The early reviews are in...

Kos has the early reviews from a lot of pundits, including conservatives, and they're giving Kerry high marks. Three of particular interest:

Bill Kristol: "I guess I think if you think the President was doing okay and didn't need a win in this debate, he did fine, but I think, if one thinks that Bush missed an awful lot of opportunities to go after Kerry in the first debate he had to make some of them up in this debate, I'm not sure he really succeeded in doing so." [Fox New Channel, 10/8/04]

Brit Hume: "Is it now fair to say that in each of these debates in terms of marshaling arguments, and remembering them and presenting them that this is something John Kerry has proved he is very good at. And that it doesn't play to the president's strong suit." [Fox News Channel, 10/8/04]

Jonah Goldberg: "On the question of whether Bush did everything he needed to tonight, I don't think so. I think he helped himself, but Kerry leaves these debates energized." [National Review Online, 10/8/04]

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AP: Bush fights to keep emotions in checked

Good - folks noticed.

President Bush smirked and winked and chuckled to himself. He jumped from his stool, chopped at the air and interrupted the debate moderator. As he fought to keep his emotions in check during a combative debate with Sen. John Kerry, the president asserted, "That answer almost made me scowl."

Several answers brought Bush's emotions to the surface, for better or worse, as he sought to curb Kerry's momentum.

The question that hung over the second of their three debates was whether Bush's aggressive, hyper style was an effective tool or a damaging habit — an extension of his disastrous first debate performance. Reviews were mixed.

Bush "seemed wound a bit too tight. He was a little like Nixon — sort of jumping out of his suit," said David Niven, political science professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. "He looked bad on the TV close-ups."....

Bush cut down on the antics Friday night, but didn't eliminate them.

Early in the debate, Kerry quoted Republican senators expressing concern about Iraq. Television cameras caught Bush laughing to himself, then smirking, and finally giving a quick wink to somebody in the crowd....

Bush was the most aggressive, at one point overrunning moderator Charles Gibson's attempt to pose a question after Kerry said he was "not going to go alone like this president did" in Iraq.

"I've got to answer this," Bush said, cutting off Gibson, then indignantly responded to Kerry. "You tell Tony Blair (news - web sites) we're going alone."

Often, Bush's voice rose to nearly a shout. Was is too much? That's in the eye of the beholder.

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FactCheck.org: Bush did own a share of a timber company

The liar.

President Bush himself would have qualified as a "small business owner" under the Republican definition, based on his 2001 federal income tax returns. He reported $84 of business income from his part ownership of a timber-growing enterprise. However, 99.99% of Bush's total income came from other sources that year. (Bush also qualified as a "small business owner" in 2000 based on $314 of "business income," but not in 2002 and 2003 when he reported his timber income as "royalties" on a different tax schedule.)

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KICK ASS

Tonight we saw conclusive proof that all the white house has left is trying to tear down John Kerry. Between nearly jumping at Charlie Gibson's throat and admitting he "wasn't happy" that he couldn't find WMD, all he could do is take statments and votes about Kerry out of context. He broke out the godforsaken "L" word, and tried to tell everyone he's a tax-raisin' wimp who needs permission from the french to wipe his ass.

Kerry held his ground and remained above the fray.

The goal of the white house now is to just raise Kerry's negatives. It's all they can do. The problem is, history tells us it's an effective tactic, so we have to be more vigilant than ever.

25 days to victory!
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Ok, so what did you think?

I'm feeling kind of like a tie, even though Bush annoyed the hell out of me. He was obviously better than last time, like that says anything. Bush still annoyed the hell out of me - the man simply is NOT presidential. He's whiney, nervous, uncomfortable in his skin, and gets irked way too easily (and shows it). And his command of the English language is intolerable and embarrassing. It's the Internet, not the Internets. The past plural is were, not was. "They were," not "they was" - moron.

I thought Kerry didn't have as good of answers as last time - he missed more opportunities to fight back than he did last time. But he still was fine, had good answer, had good facts, and had a few zingers. And most importantly, he was presidential and was just as good as the president. For the majority who don't think Bush deserves a second chance, Kerry has proven himself worthy. Now to see if the polls agree.

And finally, I would have told Bush to shut the fuck up if I were Charlie. When Bush insisted on speaking even though it wasn't his turn, that was simply bizarre and arrogant and rude. It was Bush at his typical, and Bush at his worst. The question remains whether the public will think it was strong and feisty or boorish and pushy. Read More......

