Bizarro World: Bush Only Screws Up Baseball

In a Friday NYT column about the reign of Bud Selig (a disastrous Commissioner of baseball that columnist Murray Chass extols as one of the best), there's a quick peek into what might have been for George Bush.

A failure at oil drilling, a failure at running the Texas Rangers, Bush was sittin' around looking for something to do.

"No wonder George W. Bush never got an answer when, as managing partner of the Texas Rangers, he told Selig he was willing to become commissioner if the owners wanted him. Bush kept waiting and asking, but the acting commissioner [Selig] gave no answer.

"Eventually Bush had to make a decision because the Texas Republican Party was pressuring him to run for governor, and he decided he could wait no longer for a reply from Selig.

"He opted for politics over baseball, and that's why today he is running for re-election as president of the United States."

Being commissioner of baseball probably sounded like a lot more fun and a lot less taxing than being President. And, my God, if Bud Selig had relented, Bush might have only screwed up baseball instead of the entire country! It hurts to even think about this for more than a minute, so don't try.
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Bush Attacks Military Lawyers

The Bush show trials of those non-entities known as prisoners at Guantanamo Bay is picking up steam. But since it's not enough to belittle the Red Cross, the Geneva Convention and all standards of decency (see Abu Ghraib), Bush is now taking out his anger on the military lawyers saddled with the miserable task of defending these prisoners under conditions that most lawyers would find unacceptable.

The military lawyers actually have done a spectacular job of providing excellent counsel by attacking the very legitimacy of the proceedings, giving it all a far more respectable air than they deserved -- something for which Bush should be grateful. Instead, these men and women are paying for fulfilling their oaths and their duties by having their careers torpedoed.

"One of those lawyers, Lt. Cmdr. Philip Sundel, said he accepted the job after the Navy's top lawyer said it would be a historic opportunity. 'Not historic enough, I guess,' Commander Sundel said in an interview.
"'I found out in June I was not selected for promotion for the second year in a row,' said Commander Sundel, who has a strong reputation as a trial lawyer. Under the military's system that emphasizes promotion or resignation, he will leave the service. Asked if he believed the promotion denial was related to his representation of Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul of Yemen and his strong criticism of the tribunal system, he said: 'I have no way of knowing if it adversely impacted my situation. It didn't positively impact, it seems.'"


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Manhattan Project For Renewable Energy?

Here's a good column in the NYT about a fantasy debate in which one candidate spoke the truth about our desperate energy needs. Wouldn't it be great if Kerry announced a substantive and real Manhattan Project -- combining stricter MPG for automakers with massive public research into alternative energy sources and tax incentives for the companies already investing in it? Wouldn't it be great of Kerry set meaningful and real short term goals for lowering and ultimately ending our dependence on Mideast oil? It's essential for our national security and essential for our moral standing in the world unless we want to continue propping up evil dictators and corrupt monarchies in the Middle East. And as a side bonus it hits Bush on a topic where he is deep in the pockets of big oil, beholden to the Saudis, etc.

If you think renewable energy is pie-in-the-sky hippie talk, keep in mind that in five years the world's biggest investor in and creator of renewable energy will be...General Electric. Solar power, windmills, hydrogen cells, electric cars, hybrids -- they're big business and they just also happen to be better for the air we breathe, the land we live on, our children, our military strength, and so on.
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Bush Aides Promise To Lie

A front page story in the Sunday New York Times details the plans by Bush aides for the Republican National Convention in NYC. Top on their list? Lying.

"Mr. Bush's advisers said they were girding for the most extensive street demonstrations at any political convention since the Democrats nominated Hubert H. Humphrey in Chicago in 1968. But in contrast to that convention, which was severely undermined by televised displays of street rioting, Republicans said they would seek to turn any disruptions to their advantage, by portraying protests by even independent activists as Democratic-sanctioned displays of disrespect for a sitting president."

Note the words I've italed. Bush aides happily admit they are going to LIE and claim that American citizens they know to be independent are working with the Democrats. And the Times doesn't even blink.

