Jon Stewart's viewers more educated than O'Reilly's

Interesting. I personally like O'Reilly (I know, it's a long story), but I love the fact that a Comedy Central show has more educated viewers, and more politically astute viewers, than FOX :-)

Viewers of Jon Stewart's show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch "The O'Reilly Factor," according to Nielsen Media Research....

Comedy Central also touted a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey, which said young viewers of "The Daily Show" were more likely to answer questions about politics correctly than those who don't.

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Absolutely hysterical - LOL

I laughed out loud reading this. From - who else? - Betty Bowers. Here's a very short excerpt via IowaNiceGuy (be sure to click and read the whole thing, it's fabulous!):

Most Iraqis, I am told, believe that they are "better off" becoming violently ill from drinking filthy water while dodging bullets under the elusive promise of shifting democracy and inevitable specter of bloody civil war than they were being victimized by the clean water and electricity Saddam Hussein ruthlessly used to curry favor.

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Bush's FBI may have accidentally erased secret Al Qaeda wiretap recordings

Oops. Looks like those security moms are betting on the wrong guy to keep junior safe.

Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 120,000 hours of potentially valuable terrorism-related recordings have not yet been translated by linguists at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and computer problems may have led the bureau to systematically erase some Qaeda recordings, according to a declassified summary of a Justice Department investigation that was released on Monday.

The report, released in edited form on Monday by Glenn A. Fine, the Justice Department's inspector general, found that the F.B.I. still does not have the capacity to translate all the terrorism-related material from wiretaps and other intelligence sources and that the influx of new material has outpaced the bureau's resources.

Overhauling the government's translation capabilities has been a top priority for the Bush administration in its campaign against terrorism.

Yeah, I don't think so. Read the rest of this post...

Bush was warned by intel community that Iraq could be a mess

Drip, drip, drip. What did he know and when did he know it?

From the NYT:

The same intelligence unit that produced a gloomy report in July about the prospect of growing instability in Iraq warned the Bush administration about the potential costly consequences of an American-led invasion two months before the war began, government officials said Monday.

The estimate came in two classified reports prepared for President Bush in January 2003 by the National Intelligence Council, an independent group that advises the director of central intelligence. The assessments predicted that an American-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict.

One of the reports also warned of a possible insurgency against the new Iraqi government or American-led forces, saying that rogue elements from Saddam Hussein's government could work with existing terrorist groups or act independently to wage guerrilla warfare, the officials said. The assessments also said a war would increase sympathy across the Islamic world for some terrorist objectives, at least in the short run, the officials said.

The contents of the two assessments had not been previously disclosed. They were described by the officials after two weeks in which the White House had tried to minimize the council's latest report, which was prepared this summer and read by senior officials early this month....

A senior administration official likened Mr. Bush's decision to a patient's decision to have risky surgery, even if doctors warn that there could be serious side effects. "We couldn't live with the status quo," the official said, "because as a result of the status quo in the Middle East, we were dying, and we saw the evidence of that on Sept. 11."

An apt analogy, except that George Bush is the doctor and we-the-people woke up from our hernia operation with a sex change. I don't care what warnings we were given, the doc messed up and it's his fault. Read the rest of this post...

O'Reilly says Rumsfeld should resign

At least I think that's what he said on 60 Minutes last night:

And Iraq is why the O'Reilly finger is increasingly being pointed at the Bush White House. "A huge mistake was made in underestimating the aftermath of Saddam," says O'Reilly.

"I think Rumsfeld has to take the responsibility there, because he's the defense secretary and it looks like he didn't have a clue that this was gonna happen. But, just like a baseball manager, I think he should take one for the team."

Read the rest of this post...

More on Alan Keyes' potentially "selfish hedonist" daughter

Long story, lots of updates, check out the site that's been tracking it all. Reporteldy, Keyes is going to be speaking about this issue tonight in the Chicago area. That should be a hoot. Read the rest of this post...

Fun site

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Why does the King Abdullah of Jordan hate America?

I actually shared a class with Abdullah in grad school at Gtown (he wasn't king then). Seemed like a nice enough guy, smart. Anyway, he not only announces that the situation in Iraq is "far too unsafe" to hold elections, but he raises a new wild card: That if we hold the elections, THE EXTREMISTS WILL WIN.

Cool, so we might get that kooky fundamentalist Islam state in Iraq after all, and all because of George Bush.