POLLS - GO VOTE!

CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/ - on the right hand side
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/ - bottom right, Quick Vote.
Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/ - Bottom Right - On the Record Poll
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ - correct link now.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ - corrected link
Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/
Akron Beacon-Journal: http://www.ohio.com/
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: http://www.ajc.com/ username and password required
Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/
Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/ - username and password required
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/
Orlando Sentinel: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Philadelphia Inquirer: http://www.philly.com/
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ Read More......

AMERICAblog Debate Chat

Hello all - tonight we're going to do our chat on IRC instead of AOL Instant Messenger. It was too big to have one person handle more than one room. So, IRC was the consensus of the Blog. Here are the instructions on how to join:

1. Go to http://www.slashnet.org/java.php
2. Type "/nick INSERTYOURNAME" in the bottom bar and press return.
3. Type "/join #americablog" and press return.

You're there! mIRC users should be able to figure it out from the above. Let us know if it's working for you in the comments. -- Rob in Baltimore (in DC tonight) Read More......

OPEN THREAD - PREZ DEBATE

Feel free to chat here while the rest of us chat via irc. Read More......

Don't miss the AMERICAblog online chat tonight during the debate

As usual, we'll be holding our online chat during the debate tonight. Last time got a teeny bit busy for poor Rob in Baltimore who was moderating while I was out watching the debate over pizza with a bud (oops). We had to have TWO chat rooms last time on AOL to fit everyone in. If anyone has a suggestion for somewhere else we can host, for free, a chat room that can fit LOTS of people, like 75-100, let me know via the comments or email.

Thanks, and see you tonight a bit before 9pm Eastern. Read More......

AMERICAblog hits 1 million visitors - woo woo!

Ok, I don't mean to brag or anything, but I do think it's kind of cool that we just hit our 1 millionth visitor since launching in April. And what better evening than tonight.

Seriously, I am very happy this little experiment seems to be working. Always wanted to create a blog, and only hope it doesn't engulf my entire life from here on out. Anyway, glad you folks are enjoying the ride. :-) And a big thanks, of course, to Michael, Rob, Chris and David who are our guest bloggers extraordinaire.

And a final nod to our wonderful president. If he weren't such an asshole, we'd have to invent him. JOHN Read More......

I didn't realize Bush has only been president for 13 months

But amazingly, he has, according to the White House. ABC News just reported that the White House is BRAGGING that under Bush the nation has 13 straight months of job growth! The problem, of course, is that Bush has been president for 46 months. Which is kind of like accidentally burning down the house and now bragging that you rebuilt the closet. Nice, but no cigar.

But shhhh, don't anyone tell the White House. Perhaps they were adding up all the time Bush has ACTUALLY been on the job and not on vacation. Read More......

I called it. The school terror alert was BOGUS

I really hate being right about something like this, but AP just confirmed that the little tidbit we found in the CNN story last night was in fact true. AP is now reporting that the "maps of schools" they found in Iraq were ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, were NOT related to any terrorist plot, and were in fact simply MANUALS for how to run a safe school, among other things.

In spite of the fact that they determined there was NO terrorist link to this at all, the FBI (part of Ashcroft's Justice Dept) decided to scare the hell out of America's parents this week anyway, just out of an "abundance of caution," they now say. Abundance of caution? Putting out an alert about something that isn't really a threat? Something that was found in JULY is only NOW being presented to the public as an imminent threat, right as Bush is going south in the polls and on the even of the 2d do-or-die presidential debate. There are lots of possible threats that we have no evidence of, do they issue big national warnings on those every day? No. Just the threats that poll well with security moms.

Oh, and the fact that the guy who got the documents was supposedly a former Baathist, we now find out that pretty much everyone in Iraq in a professional capacity was a former Baathist. Funny how the administraton officials briefing the media on this very fact the last two days left out that little fact, including leaving out the fact the guy was working for a non-profit that helped Iraq schools - kind of relevant to why he wanted information on, what?, schools!

So the entire frigging alert was bogus, and very likely helped bump Bush in the polls. I hope Kerry rips this asshole to shreds.

Federal officials said Friday there is no terrorist connection to a computer disk found in Iraq that contained information about schools in six states.

The disk was made by an unidentified Iraqi man who was doing research and had no connections to al-Qaida or the Iraqi insurgents battling U.S. forces, according to the FBI. The man did have links to the Baath Party that ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein, but that's true of many former government officials and community leaders.

