July 31, 2004
If Your County Will Be Using Touch-Screen Voting Machines, Bush Has Already Won Your County
The New York Times > National > Fla. GOP Advises Some to Vote Absentee
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Republican Gov. Jeb Bush has tried for months to persuade Florida voters touchscreen voting machines are reliable. His own party apparently hasn't gotten the message.
The state GOP paid for a flier critical of the new technology and sent it to some south Florida voters where a primary election is scheduled next month.Advertisement``The new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount,'' the message states. ``Make sure your vote counts. Order your absentee ballot today.''
That's what Democrats and a coalition of civil rights groups have been saying in legal challenges, trying to force the state to provide a paper trail in case the touchscreen machines malfunction.
Rock Concert in Scranton: Bush Can't Play Guitar
mcall.com - Kerry, Edwards warm up crowd of 15,000 in Scranton
But 15,000 people braved what local officials described as the hottest day of the year while they waited for a fleet of Kerry/Edwards tour buses to arrive. Nearly 100 people had to be treated for heat exhaustion or dehydration, according to Scranton Fire Chief Tom Davis.
July 30, 2004
Loyalty Oaths Required to See the Most Powerful Man in the World
ABQjournal: Obtaining Cheney Rally Ticket Requires Signing Bush Endorsement
"It's not right for me to have to sign an endorsement to hear (Cheney) speak," Wade said. "I'm still pissed. This just ain't right."
July 25, 2004
I'll Damn Well Say what I Please.
"I'll damn well say what I please, as I always have," Ronstadt said. "And if they cancel my show, they'll just be doing me a favor. They'll still have to pay me, and I could use a day off."
July 24, 2004
There's no statute of limitations on desertion during wartime.
strawhat over at Eschaton says:
First poster over at Drum's place says no statute of limitations on desertion during wartime: capital offense. Yow. I didn't know *that.*
Let's see what we have here: In this corner, three Purple Hearts, Bronze Star, Silver Star. In the other corner, desertion during wartime.
My oh my.
July 23, 2004
Can You Help Our Good Friend Mark at PoliticalStrategy.Org? He Wants Bush Voted Out. "Point Me At Something"
Political Strategy - Politics, Strategies, Tactics, News and Opinion
I am filled with fury and energy. I am on a quest.
I want to use all of my imagination and brains and experience and skills and strength for one goal. I want to get George W. Bush out of office by means of a large, surprisingly decisive popular vote, and a 100 point electoral victory. It's the most important thing I've ever had to do.
I don't want to spin my wheels. I don't want to preach to the choir. I don't want to waste time on those who will never be converted.
Who is on the fence? Who could still be undecided about this race for the presidency? I have debated with myself about reaching out to my extended family in swing-state Florida. I've considered e-mailing them all and finding out who's pro-W - but might be talked into staying home instead, and also who's anti-W - and needs to be pushed into getting out and voting.
But what would probably happen is more something like this: I contact them, ask about politics, and they get all pumped up about Bush (or other Republicans), and go out and vote GOP - when if I hadn't roused them from their slumber, they would never have stirred themselves to vote at all.
Quandaries like that make me want to do fewer specific operations, and more "atmospheric", viral, catalytic work. I've done many, many score pieces of art, some on specific topics, some generic and iconic. When those spread into the internet, they often take on a life of their own.
If I can make a piece of art that also has a clear idea in it that contributes to my goal of regime change, that feels like it might touch many, many minds as it spreads by web page and e-mail.
But who knows? Who can tell me? Would I have greater effect picking out an onboard discussion somewhere, a "mixed" board, and trying to pick off fence-sitters? That can't be efficient.
I'm seething! We must win! We must get this right!
How many of you have felt a low, throbbing, constant, deep anger every day since they called Florida for Bush? Do you find yourself doing the dishes, listening to NPR or Amy Goodman or Rush Limbaugh or ABC News and suddenly find yourself gritting your teeth, muttering, your hands gripping the edge of the sink at some new, astonishing provocation?
Do you read a story on CommonDreams or SmirkingChimp or BartCop or DemocraticUnderground, and then just want to pace around downtown, looking for someone with a BC04 sticker on their car so you can spit on the windshield?
And how productive is that, anyway?
AAGGH!
There's a lot of us out here. I've heard about a woman who writes on every piece of paper money she touches, in the margins, things like "Anybody But Bush - Haven't You Had Enough?" or that thing I posted yesterday "Kerry... or Revolution" or "Bush Must Go".
