Earworm, 12:15 p.m.

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again

Altogether shout it now
There's no one
Who can doubt it now
So let's tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again

Your cares and troubles are gone
There'll be no one from now on
From now on...
Happy days are here again

The skies above are here again
So, Let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy times
Happy nights
Happy days
Are here again!

This is part that no one remembers, the beginning of the song:

So long sad times
Pull along bad times
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times
Cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past

- Michael 1:14 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Who We Are, Who They Are

Iraq Country SW Asia in Mesopotamia; a republic since 1958, formerly a kingdom.

native adj. Belonging to a particular place by birth; belonging to or associated with one by birth. INDIGENOUS. n. An original or indigenous inhabitant; a local resident, esp: a person who has always lived in a place as distinguished from a visitor or temporary resident.

terror n. Violence (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands. Syn see FEAR.

impose vb. To establish or apply by authority (~ a tax) (~ new restrictions) (~ penalties); to establish or bring about as if by force; vi: to take unwarranted advantage of something.

imperialism n. The policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation esp. by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas; broadly: the extension or imposition of power, authority, or influence.

United States of America Country N. America bordering on Atlantic, Pacific, & Arctic oceans; a federal republic.

- Michael 1:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Thanks to Atrios.



Have a great weekend. Look at typewriters.

- rob 1:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Email I just sent ABC News:

On this page: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/Vote2004/bush_documents_040909-2.html on ABCnews.com you show some "facts" from a documentation expert. Is your "documentation expert" under 20 years old? Has he ever seen a typewriter?

Proportional fonts on typewriters have been around since world war II as you can see from reading IBM's own website: http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1941.html. At that point you should have gotten a second opinion.

Also special characters such as th and even st were available on secretarial typewriters and even some home/consumer typewriters.

Also multiple fonts were available for secretarial typewriters, and could be changed easily. Serif fonts were used... not all typewriters exclusively used Courier.

If you are going to continue to use press releases from the RNC and their affiliated "think tanks" as your exclusive source of breaking news at least spend over 10 minutes checking their veracity. It really is starting to get embarrassing.

- rob 8:19 AM - [PermaLink] -

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TCS Clipping Service
i.e. I'm in a hurry so here's a lot of articles you should read

Bruce Bartlett on the CBO, National Debt, Social Security, Medicare, and Accounting on NRO Financial
The real deficit: $53 Trillion. (that's a big number)


Memos: Bush Suspended From Guard Flying

WASHINGTON - Addressing questions that have lingered for years, newly unearthed memos state that George W. Bush failed to meet standards of the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war, that he refused a direct order and that his superiors were in a state of turmoil over how to evaluate his performance after he was suspended from flying.

One military official "is pushing to sugar coat it," one memo says of a proposed evaluation of Bush.

Unlike the Swift Boats for nice kickbacks group, these are official memos from the time period. Let's see how the media treats this next week, or will it drop the story again. If the reporter wanted to get a Pulitzer they should follow this to its logical conclusion: was the avoidance of the physical due to the drug test portion of the physical? If so, is that drug use connected to the mysterious and brief "social conscience" that Bush had when he "volunteered" at Project PULL (can anyone say "community service").

Here's another article about the memos: Records Say Bush Balked at Order, and yet another: Memos: Bush Suspended From Guard Flying


Kerry wakes up: Kerry Rips Cheney Statement


Finally yet more about Cheney's speech
This editorial is the winner of this week's best headline by the way: Cheney Spits Toads

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have always used the president's father as a reverse lodestar. In 1992, the senior Mr. Bush wooed the voters with "Message: I care.'' So this week, Mr. Cheney wooed the voters with, Message: You die.

The terrible beauty of its simplicity grows on you. It is a sign of the dark, macho, paranoid vice president's restraint that he didn't really take it to its emotionally satisfying conclusion: Message: Vote for us or we'll kill you.

Without Zell Miller around to out-crazy him, and unplugged after a convention that tried to "humanize'' him with grandchildren, horses and wifely anecdotes about his inability to dance the twist, Mr. Cheney is back as Terrifier in Chief.

