Tom DeLay slapped by House Ethics Committee, AGAIN

Sometimes it doesn't pay to be an asshole. Read More......

Time to weigh in on another debate poll

Evan writes in:

There is a new VP debate poll at http://www.kfmb.com (on the left side), which is the CBS affiliate in San Diego. Currently, there are 399 votes

Cheney 56%
Edwards 36%
Draw 8%

Sic 'em. Read More......

Bush removes Iraq coalition list from White House Web site

What is the George Bush hiding? That's what Brad of BradBlog is asking after he discovered today that the White House took down the page on their official Web site that lists the members of the supposed "Coalition of the Willing."

If you look at this page, you'll see a link for "Who are the coalition members?":



Click on the link and here's what you get - a big 'ole error message:



But through the wonders of the Internet, Brad found the original page, this is it:



Oops. Well that explains why the White House is suddenly throwing Web pages down the memory hole. The Web page in question lists 49 members of the Coalition of the Willing, and at the bottom of the page it says, "This number is still growing."

Yeah, well, I think we're down to 30 now that Poland just dropped off this week. The only thing growing is George Bush's nose. Read More......

Meanwhile... Back on Earth...

Lost in the shuffle of the i-never-saw-john-edwards, the-war-is-officially-a-lie, fact-check-dot-com-dot-org,

The "good news" -- health care costs are "only" going up EIGHT PERCENT next year,
K-Mart is laying off more in South Florida,
Oil hit another record high, and
The government told us to expect higher home heating bills this winter.

Real people have real problems. And this administration isn't doing a thing about them.

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FactCheck.org: We did NOT exonerate Cheney from Halliburton

Seems Cheney told YET ANOTHER lie last night when he directed folks to FactCheck.org as proof that all the allegations of Halliburton improprieties were untrue. Putting aside the fact that Cheney mistakenly called the Web site "FactCheck.com" (a URL that directs you to George Soros' home page!), FactCheck.org told Reuters today:

The Web site Cheney had in mind, factcheck.org, was not amused when the vice president proved that he was not master of the factcheckers' domain.

Factcheck.org, run by the Annenberg Center of the University of Pennsylvania, said on its site on Wednesday that Cheney not only got the domain name confused, he had mischaracterized its fact-finding.

"Cheney ... wrongly implied that we had rebutted allegations Edwards was making about what Cheney had done as chief executive officer of Halliburton," the site said on Wednesday.

"In fact we did post an article pointing out that Cheney hasn't profited personally while in office from Halliburton's Iraq contracts, as falsely implied by a Kerry TV ad. But Edwards was talking about Cheney's responsibility for earlier Halliburton troubles. And in fact, Edwards was mostly right."

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Cynthia Tucker on THE DRAFT

Fear of conscription continues to float just below the surface because so many voters understand somewhere in the backs of their minds that Bush's military plans simply don't add up. A Pentagon advisory board recently issued a report stating the patently obvious: The U.S. military won't have enough troops in the coming years to meet its continuing war and peacekeeping obligations. And respected military analyst Michael O'Hanlon has written, "The Army -- and perhaps the Marine Corps, as well ... needs an immediate increase in active-duty troop levels."....

Amazingly, Bush and his aides continue to engage in a denial that borders on the pathological: The U.S. is winning the war on terror; everything is going swimmingly in Iraq; and, of course, the military doesn't need any more troops. Even more amazing, they've been able to get away with this strange cognitive dissonance. Bush's poll ratings go up even as Iraq melts down.

But I have the feeling that more and more voters are getting the sense that something about Bush's policies just doesn't add up. They might not want to think about it. If nothing else, Bush offers certainty in an uncertain world. But you've got to tamp down a lot of doubts to hang onto that certainty.

That's why those e-mails about the draft won't go away. - AJC via Yahoo.

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NBC does it again!

That damn NBC. You'll recall they're already in hot water with the right-wing for showing a picture of Bush in front of a sign that said "families," but the "fam" and the "s" were cut off, so it simply said "I lie."



Well, look at THIS photo I just dug up from their archives.



