I'll be out all next week, but the other folks here at TCS will still be posting, so do keep coming back. In the meantime why not think of some captions for this photo:



"George it has to be processed before it goes up your nose."

"I've checked too sir, no WMDs."

- rob 5:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hey Bush isn't all bad. He's definitely made Doonesbury funny again on a more regular basis:

- rob 5:13 PM - [PermaLink] -

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From Black Box Voting, an appeal for Carter to add his voice to the voting machine issue:

President Carter, we ask that your voice be heard.

As one of the most trusted and respected Americans, you have monitored elections in other countries. America now needs your help in what many are afraid is an impending election disaster - a fraud of unimaginable proportions.

Computer touch-screen voting machines are about to be installed throughout the nation. They have been determined by Johns Hopkins computer scientists and many others to have built-in software and hardware security flaws which can be exploited in many different ways to defraud voters and change the results of an election.

These machines were used in 2002 Senate elections. Over 22,000 Diebold machines were installed in Georgia. The results of the elections raised eyebrows. The deviations from final polling results were astounding and defied historical precedent. The popular pollster Zogby claimed he had never seen last minute tunarounds like those which occurred in a number of hotly contested Senate and Governor races. And all the turnarounds favored the Republicans. The odds of this happening in a fair election are staggeringly low.

Add your name to the petition (if you want... I mean, it would be the Fair and Balanced thing to do).

- rob 1:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush's performance last night

Some friends of mine are having a fair and blanaced debate on how poor Bush's performance was last night: long long pauses as he struggled to say words like "emergency" and "blackout."

The only Fair and Balanced conclusion: Brain Damage

Addiction, Brain Damage and the President

In short, George W. Bush seems to possess the traits characteristic of addictive persons who still have the thought patterns that accompany substance abuse. If we consult the latest scientific findings, we will discover that scientists can now observe changes that occur in the brain as a result of heavy alcohol and other drug abuse. Some of these changes may be permanent. Except in extreme cases, however, these cognitive impairments would not be obvious to most observers.

To reach any conclusions we need of course to know Bush's personal history relevant to drinking/drug use. To this end I consulted several biographies. Yes, there was much drunkenness, years of binge drinking starting in college, at least one conviction for DUI in 1976 in Maine, and one arrest before that for a drunken episode involving theft of a Christmas wreath. According to J.D. Hatfield's book, Fortunate Son, Bush later explained:

[A]lcohol began to compete with my energies....I'd lose focus." Although he once said he couldn't remember a day he hadn't had a drink, he added that he didn't believe he was "clinically alcoholic." Even his father, who had known for years that his son had a serious drinking problem, publicly proclaimed: "He was never an alcoholic. It's just he knows he can't hold his liquor.

Bush drank heavily for over 20 years until he made the decision to abstain at age 40. About this time he became a "born again Christian," going as usual from one extreme to the other. During an Oprah interview, Bush acknowledged that his wife had told him he needed to think about what he was doing. When asked in another interview about his reported drug use, he answered honestly, "I'm not going to talk about what I did 20 to 30 years ago."

That there might be a tendency toward addiction in Bush's family is indicated in the recent arrests or criticism of his daughters for underage drinking and his niece for cocaine possession. Bush, of course, deserves credit for his realization that he can't drink moderately, and his decision today to abstain. The fact that he doesn't drink moderately, may be suggestive of an inability to handle alcohol. In any case, Bush has clearly gotten his life in order and is in good physical condition, careful to exercise and rest when he needs to do so. The fact that some residual effects from his earlier substance abuse, however slight, might cloud the U.S. President's thinking and judgment is frightening, however, in the context of the current global crisis.

- rob 11:25 AM - [PermaLink] -

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A Fair and Balanced look at deregulation:

POWER OUTAGE TRACED TO DIM BULB IN WHITE HOUSE --- The Tale of The Brits Who Swiped 800 Jobs From New York, Carted Off $90 Million, Then Tonight, Turned Off Our Lights

- rob 10:45 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Okay, I'm trying to be Fair and Balanced, so perhaps I'm wrong here, but last night the unarticulate, hesitant, and out of his depth pResident, noted that he, of course, had been saying the grid needed upgrading all along ("[I] happen to think it [modernize the grid] does, and have said so all along"). Gee, if only he was in a position of power and could do something about it.

Seriously, Everyone has been pointing out the dangers of the grid (well at least Democrats and Labor have been - note the date), but I honestly, as I try to be fair and balanced, don't remember him saying this, or did he say this back in the "energy crisis" days? Can anyone point out him talking about the grid? I want to be Fair and Balanced, and want to know if he did or didn't.

- rob 10:35 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Its "Fair and Balanced" Friday everywhere in the blog world, and I'll certainly try to make my posts fair and balanced today. But somehow I think I can't be as Fair and Balanced as Faux News, though I'll try gosh darn it.