- rob 4:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The NY Times tells it like it is (this time)

A Disgraceful Campaign Speech

There are some things a presidential campaign should steer clear of, through innate good taste, prudence or just a sensible fear of a voter backlash. We'd have thought that both the Kerry and Bush camps would instinctively know that it would be appalling to suggest that terrorists were rooting for one side or another in this race. But Vice President Dick Cheney seemed to breach that unspoken barrier this week in Des Moines. If John Kerry was elected president, Mr. Cheney warned the crowd, "the danger is that we'll get hit again."
...
At the very best, Mr. Cheney was speaking loosely and carelessly about the area in this campaign that deserves the most careful and serious discussion. It sounds to us more likely that he stepped across a line that the Bush campaign team had flirted with throughout its convention, telling his audience that re-electing the president would be the only way to stay safe from another attack.

- rob 4:25 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Facts are for Girly Men!

By now you've probably read the memo that points out Bush was not only grounded for taking a physical (despite being ordered to do so by his commanding officer... and intriquingly enough a physical that required drug testing) but for "failure to perform to USAF/TexANG standards." If not: here it is. (as a pdf) Oh that's gotta hurt... Bush has always maintained it was just about skipping his physical.

It's got the wing-nuts scared.

Thus they've come up with an Explanation:

Bush Guard Documents: Forgeries?

In 1972 people used typewriters for this sort of thing, and typewriters used monospaced fonts.

The use of proportionally spaced fonts did not come into common use for office memos until the introduction of laser printers, word processing software, and personal computers. They were not widespread until the mid to late 90’s. Before then, you needed typesetting equipment, and that wasn’t used for personal memos to file.

Oh, that's damning... or it would be if it wasn't completely wrong. Facts by damned they say!

Maybe they thought they'd get away with it... as many folks haven't seen a typewriter for over a decade, but let's go to a pretty good source of typewriter history - IBM. Here's a description of one of their grand achievements for 1941:

IBM announces the Electromatic Model 04 electric typewriter, featuring the revolutionary concept of proportional spacing. By assigning varied rather than uniform spacing to different sized characters, the Type 4 recreated the appearance of a printed page, an effect that was further enhanced by a typewriter ribbon innovation that produced clearer, sharper words on the page. The proportional spacing feature became a staple of the IBM Executive series typewriters.

- rob 2:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Two and a half thousand years strong

Confucian ethics: submission of subject to emperor, son to father, and wife to husband.

America went from 1975 to 475 B.C. in four years.

Check history.

Except son to father got turned around.

- Michael 11:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Police and Protesters, NYC

The stories are beginning to trickle out. Here's an eyewitness account, from a buddy of mine who works in the city:

The receptionist at my office was netted in the park and dragged out to the garbage pier. When she told her captors that she needed her anxiety medication she was tossed into the psych compound. In this area there was no sanitary facility. There was no drinking water (FOR 36 HOURS!). She never received medical attention. She wasn't apprised of her rights until she was released. She never received legal counsel although she requested it. She was held for a day and a half without being charged. Upon her release she was given a summons to appear in court and answer the charge of "Parading Without a Permit." Today at work she was xeroxing snapshots of herself with her bicycle in some misguided, convoluted attempt to "recover" her "stolen" bicycle from the police. We were discussing the whole deal as we assembled a presentation due this afternoon.

They had a conversation about habeas corpus -- meaning that her right to obtain a writ (for inquiring into the lawfulness of the restraint of a person who is imprisoned or detained in another's custody) was illegally suspended. According to the U.S. Constitution, an American citizen has the right to know what crime he or she is being accused of and imprisoned for. In other words, for all you patriots who pledge allegiance to the flag -- as I have done my entire life -- habeas corpus is the right of a citizen to obtain a writ as a protection against illegal imprisonment. Got that? It's the definition of freedom, your right to go about your business without being tortured by the police and thrown into a concentration camp. It's relatively new. Barbarians are completely unfamiliar with it -- which is why it's only a few hundred years old. We founded the principles of our country on it, which is what you're swearing to when you fly the American flag. You don't get to pick and choose what principles you agree with when it suits you. Or am I being a pinko sissy anti-war queer cunt for pointing this out? I LOVE the idea of torturing people who don't agree, especially when it's illegal.

He continues:

She passed me a grainy, photocopied detail of herself in front of her bicycle. This was her "evidence" of constitutional abuse. ... She was telling more horror stories this morning. Her hands were cuffed behind her back for four hours
while detained in a city bus. A woman near her on the bus was ill. ... [She] had been walking home from the gym when netted. The police refused to do anything for her and she eventually vomited all over herself, cuffed the entire time. The cops thought this was hilarious. Another woman was handcuffed too tightly and had the circulation to her hands cut off--for four hours! C. said the woman's hands were hugely swollen and purple. It was over eight hours from the time of her arrest until she was allowed to use the toilet. On the way to the pier the bus hit two parked cars, rear-ended a SUV, then sideswiped the same SUV. The driver tried to follow the bus but was stopped by cops.

