corrente

Been a little tied up and got a couple days behind on posting. With all the excitement about hurricanes in Florida and exploding flashlights in luggage at LAX there is a minor matter that is starting to fade into the background, unless you know or are related to one of the participants personally:

(via Juan Cole)

Clive Astle writes from Australia:

' For better numbers on US casualties in Iraq than used by Molly Ivin visit Global Secuirty's casualties page.

Molly appears to have omitted counting the number killed but unidentified pending notification of kin. Total US dead is reported at 1012 as at end of August (244 days of 2004 with 530 dead versus 482 dead in 2003's 287 days despite end of official war and return of "sovereignty").

Of at least equal concern is US casualties totalling 6987 as at end of August including a big jump of 1112 in the most recent month alone. Note that the wearing of bullet-proof vests means that many of these would have been deaths in earlier combats such as Vietnam. The vests have reduced deaths but greatly increased total incapacitation wounds such as brain injuries and limb loss. (Note that Pentagon has been trying to "spin" the number of wounded by only reporting "hostile" wounded since 1 April 2004).

If you assume that the 6987 wounded cannot return to fight and nor can the 4416 reported non-battle injury evacuations, the US loses 21.47 soldiers per day to injury (and 36 per day in most recent month) on top of the 1.9 average deaths per day (total 23.37 per day equals 8530 per year that this continues, more if rates escalate as they are currently). Too many years at this rate and the US military is severely depleted, not to mention the increased vet costs and resultant family impact back home.

Note also that most recent deaths have not been in Najaf, implying there is a largely unreported but much more effective uprising elsewhere in Iraq (Al-Anbar district seems to be where most deaths are still occuring). '

No discussion of politics with anyone, either amongst ourselves or with a potential convert from the Kool-Aid party, should fail to mention these facts and these numbers.

Oh, and happy Labor Day to all, particularly those with jobs, without jobs, with jobs that don't pay enough to live on, or who are in the process of giving birth as they read this. (Trying to cover all potential sorts of folks with Labor issues.)

I was going to send this note to Eric Alterman but i didn't because I have no idea where to send it. And, because, i sure as shit am not going to send anything to anyone anywhere by entering my personal email address into some MSNBC operated online email submission boxlet. (for all kinds of paranoid reasons....SPAM) Alterman should get himself a real blog. But anyway.....

Dear Eric Alterman,

Hi there. I don't much write letters like this -- (i guess you can call this a letter) -- to people i don't know, because, well, i dunno - i just don't. But, i gotta tell ya this: I really enjoyed your appearence on CSPAN with Brian Lamb. Damned good job. Great job! You made my day. Thanks so very much. To be honest, on several occasions, i considered leaping from my TV viewing chair, lunging across the room, and hugging the TV set. But i didn't, because, well, that would be kinda friggin' weird. But i considered it. Yes i did. And the the fact that i considered it on several occasions during the program says a lot about how much i enjoyed the show. Either that or i'm becoming increasingly strange. Which is certainly possible and probably demonstrably true. But no matter. Who gives a flyin' fuck. You kicked out the jams Alterman! And i just wanted to let you know that.

I (and, i'm sure, many many others) apppreciate your efforts.

Oh yeah, by the way, with respect to that one caller from Saugerties NY (near the end of the CSPAN show) who claimed to be the wife of a POW in "Iraq" (she meant to say Vietnam) - and who also stated that POW's (including, so she claimed, her husband) were subjected to the words of John Kerry's anti-war congressional testimony while captive prisoners of the North Vietnamese (a Swift Boat Vets for Bush allegation) - well, just as a heads up, David Corn noted in his recent Nation column ("The Bush Mob Orders Up a Hit") that John McCain told the New York Times that "his [Vietnamese] captors never used Kerry's congressional testimony to taunt or pressure him." -- just thought i'd remind ya of that one in case you missed it.