For all you Clark fans here's a Fair and Balanced Draft Clark Advertisement. Its a 3MB mpeg movie so it'll take a while to download and it'll run in Quicktime (if you have it, or maybe Real Player if you don't). Its one of those positive our guy is good ads, no oponents mentioned. Kind of scary that I feel a military man might be our only salvation against Bush, but that may be they way it is.

- rob 10:07 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Saddam so terrified and terrorized his own generals and assistants that they always said "yes." In the end Saddam was honestly surprised that America won the war so easily ("I've been betrayed" screamed the despot who would have killed anyone who had mentioned the truth).

Bush is doing the same thing, though in a more civilized manor, in his administration. I believe he honestly thinks everything is great in Iraq, because that is what his people tell him.

Rumsfeld meanwhile continues his push to make the Department of Defense his personal playground, kicking out all who disagree.

Is It Fresh Blood, or a Putsch?

In the middle of the ongoing Iraqi guerilla war, with more military actions awaiting, the new U.S. Army uniformed leadership has forced at least six senior generals into early retirement, with another half-dozen earmarked for the same treatment in the near.

What is unusual about this development is that no Army or DoD official has cited the cause for the widespread ousters, and there has been no evidence of misconduct or performance failures indicated as a cause for the retirements. An Army spokesman on Aug. 4 declined to comment on the issue on grounds that none of the six alleged retirements had been announced formally.

If there are valid issues behind the decision of incoming Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker to mandate these retirements, it is unnerving that the personnel decisions should join the increasing ranks of "national security" secrets.
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To fully comprehend what is going on, it is important to note that this is not the first incident of its type. Beginning last year, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld effectively decapitated the Army's topmost leadership. First, he announced the replacement for Gen. Eric Shinseki as Army chief a full year before his term was slated to end, in what many observers saw as a ploy to sideline Shinseki from the ongoing struggle over the Army's future. Then on Apr. 25, Rumsfeld fired Secretary of the Army Thomas White, subsequently announcing that Secretary of the Air Force James G. Roche would replace White.

Following that, Rumsfeld went looking for a new Army Chief of Staff from the roster of active-duty generals and came up empty. He then drafted Schoomaker from retirement for the top Army post, following the reported refusal of three active-duty Army generals - including former Central Command commander Gen. Tommy Franks and Keane himself - to take the position.

Pentagon observers have termed those promotion refusals as a "legal mutiny" by three of the Army generals who deserve much of the credit for the preparation and conduct of the war against Iraq. When senior subordinates refuse to follow their leader - in this case, Secretary Rumsfeld - something is badly wrong. One has to ask, "What do they know?"

In the end we'll end up like Texas (just what Bush promised actually), a land where even the most obvious lie has to be made to save your job.

The 'Zero Dropout' Miracle: Alas! Alack! A Texas Tall Tale

HOUSTON - ROBERT KIMBALL, an assistant principal at Sharpstown High School, sat smack in the middle of the "Texas miracle." His poor, mostly minority high school of 1,650 students had a freshman class of 1,000 that dwindled to fewer than 300 students by senior year. And yet — and this is the miracle — not one dropout to report!
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A miracle? "A fantasy land," said Dr. Kimball. "They want the data to look wonderful and exciting. They don't tell you how to do it; they just say, 'Do it.' " In February, with the help of Dr. Kimball, the local television station KHOU broke the news that Sharpstown High had falsified its dropout data. That led to a state audit of 16 Houston schools, which found that of 5,500 teenagers surveyed who had left school, 3,000 should have been counted as dropouts but were not. Last week, the state appointed a monitor to oversee the district's data collection and downgraded 14 audited schools to the state's lowest rating.

Not very miraculous sounding, but here is the intriguing question: How did it get to the point that veteran principals felt they could actually claim zero dropouts? "You need to understand the atmosphere in Houston," Dr. Kimball said. "People are afraid. The superintendent has frequent meetings with principals. Before they go in, the principals are really, really scared. Panicky. They have to make their numbers."

Pressure? Some compare it to working under the old Soviet system of five-year plans. In January, just before the scandal broke, Abelardo Saavedra, deputy superintendent, unveiled Houston's latest mandates for the new year. "The districtwide student attendance rate will increase from 94.6 percent to 95 percent," he wrote. "The districtwide annual dropout rate will decrease from 1.5 percent to 1.3 percent."
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A shortage of resources to track departing students? No "unknowns" allowed? What to do? "Make it up," Dr. Kimball said. "The principals who survive are the yes men."

As for those who fail to make their numbers, it is termination time, one of many innovations championed by Dr. Paige as superintendent here from 1994 to 2001. He got rid of tenure for principals and mandated that they sign one-year contracts that allowed dismissal "without cause" and without a hearing.