The material on the disk appeared to be randomly downloaded from a publicly accessible Education Department Web site and included such things as manuals on workplace safety, crisis management studies and building security diagrams. It also contained an Education Department report on school crisis planning that was published in May 2003.

''It's not about schools, it's about policy,'' said FBI Agent William Evanina, spokesman for the FBI field office in Newark, N.J. ''There's no terrorism threat to these schools.''

The school districts are in California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey and Oregon. The FBI contacted local officials in the communities last month and told them about the disk and what it contained.

Although there was no indication of a terror threat, the FBI decided to contact local officials out of an abundance of caution...

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let's hope tonight's questions are a teensy bit harder

You gotta wonder about the white house -- the day of the debate, and the very day some reeeeally crappy jobs numbers come out, they put the guy who called outsourcing "just another way of doing international trade" out front to host a webchat. (By the way, this guy also told the Cato Institute he thinks the unemployment rate "may be lower than official estimates." In other words, pay no attention to the facts -- he thinks it's actually much better than it is.)

This morning we asked you to send in questions, and I thought we had some good ones. But check out the questions they actually chose to answer:

"How will the tax relief President Bush signed into law benefit our economy?"
"What do you think the future of the U.S. economy is?"

Apparently they didn't have time for "What the hell happened to my job?" or, "What planet are you on?"
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OPEN THREAD

Comments, notices, articles we should see, predictions about tonight (how they'll do, what Kerry SHOULD do?), etc.

Talk amongst yourselves. Read More......

Because we live in a country of morons

I'm sorry, but what kind of idiot doesn't proof these things? Read More......

Was Bush wearing a mic during first debate?

UPDATE: More on this from RawStory.com. Also, Rob in Batimore had suggested to me that someone ought to get a jammer into that studio tonight. Imagine the look on Bush's face as Karl Rove turns into static!

The story just won't go away. And after reading Salon's piece today, it actually sounds alot more plausible. Here's a snippet from Salon:

To watch the debate again, I ventured to the Web site of the most sober network I could think of: C-SPAN. And sure enough, at minute 23 on the video of the debate, you can clearly see the bulge between the president's shoulder blades.

Bloggers stoke the conspiracy with the claim that the Bush administration insisted on a condition that no cameras be placed behind the candidates. An official for the Commission on Presidential Debates, which set up the lecterns and microphones on the Miami stage, said the condition was indeed real, the result of negotiations by both campaigns. Yet that didn't stop Fox from setting up cameras behind Bush and Kerry. The official said that "microphones were mounted on lecterns, and the commission put no electronic devices on the president or Senator Kerry." When asked about the bulge on Bush's back, the official said, "I don't know what that was."

So what was it? Jacob McKenna, a spyware expert and the owner of the Spy Store, a high-tech surveillance shop in Spokane, Wash., looked at the Bush image on his computer monitor. "There's certainly something on his back, and it appears to be electronic," he said. McKenna said that, given its shape, the bulge could be the inductor portion of a two-way push-to-talk system. McKenna noted that such a system makes use of a tiny microchip-based earplug radio that is pushed way down into the ear canal, where it is virtually invisible. He also said a weak signal could be scrambled and be undetected by another broadcaster.

Mystery-bulge bloggers argue that the president may have begun using such technology earlier in his term. Because Bush is famously prone to malapropisms and reportedly dyslexic, which could make successful use of a teleprompter problematic, they say the president and his handlers may have turned to a technique often used by television reporters on remote stand-ups. A reporter tapes a story and, while on camera, plays it back into an earpiece, repeating lines just after hearing them, managing to sound spontaneous and error free.

Suggestions that Bush may have using this technique stem from a D-day event in France, when a CNN broadcast appeared to pick up -- and broadcast to surprised viewers -- the sound of another voice seemingly reading Bush his lines, after which Bush repeated them. Danny Schechter, who operates the news site MediaChannel.org, and who has been doing some investigating into the wired-Bush rumors himself, said the Bush campaign has been worried of late about others picking up their radio frequencies -- notably during the Republican Convention on the day of Bush's appearance. "They had a frequency specialist stop me and ask about the frequency of my camera," Schechter said. "The Democrats weren't doing that at their convention."

Repeated calls to the White House and the Bush national campaign office over a period of three days, inquiring about what the president may have been wearing on his back during the debate, and whether he had used an audio device at other events, went unreturned.

