Surprise! More of Bush's "missing" National Guard files appeared today out of thin air

Even with these new files, AP reports that the unanswered questions remain unanswered. But isn't it amazing how "missing" files pop up every time AP files another lawsuit against the White House? Just more fuel for the fire to be coming from Kitty Kelley and the Barnes interview. Read the rest of this post...

Boston Globe about to SAVAGE Bush on National Guard AWOL mess

Boy, when Drudge is running scoops savaging Bush over his being AWOL, you know this issue has legs. I hate to quote anything that comes from Drudge, but this is too juicy to pass up:

GLOBE: BUSH DIDN'T MEET GUARD COMMITMENTS

President Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, the BOSTON GLOBE is planning to front on Wednesday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE.

The 1,500 word expose on Bush's records comes just hours ahead of an exclusive CBSNEWS interview set to air Wednesday night with a man who secured for the 22-year-old Yale graduate Bush a coveted place in the Guard -- a man who now claims he regrets helping Bush.

The GLOBE claims: "Twice during his Guard service - first when he joined in May 1968, and again before he transferred out of his unit in mid-1973 to attend Harvard Business School - Bush signed documents pledging to meet training commitments or face a punitive call-up to active duty.

"He didn't meet the commitments, or face the punishment, the records show."

....The upcoming reexamination of Bush's records by the GLOBE show that Bush's attendance at required training drills "was so irregular that his superiors could have disciplined him or ordered him to active duty in 1972, 1973, or 1974. But they did neither. In fact, Bush's unit certified in late 1973 that his service had been "satisfactory" - just four months after Bush's commanding officer wrote that Bush had not been seen at his unit for the previous 12 months."

Read the rest of this post...

Okay, now THAT'S interesting

Among the alleged quotes in Miss Kitty's new book:

"She quotes one former student as saying, 'Poor Georgie, he couldn't relate to women unless he was loaded.'"

Ok, now THAT quote makes Bush sound gay. And I mean homosexual gay, not weird gay. Read the rest of this post...

Alan Keyes: Christ would not vote for Barack Obama

You just can't make this shit up. But the wingnut base LOVES Keyes - Pat Robertson reportedly even defended Keyes last week after Keyes went postal on Mary Cheney. You boys created the religious right monster, now live with it.

"'Christ would not stand idly by while an infant child in that situation died,' Keyes said. 'And I'm not the only person, obviously, who thinks if you are a representative of me, I cannot vote for you if you would ignore the dignity and claims of that child's life. So, yes, I did respond quite logically -- you'll see it's quite logical, right -- with the conclusion that Christ would not vote for Barack Obama, because Barack Obama has voted to behave in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved.'"

PS Someone PLEASE ask Bush if Christ would vote for John Kerry. Read the rest of this post...

Is it 3, 4, or 5 DUIs Bush and Cheney have between them?

From Susan Estrich:

"Will it be the three, or is it four or five, drunken driving arrests that Bush and Cheney, the two most powerful men in the world, managed to rack up? (Bush's Texas record has been sealed. Now why would that be? Who seals a perfect driving record?)

After Vietnam, nothing is ancient history, and Cheney is still drinking. What their records suggest is not only a serious problem with alcoholism, which Bush but not Cheney has acknowledged, but also an even more serious problem of judgment. Could Dick Cheney get a license to drive a school bus with his record of drunken driving? (I can see the ad now.) A job at a nuclear power plant? Is any alcoholic ever really cured? So why put him in the most stressful job in the world, with a war going south, a thousand Americans already dead and control of weapons capable of destroying the world at his fingertips.

It has been said that in the worst of times, Kissinger gave orders to the military not to obey Nixon if he ordered a first strike. What if Bush were to fall off the wagon? Then what? Has America really faced the fact that we have an alcoholic as our president?"