Sometimes, those efforts feel like they actually put ideas in front of eyes. But is it getting Bush back to Crawford? What will?
We have to make this happen. No matter what.
Point me at something.
Corporate Fascists Shut Down Anti-Bush Voice in Texas / And TahitiNut (at DU) Displays Some Awesome Understanding of The Way Things Really Are
Corporate Fascists
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20040722-145668.shtml
Associated Press
SILVER CITY -- A Silver City radio station yanked a liberal talk show off the air because of pressure from advertisers, the station's owner says.
"It's a shame that, in America, we can't have someone with an opposing view," said Matt Runnels, owner of KNFT.
The one-hour daily show, "Radio Free Silver," hosted by Kyle Johnson, was canceled Monday after running for about six weeks on KNFT.
Runnels said 20 to 25 advertisers -- including car dealers, bankers, pizza stores and furniture stores -- threatened to pull their spots from KNFT if the show continued.
Democratic Underground Forums - Station pulls liberal show after threats
TahitiNut :
You'll pardon me if I don't even bother climbing into the ring ...Edited on Thu Jul-22-04 05:36 PM by TahitiNut... or "playing" (where I don't agree to the rules) on a "field" (owned by someone inimical to my rights and freedoms).
The biggest problem "liberals" have is a total and abject failure to educate Pat Public about what "liberal" means so that (s)he knows what choice (s)he has. Most don't see a choice.
Yes, I agree that the DLC makes any "choice" even less apparent. Why? Because they're pretending that the "game" is about getting their opponent's fans to cheer for them, too. So, half the time they're not even opposing the other side ... but they're not getting a quid for their quisling-quo-pro.
Right now, even "honest" politicians are playing Prisoner's Dilemma, not with a goal of winning but of making the other side lose. Unless both sides agree to play "win-win," it's a "lose-lose." Under that circumstance, there's only one other choice: Don't "play."Some think the strategy in Prisoner's Dilemma is tit-for-tat. It's not. That's the lose-lose strategy. The DLC is under some delusion that it's tit-for-two-tats. Stupid. Really stupid. Suicidal.
Let me be clear. To me, "liberal" means win-win. "Liberal" means justice - equity for all. The only opposition to "liberal" is 'privilege' - and the only vested constituency for 'privilege' are those who benefit inequitably: the wealthy and powerful. Everyone loses, even those suffering under the fatal delusion that any system of 'privilege' can survive. Playing the conservative game of 'privilege' means playing a lose-lose strategy. Hell, that doesn't even rise to being a Pyhrric victory.
See, we're really not "playing a game" as much as we're fighting about the rules. "Liberal" means rules, not anarchy or 'might makes right.' Once we accept the 'rules' of privilege, we've all lost.
Systems of 'privilege' can only collapse in bloodshed and death.
Anyone contemplating a 'win' under such circumstances is completely insane.
July 20, 2004
Strong Evidence Bush is Abusing Crack Cocaine
Yahoo! News - Bush: 'I Want to Be the Peace President'
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) - After launching two wars, President Bush said on Tuesday he wanted to be a "peace president" ...
Another experiment - here's some of the ol' Tiny Polemics - even tinier!
More Proof That Bush Is Smoking Crack Again
Yahoo! News - Bush: Re-Election Will Ensure U.S. Safety
Bush told supporters at a community college in Iowa "Four more years and America will be safe and the world will be at peace."
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July 18, 2004
Dear Sean Hannity: Allawi Cut Off Suspect's Hand With an Ax
NEW YORK, July 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Since Ayad Allawi became prime minister of Iraq's interim government last month, stories circulating on the streets of Baghdad include reports that he ordered two suspected insurgents shot in front of him, shot seven captive terrorists himself and personally chopped off the hand of a suspect with an ax, report Correspondent Babak Dehghanpisheh and Middle East Regional Editor Christopher Dickey in the July 26 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, July 19)
Surprisingly? Ha. A-ha-ha. A-ha, a-ha-ha-ha, ah HA HA HA HA AWWWWWW HA! HA! HA!HA-HA-HA-HA-HAW!!!
WASHINGTON: The US media has surprisingly failed to pick up the shocking disclosure by Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's leading newspaper, that the Irqai Prime Minister Iyad Allawi personally executed six suspected insurgents in a Baghdad police station.
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Surprising? Ha! Where have you been for the past four years, PAKISTAN?!??
Oh. Of course.
