?" Khorosho question, young Jedi. I told him to listen and make his own judgement.

The Party requires you to continue reading ......"Live Blogging First Debate"

Blogger Emulates Mainstream Media

First, CBS "News" Dan Rather ran the fake Killian memos.

Then, both CBS and NBC reported the urban-legend rumors about the draft.

Apparently one bolshoi blogger has decided to emulate the MSM's recent penchant for (in her own words) "just making shit up." INDC-Bane splashed out Adam Nagourney's supposed blog today.

Having exchanged a few emails with Mr. Nagourney in the past, I asked him about the so-called blog. He replied:

you're not the first one to ask.
Nah, not me. I'm not that witty.

Here is the fascinating whois lookup for the adamnagourney.com.

Maybe the Texas Rangers should look into this. Or this. Or at least put it on Cam Edwards.

CBS "News" - Facts Still Irrelevant

Bill at INDC interviewed CBS "News" reporter Richard Schlesinger, and other CBS "News" employees about their controversial story highlighting the possibility of a Draft reinstatement.

Glorious Resistance Partizans Kill 34 Children in Baghdad

Car Bombs Kill 34 Reactionary & Infidel Children

Surely, comrades, these were youthful enemies of the people, doubtlessly aligned with Criminal Reactionary Crusader Bush.

"Insurgents" detonated three car bombs near a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad Thursday, killing 41 people, 34 of them children, and wounding scores.

In two other attacks, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a U.S. checkpoint outside the capital, killing two policemen and a U.S. soldier, and a car bomb killed four people in the restive northern Iraq town of Tal Afar.

The Baghdad blasts coincided with crowds gathering to celebrate the opening of a new sewage plant. It was not clear if the event or a U.S. convoy passing nearby was the target.

The first explosion was followed by two more that struck those who rushed to the aid of the initial victims. Ten U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack, two of them seriously, the military said. Iraq's Health ministry confirmed 41 dead and 139 wounded, the vast majority children.

October

And then?

Moveon.org Attacks Gallup

Mystery Pollster: MoveOn vs. Gallup

Democratic pollster Mark Blumenthal responds to Moveon.org's "ferocious attack" on the Gallup organization.

Call me a partisan, but I always thought that this sort of guilt-by-association smear of someone based on an exercise of a constitutional right "no matter how disagreeable" was something that Liberals fought against. ...
Finally, let me take off my survey research hat for a moment and put on my Democratic Party hat. I have admired MoveOn’s efforts, but I have to ask, is it now so flush with cash that it can afford to buy a full page ad in the New York Times a few weeks before “the most important election of our lifetimes” attacking a polling company?

Mr. Blumenthal, welcome to the 21st Century.

I love Bush Derangement Syndrome.

My Pet Jawa on MSNBC

My Pet Jawa on MSNBC: Bloggers Beat Mainstream Press Again

An image from My Pet Jawa was shown on MSNBC last night. The image was from a story I broke on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's website being hacked on 9/22 (story here). The image can be found below, in the extended entry. Despite my best efforts to get mainstream media outlets to run the story, none did. However, a number of bloggers took up the call to arms and the news slowly got out. I received hundreds of e-mails asking for Zarqawi's website address from that original post and it's follow up. The image I grabbed from Zarqawi's website also was reposted on dozens of other blogger's websites.

Yesterday, Zarqawi's website was hacked again (story here). That news was broken by Chad Evans at In the Bullpen (story here). Luckily, Chad grabbed an image from the website before the webhost fixed the problem. Both hacks were done by a group calling themselves "TeAmZ USA", their website is here.

Rusty Shackleford makes a convincing case that the MSM picked up this story from him, either directly, or indirectly, via Freerepublic.

Surely annoying to Rusty, but still a measure of progress. It's becoming clear that the MSM is increasingly looking to bloggers, or looking foolish when they don't. Right now "internet sources" seem vague enough, small enough, and fractured enough to be used without attribution.

I suspect that will change over the next couple years.

Congrats, Rusty.

Maryland?

Won by Al Gore by 17 points.

SurveyUSA (9/19): Bush and Kerry tied

Rasmussen (9/28): Kerry by 3 points

Earlier Polls (before 9/10): Kerry by 10+

Reliably Democratic voters in Maryland can't decide between Kerry and Hitler?

The CBS Emailing News

By now most bloggers have heard of the scare-tactic emails circulating the internet, claiming that Bush and the evil Republicans are planning to reinstitute the draft. In fact, such a bill HAS been introduced ... by Charlie Rangel. Both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders oppose it; it is a dead letter.

Tonight, "Document Dan" Rather continued to specialize in made-up, fictitious stories, with a piece on the allegedly imminent draft. RatherBiased has the details:

In a story that was a textbook example of slipshod reporting, CBS reporter Richard Schlesinger used debunked (by the nonpartisan FactCheck.org) internet hoax emails and an unlabeled interest group member to scare elderly "Evening" viewers into believing that the U.S. government is poised to resume the draft.

What is next for Dan Rather and the CBS Emailing News?

Rather: Mr. Enobakhare, where are you from?

Enobakhare: From Sierra, Leone, which is right next to the Kingdom of Zamunda.

Rather: And your family has fallen on some hard times?

Enobakhare: Yes, Before the death of my father, he deposited the sum of Twelve Million United States Dollars in a Finance and Security Company.

Rather: I see.

Enobakhare: Due the Raging war in our country Sierra-Leone, He declared it as family treasure , according to him for Security Reasons.

The Party requires you to continue reading ......"The CBS Emailing News"

Show Trials Resume, #9

"Horrible and monstrous is the chain of these crimes against our socialist fatherland; and each one of these crimes deserves the severest condemnation and severest punishment. Horrible and monstrous is the guilt of these criminals and murderers." *

The Commissar demands that these Mad Blog-Dogs be shot!!!!!!!!

Mark for slanderous attack on MiniTruth, Reflexive Media.

David Scott Anderson, on general principles and his bourgeois obsession with sexy women.

Matthew for exercising gifts on nekulturniy ammo and beer.

Liberal Larry, for refusing to more explicitly assign blame to Criminal Bush in this matter. No molly-coddling of reactionaries, comrade.

Laughing Wolf for subversive rumor-mongering.

McGeehee for disrespekting of Northern climates.

Russ for this post, in which he inexplicably failed to link to the web's premier P-40 page. He will be shot twice.

Skillzy for ... Commisssar is left speechless ... Boob Job.

Ben who seems to be member of "State Guard .. with Headquarters in Austin."

Bloggers who Trackback to this Show Trial will be investigated and indicted at next Show Trial. (Remember, comrades, there is no escaping the people's justice, even if delayed a week or two by People's pursuit of Capitalist Blowhard in Suspenders.)