"more viewers than CNN"

Televangelical tentacles: "The 700 Club has been operating under the radar of traditional journalistic scrutiny for over two decades. Anchored by Pat Robertson, he initially created it as a vehicle to promote his personal political ambitions. After his failed presidential bid in 1988, Robertson founded the Christian Coalition and embarked on an ambitious plan to influence the mainstream political agenda from the inside out.

He used The 700 Club as the marketing and political advocacy tool of this plan. The broadcast's focus is instructing viewers on how they could best lobby elected officials to enact the Christian right's agenda.

Robertson's show regularly has more viewers than CNN. And while the rest of the world wasn't watching he has been phenomenally successful in realising a three part blueprint to essentially take over all branches of the US Government...."

WBNS-10TV Columbus, Ohio

Ross County Soldier Wounded: "Before the fighting began in Fallujah, Helen and Denny Norris got an email from their son, Joe, serving with the Army in Iraq.

'If you read between the lines you could almost read into it he was saying goodbye just in case,' Helen Norris said.

Army Specialist Joseph Seyford faced a violent battle ahead in Fallujah. And then his parents received a call that Joe had been wounded in action.

'A guy popped up, and Joe said he was five feet from them, and he started firing at them,' his mother described.

Specialist Seyford was shot in the shoulder. He believes the bullet that went through him also killed his commanding officer...."

What about the rule of law?

You know the GOoPer's answer: "Fuck yourself!"

Rules changed to suit needs of GOP powerful:

"Emboldened by their election success, House Republicans changed their rules yesterday to allow Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) to keep his post even if a grand jury indicts him, and Senate GOP leaders continued to weigh changing long-standing rules governing filibusters to prevent Democrats from blocking President Bush's most conservative judicial nominees."

PS: Josh Marshall has a great idea -- call your local GOP member of congress and ask if they voted to allow DeLay to keep his post even if indicted by a grand jury. All the info you need is here.

Another case of the truth suppressed for political advantage

U.S. Knew Last Year of Flu Vaccine Plant's Woes: "The Food and Drug Administration found serious problems of bacterial contamination at an influenza vaccine plant in England in 2003, 16 months before British regulators effectively closed the site and impounded its flu shots because of fears they were tainted....

The documents, which include FDA inspection reports, letters and e-mails, also revealed that the agency was nine months late in giving Chiron Corp. [of California], the owner of the plant, a detailed report of the problems it found and then rebuffed the company's efforts to learn more about what it could do to fix things. At the same time, FDA managers overruled its inspection team and made its fixes voluntary rather than mandatory.

The new information appears to undercut the agency's assertions that it had no reason to suspect that past safety problems at the plant had persisted and might threaten its huge production capacity...."

You can see once again what a high priority the health and well-being of Americans is for Dubya's regime. But who cares as long as he's a 'winner,' right?

This is a great read

Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich- and Cheat Everyone Else, by David Cay Johnston:

"This book is about the reality of how our tax system actually operates after the politicians pass the laws. The news media do a good job of telling you the official version of events and what politicians in Washington say about taxes. But I spent a lot of my career covering Washington without being there by paying attention to what actually government does, as opposed to what the politicians say that it does. And I show in this book that our tax system is not what most people think."

Thanks to Daily Howler

The Winchester Star

"Brent Knowles' excitement over hearing his son's voice on the phone was short-lived.

'I've got good news and bad news,' Marine Lance Cpl. Zak Knowles told his dad. 'The good news is I might get a Purple Heart, and the bad news is I've got a piece of metal in my arm....'"

An honest voice

"'...The media is a failing institution in this country,' [Howard] Dean said. 'They are not maintaining their responsibility to maintain democracy.'

One of the major problems Dean focused on during the talk is the media's increased focus on entertainment at the expense of investigative journalism.

'The Monica Lewinsky scandal exploded,' Dean said, 'and suddenly the way to get to the top [in media] was salacious gossip and sex scandals. There is no investigative journalism worthy of the name.'

The television networks, especially Fox News, are most to blame for the increased focus in journalism on flash and entertainment, Dean said. Dean said these networks aim to entertain because 'entertainment sells better than news.' The infamous 'scream speech,' often blamed for Dean's loss to Sen. John Kerry '66 in the Democratic primaries, was partially a media fabrication because it was appealing for its entertainment value rather than its newsworthiness, Dean said.

'The media is trained to get the entertainment value and screw the facts,' he said....

During the discussion, Dean said the media has almost completely lost its objectivity.

'You can't read a piece of newsprint very often in this country without being told what to think,' he said."...

In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye

All done for their safety, of course:

...a few schools have begun monitoring student arrivals and departures using technology similar to that used to track livestock and pallets of retail shipments....

Isn't it refreshing to finally see our children valued as highly as the valuable commodities contained in retail shipment pallets or heads of cattle? Thank god for Texas!

But it's not just Texas:

Here in a growing middle- and working-class suburb just north of Houston, the effort is undergoing its most ambitious test. The Spring Independent School District is equipping 28,000 students with ID badges containing computer chips that are read when the students get on and off school buses. The information is fed automatically by wireless phone to the police and school administrators.

In a variation on the concept, a Phoenix school district in November is starting a project using fingerprint technology to track when and where students get on and off buses. Last year, a charter school in Buffalo began automating attendance counts with computerized ID badges - one of the earliest examples of what educators said could become a widespread trend....

Imagine how secure you will feel, knowing that your child's badge has been scanned and logged each and every day! Not that this answers an imminent threat, but one can never be too careful:

At the Spring district, where no student has ever been kidnapped, the system is expected to be used for more pedestrian purposes, Chief Bragg said: to reassure frantic parents, for example, calling because their child, rather than coming home as expected, went to a friend's house, an extracurricular activity or a Girl Scout meeting.

When the district unanimously approved the $180,000 system, neither teachers nor parents objected, said the president of the board....

Isn't that the scariest aspect of this entire 'big-brother' trend?

But at least this new school 'routine' will prepare the students for their future workplaces where they will have to use their ID badges to go to the bathroom:

...some companies are even thinking of tracking their employees' day-to-day exercise levels and caloric intake, according to Astro Teller, CEO of BodyMedia Inc., a Pittsburgh-based manufacturer of wearable body-monitoring devices....

"There are companies that limit employees to 15 minutes of restroom time during an eight-hour shift,"....

Although unionized employees, such as the police in Orlando, can fight the monitoring technologies, nonunion personnel have no legal recourse in the U.S., according to James T. Bennett, a professor at George Mason University who studies workplace privacy. "Employers are assumed to own any information that employees create, including information relative to their physical location," he says....

Meet the new boss, much worse than the old boss.

