Well that's kind of fun

Okay, I'm off to get a life now. Read the rest of this post...

Expect more Al Qaeda videotapes as the election approaches

Al Qaeda wants hardliners (i.e., Republicans) to win the US elections so they can empower Bush and keep the US making a bigger and bigger mess out of Iraq and the Middle East.

I'm serious.

Ron Suskind's book "The One Percent Doctrine" had a fascinating tidbit about how several senior CIA officials have speculated that Osama wanted Bush to win in 2004 and that's why he released a tape only four days before the US elections. Osama likes the Republicans. The GOP is screwing up US foreign policy royally, they're not making America safer, and their screw ups are helping Osama recruit more terrorists. Osama likely wants nothing better than to have the Republicans stay in office and stay the course.

Mark my words. More Al Qaeda tapes, like this one, are coming. Read the rest of this post...

New book says Karl Rove's stepfather was openly gay

Oh and the fun just keeps on coming. This new book is by the author of "Bush's Brain."

In Chapter 9, "A Few Simple Questions: What's in Karl's Closet?," the authors draw on interviews with gay acquaintances of Rove's stepfather, Louis Rove, as well as an interview with a circumspect Karl Rove, to reveal that Louis was openly gay after getting divorced from Rove's mother. The chapter jabs hard at Rove, pointing out that Louis Rove, who was clearly Rove's primary father figure, died in Palm Springs just as "his son was in the midst of launching the antigay issues campaign that was to lead to the re-election of George W. Bush."

And it seems our buddy Ken Mehlman doesn't escape a little scrutiny:

Chapter 5, "Not as I Say: Gay in the GOP," discusses prominent conservatives who have been rumored to be gay and declined to confirm or deny the charge; particular attention is paid to Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman. The subject has already been grist for blogs and gay publications, but it has been handled gingerly and rarely in the mainstream media. Moore and Slater take care not to apply labels or draw clear conclusions, instead reporting on the reporting of others. They seem to conclude — reasonably, I think — that because Republicans have made gay identity a national issue, reporting such ambiguity is fair.

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About ABC's attempt to influence the November elections by broadcasting an anti-Clinton 9/11 "documentary" that's really fiction...

My question is, does ABC have any idea what we have in store for them this coming week, in terms of the pain we're going to make them feel over this outrageous misuse of the memory of 3,000 dead Americans and others in a blatant effort to influence the November elections?

I'm simply curious if ABC is stupid or masochistic? Because either way, they really need to Google what we did to Microsoft and Ford (and AOL and Paramount and the Cheney family before them) if they want a taste of the damage we're going to inflict this week on the network that has now basically turned September 11 into a cartoon, and a partisan one at that.

For ABC to treat one of the greatest tragedies in American history like some fictitious soap opera is beyond reprehensible. And for ABC to run what is clearly a false and partisan Republican hit piece only weeks before one of the closest and most important elections in recent history, is un-American.

Stay tuned. Read the rest of this post...

Why are foreign countries helping the Republican re-election campaign?

I'd like to know why foreign diplomats are attending a Bush campaign speech for Republican congressional candidates? I think we need a list of who's attending this event so we can inform their media and their citizens that their diplomatic corps is getting involved in the US elections in order to help Bush and the Republicans.

On Tuesday, the president plans to expand on this description of the enemy, said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. The speech is being delivered to the Military Officers Association of America. Members of the diplomatic corps, all representatives of countries that have been attacked, will also be there, she said.

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Republican DUI offender running for Senate in Washington state

Not to be confused with the married Pennsylvania Republican who tried to strangle his mistress, or the Republican congressman who likes to send sexually suggestive emails to underage male pages (that scandal hasn't broken yet - but I've seen the emails).

More on the GOP Senate challenger's arrest record. Read the rest of this post...

Heroin trade "national security threat to Afghanistan"

This massive problem is yet another that 100% owned by Bush and the GOP. The reverse Midas touch in action again. If this is what people want, they should continue to vote for the Republican party this fall.

Doug Wankel, director of the U.S. anti-narcotics task force in Afghanistan, warned that the illicit trade in opium and heroin threatened the country's fledgling democracy, instituted after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime nearly five years ago by U.S.-led forces.

"This country could be taken down by this whole drugs problem," he told reporters in Kabul echoing strong rhetoric voiced by Afghanistan's beleaguered President Hamid Karzai last month. "We have seen what can come from Afghanistan, if you go back to 9/11. Obviously the U.S. does not want to see that again."

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Pentagon's report gets no response from Bush, Cheney, Rummy

This morning, I read articles about the Pentagon's latest report on Iraq in The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Associated Press. That report paints a very bleak picture. Yet, there's not one word of comment from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi or any major player in the Bush Administration. They've all been talking a lot about Iraq lately, so why won't they talk now about the Pentagon's assessment of the situation? It sure interferes with their current speech-a-thon.

In a separate article, the NY Times actually wondered about the fate of one of Bush's last p.r. stunts, “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" which was issued last November:

Missing from Mr. Bush’s latest speeches, at least so far, is detail about the progress of his previous plan, the “Strategy for Victory” of November, billed as the product of a review and rethinking of what had worked and what had failed.

One of its most notable features was Mr. Bush’s willingness to acknowledge past errors, from failing to anticipate the rise of the insurgency to focusing the early reconstruction effort on big infrastructure projects, which will take years to deliver benefits to the Iraqi people, if they are completed at all.

The Pentagon’s latest report to Congress about progress on that strategy painted a mixed but largely grim picture, especially about the rise of sectarian violence and the failed effort to create an effective Iraqi police force. So why not announce a new change of strategy? A senior official said this week that the president could only talk about a change of strategy so many times, without looking as if he is constantly casting about for solutions.

Because they don't want to look bad, the Bush team isn't doing anything -- except campaigning. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Off to a slow start....what's going on? Read the rest of this post...

So as the very unpopular Blair clings to power and drags down Labour...

The Conservative leader David Cameron continues the Tory move back to the middle. I'm not saying I'm a Cameron supporter by any means, but it's fascinating to see how the Tories under Cameron are making moves that are more in line with UK voters. Could you even imagine a Republican leader at a national level in the US not only talking about global warming, but actually pushing for legislation about it? Wow. Just look at how the majority of the GOP is acting with Arnold and the new legislation there, including those from his own party in the statehouse. The politics in the UK over the next few years will be interesting. Let's hope we see a similar return to planet earth from the GOP in the US.

David Cameron ratcheted up his claim to the "green vote" as he shared a platform with the environmental group Friends of the Earth to demand that the Government impose legally binding targets to slash Britain's carbon emissions.

The Conservative leader called for a Climate Change Bill to be introduced in the next Queen's Speech to set new annual targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 60 per cent by 2050.

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