ADDED NOTE FROM JOHN: ONE MONTH AGO I reported that Republican sources said the GOP was planning to use protesters at the GOP convention to tar the Dems, they had already rented TV trucks to beam photos of the most outrageous protesters to Christian broadcasting networks, etc. Read the rest of this post...

Swift Boat Veteran admits has NO PROOF of claims & Bob Dole jumps on Kerry attack-dog bandwagon

Of all places, FOX News got one of the lead Swift Boat veterans to admit today that they had NO PROOF WHATSOEVER for their claims against Kerry (bet that anchor got fired). While I hate to beat this dead horse, I still think it's important to keep getting the truth out there.

More troubling is Bob Dole now entering the fray to beat up on Kerry over all of this. Dole is a heavy hitter and there is NO WAY he entered the fray without checking with the Bushies first to see whether it would help or hurt Bush. That means Bush's henchmen have decided that beating the drums over Kerry and Vietnam are a winner for the election.

Here's what Bob "Stop Lying About My Record" Dole had to say today:

Former Republican Sen. Bob Dole joined critics of Kerry, telling CNN's "Late Edition" Kerry should apologize for his testimony to Congress more than 30 years ago in which he quoted other veterans talking about alleged atrocities in Vietnam.

Dole also said Kerry had received only "superficial wounds" in Vietnam and had been taken out of combat as a result.

"I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and he never bled, that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds. Three Purple Hearts and you're out," said Dole who himself was badly wounded in World War II.

"Maybe he should apologize to the other 2.5 million veterans who served," said Dole. "He wasn't the only one who was in Vietnam."

Kerry still carries shrapnel in his thigh from one of his wounds in Vietnam.

This whole Vietnam thing worries me. Bush is a dirty campaigner and dirty campaigns, unfortunately, work. We simply cannot afford to lose this election. I know groups like MoveOn and ACT have been hitting Bush where it counts, but we need more of it. Bush has clearly signaled to his cronies that the time has come to trash Kerry the same way they trashed McCain and Clinton. And it's time to trash back, and HARD, or we're going to have another 4 years of this monster.

I'm curious what folks think to be Bush's greatest vulnerabilities, issue-wise, and why? Also, and this is kind of the same question, what's your best suggestion for the best counter-attack to Bush if we want to hit him as hard as he's hitting Kerry on the Vietnam crap? Read the rest of this post...

Kerry got excellent post-convention bounce in key swing states

Wash Post:

The Kerry-Edwards campaign has surged in a few of the states that will probably determine the electoral college winner, according to Realpolitics.com, which polls the polls. In Florida, the biggest swing-state prize, a seesaw race seems to have swung, for the moment at least, Kerry's way. Two polls, including the Quinnipiac University survey, show the Democratic ticket with beyond-the-margin-of-error leads of between 6 and 7 percentage points in Florida, post-convention, compared with a statistical dead heat a month earlier.

Kerry also has improved his standing in Michigan (he led by 7 percentage points in one early August survey); Minnesota (8 points up during the convention); Pennsylvania (5 to 6 points in mid-August); and New Hampshire (7 points). Kerry also grabbed a slight advantage over the president in West Virginia during the convention.

In other August poll action, Kerry has cut into Bush's lead in Washington state and Arizona. And two formerly solidly red states look much more competitive: Colorado and Tennessee were showing virtual ties in mid-month polls.

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Does Bush want the permanent occupation of Iraq?

Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman just said the following on Meet the Press about bringing the troops home:

"[Kerry] said 'try to get 'em back after six months.' That's the worst thing you can say 'try to get 'em back after six months.' You know why? That's a signal to the enemy, it's a signal to the terrorists to wait six months and one day. And to our allies who are making a big sacrifice, more than 30 nations today in Iraq, it's a signal to them that we're not willing to stay the course if there's a political issue."

So under Bush's logic, the troops must stay in Iraq forever because the day after we remove the troops the terrorists will start attacking again. It's irrelevant under Mehlman's logic whether we announce our troop withdrawal six months, or even one month, in advance. As soon as we announce we're withdrawing the troops - and no matter who's in office that announcement will come months in advance because we have over 100,000 over there, and it will take months to remove them - then the terrorists will wait until the day after we leave.