Anyway, as i dramatically stated earlier, great job. Thanks again and keep up the good work. Even if your blog is pimped by those suckfish bottom-feeders at MSNBC.

Yours in occupied territory,
- the farmer

When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences - by Eric Alterman. Release date Sept. 23, 2004.

*

The easily excitable cable "news" drones are all a-twitter over a recently published Time magazine poll. This shiny new vibrating object, dangled before the pundoltery, depicts Bush with a 52% to 41% lead among "likely voters" nationwide. The poll, taken from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 can be found here:

What the pampered "journalistic" mediocrities at CNN - as well as MSNBC - do not prattle on about are two other polls taken during the same general period. ALL these polls (including the TIME poll) were taken before the conclusion of the RNC convention in New York. Nevertheless the obedient cable "news" fetch-poodles are doing their yappy best to shill the Time magazine numbers (only) as post convention results. And obvious indicators of the Bush boy's unstoppable appeal. Oh sure.

ZOGBY - Zogby America Poll. Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 2004.
"Do you think George W. Bush deserves to be reelected as president of the United States, or is it time for someone new?"

Among likely voters nationwide:
8/30 - 9/2/04
deserves reelection - 46%
someone new - 48%
unsure - 6%

American Research Group Poll. Aug. 30-Sept. 1, 2004.
"If the election for president were being held between George W. Bush, the Republican, and John Kerry, the Democrat, for whom would you vote: Bush or Kerry?"

Among registered voters:
polled 8/30 - 9/1/04
Bush - 46%
Kerry - 48%
unsure - 6%

The Bush boy: whose entire strenght has always depended upon those willing to hide the entire story.

*

Medicare premiums for doctor visits will rise 17 percent next year, the Bush administration said Friday. The $11.60-a-month increase is the largest in the program’s 40-year-history.

Monthly payments for Part B of the government health care program for older and disabled Americans — doctor visits and most other non-hospital expenses — will jump to $78.20 from $66.60.

The premiums are updated annually under a formula set by law. The federal government picks up about 75 percent of the cost of Part B benefits and beneficiaries pay the rest.

He just lost the vote of the vast majority of folks over 65 on Medicare now folks.

Oh yeah -- and this news was, of course, released late on a Friday before a holiday weekend.

The timing of the release — the day following the Republican convention, just before the Labor Day weekend and with a hurricane bearing down on Florida and its nearly 3 million Medicare recipients — drew criticism Friday.

“This is a cynical attempt to bury bad news by leaking it out when you hope no one is watching,” said Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark, D-Calif. “This administration has had four years to improve Medicare and instead have made it worse. Today’s news reflects the reality, not rhetoric, of this administration’s bad record on Medicare.
(via MSNBC)

Gee, ya think?

Retired Americans aren't going to sit still for this. This little nugget may actually do the most to assure the defeat of W.

Part B premiums have risen nearly 40 percent in the last two years.

Kerry had better start hitting them over the head with this -- NOW.

Why don't we change the name "Labor Day" to "Reagan Day"? I can't believe nobody has ever thought of this before.

Yell at a delegate, or hijack a plane and fly it into a building and kill 3000 people. It's all the same to Mike:

(via NYT)

"It is true that a handful of people have tried to destroy our city by going up and yelling at visitors here because they don't agree with their views," Mr. Bloomberg said. "Think about what that says. This is America, New York, cradle of liberty, the city for free speech if there ever was one and some people think that we shouldn't allow people to express themselves. That's exactly what the terrorists did, if you think about it, on 9/11. Now this is not the same kind of terrorism but there's no question that these anarchists are afraid to let people speak out."

Some anarchist protest organizers, who had urged nonviolent civil disobedience and confrontation of delegates, said they believed plainclothes police officers had been following them and seeking to intimidate them.

They said strangers who knew their names tailed them leaving meetings and followed in unmarked sedans and sport utility vehicles similar to those used by law enforcement agencies.