On the other hand, for principals who make their numbers, it is bonus time. Principals can earn a $5,000 bonus, district administrators up to $20,000. At Sharpstown High alone, Dr. Kimball said, $75,000 in bonus money was issued last year, before the fictitious numbers were exposed.

Why does George and Dick hate America so much that they want to turn us into a third world nation of corrupt officials and farsical official reports of "improvements." In George Bush's vision of America you may live in a shack in a 100 square mile shanty town, but Fox News will report the President's Better Home initiative was a success and that all Americans live in mansions; and you won't be surprised, as just yesterday you were told that the unsanitary putrid water you drink was champagne.

- rob 12:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hmm... yeah... I think Clark will run.

Gen. Wesley Clark: Iraq war based on 'misjudgment' - Aug. 14, 2003

Clark: "I'm thinking in terms of what's right for the United States. And one of the principles that we operate on in this country is that leaders are held accountable. The simple truth is that we went into Iraq on the basis of some intuition, some fear, and some exaggerated rhetoric and some very, very scanty evidence.

We found a situation that wasn't at all what was predicted. We're in there now, we're committed, we need to do our best. But that's a classic presidential-level misjudgment. And I think the voters have to be aware of that. And they have to appreciate it.

And if democracy means something, then that will be reflected in the ballot box. "

- rob 12:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I’m not saying anything, except this: The Bush family has experienced some really freaky coincidences.

March 31, 1981

Its revealed that Neil Bush (brother of Dubya) was going to have lunch that night with Scott Hinckley, brother of John w. Hinkley Jr. (who just shot Reagan). The Hinkley family had made large contributions to Bush’s (you know, the dad Bush) political campaigns.

Sharon Bush, Neil's wife [now divorced], said Scott Hinckley was coming to their house as a date of a girl friend of hers.

"I don't even know the brother. From what I know and I've heard, they (the Hinckleys) are a very nice family and have given a lot of money to the Bush campaign. I understand he was just the renegade brother in the family. They must feel awful," she said.

The dinner was canceled, she added.

George W. Bush said he was unsure whether he had met John W. Hinckley.

From an AP article reprinted in Freerepublic of all places.

September 11, 2001

Bush the elder cancels scheduled meeting with representatives of the Bin Laden family.

Source: Carlyle’s Way

Thanks to a reader at BartCop for remembering these two little pieces. Again, I’m not saying these are anything but coincidences. I am saying that that family makes friends with families that produce interesting individuals.

- rob 10:44 AM - [PermaLink] -

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White House Fantasies on Iraq

Someday, in the months ahead, there may be an Iraq where a smoothly run American occupation authority has dealt devastating setbacks to terrorism, brought security to most of the country, improved infrastructure and basic services, and elicited encouraging signs of democracy, economic renewal and cultural rebirth. Unfortunately, right now that Iraq exists only in the pages of the implausibly upbeat 100-day progress report recently issued by the White House.

In Iraq today, American soldiers die, electricity shortages lead to rioting, and the threat of terrorism against civilians must be taken increasingly seriously. The biggest problems have been airbrushed out of the White House report, making it read more like a Bush campaign flier than a realistic accounting to the American people. There have, of course, been positive accomplishments, but making a success of Iraq will require much time, many billions of dollars and real sacrifices. Pretending otherwise risks future public disillusionment.

In the face of news reports detailing continued insecurity, failing basic services and painstakingly slow political progress, the White House cites significant signs of better security, improved basic services and emerging democracy. Not mentioned in the Panglossian report, covering the 100 days after President Bush declared an end to major combat operations, were the 56 American soldiers killed in attacks during that period.

Cool, they said "Panglossian," which makes sense as this is the "best of all possible worlds."

People always say that Bush is more of an every man then Clinton was. But serioulsy which sounds like more of an every man, a White House that has fantasies on Iraqi infrastructure improvements or a White House that had sex fantasies?

- rob 10:08 AM - [PermaLink] -

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How to make the enemy stronger?
Turn them into mutated super beings!

US military pioneers death ray bomb

American military scientists are developing a weapon which kills by delivering an enormous burst of high-energy gamma rays, it is claimed today.

The bomb, which produces little fallout, blurs the distinction between conventional and nuclear weapons, and experts have already warned it could spark a new arms race. The science behind the gamma ray bomb is still in its infancy, and technical problems mean it could be decades before the devices are developed. But the Pentagon is taking the project seriously.



Didn't "The Hulk" accident teach them anything. Poor Dr. Banner still suffers from a Gamma Bomb test that went wrong, horribly wrong, over 35 years ago!

Please do not let this horror happen again. We must learn from history or we are doomed to repeat it.

If the Pentagon is taking this seriously, maybe they should look at another example of Gamma radiation exposure: The Fantastic Four.