Need more evidence?

...Most people assume that Federal laws protect Americans from being spied upon in the workplace. To the contrary, over the years, Congress has rejected legislation spelling out basic privacy protections for employees. In fact, in many ways, employers have leeway to scrutinize Americans routinely to an extent that even police can't, unless they first go to court and obtain a warrant....

For example:

...using videotapes with no sound to get around the laws restricting wiretaps and eavesdropping. "In terms of videotaping, that's a loophole in our surveillance laws. There are no Federal laws on it. As long as they use video and are not capturing sound, they are not covered by the eavesdropping and wiretaps statutes."...

Isn't this how we got into Iraq?

"Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief, has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to 'support the administration and its policies in our work,'' a copy of an internal memorandum shows...."

Slapping the Other Cheek

"...somehow I'm not getting a peace, charity, tolerance and forgiveness vibe from the conservatives and evangelicals who claim to have put their prodigal son back in office.

I'm getting more the feel of a vengeful mob - revved up by rectitude - running around with torches and hatchets after heathens and pagans and infidels...."

Thanks to Wonkette

This entry almost makes up for Vice Dick:

"This site is about trampling, crushing, and smashing telephones. Our models have no mercy and take proper care of the most hated piece of modern technology. We focus on telephones but will also smash other objects, including balloons and other items. We have hundreds of pictures updated at least once a week. We also offer video files to download. Pictures are high quality, high resolution."

when is a joke not a joke?

"Reputable sources report that Bush has selected Condoleezza Rice to follow Colin Powell as secretary of state. Yes, well. . . Dissent is overrated, anyway. Are we the only ones who think that Bush's ideal cabinet would actually be made up of the Iraqi leadership council? You know: hand-picked, obedient, unfamiliar with the U.S. Constitution. . . "

more of the same dept...

back door draft

This Dubya approved adventure in Iraq just keeps getting better and better...

"The U.S. military has begun an investigation into possible war crimes after a television pool report by NBC showed a Marine shooting dead a wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a Falluja mosque, officials said on Monday."

Well no doubt that action would earn Dubya some red state votes.... but are these types of circumstances really what we want for our troops?

And how do these sort of actions -- committed in a mosque no less!?! -- and the subsequent dissemination of these images throughout the world help us win the 'war on terror'? (And please, no 'the press is to blame' babble... that is what the French said regarding torture in Algeria.)

UPDATE: more info here

only for the brave of heart

Vice Dick

No, it was not who you were hoping for...

Man Tries to Set Self Ablaze at White House

this says it all

"No one person more tarnished his legacy the last four years than Colin Powell.

His integrity resigned in the runup to Bush's War. Nice to see the rest of him follow suit."

why do I have to read about this...

...fear of 'morality' censorship in the US in a British newspaper?

And do you think that perhaps the censorship of the depiction of wartime violence during D-Day may have something to do with what is going on in Fallujah?... You're damn right it does!

"More than 20 American TV stations last night boycotted a Veterans Day screening of war picture Saving Private Ryan because of fears that they would be censured by a newly aggressive television regulator over the movie's violence and graphic language.

Network executives said the rebellion by affiliates of the ABC television network in Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix and other leading markets was sparked by fears of reprisals from the Federal Communications Commission....

"We're just coming off an election where moral issues were cited as a reason by people voting one way or another and, in my opinion, the commissioners are fearful of the new congress," he said.

After the FCC refused to guarantee stations they could broadcast the film without fear of repercussion, network executives said they were taking no chances...."

American injury toll grows amid fierce resistance

"...Military officials said 18 troops had been killed in the battle for the rebel-held city west of Baghdad, with another 178 injured. Five members of Iraqi security forces have died and 34 have been wounded.

Planeloads of injured soldiers have been flown to the US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and doctors were bracing for a further influx as the Falluja battle culminates.

Two aircraft carrying 102 injured soldiers arrived yesterday. Another 125 injured arrived earlier in the week and more were expected today...."

A Moveable Feast of Terrorism

"...The president is putting his own counsel, Alberto Gonzales, who wrote the famous memo defending torture, in charge of our civil liberties. Torture Guy, who blithely threw off 75 years of international law and set the stage for the grotesque abuses at Abu Ghraib and dubious detentions at Guantanamo, seems to have a good grasp of what's just. No doubt we'll soon learn what other protections, besides the Geneva Conventions and the Constitution, Mr. Gonzales finds 'quaint' and 'obsolete.'

With the F.B.I. investigating Halliburton and the second-term scandal curse looming, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney want a dependable ally - and former Enron attorney - at Justice...."

comical rant

Fuck the South: "...Take your liberal-bashing, federal-tax-leaching, confederate-flag-waving, holier-than-thou, hypocritical bullshit and shove it up your ass...."

OMG - WTF

WIGU BRAND URBAN BOUTIQUE - SHIRTS

Vice Dick

A thread on Free Republic celebrates the largeness of Dick Cheney's penis and potential evidence thereof. . . Granted, this is arguably the subtext of all Free Republic threads....

more of the same

"The Death of Arafat and the Myth of New Beginnings"

AARP Newspeak

Who does the AARP represent? Apparently not its members: "AARP Newspeak"

rationing healthcare

The GOP always tries to scare voters by saying that any Democratic plan to improve healthcare in this country will result in 'rationing.' Never mind the fact that millions are currently without any healthcare at all... if that's not rationing, what is? Well, here's another instance of rationing:

SPECIAL REPORT: Medicaid threatens to terminate girl's nursing care

You're only hearing about this case because the decision is so extreme, but there are hundreds of similar cases every day... but we don't 'ration' healthcare in this country, do we?

PS thanks to Atrios for the link

something to cheer you up

...at least until you find out who their replacements are: Ashcroft, Evans To Leave Cabinet (washingtonpost.com)

wear earphones if at work

Film Strip International

some common sense

I agree with Atrios here regarding the question of whether the election was stolen or not: "...A 'smoking gun' may yet appear, but until that time we need to differentiate between legitimate questions and manufactured answers...."

Let's try and remain part of the 'reality-based community' everyone. That's not to say we should bury our heads in the sand, simply that we need facts, not speculation.

Fallujah reporting

The reports from Paul Wood are particularly gripping. BBC NEWS Reporters' log: Battle for Falluja

Surprise surprise

U.S. Forces Launch Attack on Fallujah

The real surprise is the story running just beneath the Fallujah carnage on the Website: World After 9/11: Bioterrorism -- U.S. Remains Unprepared

Allow me to clarify, the content of the story is not surprising, that it is being run at all is the surprise.