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Your Talking Points For The Debate

George Bush will do MUCH better tonight. How could he do worse? But don't call it a comeback! Just because Bush isn't godawful is no reason to pretend he's got momentum on his side now. Bush never lost a debate in his life (before last week), so there's no reason he would be expected to lose two in a row.

So just because Bush manages to sort of stand up straight and sort of not look petulant and annoyed and sort of answers the questions is nothing to crow about.

Bush may win or tie in tonight's debate but he is LOSING in Iraq and he is LOSING in Afghanistan and he is LOSING jobs here at home. What's more important?

Re: Iraq. Bill Maher made a great point on his show last week (hey, I tape a lot of shows and just caught up with it). Thanks to no-fly zones and cooperation with our allies, we controlled more of Iraq back when Saddam was in power than we do now. Bring that up anytime someone tries to say things are going well.
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JibJab launches homophobic Web video

Campaign Extra notes that JibJab, the folks who brought us the hilariously funny Bush vs. Kerry video set to the tune of "This land is your land," have struck out with their sequel, which is little more than a series of fag jokes.

Check it out for yourself. I'm not the only one who's taking offense at this. Several people have already written me, and I watched the video - the only recurring theme in the entire thing is that lots of men are made fun of for being gay (McCain, Ashcroft, Edwards REPEATEDLY, Kerry, McGreevey). And the prancing figure of Gov. McGreevey in lavender tights only adds to the theme. Might have been funny - and I say *might* - if the rest of the video weren't one big fag joke. But in the context of everything else, I think JibJab just revealed itself as a bunch of 12 year olds.

Perhaps their next video will include fart jokes, Beavis. Read More......

Hannity backs out of speaking engagement because private jet not good enough

You gotta read this one. Arch-conservative shock-pundit Sean Hannity bags last-minute on a group of college students, who already raised $20k to pay his speaking fee, because - get this - their offer of a PRIVATE JET, and then a first-class commercial air ticket, wasn't cushy enough for the FOX News primadonna. Then he tried to get the students TO LIE about the entire situation. Read More......

51% of youth think Bush going to bring back draft

Houston, you got a problem:

The National Annenberg Election Survey found that 51 percent of adults age 18 to 29 believe Bush wants to reinstate the draft. Eight percent said Kerry supports bring back the draft, and 7 percent said both want to. A fourth of those polled said neither candidate favors the idea.

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GOTCHA: Bushies caught exaggerating "Al Qaeda's gonna kill your kids" alert

UPDATE: I was right. It was all a friggin' lie.

Thanks to an attentive AMERICAblog reader in Berlin, we find the following paragraph BURIED in CNN's coverage of Bush's new school terror alert (i.e., Al Qaeda is now casing American schools hoping to blow up your pre-schoolers):

The Department of Homeland Security official said the material was associated with a person in Iraq, and it could not be established that this person had any ties to terrorism. He did have a connection to civic groups doing planning for schools in Iraq, the official said.

Gee, a man working with a nonprofit that helps plan schools downloaded an architectural plan of a - get this - school! Best we shut the country down right this minute and put body armor on every kindergartener in America. Someone in Iraq actually got on the Internet. Let's invade the Internet next.

Funny that NONE of the news stories on TV or anywhere else have picked up on this rather salient point. Read More......

Please ignore that man without the head

Things are going great in Iraq, really. Read More......

New AP poll shows BIG TROUBLE for Bush

Note particularly the numbers in parentheses - those are the numbers from 3 weeks ago, for comparison sake:

The Associated Press-Ipsos poll on the presidential race is based on telephone interviews with 1,541 adults, including 1,273 registered voters and 944 likely voters, from all states except Alaska and Hawaii. The interviews were conducted Oct. 4-6 by Ipsos-Public Affairs.

The margin of error for registered voters is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, and the margin of error for likely voters is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

(Results from mid-September in parentheses, unless otherwise noted)

(ASKED OF ALL ADULTS)

1. Generally speaking, would you say things in this country are heading in the right direction, or are they off on the wrong track?

_Right direction, 40 percent (45)

_Wrong track, 56 percent (52)

_Unsure, 4 percent (3)

(AMONG LIKELY VOTERS)

2. Overall, do you approve, disapprove or have mixed feelings about the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?