- rob 9:51 AM - [PermaLink] -

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I just emailed this to my representative:

An open letter to Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R NJ),

Thank you for your reply to my email about the intelligence “failures” that led up to the Iraqi war, though I disagree with your positions, I was gratified that the elected official representing my district took the time to reply.

The fact that you replied means that you understand that this is an issue important to the people of your district. It is an issue important to all Americans. Americans are loyal to its troops and whether they may or may not support the actions they have been sent on, they want to make sure our troops not only come home safe, but also are fighting (and dying) for a just cause and a cause that protects America in the long run. The inability to find weapons of mass destruction is a sign that this war may have done just the opposite.

If our and the British intelligence was correct, one can assume these weapons are now in the hands of terrorists. Many of the sites we inspected had been looted, though one pities any locals who carried home dangerous chemicals or radioactive materials, the alternative that they are now in the hands of terrorists is even more pitiful and frightening. The British parliament recently published a report on how the Iraqi war may have strengthened al Quida by shifting intelligence and diplomatic efforts to supporting the war against Iraq and not against al Quida and Bin Laden. The CIA itself issued a report before the war warning that war with Iraq would allow terrorists access to weapons of mass destruction they would not have access to otherwise.

I join you in hoping we do find such weapons, not because it means the Bush has been vindicated, but because it will mean America is a safer nation, and the weapons have not fallen into the hands of terrorists.

That is why we need to know if and how much our nations intelligence was distorted by political demands. The need for an accurate intelligence picture of the state of American security strongly outweighs any loyalty to a party. No matter how long a member of congress has been a Republican or a Democrat, they were an American first, and I join you in hoping for an investigation into the intelligence failures that is not encumbered by partisan politics.

I was deeply troubled, however, by how you began your closing paragraph: “Iraq’s prewar posture of bluff and bluster, denial and deception justified U.S. intervention, whether or not WMD were readily available to the regime.” That is appalling. Are the lives of our soldiers (not to mention the cost to the national budget) worth so little, that they can be sacrificed because an idiot rules another nation. That would seem to mean that the roster of nations that justify U.S. intervention numbers at least a dozen. North Korea definitely seems to meet your requirement for intervention, and they do have WMD’s readily available, but there seems to be little concern about them from the Executive Branch. With this new justification, I assume our troops are ready to invade Equatorial Guinea whose President recently had its state radio declare that “He [President Teodoro Obiang Nguema] can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell because it is God himself.” Surely a declaration of divinity equates to bluff and bluster, denial and deception.

This new justification is also out of the purview of H.J. Res. 114, which authorized the use of US forces against Iraq. This resolution (though in my mind being a very pathetic piece of legislation as it is nothing but an abdication of a constitutionally required duty: Only Congress shall declare war. There is no section of the constitution that says “only congress can give the power of the president to declare war”) does not mention bluff or bluster. Would the average American have supported the war if this was the justification before hand? Would the citizens of the 11th District of New Jersey?

H.J. Res. 114 does mention however “Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq.” Interestingly enough the only verified report of al Qaida in Iraq has been in the area controlled by the Turks. An area, quite frankly, we had more jurisdiction over than Saddam.

It also states “Whereas the efforts of international weapons inspectors, United States intelligence agencies, and Iraqi defectors led to the discovery that Iraq had large stockpiles of chemical weapons and a large scale biological weapons program, and that Iraq had an advanced nuclear weapons development program that was much closer to producing a nuclear weapon than intelligence reporting had previously indicated.”

So suddenly intelligence reporting shows that Iraq has a nuclear weapons program much closer than previous intelligence had indicated. When did this change in intelligence occur? When Vice President Cheney started making daily visits to the CIA? Did this new intelligence include the Niger Yellow Cake documents?

As I write this the Iraqi war has already cost:
80 Billion Dollars and counting
263 American Soldiers and counting
Estimates of up to a billion dollars in additional expenditures each week
Thousands of Iraqi civilians
Our international reputation

That is why we need to investigate the intelligence “failures.” Americans need to know why we are paying such a high price. We need to know why we went to war.

I recommend you visit this web site every day: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/, it is a tragic reminder of the true cost of this “intervention.” These people did not sign up to fight “Bluff and Bluster” they signed up to fight for America’s continued safety and freedom. This war might have put both at risk.

