Happy Budget Deficit, everyone!

I don't mean to take too much time away from the very pressing issue of whether it's okay to refer to an openly gay person as, well, gay, but I thought you might like to know that the Treasury Department just announced that the federal budget deficit "surged" to $413 billion in 2004.

Ah, the Bush years. He got us into a war that was a lie, killing over 1000 American soldiers and wounding up to 20,000 others, bankrupted the government, and has gotten most of the world to hate us. But at least he won't call an open lesbian a lesbian, and that's gotta be worth something on the path to heaven. Read the rest of this post...

Where was the Cheney family outrage when the RNC attacked gays a month ago?

Where was the Cheney family outrage when the Republican National Committee recently launched a series of gay-baiting mailings to southern states? (See picture below.) Didn't hear boo out of Dick, Lynne or Mary when their own party mass-mailed anti-gay "get out the vote" messages to their bigoted base. But when a Democrat PRAISES a gay person, that's when the Cheneys attack. Then again, we haven't heard squat out of the Cheneys for the past four years of gay-bashing that's come out of Mr. Cheney's administration. So why be surprised by their rank hypocrisy now? This family was always ready to throw gays to the dogs for the greater good of the GOP. Big surprise they're using their own daughter one last time to weep some crocodile tears in order to help a homophobe get re-elected.



And another thing. Why was it okay for President Bush to invoke the name of Teresa Heinz last night, but wrong for John Kerry to mention Mary? Is mentioning the opponent's wife okay in a debate but not their daughter? Or is it simply wrong to mention that the daughter is [gay]? Read the rest of this post...

Yearning for the good ol' days of selfish hedonism

All this hubbub about the Cheneys being upset at the mention of their daughter had me thinking -- where was this outrage when a certain Illinois senate candidate called Mary Cheney a "selfish hedonist" on the radio? Let me get this, umm, straight -- Kerry saying Mary Cheney deserves the same rights straight people have is somehow wrong, but Alan Keyes gets a free pass for calling her a selfish hedonist and a sinner at the FREAKIN Republican National Convention? Did I miss the public statement from the Cheneys?

Speaking of people down 51 points in the polls, Mr. Keyes had yet another embarrasment today when his 2000 presidential campaign admitted to violating the law and now has to return over $168,000 to the feds.
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Some damn good shit from Andrew Sullivan

Andrew speaks. And it's good. Some excerpts from his blog today about Marygate.

Mary Cheney isn't private. She ran gay outreach for Coors, for pete's sake. She appears in public with her partner. Her family acknowledges this. She's running her dad's campaign! Whatever else this has to do with - and essentially, it has to do whether you approve of homosexuality or not - privacy is irrelevant....

It's legitimate to threaten every gay couple with the removal of their basic rights, but it is not legitimate to point out that Cheney's own daughter will be directly affected? By what twisted logic?....

Both Bush and Kerry oppose civil marriage for gays. True. But Kerry supports giving gays every single right that civil marriage has - on a state and federal level - and just wants to call it something different. Kerry also believes that the individual states should decide what their own policies should be. Bush opposes civil unions, and has supported a constitutional amendment that would forbid any state from granting the "incidents" of marriage to any gay couple. Kerry: 100 percent of the rights of civil marriage. Bush: none. I'd say that's a pretty huge difference, wouldn't you?...

Victimize? All Kerry did was invoke the veep's daughter to point out that obviously homosexuality isn't a choice, in any meaningful sense. The only way you can believe that citing Mary Cheney amounts to "victimization" is if you believe someone's sexual orientation is something shameful. Well, it isn't. What's revealing is that this truly does expose the homophobia of so many - even in the mildest "we'll-tolerate-you-but-shut-up-and-don't-complain" form. Mickey Kaus, for his part, cannot see any reason for Kerry to mention Mary except as some Machiavellian scheme to pander to bigots. Again: huh? Couldn't it just be that Kerry thinks of gay people as human beings like straight people - and mentioning their lives is not something we should shrink from? Isn't that the simplest interpretation? In many speeches on marriage rights, I cite Mary Cheney. Why? Because it exposes the rank hypocrisy of people like president Bush and Dick and Lynne Cheney who don't believe gays are anti-family demons but want to win the votes of people who do. I'm not outing any gay person. I'm outing the double standards of straight ones. They've had it every which way for decades, when gay people were invisible. Now they have to choose....