_Approve, 46 percent (54)

_Disapprove, 53 percent (46)

_Mixed feelings, 1 percent (1)

3. And when it comes to handling the economy, do you approve or disapprove or have mixed feelings about the way George W. Bush is handling that issue?

_Approve, 47 percent (53)

_Disapprove, 52 percent (46)

_Mixed feelings, 1 percent (1)

4. And when it comes to domestic issues like health care, education and the environment, do you approve or disapprove or have mixed feelings about the way George W. Bush is handling that issue?

_Approve, 43 percent (50)

_Disapprove, 56 percent (49)

_Mixed feelings, 1 percent (1)

(ASKED OF HALF SAMPLE)

5a. When it comes to handling foreign policy issues and the war on terrorism, do you approve or disapprove or have mixed feelings about the way George W. Bush is handling that issue?

_Approve, 49 percent (55)

_Disapprove, 50 percent (45)

_Mixed feelings, 1 percent ( )

(ASKED OF HALF SAMPLE)

5b. When it comes to handling the situation in Iraq, do you approve or disapprove or have mixed feelings about the way George W. Bush is handling that issue?

(Results from April in parentheses)

_Approve, 44 percent (51)

_Disapprove, 54 percent (48)

_Mixed feelings, 2 percent (1)

6. If the election for president and vice president were held today and the candidates were George W. Bush for president and Dick Cheney for vice president, the Republicans, and John Kerry for president and John Edwards for vice president, the Democrats, and Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo, the independents, for whom would you vote? (If undecided, none or other.) Do you lean more toward ...

(Results from mid September in parentheses)

6a. (Among registered voters)

_Bush-Cheney (with leaners), 47 percent (51)

_Kerry-Edwards (with leaners), 47 percent (42)

_Nader-Camejo (with leaners), 2 percent (2)

_Don't know-other-refused, 4 percent (5)

6b. (Among likely voters)

_Kerry-Edwards (with leaners), 50 percent (45)

_Bush-Cheney (with leaners), 46 percent (52)

_Nader-Camejo (with leaners), 2 percent (1)

_Don't know-other-refused, 2 percent (2)

(asked of registered voters)

7. If the election for Congress were held today, would you want to see the Republicans or Democrats win control of Congress?

_Republicans, 44 percent (49)

_Democrats, 48 percent (46)

_Neither, 5 percent (3)

_Not sure-other, 3 percent (2)

(Results from early September in parentheses)

There's lots more. Use the link above to see the entire story. Read More......

A special voting message from Jeb Bush :-)

This is good. Read More......

Zogby: Dead heat

God speaks:

As the candidates prepare for the second presidential debate, President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry are locked in a statistical dead heat (46%-45%), according to a new Reuters/Zogby daily tracking poll. The telephone poll of 1216 likely voters was conducted from Tuesday through Thursday (October 5-7,2004). The margin of error is +/- 2.9 percentage points.

Favorable/Unfavorable Ratings of Candidates %

President Bush and Senator Kerry are continuing their statistical tie with their unfavorable rating tied at 45% and their favorable ratings at 54% for Mr. Bush and 52% for Mr. Kerry.

Preferred Candidate Among Leaners %

When undecided respondents were asked to identify the candidate that they are leaning toward, Kerry showed a slight edge. More than two in five (44%) still report that they remain undecided though.

President’s Job Performance Rating %

The President’s job performance rating reflects slightly less than half the voters approving (47%) and slightly more than half disapproving (53%).

US Direction- Right or Wrong %

When asked to describe the direction the country is headed in, respondents were divided with 45% saying the country is headed in the wrong direction and 48% saying the right direction.

President Re-elect or Time for Someone New %

Here, half the respondents are looking for someone new to lead the country.

Pollster John Zogby:
"Yesterday a major national newspaper ran a column suggesting that the debates are not important. Just look at these numbers and it is hard to draw that conclusion. In today’s figures Kerry is reaching 80% support among democrats, though he will still need more support. The president polls 89% of republicans but independents are almost evenly split (with Kerry barely leading, 44%-41%).

The two candidates are in a dead heat among Catholics. Remember that Bill Clinton won Catholics by double-digits and Al Gore beat Bush 51%-46% among Catholics in 2000.

Bush leads Kerry among self-identified investors by only 7 points (51%-44%). Remember that he needs to win this group by double-digits.

Kerry is doing very well among both Hispanics and African-Americans.

As of today, it is a .7 percent race with the president still receiving a negative job performance and a negative re-elect".