- rob 3:58 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I just heard an interview with Daniel Ellsberg, whom some of you may remember; he photocopied the Pentagon papers and gave them to the Washington Times, which ultimately led to Watergate and the resignation of Richard Nixon. What you should know is that Nixon is vindicated by the Patriot Act. Had this happened yesterday, not only would Nixon still be in office but Ellsberg would be in Guatanamo Bay, held without charge, without access to lawyers, with a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, as a terrorist and a traitor. This is a guy who published the truth about decision making in Vietnam during an election year. After Watergate, Congress passed a bunch of laws making it illegal to wiretap American civilians, which is how Nixon was eliminating his opposition. For starters, he had an enemies list, and sicced the IRS on anybody who signed any petitions opposing his views, which included tax audits going back as far as seven years, the legal limit. This was in the days before computers, when people tended not to keep every check they wrote going back to 1965. My parents were targets, and they paid the price, full taxes going back seven years, which they already legally paid. This was standard operating procedure for Nixon et al. When Ellsberg came out with his story, it was too late, Nixon couldn't shut him down. Killing him at that point wouldn't have changed anything. The president tried to discredit him by illegally confiscating Ellsberg's psychiatric records, which is the burglary incident at Watergate, committed by thugs, including G. Gordon Liddy, who is a criminal and now a celebrity, with a talk show. You should be alarmed. This man is a criminal and a right-wing hero, not unlike Oliver North. The reason I write this history is that all the usual suspects are back in charge, and not by accident: the Patriot Act vindicates Nixon and undoes every single reform enacted by Congress in the aftermath of Watergate. Not only can those crimes be committed again, they can be done with impunity. The disgrace of our country at the hands of the Republicans thirty years ago has now become the law of the land, and anyone who ever tries to shed light into our dark American heart will never again be seen or heard, by law, by decree. UNBELIEVERS TAKE NOTE

- Michael 3:08 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Onion.

The paper that immediately and accurately summed up the Bush Administration's "reign" on the day first day of his pResidency with the headline:
Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

Again gets to the truth of the matter, while still just making up some wonderfully funny stuff:

Republicans Introduce Economic Equality Bill For Fun Of Shooting It Down
WASHINGTON, DC—Republicans in the House of Representatives proposed H.R. 2093: the Economic Equality Initiative, with the express purpose of shooting it down "just for kicks" Tuesday. "H.R. 2093 will level the economic playing field, spreading the wealth among the rich and poor," said Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX), visibly fighting back snickers. "We must pass this bill to stop the fat cats from getting fatter while the average Joe struggles to make ends meet. Also, I'm the Queen of Bavaria." Following 10 minutes of uproarious laughter, the congressmen stepped out of the chamber to smoke cigars lit with a bill that would allocate $115 million to clean up hazardous waste sites.

- rob 2:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Steak Raises Stakes for Kerry in Philly

It has come to this. Bush can completely make up the reason why we go to war, and Kerry ordering a Philly Cheesesteak with Swiss gets more coverage.

Bush with Kofi Annan on July 14, 2002 (see the bottom):

And we gave him [Saddam] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region. I firmly believe the decisions we made will make America more secure and the world more peaceful. "

Hmmm... I remember the inspectors were let in, but hey, maybe that's just me, I just remember the facts, poor Bush has to remember what Rove told him.

Anyway Bush gets zero coverage on just completely making up a reason to go to war, a war in which our soldiers died (and in which our nation finances were further ripped to shreds), but Kerry gets coverage because he eats a cheesesteak "daintily "

If Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential aspirations melt like a dollop of Cheez Whiz in the sun, the trouble may well be traced to an incident in South Philadelphia on Monday.

There, the Massachusetts Democrat went to Pat's Steaks and ordered a cheesesteak -- with Swiss cheese. If that weren't bad enough, the candidate asked photographers not to take his picture while he ate the sandwich; shutters clicked anyway, and Kerry was caught nibbling daintily at his sandwich -- another serious faux pas.
...

At least his spokesperson has some grasp of the world.

Kerry spokesman Robert Gibbs insisted that the candidate was "not taking a dainty nibble" of the steak. "I suspect that Kerry was thinking about provolone cheese but became distracted by thinking of the more than 3 million jobs that have slipped through the holes of George W. Bush's economic plan."

Okay Bush may have lost 3 million jobs, hundreds of billions of dollars, and our national reputation, but gosh darn it, he knows how to eat a cheesesteak!

- rob 2:27 PM - [PermaLink] -

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From the Excellent Bush/Orwell '04 site (thanks sy)

6-year-old holding George W. Bush Elite Force Aviator Doll hostage | GWBush04.com

Boy’s home is surrounded by Secret Service and Homeland Security-coordinated SWAT forces

Eugene, Oregon — A George W. Bush Elite Force Aviator Doll is being held hostage by 6-year-old Timothy Jennings in the garage of his home, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Reports indicate that the 12” action figure has been held against its will for several hours and that a small firecracker has been fastened to the toy’s authentic flight suit.

- rob 1:28 PM - [PermaLink] -

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TSA in ‘witch hunt,’ air marshals say

The Transportation Security Administration is conducting a “witch hunt” to ferret out and discipline employees in the federal air marshal program who have talked to the media, several sources within the program told MSNBC.com. Some air marshals are even being threatened with having the USA Patriot Act, a law enacted to help fight terrorism, used against them. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, denies that any such investigation is taking place.