Mary Cheney is out of the closet and a member, with her partner, of the vice-president's family. That's a public fact. No one's privacy is being invaded by mentioning this. When Kerry cites Bush's wife or daughters, no one says it's a "low blow." The double standards are entirely a function of people's lingering prejudice against gay people. And by mentioning it, Kerry showed something important. This issue is not an abstract one. It's a concrete, human and real one. It affects many families, and Bush has decided to use this cynically as a divisive weapon in an election campaign. He deserves to be held to account for this - and how much more effective than showing a real person whose relationship and dignity he has attacked and minimized? Does this makes Bush's base uncomfortable? Well, good. It's about time they were made uncomfortable in their acquiescence to discrimination. Does it make Bush uncomfortable? Even better. His decision to bar gay couples from having any protections for their relationships in the constitution is not just a direct attack on the family member of the vice-president. It's an attack on all families with gay members - and on the family as an institution. That's a central issue in this campaign, a key indictment of Bush's record and more than relevant to any debate. For four years, this president has tried to make gay people invisible, to avoid any mention of us, to pretend we don't exist. Well, we do. Right in front of him....

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Mrs. Cheney needs to come out of her own closet

From the Advocate. Excellent.

So you have to figure Lynne Cheney’s lashing out at Kerry comes from one of two guilty places—one sad, the other ugly. Despite what her educated mind tells her, does Lynne, like so many of her generation, feel that she and Dick failed somehow, and that’s why Mary likes girls? Does she secretly fear that she, Lynne, carried the sapphic DNA?

Or are the guilt and anger fresher than that? Is it that Lynne Cheney herself was outed last night—as a mother who’s spent a long career putting her daughter second to her own political advancement?

Whatever the ingredients, Lynne was angry last night because she was ashamed. Unlike her husband, Lynne missed the chance to stand up openly for her child. The nation knows it.

And Mary knows it.

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[Insert Caption Here]

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Cheney family says Mary may think being gay is a choice

ABC News just reported that what truly angered the Cheney family about Kerry's comments last night about Mary was that he claimed to know what was in her mind! Excuse me? Kerry said:

I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it's not a choice."

So what the Bush campaign is now saying is that Mr. and Mrs. Cheney are upset that Kerry suggested that Mary thinks being gay isn't a choice. So does Mary think being gay IS a choice?

Like I said, lovely family. Read the rest of this post...

I am a pretty angry blogger

A candidate for relection to the White House had the nerve, in a public setting, to talk about Mary Cheney's lesbianism. That candidate wasn't asked about Mary, they were asked about gay rights overall, yet when discussing gay rights that candidate decided to invoke Mary Cheney's lesbianism, uninvited. How dare that candidate out Mary Cheney. It was a cheap and tawdry political trick. You saw a man who will do and say anything to get elected, and I am not just speaking as a blogger here, although I am a pretty angry blogger.

That man's name is... Dick Cheney:

"DICK CHENEY: Well, the question has come up obviously in the past, with respect to the question of gay marriage. Lynn and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue that our family's very familiar with.

We have two daughters, and we have enormous pride in both of them, they're both fine young women, they do a superb job, frankly, of supporting us, and we are blessed with both our daughters."

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Rock the Vote tells RNC to go Cheney themselves

The new Rock the Vote letter to the RNC is in response to this RNC threatening letter to Rock the Vote from yesterday. This is a pdf copy of the Rock-the-Vote letter posted as text below.

Mr. Ed Gillespie, Chairman
Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

VIA FASCIMILE: (202) 863-8774
Dear Chairman Gillespie,

The letter I received from you yesterday was quite a surprise. It struck us as just the sort of “malicious political deception” that is likely to increase voter cynicism and decrease the youth vote. In fact, it is a textbook case of attempted censorship, very much in line with those that triggered our organization’s founding some fifteen years ago.

I am stunned that you would say that the issue of the military draft as an “urban myth” that has been “thoroughly debunked by no less than the President of the United States.”