And a couple of letters from the NYTimes about how fair-minded and balanced the NYPD is in protecting the rights of all Americans:

To the Editor:

Re "The Police and the Protests" (editorial, Sept. 4):

As the father of a young woman who was detained without due process under deplorable conditions from Tuesday until Thursday evening during the Republican convention, I was saddened and disappointed by the virtually exculpatory response in your editorial.

Many detainees claim that some police officers stated openly that the protesters wouldn't see daylight until President Bush was out of town - an issue that will be investigated further.

But the cold fact remains that nearly 2,000 people were detained indiscriminately, without right to counsel, and often incommunicado. It is not a small number. Many of their families had no idea how loved ones had vanished and were unable to receive information. Only the forceful intervention of Acting Justice John Cataldo of the State Supreme Court brought a halt to this shameful episode.

I am saddened that in the current climate of fear promoted so relentlessly by the Bush administration, such actions may seem an acceptable price to pay for our "freedoms."

Michael Palmer
San Francisco, Sept. 4, 2004

To the Editor:

The New York Police Department and Fire Department are undoubtedly New York's finest. I have been to New York many times and have always enjoyed my stay, but my visit for the Republican convention last week was by far the best experience I have ever had - because of the men in blue.

The courtesy and professionalism with which they treated the delegates and guests of the convention were absolutely amazing. They not only made our stay safe, they were also a pleasure to be around. They are wonderful ambassadors for your city.

Thank you, N.Y.P.D. and F.D.N.Y., for all your hard work and long hours. Be assured that it was greatly appreciated.

Lionel C. McBee
Houston, Sept. 7, 2004

I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, Lionel. Feel free to shit on New York anytime you're in the nabe. That's why you came here, isn't it?

- Michael 8:09 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Maryland (and Georgia and too many others sadly) Are You Listening?

CA to Slam Diebold With Suit

SAN FRANCISCO - - California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said on Tuesday he would sue electronic voting-machine maker Diebold on charges it defrauded the state with false claims about its products.

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley has said Diebold deceived California with aggressive marketing that led to the installation of touch-screen voting systems that were not tested or approved nationally or in California.

Is our democracy at risk because of aggressive marketing. A vote eating machine gets installed all over the place because the brochure was colorful?!?

- rob 5:35 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush by numbers: Four years of double standards

If you like the Bush Numbers post from earlier this week, go check out this article... its horrify list of the Bush ineptitudes is so long it is numbing.

- rob 5:17 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Missing in Action

I've steered clear until now of how Mr. Bush evaded service in Vietnam because I thought other issues were more important. But if Bush supporters attack John Kerry for his conduct after he volunteered for dangerous duty in Vietnam, it's only fair to scrutinize Mr. Bush's behavior.

It's not a pretty sight. Mr. Bush was saved from active duty, and perhaps Vietnam, only after the speaker of the Texas House intervened for him because of his family's influence.

Mr. Bush signed up in May 1968 for a six-year commitment, justifying the $1 million investment in training him as a pilot. But after less than two years, Mr. Bush abruptly stopped flying, didn't show up for his physical and asked to transfer to Alabama. He never again flew a military plane.

Mr. Bush insists that after moving to Alabama in 1972, he served out his obligation at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery (although he says he doesn't remember what he did there). The only officer there who recalls Mr. Bush was produced by the White House - he remembers Mr. Bush vividly, but at times when even Mr. Bush acknowledges he wasn't there.

For fairness and accuracy I'd like to state I too avoided service in Vietnam. Like Cheney I had "other priorities" such as learning to walk, talk, read, and use the toilet. (not necessarily in that order, and if you notice I didn't add "write" because as any regular TCS reader knows... I'm still working on learning how to do that).

- rob 4:00 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Government wants ID arguments secret
In fact Ashcroft wants laws to be secret too... heck, don't even ask why when they come for you. You're not allowed to know.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Justice has asked an appellate court to keep its arguments secret for a case in which privacy advocate John Gilmore is challenging federal requirements to show identification before boarding an airplane.

- rob 3:56 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Bush Family Doesn't Like Voting

Making Votes Count: Voter ID Problems in Florida

There is no excuse for turning away eligible voters at the polls, but that is what apparently happened in Florida's primary elections last week. Under Florida law, registered voters can vote without showing identification. But election officials at some polling places misstated the law and tried to keep eligible voters from voting. In one county, the official sample ballot got the law wrong.