From Reuters:

Iraq is far too unsafe to hold elections as scheduled in January and extremists would do well in the poll if Baghdad tried to hold it, Jordan's King Abdullah said in an interview to be published on Tuesday.

Excluding troubled areas from the nationwide poll would only isolate Iraq's Sunnis and create deeper divisions in the country, he told the Paris daily Le Figaro according to a text distributed in advance....

"It seems impossible to me to organize indisputable elections in the chaos we see today," said the king, who was due to meet French President Jacques Chirac in Paris on Tuesday.

"Only if the situation improved could an election be organized on schedule," he said.

"If the elections take place in the current disorder, the best-organized faction will be that of the extremists and the result will reflect that advantage.

"With such a scenario, there is no chance the situation will improve," he said. Asked if partial elections would isolate the Sunnis, he said: "That's exactly our worry."

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Pentagon updating plans to attack Syria and Iran

War, war, draft, draft, death, death. From Newsweek:

Deep in the Pentagon, admirals and generals are updating plans for possible U.S. military action in Syria and Iran. The Defense Department unit responsible for military planning for the two troublesome countries is "busier than ever," an administration official says.

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WWJD - and honey, Jesus has nothing to do with it

Apropros of our dear drunk friend Jenna, I wanted to remind folks that Betty Bowers was on this story before all the rest of us. Here are some of my favorite accessories that Betty is actually selling on her site (for real).

Here's the logo:



And here are a few of the products with the logo on it:



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The CIA hates Bush

Join the club.

From Novak, who once again seems to be suggesting at the end of the story that no one in DC should dare ever approach a reporter in confidence. Let's hope Novak's sources take note.

A few hours after George W. Bush dismissed a pessimistic CIA report on Iraq as ''just guessing,'' the analyst who identified himself as its author told a private dinner last week of secret, unheeded warnings years ago about going to war in Iraq. This exchange leads to the unavoidable conclusion that the president of the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency are at war with each other.

Paul R. Pillar, the CIA's national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, sat down Tuesday night in a large West Coast city with a select group of private citizens. He was not talking off the cuff. Relying on a multi-paged, single-spaced memorandum, Pillar said he and his colleagues concluded early in the Bush administration that military intervention in Iraq would intensify anti-American hostility throughout Islam. This was not from a CIA retiree but an active senior official. (Pillar, no covert operative, is listed openly in the Federal Staff Directory.)

For President Bush to publicly write off a CIA paper as just guessing is without precedent....

Pillar told him that the fact I knew his name meant somebody had violated the off-the-record nature of his remarks. In other words, the CIA bureaucracy wants a license to criticize the president and the former DCI without being held accountable.

Yeah, the CIA bureaucracy wants a license to talk to reporters off-the-record in order to slip them information? Oh my God. I'm glad that Bob Novak has never used information given him by an un-named source. Oops... Read the rest of this post...

Lowering Expectations

Bush is great at it -- his mere presence seems to lower expectations. They're trying to do it on the debates (Bush's people are already saying they expect him to stumble over words and mispronounce them) and of course they're doing it in Iraq.

Here's a good LA Times article about how the Bushies are lowering expectations all across the board -- on the Iraqi election, the Iraqi economy, Iraqi violence, and on and on.

Two fascinating tidbits. Everyone keeps deploring how Bush has only spent about $1.2 billion on reconstruction, when getting funds to the Iraqi people and getting them to work is crucial in most observers' eyes for making progress. But guess what? They haven't even accompished that.

"So far, only $1.2 billion has been disbursed, and so much of that has been eaten up in project overhead and payments to foreign firms that less than half of it has reached Iraqis, according to nongovernmental experts. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage told a House subcommittee Friday that only 77,000 Iraqis were employed on rebuilding projects. 'That's woefully inadequate,' he said."
Read the rest of this post...

Stumbling drunk Jenna Bush spotted in skanky DC bar

UPDATE: In respones to anyone who might wonder about the propriety of running with a story about the president's daughter being a drunk, here's my take. If the president can try to amend the Constitution to pass moral judgment on my family, I can at the very least write a blog entry passing moral judgment on his.

Wonkette reported earlier today that a very drunk Jenna Bush was spotted at a skanky DC bar this past Saturday night. Not to be outdone by America's favorite ass-fucker (that would be Wonkette, not Jenna), I was able to track down Wonkette's source (who I actually know) and get a few more details.