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ZOGBY: Bush is NOT ahead by 11

From Zogby, an excellent detailed analysis of why Bush is NOT ahead by 11 points. In fact, Zogby says Bush is ahead by 2-3% points. That still means he's ahead, and we have our work cut out for us, but that 11% point bullshit was just that - bullshit meant to scare us. So let's all breathe a collective sigh, and spread the word on this one. We're still in the game by a mile. Read the rest of this post...

Excellent discussion of Bush's cocaine and alcohol use/abuse

TalkLeft presents a very cogent distillation (no pun intended) of the facts surrounding Bush's alleged use of cocaine and his admitted overuse of alcohol (though he apparently refuses to admit he is an alcoholic, which if he is an alcoholic and not admitting it, I understand that's not a good sign). While I don't agree with TalkLeft about Bush's cocaine use being irrelevant if it happened in his 20s - hey, it's a sign of HIS hypocrisy, and I suspect his base, as compared to ours, WOULD have problems with it, so I say "fair game" - I think she's right on the money with the rest of her very-well documented info on all of this. Lots of juicy factoids in her piece. Read the rest of this post...

Religious right says GOP promotes sodomy

Gosh, maybe I shouldn't have skipped that gift bag at the GOP convention. Read the rest of this post...

Here Kitty, Kitty

Joshua Micah Marshall says that 60 Minutes tomorrow, i.e., Wednesday, will be airing the Barnes interview (i.e., how I helped Bush get out of going to Vietnam) AND it will contain "newly-revealed documens that shed light on Bush's guard service or lack thereof." Judging by Michael's post, below, I suspect those might be Kitty's documents. Stay tuned, and watch 60 Minutes on Wednesday. Read the rest of this post...

Bush Bio Ready To Explode

John has made a few references to this, but Kitty Kelley is ready to roll out her Bush dynasty potboiler on Tuesday, September 14. Kelley digs up lots of dirt and -- as far as I know -- has never been successfully sued for libel, so she gets her facts right enough to fight off lawsuits.

Gossip columnist Cindy Adams had this to say today:

"Last month I reported biographer Kitty Kelley's coming Bush family vivisection has, what she considers, 'five major revelations,' one of which is a supposedly documented inch-by-inch on Dubya's so-called missing-year service record. I now report a big-time TV magazine show is on that case. Wrapping up footage even as we speak. Kitty, who's done her jobs on Nancy, Jackie, Elizabeth, Sinatra etc., has a publication date later this month."

Does this count as a "September Surprise?" Read the rest of this post...

Dick Cheney Slams Ronald Reagan

Yep, Dick Cheney is willing to smear even Republican icon Ronald Reagan as "soft on terrorism" if it means winning an election. Maybe Reagan was too busy freeing Eastern Europe from the clutches of communism, Dick. Somebody, quick, get a comment from Nancy Reagan about this slap on her just-buried husband.

Maybe Cheney is just bitter because -- unlike him -- Reagan served in the military and applied for active duty. Reagan took several physicals to try and qualify (his eyesight was terrible) and finally had to accept he wouldn't be allowed to serve overseas in battle but went where he was told and served honorably.
Read the rest of this post...

Are they better off now than they were four years ago?

Too bad we can't ask them. Read the rest of this post...

Torturing Iraqis Doesn't Work So Well

The military honcho who imported the abusive, shameful rape, torture and beating-to-death treatment of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to Iraq -- Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller -- now admits that treating prisoners doesn't just comply with international law, US military law, and the standards of decency that all Americans expect. It actually WORKS BETTER too.

Miller should be in disgrace and out of uniform, but at least he can admit when he's wrong, unlike Bush. By the way, I wouldn't characterize this approach as "gentler." They're simply the minimal standards for any humane society that has a prisoner under its control.
Read the rest of this post...

CHENEY: A vote for Kerry is a vote for Osama

How's this for brazen? From the NYT:

Mr. Bush' running mate, Vice President Dick Cheney, stepped up his criticism of Mr. Kerry's leadership by telling a small audience in Des Moines that if voters choose Mr. Kerry as president, the nation would be vulnerable to another terrorist attack.