(PS Obviously I didn't get this from NBC, I made it up :-) Read More......

Join the Freeway Free Speech Day - Oct. 13

Our buddy the Freeway Blogger is organizing a national Freeway Free Speech day for October 13. We're talking freeway blogs across America. So far he's had commitments from 125 cities in 38 states! Absolutely amazing. (As you may already know, Freeway Blogging is basically putting potent concise political messages on signs that you post on the overpasses to freeways, hitting tens of thousands of readers during rush hour.) If you're interested in doing some freeway blogging in your town on that day, visit Freeway's site and let him know.

PS I just read the following post on Freeway's site - had to share it:

Dear Freewayblogger,
We've been enjoying your site for several months. Our nephew died in Iraq this past February and we are determined to end this regime. When you know the truth of this war and this administration first hand it's impossible NOT to speak out. Thanks for your tireless efforts. You are making a HUGE difference. For every dead US soldier and Iraqi there are thousands more injured and devastated. Our nephew was Pfc. William Ramirez of Portland, OR, KIA 2/11/04 in Baghdad. He was 19 years old. The photo below was found on his digital camera shipped home in his gear from Iraq. Thanks again.

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$200 Billion Vs. $120 Billion -- Who's Lying?

What is the bill for the war in Iraq? Is it $200 billion? Is it $120 billion? Who's lying? The Bushies are beginning to win this argument even though the facts flatly contradict them. Here's how the New York Times characterizes the "dispute" in its "Fact Check" coverage of the debates.

"Some factual disputes were echoes from last week's debate between the presidential candidates, including the cost of the war - Mr. Edwards put the figure at $200 billion, but only $119 billion has been spent so far."

Here's how the LA Times called it.

"Edwards, by repeating Kerry's assertion that the war in Iraq had cost $200 billion, also stretched the bottom line. Edwards counted money to be spent in the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. The cost of the war to date has been slightly more than $120 billion, according to budget officials cited by Factcheck.org, a nonpartisan website sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania."

I love that. The LA Times chastises Edwards for tallying up the total cost of the war in Iraq by "counting money to be spent in the fiscal year that started Oct. 1." As if that's somehow cheating. What they should have said was, "Cheney refuses to include the money to be spent in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, money already committed to being spent. Cheney also refused to acknowledge that the bill will get even larger in the coming years. $200 billion is in fact, a conservative estimate for the total cost of the war in Iraq."

Here are the facts. As of this very second, we've spent $119 billion. Bush has already allocated more funds that bring the total up to $178 billion. That money WILL be spent. Other extremely reasonable estimates of money that MUST be spent while our troops are in harm's way in Iraq bring the total by EARLY next year to $200 billion.

Is that the total bill? Not even close. That's a conservative estimate of the amount we have ALREADY committed ourselves to spending. And everyone agrees our troops are going to be there for years. That means the final bill will be a LOT more than $200 billion. That isn't speculation or a bleak or rosy scenario -- that's a fact, even if Bush were to pull out every single soldier six months after being elected.

Any media outlet that claims $119 billion is an accurate estimate and that $200 billion is wrong should be blasted.

Think of it this way. If you buy a $250,000 house and your mortgage is going to bring the total cost of buying it to $325,000 over 30 years but so far you've only spent $20,000 on mortgage payments, tell me this -- how much is the house going to cost you? $20,000? $250,000? Or $325,000?

Just thought of this: Kerry and Edwards should tie this argument into Bush's lack of fiscal responsibility.

Say this, Kerry:

"They don't want you to know the real cost of the war, so they mislead you by only citing the money spent as of this very second. Well, is the war in Iraq ending this very second? Are we pulling out our troops this very second? No. And we've committed to spending $178 billion AS OF THIS VERY SECOND and the problems -- and costs -- in Iraq are continuing to mount. The American people are paying the bill and they deserve to know the truth about what it's going to cost. $200 billion is the minimal amount it's going to cost and they know that."
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The Duelfer Report -- Facts Don't Lie

Here's the LATEST investigation into the facts about the war in Iraq, what the Bushies claimed and the actual facts on the ground. It's the Duelfer Report and it couldn't have come at a worse time for Bush.