So Bush is arguing for the permanent occupation of Iraq. Read the rest of this post...

Now Bush is the great defender of body armor

I'm watching Meet the Press and Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman (you remember him - he's the guy who's 37, single, and doesn't have time for a girlfriend since his life is devoted to politics) says this little ditty:

"Once our troops were at battle, George Bush believed they needed all the equipment, all the support, and all the body armor they needed to be successful."

Huh. Really? Funny, because George Bush sent our troops to Iraq WITHOUT the body armor they needed, and even after the troops BEGGED Bush to send them the body armor, he still refused, until the troops had to get PRIVATE US CITIZENS TO DONATE MONEY TO BUY THEM THE BODY ARMOR THEY NEEDED. To wit:

"The Army National Guard soldiers Lt. Paul Rieckhoff commanded in Iraq... wore Vietnam-era flak jackets instead of body armor for most of the 14-month deployment that ended in March."

George Bush sent our troops into harm's way without the equipment they needed to defend themselves. How exactly has this story now become that Bush is the great defender of body armor?

Kind of like how Bush gets credit for the latest terror arrests when he was vehemently opposed to created the Department of Homeland Security. Read the rest of this post...

Bush campaign plays cute spin game over bounce from GOP convention

Ths Bush campaign is trying to lower expectations over the expected bounce they'll get from next week's convention. Two reasons for this. One, they may seriously think they'll only get a 3 or 4 point bounce next week, or two, and more likely, they think they'll get a bigger than 3-4% bounce - but not that much bigger - so this way any bounce bigger than 3-4% will be considered a great success since it BEAT EXPECTATIONS.

Now, what's interesting, is that the Bushies' "expectation" is to get a WORSE bounce than Kerry, who got around 5 to 6 points from the Dem Convention (at least according to this article). That strikes me as news, and it remains to be seen whether the media will realize this fact, or simply spin this as "Bush expects small convention bounce."

An interesting aside, check out this new lie from the Bush campaign mentioned in the article:

The Bush campaign watched with interest as Democrat John Kerry got only a delayed bounce of up to five or six points from his nominating convention in Boston last month.

They decided it was a reflection of a divided electorate that has left few undecided voters from which to get a traditional bump.

They decided it was a reflection of a divided electorate that left few undecided voters? Bullshit. The right-wing came out and denounced Kerry as having a no-bounce convention. They didn't argue that Kerry's bounce was only 5-6% because there were only a few undecideds. (I, however, did argue that at the time, and some of you didn't believe me - uh hum). No, the Bushies criticized Kerry, saying that the small bump meant the convention was a failure. And now, of course, they're rewriting history and the media is letting them. Read the rest of this post...

Flashback: Bush to "jawbone" OPEC about high oil prices

Bush's 2000 campaign pledge that if elected president, he would "jawbone" OPEC members by calling them and saying "we expect you to open your spigots." - Reuters

This comment came four years ago when oil was around $28 per barrel. What the hell has Bush been doing since then? Is this payback time for his Saudi friends who let Bush operate out of their country for the invasion of Iraq? Why doesn't Bush focus on helping Americans struggling to afford rising oil and gas prices instead of his oil buddies in Saudi Arabia? Read the rest of this post...

The "Reverse Midas Touch" and Accountability

Earth to media -- you took the bait again.

this administration has perfected the reverse Midas touch -- everything it touches turns to lead. Whether it's healthcare, the economy, the war, education, the environment, civil rights, ANYTHING. And rather than ask why this administration has been such an abysmal failure on virtually everything important to the American people and what the democrats would do to change it, we're fixated on a handful of lies in an ad that originally ran in just three states.

So rather than just complain, like I usually do, here's my idea to get this campaign back on track. Remember the press conference the preznit held back in April? It's the last one he held, and for good reason. The Kerry campaign should run an ad that simply takes this clip from the press conference:

Q. In the last campaign, you were asked a question about the biggest mistake you'd made in your life and you used to like to joke that it was trading Sammy Sosa. You've looked back before 9/11 for what mistakes might have been made. After 9/11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say? And what lessons have you learned from it?