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Bremer admits Bush failed on "top priority" in Iraq

Mr. Bremer, in an attempt to COVER HIS ASS in today's NYT, unfortunately just bitch slapped the president again. No turkee for Bremer after this.

What Bremer did was attempt to write an op ed explaining that he wasn't REALLY criticizing Bush when he said the administration didn't send enough troops to Iraq and that's why the insurgency is out of control. What Bremer meant to say, he now writes, is this:

But during the 14 months I was in Iraq, the administration, the military and I all agreed that the coalition's top priority was a broad, sustained effort to train Iraqis to take more responsibility for their own security. This effort, financed in large measure by the emergency supplemental budget approved by Congress last year, continues today. In the end, Iraq's security must depend on Iraqis.

Ah, so everyone now agrees that the top do-or-die priority in Iraq for THE ENTIRE OCCUPATION was training new Iraqi security forces. You mean the 200,000, I mean 100,000, I mean 50,000, I mean meager 8,000 security forces that the Bush administration has trained in the past 18 months? So that was our top priority, and Bush screwed it up utterly and completely?

Thanks Mr. Bremer for clarifying that point. Read More......

Bush to make it easier to batter women

His policies having been doing it for four years, so now he's giving someone else a chance. Read More......

Pentagon new Iraq war plan is meant to stop... Kerry

Another day, another admission from the Bush administration that its policies in the war on terror are not driven by how effective they are at stopping the enemy, but rather at how effective they are at stopping John Kerry.

Reuters reports that the Bush administration has come up with a "new plan" to quell Iraq's insurgency. Then buried in the story you read this:

Civilians involved in the process also told the Times that the new approach was formulated in part to counter criticism from President Bush's Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, that the administration has no plan for Iraq.

So the plan wasn't formulated simply to win the war on terror, to pacify Iraq, to spare the further deaths of US troops and innocent Iraqi civilians, no, the new Bush military plan in Iraq - the new plan to send our soldiers into war - is in part taking place to help Bush's re-election. Read that again. Some US soldiers are going to die in the next few weeks engaging the Iraqi insurgency, and their death is going to happen because George Bush needed them to put their lives in danger taking on the insurgency IN ORDER TO HELP BUSH'S NUMBERS.

RELATED ITEM: Bush aides admit trying to "stoke fears of terrorism" to help Bush's campaign. Read More......

AP: Cheney once pushed to lift Iran sanctions

Whether Cheney won or lost the VP debate the other night, he's totally lost the post-debate spin:

Vice President Dick Cheney, who has called Iran "the world's leading exporter of terror," pushed to lift U.S. trade sanctions against Tehran while chairman of Halliburton Co. in the 1990s. And his company's offshore subsidiaries also expanded business in Iran....

While he headed the Houston-based oil services and construction company, Cheney strongly criticized sanctions against countries like Iran and Libya. President Clinton cut off all U.S. trade with Iran in 1995 because of Tehran's support for terrorism.

Cheney argued then that sanctions did not work and punished American companies. The former defense secretary complained in a 1998 speech that U.S. companies were "cut out of the action" in Iran because of the sanctions.

At an energy industry conference in 1996, Cheney said sanctions were the greatest threat to Halliburton and other American oil-related companies trying to expand overseas.

"We seem to be sanction-happy as a government," Cheney said. "The problem is that the good Lord didn't see fit to always put oil and gas resources where there are democratic governments."

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More on today's pathetic jobs numbers

That awful wretching you're seeing is the fantasyland white house desperately trying to do a victory dance over the economy when the jobs picture just dope-slapped them AGAIN. More on the worst economic performance by a president in over 70 years:

Remember that 96,000 jobs "created" isn't enough to even keep up with new entrants to the labor force. But the unemployment rate remained flat, which means something even worse -- people are so frustrated at the shortage of available jobs that they're not even looking anymore. This number is below Wall Street's rather dismal expectations. It's below the "average" of even the last three wretched months. Revising last month's number down is just another slap in the face. It's absolutely pathetic, and another devastating blow to Camp 1600.

Also remember this doesn't inlcude the increased numbers of layoffs businesses are announcing but plan to implement in the near future, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It doesn't talk about the drop in consumer confidence we saw this morning. It doesn't include the nearly 12,000 layoffs announced yesterday at just 2 companies, AT&T; and Bank of America.