I have some news for you. Just because President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary Rumsfeld, and for that matter Senator Kerry, say that there is not going to be a draft does not make it so. Just because Congress holds a transparently phony vote against the draft does not mean there isn’t going to be one. Anyone who thinks that the youth of America are going to take a politician’s word on this topic is living on another planet.

By your logic, there should be no debate about anything that you disagree with. There’s a place for that kind of sentiment (and your threats), but its not here in our country.

There are questions that the politicians are running away from. How long can we keep 138,000 U.S. troops or more on the ground in Iraq? What if full-scale civil war erupts there, as the CIA has warned is a realistic possibility? Would the next President be faced with a choice of pulling out of Iraq rather than institute a draft? Would women be drafted? What exactly would the draft-age be?

According to the Pentagon’s own internal assessment, there are “inadequate total numbers” of troops to meet U.S. security interests. The current issue of Time magazine reports that, “General John Keane, who retired last year as the Army's No. 2 officer, says the continued success of the all-volunteer military is not guaranteed… Keane has told Congress that adding more than 50,000 troops to the Army would require thinking about a return to the draft.”

But you want young people to believe that the draft is just an “urban myth.” I was expecting that you were going to present some facts to back up your assertion. But, instead, you have demanded that we stop talking about it.

Although the draft may not be a discussion topic for someone of your age, we have found that young people - Republicans, Democrats and Independents - are very interested in this issue. We believe in the capacity of young Americans to make their own judgments when fairly presented with the facts. That is why we are actively promoting an informed, educated dialogue. I urge you to review the “Debunking the Myths” section on our website where we address misperceptions about the draft.

Mr. Gillespie, this is a generational issue. Nothing cuts closer to the core of the very reason Rock the Vote exists. We think young people deserve to know where the politicians stand on this issue—and that a generation that could be called to service deserves more than the phony debate they are getting. We believe that it is only by asking questions—not by censoring debate—that our democracy can remain strong and vital.

Issues such as jobs, health care, Iraq, taxes, and education have energized the electorate, and the draft issue deserves the same serious treatment and candor. Blanket denials do not square with the facts and do not level with the electorate.

As far as the possibility that Rock the Vote’s efforts might “decrease the youth vote,” we are feeling very confident at this point that the opposite is true. More than 1.1 million people have used our website to fill out voter registration forms this election cycle. Our street teams and ground partners have registered hundreds of thousands more. Young voters are going to surge at the polls on Election Day and make the difference for whichever candidate does the best job reaching out to them.

Despite the strong and often strident tone of your letter, I would hope that we could both agree that honest and open debate is the surest guarantor of our democracy and liberty.

Sincerely,

Jehmu S. Greene
President

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Dick Cheney loses it over Mary being lesbian

Ok, I've had it with this family.

Dick Cheney has some nerve pretending now to be all angry that his lesbian daughter was "outed" during the debate last night. He sold Mary out four years ago in order to win the votes of the anti-gay bigots and now he's Mr. PFLAG Dad? Mrs. Cheney downright denied Mary was gay 4 years ago, after Mary had served as the openly-lesbian gay liaison at Coors. And now they go all gay pride on us?

What you're really seeing is the Bush campaign using the gay card as only it can. After years of bashing gays and lesbians. After proposing to make us second-class citizens in the US Constitution - the only other class of Americans ever put in that category were slaves. And after the Cheney family - Dick, Mary and Lynne - oh-so-merrily went along with the president's plan to treat Mary and her lover like some kind of leper. NOW the Cheney's are suddenly the great defenders of gay America.

You know what? Fuck you.

From AP:

Vice President Dick Cheney called himself a "pretty angry father" Thursday as he denounced Sen. John Kerry for mentioning his gay daughter during a debate with President Bush.

Cheney and his wife, Lynne, have two daughters. Mary Cheney is openly gay and an official in the Bush-Cheney campaign. The vice president has spoken at length about his daughter's sexuality and his view of gay relationships, even disagreeing with the president about the need for a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriages.

Asked Wednesday night by debate moderator Bob Schieffer whether homosexuality is a choice, Kerry said: "We're all God's children, Bob, and I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it's not a choice."