The PATRIOT Act is being used against people trying to let the media know that the Bush Administration doesn't care about security. The PATRIOT Act is a political weapon as much as a weapon against terrorism. And that is why we really should be afraid. Our soldiers are fighting for the freedom of Iraqis while Ashcroft makes sure we lose ours.

HOWEVER, A DEPARTMENT Of Homeland Security spokesman did acknowledge that an investigation is under way surrounding the circumstances involving a decision to pull air marshals from high risk flights in an attempt to save money at the cash strapped TSA....

Security is just a campaign piece for Bush; its not actually on his agenda.

- rob 1:02 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Nader Hit With Pie During Calif. Event

The show of political support at the Green Party's San Francisco headquarters took an unscripted turn Tuesday when a prankster burst into the room and slammed a cream pie into Nader's face. The culprit fled through a side door.

If Nadar runs in 2004 taking votes away from a viable (unfortunately that means a democrat) anti-bush candidate, I can think of many things to put in the next pie he gets in his face.

- rob 12:28 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Rove's Weapon of Mass Distraction

Schwarzenegger's run 'taking heat off' Bush

The California recall and Arnold Schwarzenegger's candidacy have been a boon to President Bush, pushing questions about Iraq and stories about the Democratic presidential campaign off the front pages and out of the nightly newscasts.

Two weeks ago, questions about Iraq, reconstruction and weapons of mass destruction accounted for more than an hour of news time on the evening network newscasts. Last week, that was cut in half, said Matthew T. Felling, media director for the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

"Karl Rove must be the luckiest man on the planet. The phrase 'yellowcake uranium' has completely disappeared from the public lexicon," said Martin Kaplan, associate dean of the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and director of the Norman Lear Center, which studies the convergence of entertainment and society.

"Attention is a limited quality, and the public only has a certain amount of attention it can pay to things at one time. And that's also true of the media, and right now the recall and the freak show surrounding it has pretty much used up the available attention," Mr. Kaplan said.

Well, as Rove previously has used War as a method of distraction, I guess I should be glad that this time he's only sacrificing California's already dwindling dignity rather than the lives of our soldiers.

- rob 12:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Jolted Over Electronic Voting

BlackBoxVoting was one of the first sites we linked to, and electronic voting we have discussed several times before (here are a few posts I found, there are more though):

Step by Step, how to steal an election
Letter of support for The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003
You too can make your state vote Republican for only $55.6 million
Wired covers the story and Diebold has a lame response

Well, Mit and Caltech aside, it looks like the states are waking up after the Hopkins study, but alas the state of my youth, Maryland is still moving forward (but at least now they are going to study the issue).

An outside consultant assured the three-member panel recently that the report was nonsense.

"I hope you're right," Chairman Michael G. Brown said, taking a leap of faith and approving Diebold Election System's upgrades. "Because when they get ready to hang the three of us in effigy, you won't be here."
...

Maryland officials, who signed a $55.6 million agreement with Diebold for 11,000 touch-screen voting machines just days before the Hopkins report came out, have asked an international computer security firm to review the system's security. If they don't like what they find, officials have said, the sale will be off.

That should make me feel hopeful, but you must remember Maryland earlier had a panel of computer experts investigate which machines to buy. The result of the experts investigation: Don't buy any. Well that was ignored, maybe this time with people watching Maryland may act with a little more intelligence. Its too late for Georgia and Alabama and many other districts.

- rob 10:59 AM - [PermaLink] -

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The pResident lost billions and all I got was this graph:



We needed some color on the site today... red works (well...orange actually).

- rob 4:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Why we went to war:

Iraq's prewar posture of bluff and bluster, denial and deception justifield U.S. intervention, whether or not WMD were readily available to the regime. - Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R - New Jersey)

80 Billion Dollars and counting
263 American Soldiers and counting
A billion a week
Thousands of Iraqi civilians
Our international reputation

All of that because of bluff and bluster, denial and deception. Does Rodney sleep at night?

Maybe he needs to visit http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/ and look at the bodies pile up. This isn't Elementary school, lives have meaning. Bluff and Bluster, Denial and Deception seem to be common these days.

That quote was taken from a standard reply he gives to people that email him asking him to investigate the intelligence "difficulties" that led up to the war. In the next day or so, I hope to have a more detailed post about his letter.

- rob 4:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Enjoy the new title to the site in honor of Fox News suing Al Franken about Fair and Balanced.

- rob 1:43 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Why does George and Rummy want a weak American Military?

Thanks for the M.R.E.'s

The U.S. military has shifted many tasks traditionally performed by soldiers into the hands of such private contractors as Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary. The Iraq war and its aftermath gave this privatized system its first major test in combat — and the system failed.