And this story doesn't even cover the thing about how Allawi * cut a guy's hand off* in an interrogation.
And thus collapses the last, final, most pathetic defense of this war by Sean Hannity:
At least we don't amputate hands.
Whoopsie.
Cheney Was the Man Who Canceled the Stealth Bombers, Weakened the Air Force, the Marines, the Navy...Unlike Nuclear Scientist and Submarine Commander Jimmy Carter
Boston.com / News / Nation / Washington / Cheney's past defense cuts questioned
The latest Bush-Cheney campaign ad depicts weapons such as the B-2 stealth bomber flying over a battlefield and then disappearing into thin air, attempting to convince voters that if Kerry prevailed back then, US military forces would be underequipped.
Yet Cheney canceled the B-2 bomber program after 20 planes, even though the Air Force saidit needed 132. He also canceled the Navy's A-12 bomber and scaled back the Seawolf submarine.
During his Pentagon stint, the size of the Army was reduced by more than 26 percent, the Air Force by 22 percent, the Navy by 14 percent, and the Marines by 10 percent, according to the Pentagon's official biography of Cheney.
But support for particular weapons ''is not a very useful way to judge strength or weakness," said a former congressional defense staffer who asked not to be named. Using such a yardstick, he added, President Jimmy Carter was the ''strongest" because his budgets resulted in the weapons that won the 1991 Gulf War.
In a Second Bush Term, Our Soldiers Would Die for Oil in - Can You Guess? - Iran!
Regime change in Iran now in Bush
The official said: “If George Bush is re-elected there will be much more intervention in the internal affairs of Iran.”
Rumor Control: Slim-Fast does NOT cause pubic hair to fall out
There is NO TRUTH to the rumor that Slim-Fast makes your pubic hair fall out.
I have also heard that there is NO TRUTH to the version of the rumor that says that Slim-Fast makes your pubic hair turn grey.
So there.
July 17, 2004
Another of Hannity's Reasons for the War Turns to Dust - Bush's Mass Graves Bigger Than Saddam's...
The Observer | Politics | PM admits graves claim 'untrue'
Downing Street has admitted to The Observer that repeated claims by Tony Blair that '400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves' is untrue, and only about 5,000 corpses have so far been uncovered
July 16, 2004
My Good Friends At Slim-Fast Wrote Back!
Dear robertdobbs@hotmail.com,
This is an auto-generated response to let you know that we've received your message.
Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We want to provide the best support possible to help you achieve your goals with The Slim·Fast Plan. Please don't hesitate to call us toll free at 1-800-SLIM-FAST as e-mail responses may take 1-2 days.
On 07/15/2004 you wrote:
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You people are fascists and Nazis. Suppressing free speech is never a good idea. When you got spunky Whoopie Goldberg to promote your snake oil, did you think she was all sweetness and light? You are disgusting. You are enabling the new Nazism to rise in America. To the hapless minimum-wage worker at Slim-Fast who has been given the unhappy assignment to read these e-mails: Why don't you quit? Slim-Fast supports Nazis. You are helping Nazis. Vote for Kerry this fall!
==
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Slim·Fast Home | Privacy Policy | Contact Us
Slim·Fast Foods Company, P.O. Box 3625, West Palm Beach, FL 33402
July 15, 2004
GOP: The Party of Sexual Perverts and Harrassers
When the Republican candidate for Senator from Illinois, Jack Ryan, was revealed as a guy who "didn't break any commancments" in his quest to have his famous-beauty-wife Jeri Ryan kneel in bondage gear and service him in public while being flogged, the GOP sought another candidate. The favorite was Bush-League Drug WarriorAndrea Grubb Barthwell. But, whoops, she's a sexual harrasser at work:
Potential Senate candidate was criticized for 'lewd' behavior
Washington-AP -- An internal inquiry last year found a potential Republican candidate for the Senate seat from Illinois engaged in "lewd and abusive behavior" while she served as a top official in the White House drug policy office.
A March 19th, 2003, memo prepared by drug policy office staff says Andrea Grubb Barthwell made repeated comments about the sexual orientation of a staff member to staff and used a kaleidoscope to make sexually offensive gestures.
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Does the party have any candidates who are not sexual children?
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Which reminds me of something else: Does ALabama's Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Twerp) make your Gaydar go WHOO WHOOP WHOOP?