Cheney told supporters at a rally in Fort Myers, "You saw a man who will do and say anything to get elected, and I am not just speaking as a father here, although I am a pretty angry father."

In a post-debate appearance Wednesday night, Lynne Cheney accused Kerry of pulling a "cheap and tawdry political trick." In response, Elizabeth Edwards suggested in a radio interview that Mrs. Cheney might feel "a certain degree of shame" because her daughter is a lesbian.

When Mrs. Cheney introduced her husband to a crowd of 800 people after a debate-watching party in the Pittsburgh suburb of Coraopolis, Pa., she made clear she thought Kerry had crossed a line into family privacy.

"Now, you know, I did have a chance to assess John Kerry once more and now the only thing I could conclude: This is not a good man," she said. "Of course, I am speaking as a mom, and a pretty indignant mom. This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick."

Mrs. Cheney was not specific, and the vice president did not raise the matter in his remarks.

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of vice presidential candidate John Edwards, said of Lynne Cheney in an interview Thursday with ABC Radio: "She's overreacted to this and treated it as if it's shameful to have this discussion. I think that's a very sad state of affairs. ... I think that it indicates a certain degree of shame with respect to her daughter's sexual preferences. ... It makes me really sad that that's Lynne's response."

The vice president expressed no objection when Edwards brought up Mary Cheney during their debate. Edwards expressed "respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter, the fact that they embrace her. It's a wonderful thing."

Cheney thanked his opponent for the "kind words he said about my family and our daughter. I appreciate that very much."

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Even Baghdad Isn't Safe

As if those earlier kidnappings weren't proof enough, insurgents have penetrated the Green Zone in Baghdad yet again and killed at least five people (including three Americans) and wounded 18, according to the New York Times.

Nothing to see here, keep moving.
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Bush Incompetence On Iraq -- Nuclear Material Smuggled Out

Okay, I held off on commenting about the disappearance of equipment and materials that could be used for making nuclear materials -- stuff that went missing AFTER we invaded. The Bushies were so vague at first I thought maybe, maybe they'd arranged to quietly spirit the stuff out of the country with Allawi's permission, but neither of them wanted to call attention to the fact since this might make him seem weak.

So much for giving them the benefit of the doubt. We invaded Iraq because Bush said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Saddam didn't, but he DID have equipment and material that is essential for making those weapons -- material the International Atomic Energy Agency had a close eye on. Now CNN reports it hasn't just gone missing, but went missing over months if not a year and involved the use of heavy machinery to get it out of there! How's that for incompetence?

Some choice nuggets:

"The mysterious removal of Iraq's mothballed nuclear facilities continued long after the U.S.-led invasion and was carried out by people with access to heavy machinery and demolition equipment, diplomats said on Thursday.

"The United Nations nuclear watchdog told the Security Council this week that equipment and materials that could be used to make atomic weapons had been vanishing from Iraq without either Baghdad or Washington noticing."

Great Britain's defense? It happened during the chaos after the invasion. Excuse me? Shouldn't securing equipment and material for making nuclear weapons be a TOP priority in an invasion? Isn't this one more example of the danger of ignoring your military chiefs and doing things on the cheap without enough troops? Stuff happens, says Rummy. Yep, especially when you're incompetent.

"Several diplomats close to the IAEA said the disappearance of the nuclear items was not the result of haphazard looting," reports CNN.

"They said the removal of the dual-use equipment -- which before the war was tagged and closely monitored by the IAEA to ensure it was not being used in a weapons program -- was planned and executed by people who knew what they were doing.

""We're talking about dozens of sites being dismantled," a diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "Large numbers of buildings taken down, warehouses were emptied and removed. This would require heavy machinery, demolition equipment. This is not something that you'd do overnight.""

This is a MAJOR security issue. Yellow cake from Iraq has now turned up in Rotterdam. First Bush didn't guard the weapons depots and those stashes of armaments are being used against our troops. Now he failed to secure the very material and equipment that can be used to build the WMDs we were all so worried about in the first place.