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States," Mr. Cheney told about 350 supporters at a town-hall style meeting, according to The Associated Press.

The irony is that it is the anti-American hatred that Bush and Cheney have generated worldwide that has increased our chances of getting hit again. Read the rest of this post...

Florida Voting Scandal

We're not talking about 2000, we're talking about 2004.

First the New York Times wrote an editorial today stating that hundreds if not thousands of Florida voters were denied the right to vote during the recent primaries because they didn't have photo IDs -- even though Florida law states voters needn't have such identification (not unusual for elderly voters, the poor and especially poor minorities who don't have cars). It wasn't just a mistake by a few bad poll workers. Osceola County printed up sample ballots wrongly claiming photo IDs were required.

Then, the St. Pete Times had a story about groups trying to register voters and/or change people's party affiliations. Some people told "volunteers" they were already registered but were informed they had to do so again. Their party affiliation was changed from Democrat to independent and they were unable to vote in the primary. Other incompetent nonprofit groups like ACORN held onto people's forms until after the deadline for the primaries and then apologized. These actions affected THOUSANDS more.

And of course there's been little or no followup by the national media about Bob Herbert's NYT editorial about the state police being used to intimidate elderly black voters in Orlando. Nor any serious fallout from the state official overseeing the election compiling faulty voter rolls that just happened to disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters but keep ineligible Hispanic felons (who tend to vote Republican) on the rolls.

Why isn't widespread funny business in the state where our last Presidential election was embroiled in controversy front page news until this mess gets cleared up? The liberal news media certainly isn't living up to its name.
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Is Cheney sure he isn't describing the Bush administration?

"They mean to do everything they can to destroy our way of life. They don't agree with our view of the world. They've got an extremist view in terms of their religion. They have no concept or tolerance for religious freedom. They don't believe women ought to have any rights. They've got a fundamentally different view of the world, and they will slaughter... anybody who stands in their way. So we've got to get it right. We've got to succeed here. We've got to prevail. And that's what is at stake in this election." - Remarks by Vice President Cheney, Des Moisnes, IA, Sept, 7, 2004

Read the rest of this post...

1,000 American Soldiers Dead in Iraq - It's Official

Would you sacrifice your child for this war? Read the rest of this post...

"Texans for Truth" - new ad asks why no one saw Bush in his National Guard unit

"Texans for Truth" wants to know why Bush's fellow unit members in the National Guard don't remember ever seeing him serve. They've got a new ad asking just that question. Read the rest of this post...

More gay-baiting by Bush just this morning

I appreciate my running mate, Dick Cheney. (Applause.) He's a fine guy. I admit he doesn't have the prettiest hair do in the race. (Laughter.) I didn't pick him for his hair. (Laughter.) I picked him because he can get the job done. (Applause.) - President's Remarks at a Victory 2004 Rally in Lee's Summit, Missouri, White House

Man I hope Kitty Kelly outs the SOB, because he sure talks way too much about his male opponent's hair for a straight guy. Speaking of which, I renew my call to anyone out there who has any info on Bush's top advisers, campaign or otherwise - know folks who went to school with them, etc. If this jerk is going to gay-bait, then I want to know which way Ken Mehlman and the rest of them swing - fair is fair.

PS To any who would question whether this is gay-baiting. I ask you, what do you call a man who gets "pretty hair dos" in Missouri? Read the rest of this post...

Illinois Republicans abandoning Alan Keyes in droves

I hate when that happens. Read the rest of this post...

Bush's Bounce is GONE!

Talk about honey I shrunk the bounce. Kerry and Bush are today tied, according to Rasmussen (a pollster the Republicans prefer). That's TIED people. T-I-E-D. This is why I lecture folks about the negativity thing. Politics is the art of the possible. EVERYTHING is possible, provided you believe it. I mean, we're friggin tied only DAYS after the convention, and only days after some polls gave Bush an 11 point lead. Try them apples...