Hmmm, that's funny, the story headline is different on the article page ('despite progress' is added) from the one on the front page

Get your Christmas gifts early and on-line

http://www.georgewbushisthedevil.com/

How and why?

When I was a kid, the "how and why" books were among my favorites at the school library. First of all, they were interesting, encompassing many subjects so if one book didn't do it for you very likely another one would. Secondly, they didn't talk down to you, like so many books written for children, but rather spoke plainly but directly on the given topic. Third, well... there really wasn't much competition, given how limited and meager size and breadth of the grade school library collection.

When debating the 'how and why' of the latest election debacle, we should try and remain true to the principles I've identified above. First of all, we should try and take into account the wide range of possible explanations that might explain it. Secondly, we should follow Occam's razor: the simplest, most direct explanation is typically the correct one. And thirdly, we need to take into account the origin and quality of competing explanations.

Sadly, Secular Blasphemy, which can usually be counted on for provocative if not necessarily intelligent takes on issues, fails on all three counts. He fails to address all of the information that is out there, particularly the extensive exit poll data from CNN, in dismissing the importance of 'values voters' and embracing the notion the Bush won due to his on-the-job 'performance,' particularly with regard to terrorism. Secondly, in discarding what our 'lying eyes' tell us regarding the impact of religion and 'values voters,' he discards Occam's razor for an overly intellectualized analysis: in plain English, for a 'rationalization.' Thirdly, he fails to take into account the origin of the revisionist history. Listening to David Brooks is one thing, actually believing that anything he writes is not for the express purpose of pushing the 'Moralist-Leninist' line of God's Official Party (GOP) is quite another. If Brooks is pushing a line of interpretation, then you can be sure the GOP has a reason for his doing so. And in this case the GOP is terrified of the idea that people will realize that the flat-earthers won them the election, because that identifies the GOP with the anti-evolution core of their party, which is not the image they wish to project.

Now, of course, it is true that red-neck fear and loathing of a lesbian planet is what propelled Dubya to victory. But that is not the explanation that comports with the image that the GOP wants reinforced. This should not surprise us, since the same principle is at work in their depiction of the splendid little war in Iraq and the the state of the national finances: truth is sacrificed for the sake of greater good: the good of the GOP, that is.

After all, it is only the cheese-eating, wine-sipping, effete, liberal surrender-monkeys that must be tagged with unflattering stereotypes. And by swallowing--as we say in English: hook, line and sinker--the disinformation being peddled by the usual suspects, Secular Blasphemy has played a small but essential part in legitimizing the machinations of the GOP propaganda machine.

That is the how, now the why.

The usual reward of revisionism is inflated feelings of intellectual superiority. The forbidden pleasure of intellectual sin is the feeling that somehow you have uncovered a 'truth' hidden in plain sight--hence the endless allure of revisionism. This applies even if others have also shared your insight; in fact, these others help 'validate' it--just so long as the revisionist position is controversial and over-intellectualized. Add to that the malicious shadenfreude implicit in the cheap shot taken at Daily Kos for even suggesting that the Dems push back (rather than roll over and play dead) on the 'mandate' spin wars. Intellectual vanity and shadenfreude: we've got a poisonous brew steeping!

A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but it is often the vanity of intellectuals that often leads to their own--unknowing--self-prostitution in the service of a far larger lie. The work of Rudyard Kipling comes to mind...

Wouldn't this be so much easier? 

Here's an example...

...of reframing an issue from Juan Cole.

One of the key ways of reframing issues will be to take a libertairian tact with issues involving the government: do you want the same government that you don't trust with your tax dollars...
-- to have the authority to kill people? (death penalty),
-- to dictate your medical care and second-guess your doctor (abortion),
-- to interfere with religion? (marriage)
-- or to tell you who you can love? (civil unions) etc.

Yes, perhaps they sound silly now, but do they sound any sillier than getting the goverment off you back by creating a flat tax did 10 or 20 years ago? Or labeling the estate tax the 'death tax'?

And as Cole notes, you don't have to convince everyone with these arguments, just a few hundred thousand in a few states. Also, oftentimes it isn't the fact that you have a slam dunk argument, but the fact that you have a counter-argument at all that helps folks to vote their conscience.

Meet Bubba: "...a lot of Democrats would like to see gay marriage or at least civil gay unions passed into law. This is a matter of equity, since gay partners can't even get into a hospital to see an ill partner because hospitals limit visits to close family.

This issue scares the bejesus out of the red states.

But if Democrats were sly, there is a way out. The Baptist southern presidential candidate should start a campaign to get the goddamn Federal government out of the marriage business. It has to be framed that way. Marriage should be a faith-based institution and we should turn it over to the churches. If someone doesn't want to be married in a church, then the Federal government can offer them a legal civil contract (this is a better name for it than civil union). That's not a marriage and the candidate could solemnly observe that they are taking their salvation in their own hands if they go that route, but that is their business. But marriage is sacred and the churches should be in charge of it...."

This is an interesting read

"We're all Israelis Now."

No Surrender

Krugman is right, but he doesn't go far enough. Democrats shouldn't become GOP-lite (speaking of which, would Howard Dean ever have asked for a 'time of healing'? - you're damn right he wouldn't!). Democrats need to keep up the intensity and to attack attack attack!

But they also need to create a rival intellectual infrastructure to lend coherence, direction, and a long-term perspective to the attacks. Anything less will continue to be haphazard and rudderless. It doesn't matter how many screw-ups Dubya makes (as we have just seen) if there is no coherent story available to explain why they were not just happenstance but rather natural a outgrowth of his 'Moralist-Leninism.' Only an organized and funded intellectual/broadcast counter-establishment can do that for us.

"Rather than catering to voters who will never support them, the Democrats - who are doing pretty well at getting the votes of moderates and independents - need to become equally effective at mobilizing their own base.

In fact, they have made good strides, showing much more unity and intensity than anyone thought possible a year ago. But for the lingering aura of 9/11, they would have won.

What they need to do now is develop a political program aimed at maintaining and increasing the intensity."

'The Day the Enlightenment Went Out'

Here's another take, but I think it is incomplete.

Religious belief is not incompatible with enlightenment.

And religious belief is not what carried Bush to victory, although his identification with extremist faiths did serve as a marker of his political identity. As I see it, it is the construction of 'liberal' and 'conservative" that voters connect with, and the GOP has been skillful in crafting 'conservative' as 'religious' and 'liberal' as 'atheist.'

So it is not religion per se, but the successful (from the GOP perspective) coupling of religion to constructed political identities that have given the GOP an advantage. Folks didn't care about Darwin when they voted for FDR. The fact that they do when the vote for W is not a natural outgrowth of holding a religious faith, as Garry Wills would have it, it was engineered by years of work villifying 'liberalism' and extolling 'conservatism' as the ideology of 'ordinary religious folks.'