Florida's voter-identification law is inartfully written. It says photo identification is required at the polls, but it goes on to give voters without such identification an alternative: signing affidavits swearing to their identities. By that reasoning, Florida voters who show up without identification should be told that they can vote as long as they fill out affidavits. But that did not always happen last week.

In Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, poll watchers from People for the American Way saw voters being turned away after being told about half the law - the photo-identification requirement - but not the other half, the affidavit option. In some cases, said Elliot Mincberg, legal director of People for the American Way, poll workers insisted on identification even when they were shown voting-rights leaflets citing the state election law. Some people may never have cast ballots because they were not informed that they had the option to file affidavits.

The misstatement of the law goes beyond a few bad poll workers. Osceola County's sample ballot, mailed out before last week's election, said "Photo and Signature ID Required at Polls," and it did not tell voters they could in fact vote without identification. Secretary of State Glenda Hood, who should be on the voters' side, instead backs this misleading summary of the law. Osceola County's statement is fine, says Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for Ms. Hood. She said the affidavit option in the law was merely a "courtesy to the voter."

Under Jeb Bush's administration the right to vote is just a "courtesy." She went on to say, "You know voting is just the bread and circus we throw to the masses... as if the votes were actually counted. snicker"

- rob 3:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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When Comedy is more accurate

We've joke about how accurate The Onion's article of January 2001 was in predicting the next four years.

Bush swore to do "everything in [his] power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

Well someone took the time and checked off every part of that hilarious January, 2001 article that was accurate in predicting the future.

It is frightening to see: National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity


When Comedy is more telling

via Atrios: Bill Maher:

New Rule: You can't run on a mistake. Franklin Roosevelt didn't run for re-election claiming Pearl Harbor was his finest hour. Abe Lincoln was a great president, but the high point of his second term wasn't theater security. 9/11 wasn't a triumph of the human spirit. It was a fuck-up by a guy on vacation.

Now, don't get me wrong, Mr. President. I'm not blaming you for 9/11. We have blue-ribbon commissions to do that. And I'm not saying there was anything improper about your immediate response to the attacks. Someone had to stay in that classroom and protect those kids from Chechen rebels.

But by the looks of your convention, you'd think that the worst thing that ever happened to us was the best thing that ever happened to you. You just can't keep celebrating the deadliest attack ever as if it's your personal rendezvous with greatness. You don't see old men who were shot down during World War II jumping out of a plane every year. I mean, other than your dad.

But even your dad didn't run for re-election based on a recession and his propensity to barf on the Japanese. Now, I know you'd like us all to get swept away with emotionalism and stop sweating the small stuff like the deficit and the environment, and focus on what's really important: how you look in a fireman's hat.
...
So I say, if you absolutely must win an election on the backs of dead people, do it like they do in Chicago, and have them actually vote for you.

- rob 3:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Suddenly the press is worried about accuracy?

And the sad/funny thing, this book actually has gone through more fact checking then the swift boat ads (the sad part is that Bush really is our pResident).

Media View Kitty Kelley's Bush Book With Caution

Peter Gethers, vice president of Random House and Kelley's editor, said the publisher's chief counsel and Kelley's own lawyer went over the book "with a fine-toothed comb."

"It was as extensive a legal read as a publisher could give," Gethers said. "Some things didn't make it, and we're 100 percent confident of the things that made it in. We erred on the side of caution because we knew how hard she was going to be hit."

Gethers confirmed the accuracy of a report in London's the Mail on Sunday, which said the book contains, among other things, allegations of past drug use by President Bush. One of the sources quoted on that subject is Bush's former sister-in-law, Sharon Bush, who had a bitter divorce from the president's brother Neil.

- rob 3:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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FEAR
(continued)

Just a reminder... You are supposed to be scared!!!

Ridge: Terrorists hope to disrupt election

WASHINGTON -- Terrorists still hope to disrupt the U.S. democratic process even though the presidential nominating conventions and other high-profile gatherings this summer went off without incident, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Tuesday.

Threat reporting over the last several months has been "consistent, general and credible" and indicated the al-Qaida network is trying to push ahead with its plans, Ridge said.

Although large events this summer were not attacked, he said, "that in no way diminishes the level of vigilance, awareness and concern that we have during this entire process."

OMG! He really is 2 dimensional!