My source, who was out for drinks at Smith's Point bar in Georgetown, described the bar that night:

"It's gross, it's disgusting, it's the grossest bar ever, you would never go there if you weren't either wasted or stupid. The place is like a crawling Republican hangout - they all look like Tucker Carlson, it's like a bad frat boy party. The guys that hang out there are reeking of money, it smells like puke and looks like a basement."

Ok then, sounds like a place ready-made for the Bush family.

My source suddenly saw someone walk by:

"I was standing by the back bar, standing a couple feet away from the bar, and this guy with a Bush/Cheney trucker hat comes by. I noticed him dragging the hand of some girl, and thought 'holy shit' that's Jenna Bush. It was obvious it was her, I knew it was her the minute she walked by. She looked just like she looks on TV, she had on jeans and a tank top."

"She was drinking Budweiser and smoking Marlboro Reds. She was incoherent, that's how drunk she was. She was holding court in back, trying to be inconspicuous. She was so drunk she couldn't even sit up, her friend dragged her to the back of the bar stumbling because she couldn't' walk on her own. She then proceeded to take more shots because, like, that's what this girl really needed at this point was more liquor."

"Later, we walked out through the back and her friend with the bad trucker hat, he was kind of like shielding her from everyone, by this point people had realized it was her. Jenna starts shoving her hand in her face to kind of cover it up, meanwhile she's so disheveled cuz she's wasted."

"She definitely liked the firewater."

Read the rest of this post...

Mission Accomplished

UPDATE: The Freeway Blogger informs me that "Sign was posted in Mission Viejo over I-5, Orange County, California at about 2:00 p.m. Friday Still up at 7:00 p.m., down the next morning. Minimum viewers: 25,000. Total cost, about 35 cents."

You spoke, the FreewayBlogger responded.



Click to see a larger version of this photo. Read the rest of this post...

Iraqi Guard commander arrested by US military

These are the guys Bush is counting on to take over the war so we won't need more US troops. Uh huh... Read the rest of this post...

FLASHBACK: GOP Senate candidate in OK said Schindler's List was "pornographic"

Lest we forget what this election is really about, and who we're electing to power to pick our judges, pass our laws, and lead our nation. Uber-conservative GOP Senate candidate in Oklahoma Tom Coburn, the guy who recently admitted to sterilizing "lots" of underage women, once called "Schindler's List" pornographic. This is also the same guy George Bush - that friend of Israel - gave a top administration appointment. Read the rest of this post...

Flip fucking flop

AP:

When he first ran for president, George W. Bush talked tough on Russia. He threatened to cut off international aid if Moscow continued "killing women and children, leaving orphans and refugees" in its war in Chechnya.

This year, as president, Bush casts Russia not as an oppressor, but as a victim of terror — even as fighting continues in Chechnya and President Vladimir Putin moves to consolidate power in ways seen as threatening the country's fledgling democracy.

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Over-extended troops showing terrible strain

From ABC:

Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with murder in the death of an Iraqi civilian, the 1st Cavalry Division announced Monday.

Approximately 800 soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry are serving their second tour in Iraq. Post spokeswoman Sam Robinson said last week the unit, which is part of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, is temporarily serving with the 1st Cavalry while in Iraq.

Monday's charges were the third set of murder charges filed in just over two weeks against soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry.

These soldiers are on their SECOND tour of duty and the strain is obvious. What kind of experience are these soldiers having that there have been three sets of murder charges in two weeks? What is this President doing to our troops? More importantly, how long do we think that we can last with our current level of troops? Read the rest of this post...

Time to enter these two little girls on "The Apprentice"

US General Abizaid on 'Meet the Press':

The enemy wants to break our will. They are experts at manipulating the media. They have yet to win a single military engagement in that country. They have yet to win a single military engagement against the forces of the new Iraq armed forces that are standing up.

Three problems here:

1. So, these guys who we were led to believe have spent the last 2,000 years living in caves (or the metaphorical equivalent thereof) are now suddenly better public relations experts than the folks on Madison Avenue.

2. She doesn't look like an expert at manipulating the media, yet, her current condition does a pretty damn good job of it anyway. And this is HER fault?



3. The insurgents haven't won a single battle with us yet, we're told. Well bully for our side. I'm sure the 1,000 dead, and the car-bomb-a-day residents of Iraq, will find that all very comforting. And apparently, we're doing so well that we need even MORE troops - presumably to join in the celebration of our victory.

So, what does "losing" look like? Read the rest of this post...

Why does General Abizaid hate America?