But then it is so much easier to just throw up your hands and say "who can reason with zealots?" Well, that's called politics, but you can't wait until six months before an election to start attempting to address people's political identities. Facts alone won't do it either. You must present a compelling counter-narrative that explains the world convincingly -- a task that no campaign no matter how large can accomplish given the fleeting nature of campaigns. That is why the Dems need an intellectual infrastructure that mirrors the GOP.

But again, who can afford to 'staff it' if it doesn't allow you to pay rent or eat? That is part of the rationale behind the GOP war on education (although the myth of the liberal universities is just that, a myth... ever speak to an economist, business school prof, or political scientist?) I myself would be glad to be a member of the counter-establishment, but volunteer work doesn't pay off my student loans, my medical bills or my rent. It's time for the Dems to put their money into some long-term investments...

"This election confirms the brilliance of Karl Rove as a political strategist. He calculated that the religious conservatives, if they could be turned out, would be the deciding factor. The success of the plan was registered not only in the presidential results but also in all 11 of the state votes to ban same-sex marriage. Mr. Rove understands what surveys have shown, that many more Americans believe in the Virgin Birth than in Darwin's theory of evolution...."

A good first step...

...recognizing the problem:

For too long Democrats have allowed the GOP to dominate the definition of large concepts like 'liberal' or 'conservative.'

'Conservatism' today is nothing more than a form of identity politics, as exemplified by the bogus musings of David Brooks. We must fight back on the front of ideas and the framing of concepts... but alas, how can the left do so when we don't even support our own think tanks or foundations? Where are our young intellectuals supposed to come from if they cannot raise a family or afford rent as an adjunct professor or a $16/hour editor?

"Our activism kicked ass. Our ability to appeal to the center kicked ass. Our problem is that we are in the minority. Our mistake would be to start blaming individuals and creating scapegoats.

Instead of either individuals or the way we run campaigns, our problem is conservatism itself. "

This neatly sums up the GOP

Here's what one reader sent to a friend who is a member of the GOP:

Subject: Congrats

Your boy W won. Next stop world domination hooah!

I'm a straight white male I should be happy, fuck the fags, fuck the minorities, fuck the poor and fuck every country but the US.

Wow, that was liberating. much better.

Regards

your swing voter

In short, the GOP's message to everyone else (in the words of Vice Dick):

"FUCK YOURSELF!"

Get ready for a lot more of the same.

A day late and a dollar short

Here is some honest talk from the SCLM about Bush and Cheney... too late to do any good, of course.

I am not a fan of Maureen Dowd. She is a poster child for media whoredom, trivializing the serious and seriously misinforming those who seek infotainment rather than information. Don't forget how she led the pack during the impeachment and the media pillorying of Al Gore (earth tones, inventing the Internet, pathological liar etc).

Reading this you might be forgiven for thinking that she may be showing remorse (but no, there is a dig at Hillary Clinton at the end... leopards don't change their spots). I doubt she realizes what her past fellow-traveling with the Moralist-Leninists has helped contribute to.

It is still bracing reading nonetheless -- and she is dead right, there is no 'healing' with these gangsters -- but it comes too late to help. Where were these common sense observation from the rest of the 'so-called liberal media' while BushCo was committing all these atrocities?

With the Democratic Party splattered at his feet in little blue puddles, John Kerry told the crushed crowd at Faneuil Hall in Boston about his concession call to President Bush.

"We had a good conversation," the senator said. "And we talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity, for finding the common ground, coming together. Today I hope that we can begin the healing."

Democrat: Heal thyself.

W. doesn't see division as a danger. He sees it as a wingman.

The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.

W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters," as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

Mr. Bush, whose administration drummed up fake evidence to trick us into war with Iraq, sticking our troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on "moral issues."

The president says he's "humbled" and wants to reach out to the whole country. What humbug. The Bushes are always gracious until they don't get their way. If W. didn't reach out after the last election, which he barely grabbed, why would he reach out now that he has what Dick Cheney calls a "broad, nationwide victory"?

While Mr. Bush was making his little speech about reaching out, Republicans said they had "the green light" to pursue their conservative agenda, like drilling in Alaska's wilderness and rewriting the tax code.

"He'll be a lot more aggressive in Iraq now," one Bush insider predicts. "He'll raze Falluja if he has to. He feels that the election results endorsed his version of the war." Never mind that the more insurgents American troops kill, the more they create.

Just listen to Dick (Oh, lordy, is this cuckoo clock still vice president?) Cheney, introducing the Man for his victory speech: "This has been a consequential presidency which has revitalized our economy and reasserted a confident American role in the world." Well, it has revitalized the Halliburton segment of the economy, anyhow. And "confident" is not the first word that comes to mind for the foreign policy of a country that has alienated everyone except Fiji.

Vice continued, "Now we move forward to serve and to guard the country we love." Only Dick Cheney can make "to serve and to guard" sound like "to rape and to pillage."

He's creating the sort of "democracy" he likes. One party controls all power in the country. One network serves as state TV. One nation dominates the world as a hyperpower. One firm controls contracts in Iraq....

Eschaton

"The people who voted George Bush and the Republicans into office this year didn't do so because they were conned by a right wing asshole posing as a compassionate centrist. They did so precisely because he is a right wing asshole. Yes, the modern Republican party consists of nasty bigots and liars and the media rarely bothers to point out just how nasty they are (all the talking heads talking about the role of 'moral values' in the election know that what that really means is 'fag hating,' but they won't say it). But, don't be fooled - people know what they voted for."

On the other hand...

...you can't win unless you fight.

What is wrong with the Dem leadership? Why are they so eager to accept defeat?

"Let the healing begin"?!?

You don't say that when you've been spit upon, had your rights trampled, and ideals desecrated.

LET THE 'CULTURE WAR' BEGIN! The other side has had a long head start so it's time we fought back -- for a change.

Ohio holds fate of presidency

There is a reason Bush is trying to claim 'victory'... Right now, whoever wins Ohio wins -- period.

And our odds for winning Ohio are not bad. If prior historical patterns hold, then Kerry will be president:

Bush is currently leading in Ohio by 136,221

If there are 250,000 provisional ballots outstanding. The highest number I've seen.

And 90% of those ballots are good, as they were in 2000. That leaves 225,000 votes.

If 85% of those ballots prove to be for Kerry, about the number that Gore got in 2000. That leaves us with 191,250, giving us a lead of 55,029.

If there are only 200,000 provisionals, following the same calculation would leave us with a lead of 16,779....