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More details on Barthwell, courtesy of Atrios:
Commenter Nina Katarina provides a few details:
"Dr. Barthwell suggested that the staff member would want to cut the cake available for the gathering because the knife was 'long and hard' and he might 'enjoy handling it.'" And "she said to the staff member, 'I know you like it big and meaty'."
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Mercy. Ms. Barthwell seems kind of...well, lonely.
July 14, 2004
Santorum Says Gay Marriage Equals Terrorism / Meanwhile, the bungling, do-nothing GOP congress spends days on pointless show instead of fighting terror, deficits, or poverty / Idiots fail to gain even 50 votes.
"I would argue that the future of our country hangs in the balance because the future of marriage hangs in the balance," said Sen. Rick Santorum, a leader in the fight to approve the measure. "Isn't that the ultimate homeland security, standing up and defending marriage?"
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Funny note from "Fed Up" in the comments section at Eschaton:
Memo
To: Senator Rick Santorum
From: One pissed-off American
Sen. Santorum: Gay marriage is not a threat to the security of America. Allowing a bill funding homeland security to languish while days are spent flogging a non-issue is, in fact, a threat to national security. Gays did not fly airplanes into the twin towers. As far as I know, gays are not killing our troops in Iraq. Gays are not harboring terrorists. You, sir, have one of the worst cases of cranial-rectal inversion on record.
July 13, 2004
The GOP-Run Senate Wastes Time On a Dog-&-Pony Show For Christian Supremacists - Lamely. Wonkette Is Funny: Madonna vs. Pat Boone
The Senate Republican Conference is tired of the Hollywood liberal elite using its awesome star power to, ahem, push the gay agenda down America's throat. Take "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," Madonna and Britney, "Will and Grace," Kerry and Edwards. . . They're fighting fire with fire. Today at 3PM, former Washington Redskin Darrell Green, actor Dean Jones, and Pat fucking Boone will speak out in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment.
So it's really more like fighting fire with a stick that's been sitting under a lamp for awhile.
Bringing Conformity To The Flock: The General Baits a Book-Burner
I was sorry to hear that the wicked unbelievers at the Cedar Rapid Fire Department wouldn't allow you to participate in the centuries old Christian tradition of book burning. They just don't understand how this metaphor for the banishment of foreign ideas unifies a community or how it simplifies the good work you do in bringing conformity to your flock.
No Comment - No, Wait, Comment: These are the guys who presume to tell Americans they can't marry who they please.
TheStar.com - Church probes `perverse' pictures
Enron + Delay = A Long-Term Republican Lock on Power
This story is important enough that I am stealing the entirety of Krugamn's column today:
Machine at Work
By PAUL KRUGMAN
From a business point of view, Enron is a smoking ruin. But there's important evidence in the rubble.
If Enron hadn't collapsed, we might still have only circumstantial evidence that energy companies artificially drove up prices during California's electricity crisis. Because of that collapse, we have direct evidence in the form of the now-infamous Enron tapes — although the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Justice Department tried to prevent their release.
Now, e-mail and other Enron documents are revealing why Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, is one of the most powerful men in America.
A little background: at the Republican convention, most featured speakers will be social moderates like Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A moderate facade is necessary to win elections in a generally tolerant nation. But real power in the party rests with hard-line social conservatives like Mr. DeLay, who, in the debate over gun control after the Columbine shootings, insisted that juvenile violence is the result of day care, birth control and the teaching of evolution.
Here's the puzzle: if Mr. DeLay's brand of conservatism is so unpopular that it must be kept in the closet during the convention, how can people like him really run the party?
In Mr. DeLay's case, a large part of the answer is his control over corporate cash. As far back as 1996, one analyst described Mr. DeLay as the "chief enforcer of company contributions to Republicans." Some of that cash has flowed through Americans for a Republican Majority, called Armpac, a political action committee Mr. DeLay founded in 1994. By dispensing that money to other legislators, he gains their allegiance; this, in turn, allows him to deliver favors to his corporate contributors. Four of the five Republicans on the House ethics committee, where a complaint has been filed against Mr. DeLay, are past recipients of Armpac money.
The complaint, filed by Representative Chris Bell of Texas, contends, among other things, that Mr. DeLay laundered illegal corporate contributions for use in Texas elections. And that's where Enron enters the picture.
In May 2001, according to yesterday's Washington Post, Enron lobbyists in Washington informed Ken Lay via e-mail that Mr. DeLay was seeking $100,000 in additional donations to his political action committee, with the understanding that it would be partly spent on "the redistricting effort in Texas." The Post says it has "at least a dozen" documents showing that Mr. DeLay and his associates directed money from corporate donors and lobbyists to an effort to win control of the Texas Legislature so the Republican Party could redraw the state's political districts.