- rob 3:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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FEAR

Terrorists Use Terror as a Weapon
The Bush Administration Uses Fear as a Tool

Terrorists want the fear of an attack disrupt our democratic process
So Does the Bush Administration

Cheney Warns Against Vote for Kerry

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States," Cheney told about 350 supporters at a town-hall meeting in this Iowa city.

After Dick said this an aide rushed to his side and wiped the blood on Dick's chin that was left over from breakfast (today he had raw lamb... yesterday he ate a cute little bunny rabbit).

But let's get to the heart of this article: Cheney could only get 350 supporters to show up and see him in Iowa.

Site Note: On the web I just read something that really sums up the feeling I get from watching Cheney: Cheney is like the abusive drunk uncle I never had.

- rob 1:26 PM - [PermaLink] -

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You hear the number. Over 1,000 American soldiers dead in Iraq (thousands more horribly wounded).

True, the war was ill conceived and unnecessary, but these soldiers were heroes. To keep America free we need a military to defend our nation. The military must follow the elected Commander in Chief (save for war crimes), that keeps us free. These soldiers died defending our nation. I don't know of any anti-Iraqi war protestor/blogger/person who has any issue with our troops. Our disgust and anger is with George.

So here is to our fallen heroes (sadly there are so many of them): Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom casualties

- rob 12:16 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Talk about Grade Inflation

Rumsfeld: "I feel generally quite good about how things are going there"

"I feel generally quite good about how things are going there," he said. "Needless to say, you can't feel good about it when you've lost over a thousand people."

He gave the administration and the coalition a "B-plus" for managing Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in terms of interaction between the new government and U.S. forces.

"If I had to grade it so far, I'd probably give it a B-plus, pretty good, and maybe an A in interaction and maybe a B in outcome," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "But it's a tough business." [Emphasis Mine.]

Gosh Dang! What is a C?

- rob 9:44 AM - [PermaLink] -

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A Dream, a Rant, Letter to a Friend, E-mail, Letter, and Paul Krugman

I had a long exhausting dream last night about swinging from cables hundreds of feet high in the towers of some unspecified bridge in New York. I didn't fall or get hurt, but I kept grabbing hold of them like a trapeze artist and swinging across from beam to beam and back again, and every single time was terrifying, but I got used to it all the same. I kept looking down. Maybe this dream is just encapsulating constant fear and learning to live with it in a particularly dramatic image, but I woke up with the disturbing feeling that the bridge wasn't just some random symbol, chosen for its height and the fact that one must travel across it, back and forth, because you don't have a choice; rather, it seemed unpleasantly particular. Usually when I dream about the city, it's always a New York that's utterly different, one I've never seen or been to before. The New York City dream is a fabulous place, usually industrial, where I'm forced by obstacles toward its outer edges -- in other words, I can never travel anywhere in a straight line, I'm always forced off to the side until I hit the river and muddy byways and troughs, typically involving iron doors and unscaleable stone walls. Usually I'm being pursued.

But this dream wasn't like that at all. I was up there in the highest part of the towers, swinging from the cables, that was the whole dream. At one point I shimmied down to the bridge level, but then I was back on top somehow, all over again.

Strange residual worry. This fucking convention.

***

You know the three things I resent the most? 1: That we're all supposed to be permanently scared, but that New York is always on Orange Alert, and that we better be more scared than some, and to prove the point, the U.S. Army is patrolling the streets so that NYC is a permanent occupied territory -- in other words, Republicans have turned my city into their Theater of War, because everyone who votes for them hates New York and considers it Evil, and for that reason it deserves to be destroyed, because this is where the terrorists are; 2: That Americans don't understand the difference between the army and law enforcement (NOTE TO PATRIOTS: soldiers are trained in delivering death and destruction, not police work) and that most citizens are entirely unaware that the Department of Homeland Security intends to institionalize the U.S. military in domestic law enforcement (read: shoving a nightstick up your Granny's ass while helping themselves to the liquor and jewelry, just because they can); and 3: That the rest of the country -- with notable exceptions -- think that this is basically swell, because values are important.

Yes they are. So what do you value? The patriotic duty to shove my face in your shit?

***

Dear L.,

Welcome back to what used to be my country. Since you were gone a lot of
freedoms have come to pass. You know what they're working on now? Granting
the CIA the power to arrest U.S. citizens on the say so of the president.
Well, that's one way of getting rid of anyone who opposes you. The FBI is
now interrogating political protesters and issuing subpeonas. Whoever
dreamed this up must be a great reader of history: this is excellent
Stalinism, with an extra touch of Mao. Well, you missed fascism in Portugal
by only a few years; you can make up for it by living in America.