Bush's top general in Iraq just went on Meet the Press and called our invasion of Iraq an "occupation." This is the phrase that Bush jumped on Kerry for using. How dare you call it an occupation, Bush said. Is General Abizaid unfit for command too now? Just askin'. Read the rest of this post...

Just me, or is it gettin' DRAFTY in here?

Front page of today's NYT:

Fearing a sharp decline in recruiting and troop retention, the Army is considering cutting the length of its 12-month combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, senior Army officials say.

Senior Army personnel officers, as well as top Army Reserve and National Guard officials, say the Army's ability to recruit and retain soldiers will steadily erode unless combat tours are shortened, to some length between six and nine months, roughly equivalent to the seven-month tours that are the norm in the Marine Corps.

But other Army officials responsible for combat operations and war planning have significant concerns that the Army - at its current size and as now configured - cannot meet projected requirements for Iraq and Afghanistan unless active duty and reserve troops spend 12 months on the ground in those combat zones....

The prospect of lengthy combat tours already appears to be affecting recruitment. For example, the Guard had set a goal of 56,000 recruits for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, but is likely to end up with about 51,000, he said. It would be the first time since 1994 that the Guard has missed its signup goal.

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Real World - Pennsylvania

Today's Boston Globe has a great piece on the economic challenges facing real people in Pennsylvania.

Real numbers, real stories. It's not simply job loss -- it's the skyrocketing health insurance premiums, tuition costs, record highs in personal bankruptcies, and everything else. People in PA are working more and making less. Fewer have health insurance. Fewer can afford college. People who lose work go "between jobs" longer, and the job they do find often has a lower salary, and no benefits.

No wonder Bush has visited the state 37 times in the campaign to tell them how great things are.
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Gas at the pump up over 5 cents per gallon

That's OK because the magic wand will clear up everything soon and the price per barrel will be back down to $30 any day now. Suddenly, whoosh, Iraq is stable and producing oil, Russia has sorted out Yukos, China doesn't want any more oil and I even hear that Nigeria is settled under the democratic rule of the honorable Mr. Obasanjo. Besides, Dubya says it's no problem so it will be OK. We know that we can trust his word when he says he's going to "jaw bone" his friends in the oil producing countries. Aren't we lucky?
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How Would You Spend $200 Billion?

By the way, the post below about Britain pledging to pay down 10% of Third World debt had an interesting factoid at the end.

The New York Times article said, "Some estimates put the total debt owed by the poorest countries at around $200 billion."

That coincidentally, is the very amount Bush has spent so far on invading Iraq (not to mention the cost in lives). Instead of invading Iraq, Bush could have paid off the ENTIRE debt of some 30+ Third World countries, given countless nations a radical chance at improving their economic livelihood, created tremendous good will for the US, encouraged them (through incentives) to embrace democracy and economic reform (which would be far harder for governments to avoid with the huge opportunity this would have provided) and in the end helped turn impoverished nations into vibrant nations and -- hey, it's good for the US economy -- growing markets for our goods and services.

Imagine our world today if that was what Bush had done. So how would YOU spend $200 billion? Fully fund a Manhattan Project of Energy to end our dependence on foreign oil and non-renewable energy sources in general? Truly tackle AIDS in Africa -- the greatest scourge of our time?

Give us your ideas. The best response gets...well, nothing, probably. But who knows? Maybe George Soros will read it and give you a call.
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Britain Behaves Unilaterally -- Just Like US

However, when the US behave unilaterally, it ignores international law and invades another country (and breaks with the Geneva Convention in the process). When Britain behaves unilaterally, it decides to pay off 10% of the the debt of the Third World.

Specifically, the New York Times reports that "Britain will set aside the equivalent of $180 million a year to pay off 10 percent of the money owed by 32 countries to international lenders, notably the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Poor nations contend that they often must choose between paying these debts and meeting urgent needs of their people, or making expenditures that would strengthen their economies."

This move was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, who would love to unseat Tony Blair as head of the Labor Party (and thus become Prime Minister). So maybe this is some cynical political ploy. But isn't it lovely to picture politicians trying to out-manuever each other in helping Third World countries get on their feet economically? Instead of just blowing them up?
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Guantanamo Show Trials Closing Out Of Town?

The NYT details the many, many ways in which the Guantanamo show trials are falling apart. The process "is in turmoil" according to many involved, thanks to military panels filled with members who have personal conflicts or are unsuitable, inadequate translators (a bit of a problem when dealing with foreign folk),a presiding officer who lied about past statements and was caught red-handed (and red-faced) and lawyers on BOTH sides who agree it's become a farce. Growing momentum calls for ditching the antiquated, unwieldly and questionable military tribunals in exchange for court-martial proceedings.