Kerry should pound on this for the next three days. We are less safe today because of Bush.
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I HEART Elizabeth Edwards

From ABC:

ELIZABETH EDWARDS ACCUSES LYNNE CHENEY OF "SHAME" OF HER DAUGHTER: "She's overreacted to this and treated it as if it's shameful to have this discussion. I think that's a very sad state of affairs... I think that it indicates a certain degree of shame with respect to her daughter's sexual preferences... It makes me really sad that that's Lynne's response."

Elizabeth hit it right on the head. What's the shame Dick and Lynne - don't want the Radical Right to know you have a lesbian daughter? Or, are you afraid that if the public knew you had a lesbian daughter they would ask how it was that you could support an administration who wants to treat gays and lesbians like second-class citizens? Read the rest of this post...

Oil hits a new high

NYMEX crude skyrockets to $54.88 but don't worry, it's no problem and there's nothing to see here. Keep moving.
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HRC on Marygate

HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN RESPONDS TO LYNNE CHENEY REMARKS

"President Bush missed one more chance to denounce discrimination last night so it is bewildering that Lynne Cheney instead attacked Senator Kerry," said HRC President Cheryl Jacques.

WASHINGTON - Human Rights Campaign President Cheryl Jacques made the following statement regarding comments made last night by Lynne Cheney following the Presidential Debate.

"President Bush missed one more chance to denounce discrimination last night so it is bewildering that Lynne Cheney instead attacked Senator Kerry.

"Senator Kerry made clear that gay Americans should have the same basic rights, responsibilities and protections as every other American.

"Vice President Cheney first discussed his own daughter in the context of this issue two months ago and it is not surprising that Senator Kerry mentioned her experience as emblematic of millions of gay Americans.

"Senator Kerry was speaking to millions of American families who have hard-working, tax-paying gay friends and family members."

According to the Associated Press, "Lynne Cheney accused Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of pulling a 'cheap and tawdry political trick,' apparently for invoking her daughter's sexuality in his debate with President Bush."

To view HRC's ad featuring Vice President Cheney discussing his daughter, Mary Cheney, and his views on leaving marriage law up to the states, visit here.

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Mary-gate continues

The Wash Blade tells Cheney to go Cheney himself:

Washington Blade
October 14, 2004

Lynne Cheney rebukes Kerry for debate remark

Ever since ABC's Cokie Roberts first asked Lynne Cheney four years ago about Mary, her lesbian daughter, the vice president's wife has consistently bristled at any public discussion of her daughter's sexual orientation.

But last night, after John Kerry followed his running mate's lead and cited Mary Cheney in support of the proposition that homosexuality is not a choice, Lynne Cheney struck back, and publicly. The Washington Post reports that in a post-debate rally in Pittsburgh, she called the reference "a cheap and tawdry political trick" that led her to conclude Kerry "is not a good man."

Lynne Cheney claimed to be speaking "as a mom," but her criticism falls flat. Mary Cheney isn't just the vice president's daughter; she runs his re-election campaign. And she isn't just gay, she was the gay liaison for Coors Brewing Co., and she helped co-found the Republican Unity Coalition, a GOP alliance of gays and gay-friendly heterosexuals. After the vice presidential debate last week, she appeared with her partner on stage with the rest of the Cheney clan.

Whether or not Lynne Cheney is embarrassed by public discussion of her daughter's sexual orientation - and obviously she is - the president's horrid gay rights record makes it valid political fodder. Kerry's reference to Mary Cheney was no doubt intended to put the president on the defensive, but since when is that a "cheap and tawdry political trick"?

In fact, Kerry would have been fully justified in going even further, calling the president to task for not listening to Mary's father, his vice president - who clearly has more up-close familiarity with gay relationships and their threat to "family" - on the issue of a federal marriage amendment. Like Kerry, Dick Cheney supports leaving the issue to the states to decide.

So who is the "good man" here: John Kerry, who points out the vice president's daughter isn't lesbian by choice and deserves equal treatment? Or George Bush, who reminded Americans last night to be compassionate toward gays and "respect someone's rights" even as he justified efforts to write discrimination into the nation's founding document?

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Now GOP claims Mary was outed?

Ok, this is choice. I've gotten reports that the GOP, led by Fox News, is now claiming that John Kerry "outed" Mary Cheney during the debate last night.