One highlight from the NYT:

"The finding amounted to the starkest portrayal yet of a vast gap between the Bush administration's prewar assertions about Iraqi weapons and what a 15-month postinvasion inquiry by American investigators has concluded were the facts on the ground."


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Cheney's Lies III: On Meeting Edwards

The LA Times does a great breakdown of how Cheney lied when he said he'd never met John Edwards before. They've got photos of the two together at a prayer breakfast ("inconsequential" squeaks Cheney's people), describes Edwards escorting Elizabeth Dole to the Senate floor so she could be sworn in by Cheney.

But they go further than the "he said, he said" usual stuff and put Cheney's claims in context to show how he really lied.

"Although Cheney is the Senate's presiding officer, he actually sits in the chamber only on rare occasions," says the LA Times, "such as to break a tie vote and to swear in new senators."

Or to swear AT senators, we might add.

"He does attend the GOP senators' weekly luncheons to discuss party strategy," continues LAT. "But only Republicans attend, and Cheney usually breezes into the building, goes to the meeting, then leaves without hobnobbing with Democrats.In fact, Cheney was teased by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) for only associating with Republicans when, in an encounter on the Senate floor, Cheney cursed at Leahy."
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LOL

Again, just watch it, and enjoy :-) Read More......

Priceless

The wingnuts are freaking out because Bush did a recent appearance in which he stood in front of a sign that said "Families." Well, apparently Bush stood a little too close to part of the sign and, well, here's what the picture caught on NBC's Nightly News.



Yes, "I lie." The rightwing kooks are now all alleging that this is an NBC conspiracy to make the president look like a liar. Right, because the president needs a lot of help in the department. Read More......

It's Iran, stupid

Pay no attention to that man behind the mushroom cloud.

"Iran has produced "a few tons" of the gas needed to enrich uranium, a top nuclear official said Wednesday, confirming the country has defied international demands and taken a necessary step toward producing nuclear fuel — or nuclear weapons."

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What it means that we're winning all the online polls

VOTE IN THE ONLINE DEBATE POLLS HERE.

I was watching CNBC this morning and Edwards won their online poll 59% to 41%. The commentator was, to say the least, quite surprised. (Dumbfounded might be a better description -- cast your own vote here and add to the shock and awe.)

Here's why I think that this is important. After the first debate, the Republicans came out and admitted that they were caught off guard in the online polls response. Last night, they were ready. Or so they thought. What happened was a repeat of the last debate. After their own call to action, telling their base to go out and get involved, NOTHING HAPPENED.

The Republicans should be terrified by this. If their base can't even show up to an online poll, what's going to happen on election day? The Democrats are engaged, excited, and ready to win this election.

The next debate on Friday is just around to the corner! It'll be another example of contrast - hope vs. fear, the truth vs. the spin, a fresh start vs. more of the same. We know that we're on the winning side of this election - keep working hard, keep up the momentum and it'll show on election day.

P.S. - Bush's "big" speech today is on - it sounds like he just pulled it out of the drawer from the 2000 race. Read More......

Hmmm.... traitorous lesbian daughter or cute-as-a-button kids?

I think this is a much prettier picture of what a vice presidential family should look like.

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Mary and Heather were on stage last night

I didn't mention it last night, but Dick Cheney's gay daughter Mary and her lover/partner/girlfriend/whatever Heather Poe were on stage last night with the entire family after the debate. Heather was the woman with the short dark hair. It was a very interesting moment, dare I say 'historic.' Heather is the woman on the far left of the photo up top, Mary is on the far right (how appropriate).

I don't give the Cheney family many kudos for anything gay-related. They sold us out. Mary sold out her girlfriend, her community and herself. Her parents sold their own kid out. And now they want us to love them because they're not afraid to bring Mary's girlfriend - the one she and her father are helping the president vilify - on stage. I'd rather have Mary and Heather NOT on stage and NOT supporting people who want to make them second-class citizens.