What is happening right now with the Republicans' lock on power is scary and
crazy -- and getting worse. Tell P. that he's lucky he's not American --
knowing him, he'd be locked up in a military jail by now on some island
without access to lawyers or a trial. Dissent in this country is now
illegal, and they're punishing people for what they MIGHT do. That pretty
much includes everyone, doesn't it?

***

Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004
I read in the paper that the whole goddam army is in the city now, the navy, the armada, the air force, the biggest fucking collection of military anywhere in the
history of America. What a stupid shithead idea to have their convention
here. What the Christ are they thinking? I wonder what the body count will
be when it's over? We'll never know of course. It crossed my mind that the
army patrols may never leave once they set foot in NY, like the shores of
Tripoli. It sort of feels like D-Day, a fucking invasion.

***

When we were at peace (remember that? I don't), all I could do was read
books about Vietnam, anything I could get my hands on; now that America is
at permanent war, going on for infinity -- and that's a promise -- I don't even
want to think about it. We've all got amnesia. This country is full of fucking
lunatics, and most of them are in charge.

I expect any day the men in dark suits'll come kick my door in, going "Down!
Down!"

At least that's what my friend the Vietnam vet told me last week.

***

But Paul Krugman should lighten the mood:

War, Mr. Hedges says, plays to some fundamental urges. "Lurking beneath the surface of every society, including ours," he says, "is the passionate yearning for a nationalist cause that exalts us, the kind that war alone is able to deliver." When war psychology takes hold, the public believes, temporarily, in a "mythic reality" in which our nation is purely good, our enemies are purely evil, and anyone who isn't our ally is our enemy.

This state of mind works greatly to the benefit of those in power.

George W. Bush isn't General Galtieri: America really was attacked on 9/11, and any president would have followed up with a counterstrike against the Taliban. Yet the Bush administration, like the Argentine junta, derived enormous political benefit from the impulse of a nation at war to rally around its leader.

Another president might have refrained from exploiting that surge of support for partisan gain; Mr. Bush didn't.

And his administration has sought to perpetuate the war psychology that makes such exploitation possible.

Step by step, the fight against Al Qaeda became a universal "war on terror," then a confrontation with the "axis of evil," then a war against all evil everywhere. Nobody knows where it all ends.

What is clear is that whenever political debate turns to Mr. Bush's actual record in office, his popularity sinks. Only by doing whatever it takes to change the subject to the war on terror - not to what he's actually doing about terrorist threats, but to his "leadership," whatever that means - can he get a bump in the polls.

To win, the Kerry campaign has to convince a significant number of voters that the self-proclaimed "war president" isn't an effective war leader - he only plays one on TV.

This charge has the virtue of being true. It's hard to find a nonpartisan national security analyst with a good word for the Bush administration's foreign policy. Iraq, in particular, is a slow-motion disaster brought on by wishful thinking, cronyism and epic incompetence.

And I'd point out that while Mr. Bush spared no effort preparing for his carrier landing - he even received underwater survival training in the White House pool - he didn't prepare for things that actually mattered, like securing and rebuilding Iraq after Baghdad fell.

There you go.

- Michael 10:26 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Great Post at the Daily Kos

Daily Kos :: More 'Bush by the Numbers'

• 34.6m Number of Americans living below the poverty line (1 in 8 of the population).
  6.8m Number of people in the workforce but still classified as poor.
• 35m Number of Americans that the government defines as "food insecure," in other words, hungry.
• $300m Amount cut from the federal programme that provides subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes.
• 40 Percentage of wealth in the United States held by the richest 1% of the population.
• 18 Percentage of wealth in Britain held by the richest 1% of the population.
• 43.6m Number of Americans without health insurance by the end of 2002 (more than 15 per cent of the population).
• 2.4m Number of Americans who lost their health insurance during Bush's first year in office.
• $10.9m Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person cabinet.
• 75 Percentage of Americans unaffected by Bush's sweeping 2003 cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.
• $42,000 Average savings members of Bush's cabinet received in 2003 as a result of cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.
• 4.7m Number of bankruptcies that were declared during Bush's first three years in office.
• 2002 The worst year for major markets since the recession of the 1970s.
• $489bn The US trade deficit in 2003, the worst in history for a single year.
• $5.6tr Projected national surplus forecast by the end of the decade when Bush took office in 2001.
• $7.22tr US national debt by mid-2004.
• 87 Percentage of American families in April 2004 who say they have felt no benefit from Bush's tax cuts.
• 39 Percentage of tax cuts that will go to the top 1 per cent of American families when fully phased in.
• 49 Percentage of Americans in April 2004 who found that their taxes had actually gone up since Bush took office.
• 88 Percentage of American families who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes.
• 9.3m Number of US unemployed in April 2004.
• 2.3m Number of Americans who lost their jobs during first three Years of the Bush administration.
• 22m Number of jobs gained during Clinton's eight years in office.