Yeah, Mary bringing her "life partner" Heather Coe on stage during the VP debate, now that wasn't outing her. Mary sitting in box seats at the GOP convention with her girlfriend, that wasn't outing her. Dick Cheney bringing up the fact that his daughter is gay in Iowa during a public town hall meeting a month ago, that wasn't outing Mary. Mary being the gay liaison at Coors, that wasn't outing her. Mary selling pictures of herself at gay Republican fundraisers for $500 a pop, that wasn't outing her.

But John Kerry mentioning Mary Cheney after all of that, now suddenly she's been outed.

So apparently Mary was in the closet. She and her entire family need to go away. Read the rest of this post...

Another debate, another bulge

From Salon.com

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TSA cash cow

Well, we may not have safe borders, but at least we have $500 cheese. Read the rest of this post...

Good LA Times editorial on debate

Basically, Bush sucked. Read the rest of this post...

And the hits just keep on comin'

I'm beginning to feel sorry for the poor schlep. Last night he gets trounced -- AGAIN -- by Kerry, and today he gets this news sometime between the hour on the stairmaster and the mid-morning nap.

Jobless claims are inching back into that we-need-to-be-worried category. General Motors couldn't meet Wall Street's expectations (say good-bye to Michigan, george) and the Dow is back under 10,000 this morning. Those security moms are looking at their 401k's and wondering what happened. The trade deficit went up again, thanks to the high price of foreign oil.

Oh yeah, another three Americans died from "hand carried" bombs in Baghdad's "Green Zone" today. Someone's WALKING into the green zone with bombs. Yeah, things are just great over there.

Ready for a change yet?
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More evidence that Bush is ailing

There's a video going around of Bush's debate performance in the early 1990s against Ann Richards, when Bush was running for governor of Texas. The difference between his performance there and his performance now is shocking. As someone wrote on another site, Bush THEN is clearly the Yale grad and Harvard MBA that he is. Bush now is something completely different. I recommend you watch the video.

I bring this up because, as I'd written last night, I think Bush may have had a stroke and no one is telling us. During the debate last night he was drooling, and if you look at the left side of his mouth (his left side, the viewer's right side), it markedly droops while he talks. MARKEDLY DROOPS. All of us noticed it at the debate party I was at, and several observers noticed it online. I spoke with another journalist friend after the debate and he said his producer mentioned to him after the second debate that he thought Bush was ill because he seemed to be favoring one side of his body when he walked. That was apropos of nothing, until last night when we notice the same thing with Bush's mouth.

I'm quite serious about this folks. Bush canceled his annual physical, due this past August, and now won't be having it until AFTER the election. When Cheney had his heart attack, they LIED to us about it. Something is physically wrong with this president, and ironically, I wonder if the administration isn't happy to play up all the conspiracy theories about Bush's "hump" in order to dispel attention from the real mystery: Bush's stroke. Read the rest of this post...

After four years, why is Bush still nervous?

His eyes were blinking all night and he was foaming at the mouth (on his right side) last night. What is up with that? The guy has been the president for four years now and he's still a nervous wreck when he has to defend himself. It makes me nervous just watching him.
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Nader's off the ballot in Ohio, Bunning's off his rocker in Kentucky

Another shocking victory for integrity, integrity, integrity. No thanks to the corrupt Ohio Secretary of State, An Ohio judge has ruled that Ralph Nader will not be on the ballot there because the folks gathering signatures -- the defrocked JSM Inc. that gets its money from Republicans -- has committed "widespread" and "substantial" fraud.

Sorry I haven't posted in the last couple of days. I returned from a business trip last night to find that all the Kerry signs on my street had been stolen. Again.

BC04 is running ads in KENTUCKY -- my guess it's in an effort to help Jim Bunning, the gay-bashing ideologue who has clearly lost his mind and is losing votes by the day. Bunning ducked his opponent, Dan Mongiardo, and refused to debate for months. Then when Bunning got taken to task for his cowardice, he agreed to debate -- but at the last minute he didn't show up and demanded that he be able to debate via satellite from GOP headquarters. Bunning needed to use a teleprompter during the debate.