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W stands for WRONG

Nice line by Kerry. I don't even get where Bush is going with the whole "trial attorneys are the reason we have fewer jobs in America" nonsense. I get the fact that he hates trial attorneys but this one is really pushing it.

"Only George W. Bush could celebrate over a record budget deficit of 422 billion, a loss of 1.6 million jobs and Medicare premiums that are up by record 17 percent," Kerry said. "W stands for wrong — the wrong direction for America."

Read the rest of this post...

More leftover photos from the GOP convention

Hot little priest protesting against the Planned Parenthood gala at the convention. Mmmmmmm... Catholics...



Mmmmmmm... Anderson...



Mmmmm... comedy...



Sorry, no mmmmm here. Just a curiously affectionate homophobe. Read the rest of this post...

Leftover photos from the GOP convention

I was going through my files and realized I had a few photos I hadn't posted that are still worth posting.


Human Rights Campaign's great sign-truck roaming its way around NYC, this was very cool.



Blogger Row - well, the GOOD blogger row - set up on 42d street by some very generous NYC geeks (see if you can spot the whos-who of blogdom sitting there).



Congressman David Dreier (R-CA) at the moment that Mike Signorile was drilling him about whether he's gay or straight (Dreier refused to even answer when Mike said "So you're heterosexual?") Read the rest of this post...

Conservatives for Kerry?

"I'm hoping that Kerry's a seven on a scale of 10, but I'm afraid maybe he's just a five,' Phillips says. 'But Kerry's running against a zero. So my choice is clear.' " - Kevin Phillips, Washington Post

Interesting article about Kevin Phillips, a Republican who drives modern-day Republicans crazy. (I.e., he's a good guy.) Read the rest of this post...

Bush gives asylum to alleged Chechen terrorist only weeks before 200 children & adults murdered

Ok, this is VERY interesting. Only weeks before 200 Russian children and parents are killed after Chechen rebels take them hostage, the Bush administration granted political asylum to the so-called "foreign minister" of the Chechen separatists. A man the Russians call a "terrorist." Apparently, Ilias Akhmadov was granted asylum in the US earlier this year, but then hit a snag when the Dept of Homeland Security objected. In spite of the DHS' objection, Akhmadov got his asylum.

According to the Wash Times:

"Russia, which accuses Mr. Akhmadov of terrorism and of links to an armed incursion in the Russian republic of Dagestan in 1999, has been seeking his extradition since he arrived in the United States in 2002."

The Russians say the US totally stonewalled them on this matter - sure to bode well for Russian cooperation with OUR war on terror in the future:

"Putin said each time Russia complained to the Bush administration about meetings held between U.S. officials and Chechen separatist representatives, the U.S. response has been "we'll get back to you" or "we reserve the right to talk with anyone we want."

Yes, it's a complicated issue. Is the guy a terrorist or is he one or two steps removed from the real terrorists? Hard to say. But an American friend of mine living in Russia just wrote me about this, and I think her words sum up the concern of making this decision at this time:

I was stunned to learn that the U.S. recently granted asylum to Ilias Akhmadov, the "foreign minister" of the Chechen separatist movement. Although he may represent a more "reasonable" generation of terrorists than the sub-human vampires who brutally slaughtered these children, after the past week's five terrorist acts, granting this many asylum is more or less comparable to giving Arafat or a senior al-Queda official political asylum. (Imagine how Americans would react were Russia or France to give a senior spokesperson of a terrorist organization political asylum.) Chechen terrorism has taken a new and senseless turn, and it is simply appalling that the US has offered asylum to anyone even remotely associated with these beasts. What's the point of talking to Chechen statesmen if they can't control the people making demands in their name?

She makes an especially good point about Arafat and other Arab "militants." We get all upset when the rest of the world calls these guys "militants" yet turn around and give political asylum to another state's "terrorist." I'm not sure what's right or wrong in this situation, but at the very least, it's very very very poor timing on Bush's behalf.
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Four more years of this?