I am actually a lot more hopeful now then when I went to bed earlier this morning. Looks like we have a good shot at returning the favor from 2000 -- an electoral college win despite a loss in the popular vote. Hence, Bush's hastiness in trying to claim victory. It didn't work in Iraq in 2003, and it ain't gonna work in America in 2004.

But it will take time to count all the provisional ballots. I think the GOP Ohio Sec of State said they would not even start for another ten days. The Bush election strategy from 2000 continues: delay results and deny votes.

Democracy Starts at Home

Exercise your right to vote!

And vote for the party that values Democracy, both overseas and at HOME!

all you ever wanted to know...

...about exit polls

October surprise?

Only if you haven't been paying attention the last three years... after all, he never was caught, dead or alive...

"The Other Shoe Drops: Bin Laden Weighs in":

"Bin Laden suggested Bush was slow to react to the Sept. 11 attacks, giving the hijackers more time than they expected. At the time of the attacks, the president was listening to schoolchildren in Florida reading a book.

'It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would leave 50,000 of his citizens in the two towers to face these horrors alone,' he said, referring to the number of people who worked at the World Trade Center.

`It appeared to him (Bush) that a little girl's talk about her goat and its butting was more important than the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers. That gave us three times the required time to carry out the operations, thank God,' he said."

Hell has officially frozen over

Red Sawks win World Series

on the ballot: open government

"What really happened on 9/11, or in Iraq? Next week's election may determine whether we ever find out."

Did Bush botched hunt for Osama?

Is there even a question?

"Look at the lede of this Washington Post article from April 17, 2002 ...

The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.

That really says it all."

the sliming commences

Josh on Bush smear ad: "That really does capture the whole Bush administration right there: trying to scare people by tricking them into believing something they know isn't true."

GO SAWKS!

BELIEVE!

How the media betray us

Sad but true, but Kerry at least has wised up in a way Gore never did, that the only way to 'level the playing field' with the bogus media that sets the discourse in this country is to start making shit up:

How to Make Bush Play Defense: "Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry appears to have finally embraced one of the more sordid truths of modern political campaigning: The best way to control the message of the day is to force your opponent to respond to a basically groundless attack.

The Bush campaign and its allies have arguably done this on and off since March. Consider, for instance, that Kerry lost most of August responding to Swift-Boat allegations...."

What the...?

I've heard of battle chess, but LoveChess?!?

reality or faith?

"Those who are worrying about a revived draft are in the same position as those who worried about a return to budget deficits four years ago, when President Bush began pushing through his program of tax cuts. Back then he insisted that he wouldn't drive the budget into deficit - but those who looked at the facts strongly suspected otherwise. Now he insists that he won't revive the draft. But the facts suggest that he will...."

faith or foolishness

another selection from "Without a Doubt":
"'Faith can cut in so many ways,' he said. 'If you're penitent and not triumphal, it can move us to repentance and accountability and help us reach for something higher than ourselves. That can be a powerful thing, a thing that moves us beyond politics as usual, like Martin Luther King did. But when it's designed to certify our righteousness -- that can be a dangerous thing. Then it pushes self-criticism aside. There's no reflection.'

'Where people often get lost is on this very point,' he said after a moment of thought. 'Real faith, you see, leads us to deeper reflection and not -- not ever -- to the thing we as humans so very much want.'

And what is that?

'Easy certainty.'"

question of the day

Are you reality-based or faith-based?:

"In the summer of 2002, after I [Ron Suskind] had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'"

Fuhrer-prinzep

Texas-style: "This is one key feature of the faith-based presidency: open dialogue, based on facts, is not seen as something of inherent value. It may, in fact, create doubt, which undercuts faith. It could result in a loss of confidence in the decision-maker and, just as important, by the decision-maker."

Dan Froomkin has the goods

A short while back I directed your attention to something Dan Froomkin had noticed; as he puts it: "every time President Bush says 'of course,' because in adversarial settings Bush seems to use that phrase whenever he's about to say something that supporters might find obvious -- but that his critics might consider a whopper."

Now here are some results:

"Here's every instance of 'of course' from [the Oct. 13 debate]:
-- 'Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations. Of course we're worried about Osama bin Laden.'
-- 'Of course we're meeting our obligation to our veterans, and the veterans know that.'
-- Regarding his Social Security plans: 'And we're of course going to have to consider the costs.'
And here are the instances from last Friday:
-- 'Of course, we're going to find Osama bin Laden. We've already 75 percent of his people. And we're on the hunt for him.'
-- 'Of course, I listen to our generals. That's what a president does.'
-- '[O]f course we've been involved with Iran. . . . Of course, we're paying attention to these. It's a great question about Iran.'
-- 'And of course he's going to raise your taxes.' "

This is worth the wait

Need a laugh?

Then check this out: How do you run a convention on a record of failure?

Dubya's dirty tricks exposed?

Employees of Voters Outreach of America, a GOP-funded voter registration outfit operating in Nevada, say they personally witnessed company employees shredding hundreds or even thousands of Democratic registrations. Now the same company (VOA) is being accused of destroying Democratic registration forms in Oregon....

Update: Click here for links to nine states where Dubya's dirty tricks have been committed

Wonkette

"10:06PM: Bush: 'The best way to get the troops home is to send them to Iraq.' There's not even a joke to make about that."

Debate impressions

Kerry started off red hot and Dubya was in trouble 'big time,' as his running mate would say. Kerry was scorching him on Iraq, the economy, you name it and Bush was starting to lose it, his face contorting and his speechifying sputtering.

So his golfing buddy, moderator Bob Schiefer (who looks like the Count from Sesame Street) tossed some softballs Dubya's way and changed the debate from substantive issues to so-called 'wedge issues' (abortion, prayer) and navel-gazing explorations of 'personality' (faith, 'women in my life').

As with the Veep debate the low quality of the questions really detracted from the latter stages of the debate. After all, what US politician in their right mind is going to get up and denounce 'faith'? Kerry still came out of the softball questions on top, however, as his answers did not sound like something a homeless man may try to pawn off on you in his desperate attempt to gather enough nickles for another bottle of cheep hootch ('prayer gives me a calmness').

Overall, Kerry kept up the offensive and got in a few killers like "Bush on fiscal responsibility is like Tony Soprano on law and order." Bush, back on his heals early on, was not helped by attacks that overreached: "Kennedy is the conservative Senator from Massachusetts."

Damn, if you thought Dubya's credibility was in trouble to begin with then it landed smack dab in the toilet with that whopper!