A. Hmmm. I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it. I'm sure historians will look back and say, Gosh, he could have done it better this way or that way. You know, I just ? I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't yet.

And as prezint is stumbling over his answer, hesitating, wishing the question was in writing, the commercial would be flashing on the screen: "One million jobs lost... Two million more Americans without health insurance... Millions more children failing schools.... Faulty intelligence on WMD... More than a thousand killed or wounded in Iraq... Osama bin Laden still on the loose... One million more Americans in poverty... Oil hits $50 per barrel... Retirees losing health benefits... Abu Ghraib scandal... Promises broken on pollution reduction... Halliburton... Enron... Reading "My Pet Goat" to second graders while knowing America was under attack.

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Jobs creation under Bush the worst since Hoover

With the economy slowing down, will Bush be the first president since Hoover to have negative job growth? And for the cons out there that like to say otherwise and spit out voodoo numbers, even Bush won't lay claim to those figures. How can anyone believe any of his claims about job creation in a second term when he's been a wrecking ball domestically and a liar internationally? Is it November yet?
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What's Bush doing about healthcare?

It's about time Kerry takes Bush to task on this issue because for those not drinking the GOP Kool Aid, the problem is only getting worse. It's revolting how much corporate America has passed off this cost to its employees while the CEOs continue to rake in more and more money. I support some of the recent actions by the Bush administration to control costs with Medicare (which impact doctors getting rich from being pharmaceutical salespeople to their patients) but the problem is considerably larger than that.

Kerry needs to strike back at the silly "socialist" bullshit that the cons push and make this an easy to understand issue for Americans. (Is it socialist to build roads? Is it socialist to pay taxes for the military?) It's time Democratic leaders start fighting on this issue and frame the cons as the greedy people that they are. Do we want healthcare of more war profiteering from Cheney and Pioneer contributors? This is a fight that we can win.

If the Republican-controlled Congress enacted President Bush's entire health care agenda, as many as 10 million people who lack health insurance would be covered at a cost of $102 billion over the next decade, according to his campaign aides.

But when the Bush-Cheney team was asked to provide documentation, the hard
data fell far short of the claims, a gap supported by several independent analyses.

Since Bush took office, the number of Americans without health insurance has climbed by 4 million, to nearly 44 million. On its Web site and at news briefings, the Bush campaign says that through its actions overseeing Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, the administration has "expanded eligibility to more than 2.6 million people."

The statement gives the impression "they have extended coverage to 2.6 million more, and that is not really true," said Diane Rowland, executive director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. "In reality, only 200,000 of them got coverage" because of Bush administration efforts.

Total enrollment in the two government health programs did rise during Bush's tenure -- by about 7.5 million. But for the vast majority, coverage was required by law, not the result of any policy change.

"Part of the reason more people were covered is the economy got so bad that people lost income," Rowland said. "There were more low-income people under Bush than previously, so they became eligible for public programs."

It comes back to the economy again...it's not good and it's starting to look like it might go south again because of his tax cuts for the greedy and oil prices. Read the rest of this post...

US casualties in Iraq at 954. What is Bush doing?

He created this mess which even he can't spin in a positive light but what is he doing to improve the situation? Since he obviously wants to change the subject to anything but the failed war, let's get this discussion back on track. While we're at it what exactly is going on in Afghanistan? The Bushies love claiming that it's a success, but I would prefer seeing some facts instead of taking their word on the matter. It doesn't appear as though we have much control of anywhere in that country and perhaps the US has even been relying on hired guns such as Jonathan Idema. Let's start demanding serious answers to the foreign policy disasters created by Bush. Read the rest of this post...

Bush campaign aide appears in ad for Swift Boat Veterans

That's called coordination, and it's illegal. It's also completely contradictory to Bush's assurances that his campaign wasn't coordinating with the Swift Boat boys. Sure, the guy has now left the campaign - he HAS to, or it would be totally illegal on its face - but how many more members of Bush's campaign are working with these guys, and will continue to work with them illegally, until they too slip up and are caught? Read the rest of this post...