Today at whitehouse.gov, CEA Chair Gregory "outsourcing is a good thing" Mankiw will be chatting live at noon. Go ahead and ask him a question, and let us know what you asked. Funny that fantasyland hasn't put out it's "the economy is strengthening" press release yet this morning. I guess they're wondering how they can get away with it.
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New AP Poll: Kerry Up 4

Lots more work to be done, but here's a little encouragement from AP:

Among 944 likely voters, the Democratic ticket of Kerry and John Edwards led Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, 50 percent to 46 percent, in the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs. The Oct. 4-6 survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The race was tied at 47 percent among the 1,273 registered voters in the poll, similar to others showing a tight race.

Is Kerry up four? I don't think so. I'm a big fan of Zogby's polling, which he does for Reuters. His current polling shows Bush up 2. Still, here are some reasons why things are changing. The debate help people see Kerry better, and see Bush for what he is:

Nearly three-fourths of likely voters surveyed by the AP said they had watched or listened to the first Bush-Kerry debate on Sept. 30. About four in 10 - 39 percent - said they came away with a more favorable view of Kerry, while just 8 percent felt better about Bush.

"I was more comfortable with Kerry after the debate," said Louis Robinson, a 66-year-old retiree and Democrat from Pittsburgh. "I just like the way he carried himself."

Nearly one-third of those who watched the debate said it gave them a less favorable view of Bush.

It's gotta suck when you just show up and 1/3 of the audience likes you LESS. Click on the rating of this Yahoo story at the bottom of the page. Let's move it up to the top of the list - drive those Republicans crazy. Read More......

Bush is toast: New employment numbers off by 54,000

Just moments ago the market futures were up and now they're dropping like a rock. New employment numbers added 96,000 jobs, off from a consensus of 150,000. August has also been downgraded from 148,000 to 128,000. It's going to be ugly for Bush tonight.
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US "precision" air strike in Falluja kills 14, 17 wounded

This latest air raid brings up a few critical issues with the war. First, are we to believe the US military who claim it was a "precision strike" and that only the bad guys were taken out? Sadly, their track record with reporting the truth is not exactly spotless. Second, what the hell does it mean when they talk about a "precision strike?" From what I have seen, the so-called precision strikes have been pretty brutal and lacking in precision. There's no way to seperate the good guys from the bad guys when you're leveling a house. It all goes and the neighbors house goes as well. Third, how are we supposed to win over hearts and minds when we are killing local civilians? This is so counter productive it is not funny.

Looking at this latest round of precision strikes leads me to believe that the Bushies are getting desperate for a homerun in Iraq and to hell with the locals. It also says that they are trying to minimize US casualties with these brutal air strikes for short term gains instead of looking at the long term goal of peace in Iraq. Killing women from age 5 to 50 (as has been reported today) is no way to win the peace. The worst part about it is that Bush does not have a clue and thinks that everything is going well. This is pathetic, shameful and desperate.
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Another drop in consumer confidence

It's going to be interesting to see the employment numbers that are out this morning but this new AP-Ipsos consumer confidence report is pretty bad news for Bush. The numbers in August were 103.4 and the new September numbers are 97.4. The Bushies, who received the new employment numbers last night, have so far been quiet. Whether that means they are hoping to surprise everyone with good numbers or bracing themselves for disappointing numbers is not yet known. Any disappointment in the numbers is going to make Friday night even more interesting than expected. Industry expectations are for 150,000 new jobs though this period (Sept through Dec.) historically has the heaviest job cuts of the year.

"I think consumers have some caution," said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research Corp. "It relates back to the slowing economy and the questionable job outlook and higher-priced energy as we head into the winter season."

Consumers cut back on their borrowing in August by the largest amount since the end of 1990. In recent weeks, mortgage rates have crept up.

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Dem's promoting accountability for Big Pharmaceuticals

Democrats introduced legislation that will require Big Pharmaceuticals to submit trials into a public database. Of course, this was supposed to happen under a Clinton-era piece of legislation which they have generally ignored, expect when the research follows their marketing claims which sometimes happens and sometimes does not happen. They all dumbed up and acted as though they didn't know about registering all trial results in rececnt times, leaving no option other than to demand accountability. In light of the recent scandal with Vioxx, the widely used arthritis drug that has been estimated to have caused 27,000 heart attacks, it's time to have real results from real tests and not just leave it up to the Big Pharmaceuticals. It would be nice if they could be honest with their results but unfortunately the track record in the industry is about as poor as the Bushies.
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