Enron, which helped launch Armpac, was happy to oblige, especially because Mr. DeLay was helping the firm's effort to secure energy deregulation legislation, even as its traders boasted to one another about how they were rigging California's deregulated market and stealing millions each day from "Grandma Millie."
The Texas redistricting, like many of Mr. DeLay's actions, broke all the usual rules of political fair play. But when you believe, as Mr. DeLay does, that God is using you to promote a "biblical worldview" in politics, the usual rules don't apply. And the redistricting worked — it is a major reason why anything short of a Democratic tidal wave in November is likely to leave the House in Republican hands.
There is, however, one problem: a 100-year-old Texas law bars corporate financing of State Legislature campaigns. An inquiry is under way, and Mr. DeLay has hired two criminal defense lawyers. Stay tuned.
But you shouldn't conclude that the system is working. Mr. DeLay's current predicament is an accident. The party machine that he has done so much to create has eliminated most of the checks and balances in our government. Again and again, Republicans in Congress have closed ranks to block or emasculate politically inconvenient investigations. If Enron hadn't collapsed, and if Texas didn't still have a campaign finance law that is a relic of its populist past, Mr. DeLay would be in no danger at all.
The larger picture is this: Mr. DeLay and his fellow hard-liners, whose values are far from the American mainstream, have forged an immensely effective alliance with corporate interests. And they may be just one election away from achieving a long-term lock on power.
July 12, 2004
Hullabaloo Nails It - The Republicans Are Afraid of the American Response to a Taris Attack
Somehow, I have to believe that if terrorists attack us around the election, Americans will crawl out of the rubble on their hands and knees to vote. But then, that's obviously what they're really afraid of, isn't it?
Cheney and Rummy Have Been Practicing Taking Over the Country After an Attack for 20 Years
Their participation in the extra-constitutional continuity-of-government exercises, remarkable in its own right, also demonstrates a broad, underlying truth about these two men. For three decades, from the Ford Administration onward, even when they were out of the executive branch of government, they were never far away. They stayed in touch with defense, military, and intelligence officials, who regularly called upon them.
Like Josh Says: We Have Policy on Postponement - We Don't Do It.
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall
There certainly is an unseemly eagerness on the part of the White House to canvass ideas (embodied in legislation) for a possible delay of the November election in the event of a terrorist attack, as this and other articles explain. The rationale is that we need to have some policy in place for a possible election postponement before some precipitating event actually occurs. But my understanding is that we already have a policy in place on postponements: i.e., we don't do them.
The Delicious Cigarette-and-Liquor Kisses of Jenna Bush
Jenna kept slurping down the drinks, smoking cigarettes and stood in the corner with Shaggy for a good 10 minutes - little groping action - before sitting down at a table with her friends.
July 11, 2004
Republicans with Power: Stupid, Mean Squanderers
The entire right wing of the Republican party has done absolutely nothing with all the power they have except push the stupidest, meanest parts of their platform. In their public utterances they've done nothing but pule and whine and bitch that Howard Dean was angry, Michael Moore was fat, and Whoopi Goldberg said they sucked. They've hated on gays and they've complained about the Supreme Court and they've moaned about the media that cheerleaded them into Iraq being "too liberal."
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This is the man Bush wants to allow to "postpone" the election:
Rev. Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr. (Home Page)
Here's a letter I wrote to him:
Dear Mr. Soaries:
What in the world makes you think you can personally usurp the US Constitution and decide when we will get our chance to finally vote George W. Bush out of office?
Americans voted during the Civil War, WWI and WWII. Believe me, there is a majority of voters in this country who are spring-loaded, champing at the bit, ready to get in there and vote this pack of scoundrels out of office, and no force in the universe - not the terrorists, not the RNC, not the Bush White House, and certainly not some failed politico Baptist preacher from New Jersey - is going to keep us from voting them out.
Count on it.
(Get it? Count on it? That's a little voting rights/Florida 2000 joke there)
And if you think you do have the right to block our election, I'd like to quote our Vice-President, who had a three-word expression he used on the Senate floor -
Wait, no, you're a man of the cloth, I wouldn't want to use rough language with you.
Let me just put it this way:
You can take my voting rights when you pull them from my cold, dead hands.