That about summed up Dubya's grand strategy -- dump flip-flop for LIBERAL (a flip-flop in itself). Two kinds of name calling masquerading as strategy, and both doomed to failure when the stakes are so real for so many Americans. If this is Dubya's idea of a grand strategy no wonder we're in a quagmire in Iraq!

Tonight's the situation required Dubya to break Kerry's gathering momentum, not stand pat and hope that the 'soft bigotry of low expectations' would (once again) float him to victory. Playing defense for most of the night was not what Dubya needed, but it is essentially what he did. After all, if he hasn't wrapped up the evangelical vote by now, he never will. And his pandering to the them only turns middle of the road folk off -- as is reflected in the post debate polls, where Kerry whomped on Dubya by double-digit margins.

This debate will seal the narrative of the out-of-touch emperor strutting around without any clothes.

Did you like Dubya's answer on jobs?
No Child Left Behind

...hello, it is not my child who needs a job, it is me, f*ckface!

How Dubya's answer regarding discrimination:
No Child Left Behind!

Or his answer for outsourcing?
No Child Left Behind...

...and his answer for education...
failing to fund No Child Left Behind.

So, to sum up Dubya's domestic agenda in a nutshell?
A big middle finger for the middle class.

And don't think his dodging and weaving will be lost on folks trying to make up their minds. Kerry was resolute, specific, articulate, and decisive... he didn't have to run out the clock with bumber sticker slogans and when times are tough people look for someone who has a clue...

You see it at work all the time, the smarty may be mocked when everyone is fat and happy, but if there is a deadline and heads are going to roll, all of a sudden office politics goes out the window. Barring any catastrophic events, this debate portends that we'll be seeing something else go out the window this November 2.

the most damning lie

Bush stated that he never claimed to not care about ObL... let's go to the tape:

"Q: Mr. President, in your speeches now, you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? [...]

BUSH: ... I don't know where he is. Nor -- you know, I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you [...]

Q: Do you believe the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead of alive?

BUSH: As I say, we hadn't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, you know, again, I don't know where he is.

I'll repeat what I said: I truly am not that concerned about him."

You can run, Dubya, but you can't hide!

Kerry wins -- again

three for three

Early post-debate polls
Kerry Bush
CBS 39 25
ABC 42 41
CNN 52 39

The CBS poll was only among undecideds. The ABC poll had 38% Republicans and 30% Democrats. So in other words, you can add roughly 12% points to Kerry's 1% point advantage, which is in keeping with the other two polls.

Let's face it: one of the candidates is serious, smart, and focused and the other is a goof off who lives in a bubble and whose middle name begins with W...

LA Times scoop

Wonder why the rest of the media won't touch it?

Major Assaults on Hold Until After U.S. Vote: "The Bush administration plans to delay major assaults on rebel-held cities in Iraq until after U.S. elections in November, say administration officials, mindful that large-scale military offensives could affect the U.S. presidential race.

Although American commanders in Iraq have been buoyed by recent successes in insurgent-held towns such as Samarra and Tall Afar, administration and Pentagon officials say they will not try to retake cities such as Fallouja and Ramadi -- where the insurgents' grip is strongest and U.S. military casualties could be the highest -- until after Americans vote in what is likely to be an extremely close election.

'When this election's over, you'll see us move very vigorously,' said one senior administration official involved in strategic planning, speaking on condition of anonymity...."

banana republic?

"There is no low to which the GOP will not stoop. Now, they are shredding Dem voter registrations in Nevada.

Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.

Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.

The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.

The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.

Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats...."

GOP: lie cheat and steal

"This is a bombshell accusation, so you'd sorta kinda hope that the reporter would follow it up a bit:

The former [Republican] governor and congressman says the national GOP is encouraging campaign workers to cheat. He says his ire is directed at the Republican Party's Victory operation, which helps register people and get them to the polls.

Janklow says his problem with the organization goes back to 2002 when he was a candidate for the US House."

what did I tell you?

Checking the Facts, in Advance:

"...By singling out Mr. Bush's lies and misrepresentations, am I saying that Mr. Kerry isn't equally at fault? Yes.

Mr. Kerry sometimes uses verbal shorthand that offers nitpickers things to complain about. He talks of 1.6 million lost jobs; that's the private-sector loss, partly offset by increased government employment. But the job record is indeed awful. He talks of the $200 billion cost of the Iraq war; actual spending is only $120 billion so far. But nobody doubts that the war will cost at least another $80 billion. The point is that Mr. Kerry can, at most, be accused of using loose language; the thrust of his statements is correct.

Mr. Bush's statements, on the other hand, are fundamentally dishonest. He is insisting that black is white, and that failure is success. Journalists who play it safe by spending equal time exposing his lies and parsing Mr. Kerry's choice of words are betraying their readers."

Bush as b.s. artist

"Is George W. Bush better described as a pathological liar or as someone dangerously unhinged from reality?"

CNN spins for bushies

Here's the misleading headline:
CNN.com - Poll: Bush, Kerry even in 2nd debate - Oct 9, 2004

But here is the fact of the matter:

"A CNN/USA Today/Gallup snap poll taken immediately after the presidential debate Friday night found that respondents gave a slight, statistically insignificant [sic] edge to Sen. John Kerry over President Bush, 47 percent to 45 percent.

The respondents included 515 registered voters who watched the debate. Their political affiliations broke down as 38 percent Republican, 32 percent Democratic and 30 percent independent."

Hmmm, now lets do the math: 6% more GOoPers than Dems, even though turnout typically gives the Dems a 4% advantage, so that adds up to a 10% stacking of the deck for Bush. Once we adjust the poll for that we find Kerry has a win of 12% -- well outside the margin of error.

But CNN doesn't report the facts, just the spin. Why don't you ask them why not right here?

let your voice be heard

HIT THESE POLLS AFTER THE DEBATE

Who the hell is...

...that short "ANGER MAN" who is running all over the screen YELLING at people?

He's what? He's the most powerful man on the planet? Then why is he acting like a schoolyard bully who's sucked down too much Kool-aid too quickly?

[Go here to watch him flip out]

And people wonder why we have a virtual coalition of one?... would you want to play in the same sandbox with this little freakazoid? Or let your kid play near him?

He's the type to wait till people are looking away before pulling a sucker punch and then pretend that he doesn't know how his 'playmate's' face got pushed into the sidewalk.

Mistakes: 'HE DON'T MAKE NO STINKIN' MISTAKES'

Mistakes are for the 'little people' --like taxes (smirk)-- if he wants to make a mistake, he 'hires it done.'

The only mistake he ever made was hiring people who can't follow the party line and allow reality to intrude in their assessment of the state of the world.

Now why are we stuck in a quagmire again?