"The U.S. budget deficit will balloon to $2.29 trillion over the next decade, congressional analysts said on Tuesday, a worse outlook than previously forecast and one likely to stir election-year debate about President Bush's economic policies." - Reuters

That comes to $7633 a person. Though in Bush-twins math, it's really only two nights drinking in NYC. Read the rest of this post...

More Bushisms

I honestly think the reason he makes these mistakes is that he has no original thoughts for himself. Everything is scripted. Add that to the fact that he's an idiot, and he can't even get the script right.

From the LA Times:

President Bush's bout with the English language contiued Monday, when he offered a surprising explanation of what gynecologists might do with their patients if not for pesky malpractice lawsuits.

"Too many good docs are getting out of business," Bush said. "Too many OB-GYNS aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."

It's not clear what Bush meant to say, but it was presumed that he misspoke. The statement came as he attacked his Democratic opponents, Sens. John F. Kerry and John Edwards, for siding with trial lawyers over doctors in the battle to limit lawsuits.

Bush has a well-known history of such gaffes and poked fun at his own verbal "flaws" during his speech last week at the Republican National Convention.

The "love" reference followed another bit of odd phrasing two days earlier during a Saturday speech at an Erie, Pa., football stadium. There, he was explaining last year's $87-billion appropriation for "armor and body parts and ammunition and fuel" for Iraq and Afghanistan.

He did not intend to be macabre. Bush simply flubbed his usual line, explaining that the money was intended for — among other things — body armor and spare parts.

Read the rest of this post...

Pakistan: U.S. Official's Osama Claim Was 'Political'

Using the war on terror for politics? Lying to the American people about a success in the war on terror that isn't real? Say it ain't so. And this time, Bush is corrupting the CIA to make it political as well. That TNR story from a few months ago, the one saying that the US was putting pressure on the Pakistanis to find Osama as an October surprise, is sounding more and more credible each day.

From Reuters:

Pakistan Tuesday dismissed a claim by a U.S. counter-terrorism official that the United States and its allies were closing in on the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden.

Pakistani media Sunday quoted Cofer Black, State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism, as saying that the United States and its allies have put the al Qaeda leader on the defensive, increasing chances of his capture soon.

But Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Black's remarks were a 'political statement.'

'We don't have any information about that,' Ahmed told Reuters by telephone from Saudi Arabia where he is accompanying Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on an official visit.

Black's comments came just a few days after President Bush, who is standing for re-election in November, said that three-quarters of known al Qaeda leaders have been captured or killed.
'If he (bin Laden) has a watch, he should be looking at it because the clock is ticking. He will be caught,' Black told private Geo Television.

'Programs are in place and what I tell people (is), I would be surprised but not necessarily shocked if we wake up tomorrow and he had been caught along with all his lieutenants.'

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More Fun at Cheney Corp.

When they're not busy illegally using your tax dollars to participate in partisan politics and smear John Kerry, camp Pentagon is trying to spare itself more embarrassment with Cheney Corp. Seems they're reversing a decision to give a non-competitive, $13 billion (yes, that's billion, with a "b") Iraq contract to Halliburton and are now putting pieces of the contract out for "competitive bids."

Apparently, the price gouging, the mismanagement, the accounting lies, and just downright incompetence of the folks at Cheney corp. just went a little too far for the pentagon -- and that's saying something, when you consider how pathetic the civilian management at DoD is.

Of course, the DoD has said the decision "was not meant to penalize" Kellogg Brown & Root, the Cheney corp. division doing the work. Indeed, Cheney corp. plans to bid for some of the work.
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Sadr loyalists live to fight another day

Thank goodness Bush didn't interfere politically with the fighting against Sadr and his militants just before the RNC. Clearly it would go against his previous complaints that politicians lost the war in Vietnam by interfering in military policy. Surely it had nothing to do with the fact that the US death toll was rapidly approaching 1,000 which would not have been well received during the convention. As predicted at the time, the Sadr loyalists have lived to fight another day and yesterday was a bloody day for everyone in Iraq.
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