Robert Dobbs
American
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CNN.com - Officials discuss how to delay Election Day - Jul 11, 2004
"[Ridge] sounded more like an interior decorator talking about what more we can do under the shade of yellow," she said.
The news that such discussions have taken place raised other eyebrows on Capitol Hill as well.
"I don't think there's an argument that can be made, for the first time in our history, to delay an election," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a member of the Intelligence Committee.
"We hold elections in the middle of war, in the middle of earthquakes, in the middle of whatever it takes. The election is a statutory election. It should go ahead, on schedule, and we should not change it."
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Lies, Lies, Lies
Columnist upset with White House
"This government lies," she said Wednesday to editors, reporters and interns from The Indianapolis Star.As for the Bush administration's claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, one of the key arguments for going to war against Saddam Hussein, Thomas had one word: "Baloney."
"I think we have a government that absolutely is ignoring the truth and a press that is ignoring the truth," she said during a luncheon at the Downtown Radisson Hotel.Thomas, 83, who worked for United Press International for 57 years as a correspondent and White House bureau chief, began covering the Oval Office during the Kennedy administration.
The columnist said she thinks the press today is doing a terrible job covering the presidency -- worse than she ever has seen."I really think that reporters for two, three months after 9/11 -- everyone was afraid to ask their question," Thomas said. "They would not ask any question that would appear to be unpatriotic."
This reticent culture continued into the war in Iraq, where reporters feared questions would be perceived as jeopardizing American troops, Thomas said.
"I think she's absolutely right -- dead on," said James W. Brown, executive associate dean of the Indiana University School of Journalism at IUPUI. "The evidence is there -- the Bush administration lies, lies, lies.
What Is Left For Bush To Ruin?
Columns: The GOP doubters on Bush
"I haven't talked to one person - except the rich people - who wants to vote for Bush. A lot of people are not going to vote at all, and if the Democrats had a good candidate it would be a landslide," he said. "My father was a Democrat and used to say that when Republicans are in charge even the fishing is bad. You know what? The fishing around here has been terrible."
Nazi Republicans Have No Intention Of Allowing an American Election
MSNBC - Exclusive: Election Day Worries
"We are reviewing the issue to determine what steps need to be taken to secure the election," says Brian Roehrkasse, a Homeland spokesman.
The Republican Fascists Intend To Cancel November's Election
NEWSWEEK PERISCOPE: Exclusive - Election Day Worries
American counter-terrorism officials, citing what they call "alarming" intelligence about a possible Qaeda strike inside the United States this fall, are reviewing a proposal that could allow for the postponement of the November presidential election in the event of such an attack, Newsweek has learned.
July 10, 2004
Foto Saturday
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July 09, 2004
Larry Flynt Talks About Bush's Aborted Child
We felt we really had a blockbuster story, but about two months before we were going to break the story, "Susan" disappeared. We finally found her. She was living in a half-million-dollar home in Corpus Christi, Texas. Before that she was living in a small apartment working for $13,000 a year as a cocktail waitress. I'm not saying Bush bought her off, but I'm confident that one or more of his cronies did. The only thing that interested me in this story is -- I'm pro-choice, but to have a guy who is running on a pro-life platform ... and this procedure was committed in 1971, two years before Roe vs. Wade, which would have made it a crime.
I went to two members of the national press (during the 2000 presidential campaign) and said, "Look. I don't have anyone out on the stump. You guys do. At least ask Bush the question." You know what? They refused to. One of them had the nerve to tell me that the election was too close. "We don't want to be the ones to tip it in any direction." I thought, that gives you a really great feeling about the press.
Bush Makes US Soldiers Die For a Lie. People Who Were Beaten As Children Love Unexplainable Violence. That's the only way I can explain it, Bart.
Kerry should be beating Bush by 30 points in every poll - but people love this insane loser.
He gave away the surplus that Clinton gave us, then he ran up another 5-7 trillion in debt, he blew the sympathy we had after 9/11 and he's killing soliders every day as his fake war drags on - he's depleted the military like it was the U.S. Treasury, ...we're hated all over the globe, ...yet half the country says he's doing a great job!
What the hell do they think they're seeing?
Peace and prosperity and a better tomorrow?
July 08, 2004
When Did Ed Gillespie Learn To Lie So Fast and Thick? When He Was Working For Enron, Of Course. And James Baker - He's Like Friggin' "Zelig".