No way in hell am I voting for ANGER MAN. Let him go screw up his own sandbox on his own dime for a change.

debate diary

Must read Internets:

"9:27 Bush is grinding his teeth into stumps. Oh, fuck: 'That answer almost made me want to scowl.' . . . Uhm. Yeah. I think I could hear crickets. I mean, that joke bombed. Bombed like a bad war.

9:29 Oh, yes. The rumors on the 'internets.' The interweb. Whatever. You have to excuse him. . . he mainly just uses it for porn.

9:31 Hmmmm. . . back door draft . . .

9:33 Good thing that no one really knows who Charlie Gibson is, or Bush steamrolling over him like a grumpy elderly driver would probably get noticed.

9:37 Shorter Bush: 'Stop fucking with me! Stop it! Stop fucking with me!'"

And the winner...

10:28 Q: Name three times you've made a mistake. A: I WAS RIGHT TO GO TO WAR. AND THAT'S A TRICK QUESTION. FUCK YOU.

psychological quirk

Bush's 'I am about to lie' tag-line:

"Here's a debate-watching tip: Perk up your ears every time President Bush says 'of course' tonight.

Because if recent history is a guide, what's coming is a statement that his supporters might find obvious, but that his critics might consider a whopper....

Depending on where you're coming from, politically, [what he says is] either manifestly true or a Freudian slip exposing a significant falsehood....

Bush's views were being challenged that night, and his use of the phrase 'of course' sounded defensive in nature. So I decided to go back and look at how Bush used the phrase in other situations recently where he was confronted by tough questions...."

There is more, 'of course' (NOT a Freudian slip), and it makes for an interesting read.

The global test

Presidency 101

Ha!

Cheney's lies

The thing abut Cheney's lies is that they are of a far different nature that the typical "stretching the truth" that we have come to expect from politicians. That is why it is fundamentally misleading to equate Edwards saying that we are $200 billion in the whole in Iraq (we have spent $120 billion and have already allocated another $80 billion that will be spent in the next year regardless of who is president) with Cheney's whole-cloth reinventions of reality "I've never said Saddam was responsible for 9/11" or "Iraq represented a nuclear threat."

If you consider what Edwards said to be an exaggeration or error of degree (and I don't, since that money is as good as spent right now -- who is going to deny the troops what has already been allocated and is necessary, even if only to extricate them from the quagmire?), then what Cheney says on a regular basis has to be considered something else, since it does not exaggerate or embellish -- it departs from reality absolutely. Arguing that Saddam has nukes, when he does not is not an exaggeration. Arguing that Iraq was behind 9/11 terrorists when they were not is not an exageration -- it is a fabrication, a lie. You cannot 'exaggerate' that black is white. And that is why most news services did the country a disservice when they equated what some might call Edwards' interpretations of reality with Cheney's whole-scale departures from reality. It both minimizes the true differences (and lends credence to the old saw: 'all politicians do it') and by so doing implicitly endorses what Cheney has to say, since it is 'no worse' than what Edwards said.

Or, in brief, Cheney has mastered the technique of the Big Lie and the press is still not on to him...

Or are some perhaps beginning to answer the clue phone?

MSNBC - Rewriting History: "With virtually all of the administration's original case for war in Iraq in tatters, Vice President Dick Cheney provided shifting and sometimes misleading arguments in last night's debate with John Edwards about Saddam Hussein's ties to terrorists and his access to weapons of mass destruction.

Cheney, responding to moderator Gwen Ifill's first question, said that 'concern' about Iraq before the war had 'specifically focused' on the fact that Saddam's regime had been listed for years by the U.S. government as a 'state sponsor of terror,' that Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal operated out of Baghdad, that Saddam paid $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and that he had an 'established relationship' with Al Qaeda.

But except for the allegation about Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda--a claim that is now more in question than ever--the other examples cited by Cheney in Tuesday night's debate never have been previously emphasized by Bush administration officials, and for good reasons...."

Judith Miller in the tank

We always knew she was in the tank for the bushies... but now she may be for real: "A federal judge held a reporter in contempt Thursday for refusing to divulge confidential sources to prosecutors investigating the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity.

U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ordered New York Times reporter Judith Miller jailed until she agrees to testify about her sources before a grand jury, but said she could remain free while pursuing an appeal. Miller could be jailed up to 18 months."

One has to wonder why she is going to jail and Novak isn't, since Novak is the one who spread the leak in his column. Perhaps Miller was carrying water for the bushies and is the one who spread the leak to Novak (and other reporters) to begin with?

check this out

Wonder why Dubya looks like he just wet his pants?

How terrible is wisdom when it does not profit the wise

Because Mr. Bush chose to act, we know what capabilities Iraq did -- and did not -- possess, and we've learned how difficult it is to occupy and attempt to reconstruct that country.

-Washington Post 10/6/04

"So, it is only thanks [to] Mr. Bush's decision to invade that we can now have the certainty we do about how wrong he was about Iraqi WMD.

Similarly, Bush's decision to invade has gained us invaluable new insights into urban guerilla warfare and how badly an occupation can go wrong.

I think I now have a better understanding of what the president and his supporters mean when they call Iraq a 'catastrophic success.'"

Debate diary

"9:10PM: Cheney: 'I have never said there was a connection between Iraq and al Qaeda.' Yes! And watch these monkeys fly out of my ass!"

Read the whole thing, it's a hoot!

exercise your right to vote

HIT THESE POLLS AFTER THE DEBATE

More great analysis

"...I swear, Cheney had a 'that's it' a 'no mas' moment. He knew, Cheney knows. That bald old man realized that John Edwards is going to take his job, and that John Kerry is the next President....

And when Edwards delivered the 1-2 blow of Haliburton and the acknowledgment of the gay Cheney daughter, Dick had nothing to do but grin & bear the load of his profiteering ways and of Bush the divider; and then speechless, to thank Edwards for the acknowledgment of his daughter-- that was the moment..."

photographic evidence

Cheney had met Edwards before... not the last Cheney lie to be exposed tonight!

"I can already hear the Dems' snark line: 'Dick Cheney says he'd never met John Edwards before last night? I bet he wishes he still never had.'"

Josh is dead on in his analysis

"The task for Democrats over the next forty-eight hours is to bang home with hammering detail and repitition just how many things Vice President Cheney said during the debate that were just flat-out false and to make the case that this is part and parcel of a general pattern of denial about what's happening in Iraq and failure, on so many fronts, to level with the American public."

Josh's whole analysis is dead on -- click and read.

tonite makes it 2-0

Whew... it started fast and furious tonight!

It was quite evident the the old dragon wasn't used to getting poked with a lance... Cheney looked ready to pop a few f-bombs early on, and then grew oddly quiet... like a dog with his tails between his legs.