But two tidbits stood out. Did you know that the court-martial was adopted in 1950 "as a direct response to the unfair features in the military tribunal system?" So we ditched tribunals more than 50 years ago because they were unfair and inadequate and that's the system Bush wants to revive today? Why not just model ourselves on the Salem witch trials instead?

And here's that lie that the panel's presiding officer Col. Peter Brownback III was caught in.

"Under questioning in a hearing, Colonel Brownback stated flatly that he had never told a group of lawyers that the detainees had any speedy trial rights, a statement that could have demonstrated he did not have an open mind on the issue. When he was then told by a Navy lawyer that an audio recording of such a meeting existed, he was stunned and said he had not been aware the meeting was being taped."

Brownback should be dismissed from this post and given a serious reprimand, at the very least.
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Kerry, God Help Him, Cares About The Issues

The Sunday New York Times did a lengthy piece about Kerry and what he's like. It describes a man who asks probing, thoughtful questions, constantly reaches outside his inner circle for the opinion of others and -- when it comes to the election campaign -- is clearly the man in charge.

"Mr. Kerry reads briefing books and newspapers in the morning (often grousing about stories critical of him), watches television interview shows like Charlie Rose's late at night (sometimes leaving phone messages for his friends who appear as guests, offering critiques of their performances) and dials senators and old friends at all hours. At meetings, Mr. Kerry poses contrarian questions in an often wandering quest for data and conflicting opinions, a style that his aides, sometimes with a roll of the eyes, call Socratic."

Compare this to their description of Bush:

"For better and for worse, Mr. Bush takes his counsel from a small, unchanging group of strategists. His senior campaign staff has not changed in 18 months. Mr. Bush's hunger for information and conflicting opinions is limited. His management style is crisp and insular, and it does not change between easy days and tough ones."

Here's the kicker: this is supposed to be a weakness of Kerry. Yep, caring about the issues instead of caring about campaigning is bad.

"Representative Ted Strickland of Ohio said that during a recent bus trip through the small towns of the Appalachian region that make up his district, Mr. Kerry peppered him with questions about the way the reduction of import tariffs had affected the pottery industry — not about the voting patterns in a state he is struggling to win back from the Republicans."

It's all because the "Alice in Wonderland" world of the media is more comfortable reporting on changes in behind-the-scenes campaing personnel than on the issues, the facts and where the candidates stand on them.

But reading these two descriptions, who would you rather have running the country?
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Is Alan Keyes' daughter a selfish hedonist?

Kos is reporting that, maybe.

Also, note this actual pic of Keyes' daughter (below, top), and a pic of the alleged daughter and a girlfriend (below, bottom), then go to Kos' site and decide for yourself:




PS Call me crazy, but I'd swear they're sitting by the VERY GAY fountain at DC's VERY GAY Dupont Circle... Read the rest of this post...

June 2003: Prez says "Mission Accomplished" again

Some reporters are trying to play a cute little game in which they're saying in May 2003 Bush never actually SAID "Mission Accomplished," he simply appeared in front of a massive banner that said "Mission Accomplished." As though he totally disagreed with the massive banner the White House staff placed over his head.

Well, guess what I just found on the White House Web site? A little transcript of our fearless leader in June, 2003:

I am happy to see you, an so are the long-suffering people of Iraq. America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished.

Even more important, the White House tried to say, and has continued to say, that what was meant by "Mission Accomplished" was that THE SHIP BUSH WAS ON HAD ACCOMPLISHED ITS MISSION, not that the war in Iraq at large had accomplished its mission. From a July 1, 2003 White House briefing:

SCOTT MCLELLAN: ...as far as the crew of the Abraham Lincoln was concerned, as they were about to arrive with their families after the longest deployment ever, Mission Accomplished was a great way to summarize what they did.

But that's not what the president said in June when he was talking to the troops in Qatar. Bush said the OVERALL mission was accomplished, and in particular: "America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished."

They can't now claim that Bush was only talking about one ship when he said the same thing to a group of guys on land a month later. That means it was meant for more than simply that one ship. Not to mention, Bush's language is clear on its face - the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED was "removing the grave threat" and "liberating the oppressed people." Both of those were the LARGER goal of the overall mission. Not to mention, NEITHER of them has yet been completed. Read the rest of this post...