The Enron Case (washingtonpost.com)
A partial list of people with direct Enron ties to the Bush administration includes:
Tom White, former secretary of the Army, was at Enron Energy Services, a company that was little more than a sham from the get go.
Ed Gillespie, current head of the Republican National Committee, was an Enron lobbyist.
Marc Racicot, former head of the RNC, was an Enron lobbyist.
Robert Zoellick, current US Trade Representative, worked for Enron as an adviser.
James Baker III, former secretary of state -- and the man who was crucial to Bush's win in Florida -- was an Enron lobbyist.
Restoring Honor and Dignity to the White House: At cabinet meeting, Bush says "Fuck 'Em All."
Cheney, however, is standing firm and recently told Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont to “fuck off” when the Senator questioned him on the Halliburton matters.
According to White House sources, President George W. Bush laughed the matter off at a recent cabinet meeting.
“Fuck ‘em all,” Bush said.
The President’s bravado, however, is not shared by worried White House aides. Some point to the last vice president to step down because of fraud and corruption – Spiro T. Agnew, who served under President Richard M. Nixon, another Republican forced to leave office because of scandal.
July 07, 2004
John Kerry's Vietnam Crew Called To Iraq
MSNBC - Needed: More Soldiers, More Billions
So deep is the Army reaching into its NCO bench that it's even calling up reservists like Mike Medeiros. He's a 56-year-old vet who 35 years ago served in Vietnam on Swift Boat PCF 94 for a skipper named John Kerry. Says Medeiros: "I'd rather be on the campaign trail."
Kerry himself calls these efforts a "backdoor draft." In truth, there's no plan for an actual draft. But some on Capitol Hill and inside the military say the latest efforts to add new troops without formally expanding the Army are only part of a larger effort by the Bush administration to hide the longer-term costs of the war—especially until after the election. Among those unbudgeted costs: replacing desert-ravaged equipment like Bradley Fighting Vehicles and tanks and a coming surge in veterans' benefits (nearly one in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from posttraumatic stress and other disorders, says a new study).
The Nuclear Option - Closeted Gay Politicians May Be Outed If They Support the Hate Amendment
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As the July 12 date nears for a vote on the federal marriage amendment, an outing panic has gripped Washington's political and media circles. Some gay activists have vowed to expose those closeted members of Congress who are supporting the amendment, as well as the closeted gay staffers of any member backing it.
July 04, 2004
Declare Independence from Mad King George
Here's some complaints against Mad King George that made our brave forefathers declare their independence:
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
July 03, 2004
Joe's all, "Hey, Man!"
Josh Does Biden:
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall
I say “We ought to stop that guy. We ought to stop that guy.” And everyone says, “Oh no, no. This guy's a bad guy and this guy's gonna cause real problems and there'll be dah dah dah dah dah.” And if I say, “I don't care what the hell all of you think.” And I get up and I go beat the shit out of the guy out there. And I come back in and sit down. You’re all going to look around, and when you misbehave … And I say, “Hey man!” You’re going to go “Whoa whoa whoa…”
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(SP says: I loved this line:)
And they're pretty smart guys. These are not a bunch of Christian Coalition guys.
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Heh.
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You know the president always brags with me. And what he said to me not long ago was, “Joe, I don't do nuance” --- as if that was a real cool thing, right? I mean literally, that's a quote. When I said to him, “It's a nuanced situation, Mr. President.” He said, “I don't do nuance, Mr. Chairman.” Well you know --- and Kerry's accused of being only nuance. Well let me tell you something, a lot of this is not so simple and it requires the use of more than one tool in the toolbox.
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It's more like organized crime. They love this thing about, you know, it's not law enforcement. It's not law enforcement in the sense that we have to have a warrant to go get them--- that’s the implication.
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We did a good thing in getting rid of Saddam. That son-of-a-bitch was a butcher. But it had nothing to do with our central problem, terror.
And the reason why it's so dangerous what they're doing, their approach --- it's not intentional --- but it takes their eye off the ball. It's the wrong focus.
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And what did they focus on? National missile defense --- from the day they took office, at the exclusion of everything else. The preoccupation was palpable. And that's why I made the speech. I didn't know it was going to come on the 11th. But I said it was going to come and it was gonna come relatively soon. Because they ignored --- I'm not arguing they could have stopped 9-11. But I am arguing that all the resources --- the intellectual, political, and military resources --- were focused on, except to keep everything else just sort of bouncing along, on national missile defense. After 9/12, all the focus went, whoosh, Iraq. So what did we lose with that?