According to the Newhouse News Service, "U.S. troops in Iraq suffered through months of unnecessarily poor living conditions because some civilian contractors hired by the Army for logistics support failed to show up." Not surprisingly, civilian contractors — and their insurance companies — get spooked by war zones. The Financial Times reports that the dismal performance of contractors in Iraq has raised strong concerns about what would happen in a war against a serious opponent, like North Korea.

- rob 1:03 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Daddy doesn't want you to know about his little mistakes

U.S. Clamps Secrecy on Warnings Before 9/11

The White House refused to provide contents of the president's daily brief. This would clear up questions about how much specific information President Bush received about an impending attack during the spring and summer of 2001 - a period in which the intelligence community was reporting with alarm that a "spectacular" attack against the United States involving "mass casualties" was in the works.

"Ultimately, this bar was extended to the point where CIA personnel were not allowed to be interviewed regarding the simple process by which the (brief) is prepared," the panel said.

The committee managed, "inadvertently," it says, to get some contents of a key briefing Bush received in August 2001. It included "FBI judgments about patterns of activity consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks; as well as information acquired in May 2001 that indicated a group of Bin Ladin (sic) supporters was planning attacks in the United States with explosives." In an extraordinary footnote, the panel cites public statements by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that characterized the August briefing as general and having provided historical perspective on Osama bin Laden's methods of terror.

The lawmakers, though, were barred from interviewing Rice. They sought to "obtain a better understanding of the development of counterterrorism policy in the Bush administration before September 11, 2001." The panel was forced to submit written questions to a deputy.
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The inquiry's report devotes 15 pages to describing a pattern of Bush administration denials and delaying tactics that prevented a fuller account of national failure before the attack. Last month the independent 9/11 commission still probing the attack issued a similar compendium of complaint.

- rob 12:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Welcome to Jack Van Impe Ministries International

Planning the end of the world, get advice from Jack Van Impe.

I am not sure whether he [Dubya] knows all of the prophecies and how deep of a student he has been in God's Word, but I was contacted a few weeks ago by the Office of Public Liaison for the White House and by the National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to make an outline. And I’ve spent hours preparing it. I will release this information to the public in September, but it’s in his hands.

He will know exactly what is going to happen in the Middle East and what part he will have under the leading of the Holy Spirit of God. So, it's a tremendous time to be alive.

Why is it a tremendours time to be alive? Because we're all going to die!!!!!!

- rob 12:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Stop the right from silencing desent!

And besides, we're good enough, smart enough, and gosh darn it people like us!

Fox Sues Humorist Al Franken Over Slogan



Seriously, as patriotism is now officially only judged by the right (or so they say), humor will soon be. And quite frankly liberals are generally funnier.

- rob 11:13 AM - [PermaLink] -

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The Patriot Act

Let's count the freedoms we've lost:

Some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act after the 9-11 attacks:

Freedom of association: To assist terror investigation, the government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity.

Freedom of information: The government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public-records requests. "Sensitive" information has been removed from government Web sites.

Freedom of speech: The government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.

Right to legal representation: The government may monitor conversations between attorneys and clients in federal prisons and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.

Freedom from unreasonable searches: The government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

Right to a speedy and public trial: The government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.

Right to liberty: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them. "Enemy combatants" have been held incommunicado and refused attorneys.

Source: The Associated Press, with information from Knight-Ridder Newspapers included

- rob 10:37 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Laws are for Republicans
...to abuse at will

Harris Booed at Town Hall Meeting

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (yes, the election stealer is a representative now) has decided that only the other side needs to obey the laws and she can do what she wants. Actually she already established her belief in that principal back in 2000.

Hundreds of people showed up with detailed questions for Harris at the Bradenton Kiwanis Hall on Thursday night. The Sarasota Republican spoke for nearly half of the allotted hour and then didn't answer the crowd's questions until all had been asked, the Bradenton Herald reported in Friday's edition.

The lines at the microphones were long. The boos were loud.

The crowd's mood already was testy before the meeting began. Security guards and Harris' staff confiscated literature handed out by opponents that included the drug plan's details and a chart of Harris' voting record since she began her term in January.
...

Connie M. McKee, a Harris staffer, said Congressional ethics rules made it illegal for people to distribute political information during a town hall meeting.

"All of the material is still here, and they can pick it up when they leave," McKee said. "They just can't take it into the hall. The ethics laws do not allow us to let them take it in. We have to be very, very careful that there are no laws broken."

But Harris distributed her literature to attendees. One flyer detailed how Bush's economic plans are restoring confidence and creating growth through fiscal discipline. Another highlighted the many benefits of Medicare reforms passed in June.