Having said that, it's still a historic evening when a religious-right endorsed VP brings his dyke daughter and her life-partner on stage, proudly, at the end of a vice presidential debate. Mary Cheney, for all of her sell-out-ness, is a liability to the religious right's message of intolerance. The VP can't openly embrace his gay daughter and her lover during the debate, and onstage after, without lots of the public rethinking their views on gay issues, even just a little. Read More......

DeMint-y Fresh

taking a moment from basking in the glory of last night's debate...

Jim DeMint, the South Carolina senatorial candidate who said last week gaysand lesbians shouldn't be allowed to teach in public schools, now says that pregnant, single women with live-in boyfriends shouldn't be allowed to, either. "I just think the moral decisions are different with a teacher," he says.

Would someone please ask him if he thinks it's ok for an adulterer to be, say, Speaker of the House? Or, say, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee? Are the moral decisions different with a Congressman?
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BushCo. hard at work in Iraq: a feeding frenzy for Halliburton

Yet another failure in Iraq by the Bush team. It's no wonder the local population in Iraq is suspicious of the the US because the money being spent over there is going to the likes of Halliburton and Bechtel instead of making its way into the hands of regular Iraqis. These people need real jobs and any administration talk about "they're on their way" has to be viewed suspiciously considering how often they have lied about just about everything in Iraq.

As little as 27 cents of every dollar spent on Iraq's reconstruction has actually filtered down to projects benefiting Iraqis, a statistic that is prompting the State Department to fundamentally rethink the Bush administration's troubled reconstruction effort.

One senior U.S. official familiar with reconstruction suggested as little as a quarter of the funding is reaching its intended projects.

Too much money has been filtered through major American businesses such as Halliburton Co. and Bechtel Corp. on large-scale electricity, water and oil infrastructure projects, and not nearly enough has gone to smaller, more decentralized reconstruction efforts that could be handled by Iraqis, they say.

In a report released a week ago, Iraq Revenue Watch, a watchdog group funded by liberal philanthropist George Soros, analyzed contracts worth more than $5 million that have been funded with Iraqi oil revenue over the past year. Of the 39 contracts so far, U.S. and British firms have received 85 percent of the value, the group said. Iraqi firms have received 2 percent.

On top of that, bribery has become "just the reality of doing business," said Jim Mitchell, a spokesman for the inspector general of the Coalition Provisional Authority. [Chris' note: It is a violation of US federal law for any American company to participate in bribery anywhere in the world. Just ask Cheney about Halliburton operations in Nigeria.]

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Another weapons inspector, another report, same old answer: No WMDs in Iraq

How much taxpayer money has been wasted on yet another study that tells us what we already knew? Kerry and Edwards are correct that Bush-Cheney can not see what the American public can see. No matter how hard Bush-Cheney push their distortions, there were no WMDs and the war was based on lies. Something tells me that they won't accept this either and will keep telling the same old lies and make the same old connections. These guys just keep pushing the woulda-coulda-shoulda stories but thankfully the American public is waking up to the repeated lies.

The government's most definitive account of Iraq's arms programs, to be released today, will show that Saddam Hussein posed a diminishing threat at the time the United States invaded and did not possess, or have concrete plans to develop, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, U.S. officials said yesterday.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), vice chairman of the House intelligence committee, said she had not read Duelfer's report but has been told that it thoroughly undercuts the administration's assertions that Iraq posed a serious threat.

"Intentions do not constitute a growing danger," Harman said. "It's hardly mushroom clouds, hardly stockpiles," she added, a reference to administration rhetoric used in the run-up to the war.

Another government official who was briefed on the report said that many U.S. officials had thought Hussein would "get down to business" in developing weapons when the U.N. inspectors left. "There's no evidence of that," the official said.

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Vote in the online polls

Atrios has them ALL here. Read More......

Cheney sent millions of Americans to George Soros' Web site!