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SP says: Maybe our next Secretary of State?
July 01, 2004
79% of americans - 4 in 5 - Say Bush is Lying About Iraq
New surveys by The New York Times and the Washington Post reveal a perilous plunge in the commander-in-chief's credibility. The Times found that 79 percent of the public thinks Bush either is hiding something about Iraq, or worse, is "mostly lying" about it. The Post asked whether Bush or Kerry is "honest and trustworthy," and the president was judged to be honest by 39 percent. Kerry came in at 52 percent.
Christian Thugs Threaten Moore's Daughter / Even More Foto Thursday
Crooked Timber: I'm pretty sure that this isn't what Jesus would do
According to the blog Non Prophet, James Dobson’s socially conservative activist group, Focus on the Family, has included Michael Moore’s home address in their daily email to supporters.
What legitimate purpose could this possibly serve? What have Moore’s neighbors, wife and daughter done to merit the danger that FOTF have foolishly put them in?
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Billions of revenue from oil 'missing'
Stephen Bates and Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday June 28, 2004
The Guardian
A Christian charity has accused the coalition authority in Iraq of failing to account for up to $20bn (nearly £11bn) of oil revenues which should have been spent on relief and reconstruction projects.
At the same time, the Liberal Democrats are demanding an investigation into the way the US-led administration in Baghdad has handled Iraq's oil revenues. The coalition is obliged to pay all oil revenues into the Development Fund for Iraq, but according to Liberal Democrat figures, the fund could be short by as much as $3.7bn.
Sir Menzies Campbell, Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman, said yesterday: "This apparent discrepancy requires full investigation".
Christian Aid, in a report today, claims that the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority, which hands over power to an interim administration in Iraq this week, is in flagrant breach of the UN security council resolution which gave it control of the country's oil revenues.
Resolution 1483, passed in May 2003, stated that the money should be spent in the interests of the Iraqi people and independently audited, but an auditor was appointed only in April.
The charity quoted an unnamed UN diplomat as saying: "We only have the total amounts and movements in and out of the development fund. We have absolutely no knowledge of what purposes they are for and if these are consistent with the security council resolution."
Last October, Christian Aid revealed that $4bn of oil revenues were unaccounted for, but although procedures have been tightened up, the charity said, "we still do not know exactly how Iraq's money has been earned, which companies have won the contracts that it has been spent on, or whether this spending was in the interests of the Iraqi people."
According to the coalition's latest figures, the development fund has received $10.7bn. Yet it also admits that $12.5bn has been generated since June 2003.
When 5% is taken away to pay for Kuwaiti compensation, $1.2bn is still missing, say the Liberal Democrats.
Their own research, published today, also suggests that $12.5bn is anyway toward the low end of estimated revenue from oil sales.
The British government told Sir Menzies earlier this year that "information on the amount paid for Iraqi oil is not publicly available" to protect commercial confidentiality.
Christian Aid says billions of dollars are now being hastily allocated to projects which have not been properly planned and fears the authority will be wound up this week without ever having to account for the expenditure.
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Foto Thursday Part Two
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Even more Foto Thursday later...
Foto Thursday
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more later tonight on Foto Thurssday...
Fastest Growing Religious Group? Those Who NEVER Go To Church - I'm Hip Once Again!
But the whole US population is trending toward less observance, not more. For example, in surveys taken over the last thirty years, it is the ranks of those who never or rarely attend church that have grown the most. According to a National Opinion Research Center (NORC) study, those who said they never attended church or attended less than once a year went from 18 percent in 1972 to 30 percent in 1998. Confirming this latter figure, the National Election Study found that those who say they never attended was at 33 percent of the citizenry and 27 percent of voters in 2000. That is a group about twice the size of those who identify themselves as members of the religious right, and it is a group that has tended to vigorously support Democrats rather than Republicans.
(snip, from Rudy back to Digby)
There is also quite a large school of thought that even among those who report regular churchgoing that they "overrepresent," due to social expectations and other pressures. In other words, they lie about how often they go to church. Furthermore, when pollsters ask about religion in specific terms it often turns out that people consider themselves very religious simply because they believe in God, or a Higher Power which is actually falls under the secular category, not the religious category. In other words, the idea that there exists a huge monlithic number of highly religious Americans who will reject anyone who isn't explicitly appealing to them in religious terms is probably a crock. Indeed, with the exception of those who "claim" to attend church once a week or more, the Democrats consistently pull even with the Republicans.