- rob 10:30 AM - [PermaLink] -

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This week's Top Ten Conservative Idiots

8. Halliburton
Thank goodness Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton is being paid millions of taxpayer dollars for their role in Iraq right now. It would be even better if they actually showed up to do any work. Last fall the Army hired Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root to 'draw up a plan for supporting U.S. troops in Iraq, covering everything from handling the dead to managing airports,' according to Newhouse News Service. But apparently insurance rates for civilian contractors skyrocketed as the war progressed, and now its getting 'harder and harder to get (civilian contractors) to go in harm's way,' according to Lt. Gen. Charles S. Mahan, the Army's logistics chief. The consequence of this is that troops stationed in Iraq have been living in squalid conditions, camping in primitive shelters with no means of air conditioning, using plywood latrines, and going without fresh food and showers. So I guess this is Halliburton's idea of supporting the troops. Boy, I'm glad the Army chose to hire a company that was so obviously well-prepared for this work.

- rob 10:14 AM - [PermaLink] -

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George Bush: Bad Dad or President?

Did EPA Mislead Public After 9/11?

An investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general has found that White House officials instructed the agency to be less alarming and more reassuring to the public in the first few days after the Sept. 11 attacks, The New York Times reports in its Saturday editions.

It is already obvious George is confusing being a dictator with being a leader, but now it seems his lies are really a demonstration of his parenting style. He knows best and his children (or citizens) need only know what will make them "better" people.

When his drunk driving conviction became known he annouced that the main reason he never mentioned it was because he never told his children. People thought this was a lie for political reasons, but no, I'm pretty sure it was the truth and that is a sign of his poor parenting style.

Bush has said that parents should not reveal their past errors (drinking, drug use, what have you) as that would be showing your teenagers that that was okay. But that is the thinking of a hypocrite, but hypocracy is a mainstay of the modern GOPer so that makes sense. Wouldn't it be better to tell your teenagers. "Girls, I drank, and I had a problem drinking. I got arrested, my live was basically a failure, etc. etc." The truth would be an effective means of telling them not to drink. It is pretty obvious now that Bush's method of parenting, at least about this issue, was a failure.

But this method is also how he "leads" as a President. Why didn't he tell people about the dangers (obvious as they were to anyone there I hear from friends who were there) of being in lower manhattan? He didn't want to scare people. It was important to the nation that Wall Street open, and he didn't want to risk people not showing up. People LIVE downtown. They should be told that the dangers were at least unknown.

Here's the truth. If he told people there may be dangers but asked people to sacrifice, for the sake of the nation, most would have. Americans and New Yorkers would have, and felt all the better for it. But Bush thinks he knows best, so he doesn't bother with the true.

Which brings us to the lies that will bring him down: Why we went to Iraq. We went to Iraq because his people told him that it would be easy. That we could set up such a wonderful democracy that all the other Arab nations would fall in line, peace would spread threw the world, and all our children would become smarter. But if he told us that that was his reason, we the people would probably have disagreed, and he couldn't risk that, so he lied. It was okay for him to lie, because he is Dad, and father knows best.

- rob 5:20 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Ivins: There is a feel of something more creepy than just bad policies

A recent newspaper advertising campaign by "independent" groups supporting President Bush shows a closed courtroom door with the sign, "Catholics Need Not Apply," hanging on it. The ad argues that William Pryor Jr., attorney general of Alabama and a right-wing anti-abortion nominee to the federal appeals court, is under attack for his "deeply held" Catholic beliefs.

Actually, Pryor is under attack because he is a hopeless dipstick. That he also happens to be Catholic and anti-abortion has nothing to do with his unfitness for the federal bench. The only person I know who believes one's closely held religious and moral convictions should make one ineligible for the federal bench is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia argued last year that any judge who is opposed to the death penalty should resign, on account of it is the law.

By that reasoning, any judge who is opposed to abortion out of deep moral conviction should also resign. Even though that would include Scalia's resignation, an eventuality devoutly to be wished in my opinion, I think he's wrong.
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I keep thinking of Mussolini's definition of fascism: "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism,' since it is the marriage of government and corporate power." When was the last time we saw this administration do something that involved standing up to some corporate special interest in favor of the great majority of the people?

I added the bold, I just thought that was a really great line.

- rob 1:16 PM - [PermaLink] -

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New at our store:

Camisole - Keep Bush Alive!



Remember:

If Bush Dies
We Get Dick

Just a little reminder that we should always hope and pray for Bush's good health.

- rob 1:11 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush Lies®

From Friends:

http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/sperry/stories/storyReader$526

http://www.bushwatch.com/bushlies.htm

http://www.house.gov/appropriations_democrats/caughtonfilm.htm

http://pearly-abraham.tripod.com/htmls/bushlies1.html

- rob 1:08 PM - [PermaLink] -

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