- rob 3:04 PM - [PermaLink] -

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For Bush, 9/11 and the war on terror are marketing gimics. That is all. He's not serious about the war on terror, unless it can be used to get into Iraq, get him re-elected, and pay off his friends (whether in be Halliburton, oil companies, or even pharma companies)

Graham book: Inquiry into 9/11, Saudi ties blocked

Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship, Sen. Bob Graham wrote in a book to be released Tuesday.

The discovery of the financial backing of the two hijackers ''would draw a direct line between the terrorists and the government of Saudi Arabia, and trigger an attempted coverup by the Bush administration,'' the Florida Democrat wrote.
....
Graham also revealed that Gen. Tommy Franks told him on Feb. 19, 2002, just four months after the invasion of Afghanistan, that many important resources -- including the Predator drone aircraft crucial to the search for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda leaders -- were being shifted to prepare for a war against Iraq.

Graham recalled this conversation at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa with Franks, then head of Central Command, who was ``looking troubled'':

``Senator, we are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan.''

''Excuse me?'' I asked.

''Military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq,'' he continued.

Graham concluded: 'Gen. Franks' mission -- which, as a good soldier, he was loyally carrying out -- was being downgraded from a war to a manhunt.''

Bush's little pet project (killing Saddam) cost us our first potential victories in the war on terror.

- rob 2:56 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Fight Over Gulf War Film Escalates

I thought "Three Kings" was an excellent movie, and was the "Catch 22" of the Gulf War (part 1).

A clash between David O. Russell and Warner Bros. over the DVD re-release of his Gulf War film "Three Kings" intensified Thursday as studio executives informed the filmmaker the video could not be released before the November election.

The news came days after the movie studio's decision to drop his 35-minute antiwar documentary, "Soldiers Pay," as a DVD bonus feature because of its political content.

In the documentary, the director revisits some of the Iraqi extras and advisors from the 1999 film "Three Kings" and the result is not favorable to the current administration.

- rob 2:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Winning the War on Terror can only be done with the help of our allies

Putin blasts U.S. on terror stance

But Putin said each time Russia complained to the Bush administration about meetings held between U.S. officials and Chechen separatist representatives, the U.S. response has been "we'll get back to you" or "we reserve the right to talk with anyone we want."

Putin blamed what he called a "Cold War mentality" on the part of some U.S. officials, but likened their demands that Russia negotiate with the Chechen separatists to the U.S. talking to al Qaeda.

These are not "freedom fighters," Putin said. "Would you talk with Osama Bin Laden?" he asked.

"Cold War mentality" is a big problem with the Bush Administration. They still see the war on terror as a war against other nations... the organisations behind the acts of terror just back up their tents and move, otherwise untouched except that they now most deal with many more eager recruits.

- rob 2:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If lies about the past (say from the swift boat veterans for government contracts), then why not bring up some old pieces of information that not even be lies?

First let's concentrate on the present pResident George:

Back then George was doing lines of coke up at Thurmont, Maryland: Bush 'did coke at Camp David' years ago

Kelley quotes Bush's former sister-in-law Sharon Bush, who claims: ''Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was president, and not just once either.''

Others told Kelley that as a 26-year-old member of the National Guard, Bush ''liked to sneak out back for a joint or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine.''

Kelley claims Bush started drinking before college and continued at Yale to overcome shyness.

Former student Torbery George says in the book: ''Poor Georgie. He couldn't relate to women unless he was loaded.''

Another says: ''It's amazing someone you held in such low esteem later became president.''

Alcoholism and or drug dependence is a tragedy, even when it happens to someone you really can't stand. But George was able to overcome it on his own. Without the aide of AA or any other external help. That can either mean George has a deep resource of will power or that he has a lot of issues hidden closely under the carpet.