Edwards shot out of the gate so fast he had Cheney tumbling trying to stay on his feet. Edwards was sooooo good early on (especially when asked about the "global test") it may have hurt him with a few viewers, as it was almost impossible to keep up that pace. He was correcting the facts, connecting back to the big picture and tossing in tasteful zingers for good measure -- masterful.

The second half of the debate lost its edge, with Gwen Ifill trying to prove how smart she was with cutesie questions and on a few occassions essentially asking the same question twice... all of which which left Cheney with nothing to say -- literally -- a couple times, and even Edwards at some points was forced by the inept direction of the questioning to either reiterate or extemporize on topics not touched on.

Since Cheney was essentially playing defense for most of the debate, the slowing of the tempo aided him, but he had clearly lost his zest. Edwards comes out with a clear win -- forcefully rebutting Cheney's attempts at distortion and intidimdation and setting the record straight on the difference between having a resume and being right.

Two down and two to go.

Thank god!

An idea whose time has come... indeed is long overdue:
"...Though we're tempted to blame the politicians, it's time to dig deeper. It's time to blame the press corps that daily brings us this unrelenting symphony of horseshit and never comes within 1000 miles of an apology for any of it. And it's time to blame the press not only as a class of people, but as individuals. We must brand anyone who puts his name or his face on credulous campaign coverage an eternal Enemy of the State. Hopefully, over time, this will have a deterrent effect.

To begin this important process of collective healing, we must find that first person to mark with our scorn. That is why New York Press has launched the First Quadrennial Election Hack Invitational--a tournament, to be held between now and the week after the election, which will answer the question: 'Who is the worst campaign journalist in America?...'"

Read it all... it is ROTFLMAO funny!
Thanks to Atrios

cuticle cultural criticism

"Final point: In Campaign 2000, several pundits did express concern with Gore's short nails. Result? We're now in Iraq."

You've got to click on this and read where a reporter defends reporting on style over substance... just incredible the contempt that they have for their audience!

Kissing up to Kissinger

This is an interesting peek into media-govt relations.

For example, check out what Ted Koppel - the guy who killed Carter with the "x number of days held hostage" schtick - had to say in The reporters who loved Henry and what they said:

"...Although ABC News' Ted Koppel is a card-carrying member of the Kissinger cult and you can sense his adoration for Kissinger in the transcripts, he never really loses it until Carter defeats Ford and he calls to say goodbye on Nov. 8, 1976:

I didn't want to call you last week. It has been a [sic] extraordinary three years for me and I have enjoyed it immensely. You are an intriguing man and if I had had a teacher like you earlier, I might not be quite so cynical.

A slip of the mask

"...something important happened on Thursday. Style probably mattered most: viewers were shocked by the contrast between Mr. Bush's manufactured image as a strong, resolute leader and his whiny, petulant behavior in the debate. But Mr. Bush would have lost even more badly if post-debate coverage had focused on substance...."

win the spin

Dubya and his media minions are trying to spin the debate, making the "global test" the test of loyalty under the Bush crime syndicate. What we need to do it hit back and remind the press that this is yet another example of Dubya's "selective hearing" that he finds so effective in insulating himself from reality:

Here's what Kerry said:

No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America.

But if and when you do it, Jim [Lehrer, the debate moderator], you have to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.

Kerry called it the "global test" but he could just as easily called it the "laugh test" -- if it weren't so damn serious.

What did Kerry mean by it? He meant that if we go to war, we damn well sure should have some legitimate reasons for doing so. Is that so hard to swallow?

You would think after all the lame excuses Dubya has cooked up for his private vendetta (aluminum tubes, yellowcake ore, mobile bio labs, drone planes to fly around the world) all now proven false, that the press corps wouldn't have such a hard time intuiting what Kerry was trying to say. But then Kerry is only making common sense... something that is not so common after all.

Elmer Befuddled

This is SWEEEET... read and enjoy

Oh, and note the commie pinko treehugging rag that is the source of the story.

thank god for media matters

After "make-or-break" buildup, CNN commentators downplay significance of debate

That is, they downplayed the importance after Kerry croaked Dubya...

Go and read the quotes, these people are such bellycrawling lick-spittles.

Fox apologizes?

Imagine putting a parody of a presidential candidate on you Website and calling it news... but the real story isn't the dirty trick, it is how the dirty trick is intended to distract attention from the dismal performance by the dithering boob squatting in the white house.

The folks at Fox understand that if you want to change the topic, you have to give people something even more sensational -- even if momentarily embarassing -- to focus on.

Don't take your eye off the ball... continue to write to your media outlets about how out of touch, isolated from reality, cocooned in a fantasy Dubya is.

Media: incompetent or just in the bag for Dubya?

CNN interviews undecided voter who in his secret life is an active member of his campus branch of College Republicans

And apparently CNN isn't alone?

The Miami Herald was also duped by another dirty trickster posing as an "undecided."

Haven't these folks in the media ever heard of Google?

CNN ditches journalism for corporate ties

CJR Campaign Desk:
"MoveOn's ad argues: 'Gallup's methodology has predicted lately that Republican turnout on Election Day is likely to exceed Democrats' by six to eight percentage points. But exit polls show otherwise: in each of the last two Presidential elections, Democratic turnout exceeded Republican by four to five points. That discrepancy alone can account for nearly all of Bush's phantom 14-point lead,' reported by Gallup a couple of weeks ago.

Often, CNN covers contentious issues like this with sound bites from both sides, treating both positions roughly equally. But not this time. After all, a blow to Gallup's reputation as a reliable polling service is also a blow to CNN. So, on the network's 'Inside Politics' this afternoon, it dealt with the issue this way...."

Another story buried by editors

Allawi is not just our puppet, he's also been drafted for the Bush campaign...

Bush op helped write Allawi speech:

"Why was this bombshell on P. 20, and why was it combined with a separate story about DoD putting a positive spin on news from Iraq? Either story alone justified P. 1 treatment."

A sad day for America...

When outside elections observers deplore the prospects for a free and fair election...
Observers fear repeat of 2000: "International observers of the US election have highlighted concerns over voting machines, voter eligibility rules, and allegations of intimidation aimed at lowering the turnout of ethnic minorities.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers issued a report this week on preparations for the vote after a visit earlier this month, and warned that the result could again be delayed...."

watching the watchers

MMFA fact-checks networks' "fact checks" ... [Media Matters for America]

win the spin

"The key point I think, the key impression, was of a president who was out of touch. Erratic. Without a plan. In a cocoon. Unwilling to admit mistakes. Unwilling to level with himself or voters about what's happening in Iraq. Lost."