Bunning is clearly terrified. He refuses to talk to the media unless it's a pre-arranged deal. He has beefed up security (at taxpayer expense) at his pre-packaged campaign events in places like Paducah. He actually felt compelled to release a note from his doctor to defend himself -- but the letter had a somewhat less-than-ringing endorsement: Bunning "has had several minor health issues over the years, all of which are currently resolved or well controlled." Now he's accused the Mongiardo campaign staff of "roughing up" his wife at a state fair, though thousands of people were at the fair, including the media, and nobody can substantiate the claims.

Of course, BC04 could also be spending money in a red state to help Anne Northup, the right-winger who's about to lose her Congressional seat to Tony Miller. Regardless, the incompetence of these republican campaigns and the sad state of the republican candidates is costing furious george votes where it matters. Miller's actually running as a proud, pro-Kerry Democrat. And he's winning. In Kentucky. (It may be Louisville, the most moderate district here, but it's still Kentucky.)


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Cash from chaos with the flu vaccine

Reports of price gouging by pharmaceutical suppliers in the wake of shortages of the flu vaccine have triggered both outrage as well as some legal action. Prices have increased up to nine times the previous price as some suppliers are viewing it as an early Christmas present. It's always nice to see that industry can properly monitor themselves without the need for the government to step in.
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E-voting machine crash in Florida

During a test run that is required by law, the e-voting system in Palm Beach County experienced more problems. To hell with this system and just hand out paper ballots with a pen like they give us overseas voters. The e-voting systems have had problem after problem and now they are talking about problems with these machines in extreme heat. Why would Florida ever have to worry about heat being a problem? Who's feeling that liberty and democracy that Furious George likes to talk about?
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Halliburton to White House: Who's Your Daddy?

Yep, George and Dick can't stop doing favors for Halliburton. Here's a good LA Times story about their latest favor: distorting science to approve a technique for drilling owned by Halliburton that might contaminate our drinking water. Who cares if kids drinking dirty water and get sick if it can help Halliburton?

My favorite detail is about the panel that oversaw an EPA study that its own employees have raised serious doubts over. Who was on the panel, you wonder?

"The EPA report was reviewed by a seven-person panel: a senior technical advisor at Halliburton, a manager from an industry-funded research institute who previously worked for Halliburton, a senior engineer with BP Amoco and two academics who had worked for the energy industry. A sixth member, a state regulator with an engineering background, also had worked for Amoco. The final member was an expert on hydraulic fracturing from Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico."

Wow, talk about a balanced, independent panel. Will they be available to oversee that Florida post-election fracas?
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Online Polls -- Talk About Energizing Your Base!

I've just spent ten minutes going to all the online polls -- the links are below. And as of 4:30 am (EST), Kerry is trouncing Bush. Of course, these polls aren't at all scientific. But they do demonstrate which side has a more pro-active, energized base. And unlike the national polls, Kerry's numbers are way over Bush. Heck, he's even beating Bush by 11 points on the FOX poll! Keep voting early and often -- just like in Florida.
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Best debate summary of the night

GREAT story from AP. Things look nasty for Bush.

Ok, off to bed :-) Read the rest of this post...

Lynne Cheney loses it over lesbian Mary

This lady has never quite been ready to be a PFLAG mom. The same mom who denied her daughter was gay 4 years ago is now flipping out at Kerry for mentioning Mary during the debate tonight. Well excuse me. The candidates can all mention each other's kids and spouses and mothers during the debate, but when the talk turns to the lesbo in the family suddenly it's a scandal that must not be named.

Newsflash, Mrs. Cheney. You and your husband sold out your lesbian daughter for votes a long time ago. Don't go pulling the outraged PFLAG mom now after all the crap we've had to put up with because of your husband's and Mary's boss. You are the last family in America to be lecturing anyone else about the mistreatment of gay kids.

[Snap, snap!] Read the rest of this post...

Amazing anti-Bush TV ad hits the airwaves

I just watched this ad. Woah. The ad is about Robert Acosta, a 20 year old from California who lost his arm in Iraq. I saw it on TV tonight. Man. You can watch the ad here, and read more about Robert here.

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CNN online poll needs help - get it

CNN.com debate poll. Read the rest of this post...

VIDEO: Bush isn't concerned about finding Osama

Destroy this man. Read the rest of this post...