Has he even really stopped drinking? Well... here's a video from 6 years after stopping his drinking. (quicktime required). Is that man sober?

and here's a photo from the G8 summit (it probably is non-alcoholic beer or someone else's but heck that wouldn't be that interesting for TCS... so let's pretend this picture signifies something):


And since we're looking at old dirty laundry, let's brink up the dirtiest of all (via many other site): George H.W. Bush's child prostitution scandal:

The Child Prostitution Ring that Reached Bush Whitehouse

You may have missed it in the late eighties if you blinked, but from the above link you can find all the articles of that scandal.

KARLYN BARKER, WASHINGTON POST, JULY 24, 1990: The alleged leader of what authorities have called the largest male prostitution operation in the Washington area surrendered to federal agents yesterday and pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges that have been filed against him and three alleged accomplices. Henry W. Vinson, 29, of Williamson, W.Va., a coal miner's son accused of setting up the homosexual escort service, was arraigned in U.S. District Court here yesterday afternoon after turning himself in to Secret Service agents . . . At a news conference after the arraignment, [U.S. Attorney Jay] Stephens said the investigation into the alleged prostitution ring "is concluded" and that the indictment, which was unsealed yesterday, focused on those who allegedly set up the ring rather than on clients who reportedly patronized it. Asked about earlier reports that some of those clients included high-level officials in the Reagan and Bush administrations, Stephens said the investigation had not revealed "additional conduct which suggests criminal conduct on behalf of other people." . . . The Vinson case provoked additional notice after The Washington Times published reports last summer suggesting that the alleged prostitution ring had been patronized by government officials. The Times named as clients several low-level government employees and Craig J. Spence, a Washington lobbyist and party-giver who, the paper said, took friends and prostitutes on late-night tours of the White House. Spence was found dead in a Boston hotel room last fall, and authorities ruled his death a suicide . . . To date, however, investigators have disclosed no evidence linking any high-level government official to the escort service.

And that concludes this extremely fair and balanced post. And now that is out of the way we can get back to the well established facts about Bush harming America via his war on Iraq and the destruction of the American economy. Oh and checkout some of the comments on the side... we've got some recent visitors from the Bush is God Squad. The seem to think "commie pinko" is an insult in this century. Please. Heck despite my liberal stance on many issues for the most part I'm a Libertarian. Commie Pinko... why are they willfully living in the fifties?

- rob 2:25 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Seen in Delaware:



Whoever you are, we love you!

- Michael 11:35 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Experiencing patriotic difficulties ...

please stand by.

I was disconnected from this site for the last few days by unseen forces out there in web land. By sheer fortune I managed to wend my way back in.

Troubling when that happens. This page should be called "A Fair and Balanced Look at Paranoid America" -- which is how I've been for four years straight (well, crooked).

Normally (hah) I'm not easily given to paranoia.

paranoia n. [NL, fr. Gk, madness, fr. paranous demented, fr. para- + nous mind] (ca. 1811) 1: a psychosis characterized by systematized delusions of persecution or grandeur usu. without hallucinations 2: a tendency on the part of an individual or group toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of others

paranoid also paranoidal adj. (1904) 1: characterized by or resembling paranoia 2: characterized by suspiciousness, persecutory trends, or megalomania 3: extremely fearful

Two words: Paul Wellstone
One word: Johnashcroft

One is the last liberal politician in America who went down in a small aircraft days before a national election when the Senate was split 50-50; the other is a would-be governor who lost his election to a corpse and is now one of the most powerful men in the world, sitting atop a U.S. Justice Department fully committed and empowered by the president to remove every congressional firewall designed to separate the intelligence-gathering arm of the CIA from the criminal investigatory powers of the FBI, to quashing internal dissent, shredding the Freedom of Information Act, arresting citizens for what they MIGHT do, and getting rid of trial by jury and the writ of habeas corpus, to say nothing of massing police power into the hands of the state and generally conducting himself like Torquemada during the heyday of the Spanish Inquisition, where subjects of a ruthless Christian monarachy were routinely disembowelled, flayed, broken on the wheel until their arms and legs were mash -- screaming bloody puppets -- and braided into the spokes alive, hoisted into the air, and left for the birds to peck out their eyes and eat their mouths, lips and tongues, for no other reason but to prove a point.

Take your pick.

--Oh, you can't, I forgot. Who better to deprive you of your rights and privileges than the unelected, who follows a higher power than the rule of law?

Nobody beats the Spanish Inquisition.

- Michael 3:39 PM - [PermaLink] -

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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt



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 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt



"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson



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- James Madison



"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy



"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." - Bill Clinton.