Everyone online is getting a kick out of the fact that Cheney told everyone tonight to go to FactCheck.com - well, he MEANT FactCheck.org. Seems that the owner of FactCheck.com redirected his site to GeorgeSoros.com tonight. GeorgeSoros.com is Soros' new Web site blasting Bush!

Even better? The top story on the real site, FactCheck.org, is this:

Bush Mischaracterizes Kerry's Health Plan Read More......

CORRECTION TO PREVIOUS POST: Cheney lied out his ASS

UPDATE: The Wash Post just published an article detailing the falsehoods each candidate spoke tonight. I gotta tell you, the article reads like the Post is desperately trying to find ANYTHING Edwards might have gotten wrong, even slightly, if only to offset the incredible number of things they caught Cheney lying about in the article.

From the Kerry-Edwards campaign TONIGHT - bless their little hearts:

CHENEY TONIGHT: "I have not suggested there's a connection between iraq and 9/11."

IRAQ/AL QAEDA

Cheney: "His regime has had high-level contacts with al Qaeda going back a decade and has provided training to al Qaeda terrorists." (Cheney Remarks, 12/2/02)

Cheney: "His regime aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. He could decide secretly to provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorists for use against us." (Cheney Remarks, 1/30/03)

Cheney: "If we're successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it's not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it's not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." (NBC, Meet The Press, 9/14/03, emphasis added)

Russert: "The Washington Post asked the American people about Saddam Hussein, and this is what they said: 69 percent said he was involved in the September 11 attacks. Are you surprised by that?

Cheney: "No. I think it's not surprising that people make that connection." (NBC, Meet the Press, 11/14/03)

Cheney: "If we're successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it's not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it's not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." (NBC, Meet the Press, 11/14/03)

Cheney: "We now know based on documents that we've captured since we took Baghdad that they put (Yasin) on the payroll, gave him a monthly stipend and provided him with a house, sanctuary in effect, in Iraq in the aftermath of . . . the '93 attack on the World Trade Center." (Rocky Mountain News, Interview, 1/10/04)

Cheney: "I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government." (National Public Radio, "Morning Edition," 1/22/04)

Cheney: "Freedom still has enemies in Iraq, terrorists who are targeting the very success and freedom we're providing to that country. Recently, we intercepted a letter sent by a senior al Qaeda associate named Zarqawi to one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants...America will finish what we've begun in Iraq, and we will win an essential victory in this war on terror." (Cheney Remarks, 2/27/04)

Cheney: "It's clearly established in terms of training, provision of bomb-making experts, training of people with respect to chemical and biological warfare capabilities, that al-Qaeda sent personnel to Iraq for training and so forth*" (Cheney, CNBC's "Kudlow & Kramer," 6/4/04)

Cheney: "In Iraq, Saddam Hussein was in power, overseeing one of the bloodiest regimes of the 20th century* He had long established ties with al Qaeda." (Cheney, Orlando, FL, 6/14/04)

Cheney: "There's been enormous confusion over the Iraq and al-Qaeda connection, Gloria. First of all, on the question of--of whether or not there was any kind of a relationship, there was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming. It goes back to the early '90s...There's clearly been a relationship." (CNBC "Capital Report," 6/17/04)

Borger: "Well, let's get to Mohamed Atta for a minute because you mentioned him as well. You have said in the past that it was, quote, 'pretty well confirmed.'"

Cheney: "No, I never said that."

Borger: "OK."

Cheney: "I never said that." (CNBC "Capital Report," 6/17/04)

In response to Cheney's comment above that he "never said" that the connetion between Atta and Iraq was "pretty well confirmed," check this out from tonight's Washington Post:

On Dec. 9, 2001, Cheney said on NBC's "Meet The Press" that "it's been pretty well confirmed that [Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack." On March 24, 2002, Cheney again told NBC, "We discovered . . . the allegation that one of the lead hijackers, Mohamed Atta, had, in fact, met with Iraqi intelligence in Prague." On Sept. 8, 2002, Cheney, again on "Meet the Press," said that Atta "did apparently travel to Prague. . . . We have reporting that places him in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer a few months before the attacks on the World Trade Center."

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