Mayor Bloomberg has obviously caught a case of Bushspeak, because he seems completely unaware that his mouth has been taken over by a lunatic.

"Preventive policing" was on display in New York this week. This concept says that the way to prevent actual, Seattle-style window-breaking-looting-arsonizing rioting is to arrest people before they do anything. They keep them confined, without access to medical care, legal counsel, or their phone call, even in defiance of judicial orders to release them, until the event in question is nearing its end.

In evidence I present this comment from dKos. I don't know how to link to an individual comment but scroll down a couple-three screens till you get to a long post. This is a part of it. This is an eyewitness, handle of "rppa," whose daughter was arrested in one of the "preventative sweeps":

At about 1:00 pm a judge broke the detainees into three groups by time of arrest, with the first group of 120 ordered to be docketed by 1:30, the second by 3, the third by 4.

The Lawyers Guild (my new heroes) kept pushing these cases as there was no change in status. Note by the way that the court order granting attorney access had been granted around 10pm or 11pm on Wednesday. That access never occurred for a single prisoner. I think we heard about the fines around 5:00, when a judge yelled at the city attorney and demanded that the first two groups be released immediately en masse.

That, of course, didn't happen either.

There was also some skepticism about whether the city will ever pay this fine.

By around 7 pm the process of arraignment started to speed up slightly and for the first time my daughter (near the top of the list in group 1, held since 4:30 pm Tuesday) got a docket number. However, very few of those cases were actually heard. Her friend got an arraignment and dismissal. My daughter was released with a bench warrant with the mass release that finally happened around 7:30 pm. That means she has to travel back to NYC for the court hearing. Not a huge deal for us, coming from Philly, but some of the people in this group come from much farther away. In normal conditions, this bench warrant would have been issued Tuesday evening and she never would have been in a cell at all.

Bloomberg is congratulating his storm troopers for a great job well done. Wadda ya wanna bet he gets them some nice new uniforms as a reward? Brown shirts all around, Mike.

UPDATE "Destroy our city," quotha? Unbelievable. The Bush administration actually poisons New Yorkers by suppressing 9/11 health reports, and somehow that's OK. Then protesters exercise their First Amendment rights, and that's destroying the city. I guess Bloomberg was in Bush's suite when they were handing out the KoolAid... —Lambert

Mrs. Clinton appeared briefly in front of the hospital where her husband will undergo heart surgery tomorrow to reassure everyone that he is in good spirits and that both of them have complete confidence that he will weather the surgery and the recovery period and be returned to good health, with relative swiftness.

She also mentioned that it is an immense relief to know that her family's their ability to afford health insuance means that her husband will receive the best medical care, and that she looks forward to the day when all Americans can enjoy the reassurance of access to health insurance they can afford.

Even Chris Matthews was impressed, proclaiming her to be gracious, charming, and on message. Naturally, her recognition that she and her family enjoy an advantage in facing a major illness over a huge number of her fellow citizens, and that in a just society, affordable health insurance should be the right of every American could only be viewed by Matthews as fodder for her personal political ambition, Chris Matthews being unconcerned that anyone else might lack health insurance, as long as he and his family have it. What a crud.

Here's where you can send your best wishes, courtesy of Digby, by way of Fiat Lux

The William J. Clinton Foundation
55 West 125th St.
New York, NY 10027

From the essential Digby:

Is it possible that they are incapable of doing anything that doesn't smack of propaganda and self serving bullshit? Do they do this stuff just because it's fun to get away with it time after time, even if they don't have to?

Sigh. Remember the stirring letter from a soldier in Iraq that Bush quoted so dramatically last night?

It turns out that the guy is a soldier all right, but he's also a "scholar" at one of the Scaife funded, right wing foundations.

I don't suppose they could have found any letters of support from members of the military who aren't employed as operatives in the VRWC.

Actually, now that I think about it, they probably couldn't.
(via Digby)

I used to be able to talk sanely, normally, about politics, and even Republicans. But now that I've got Bush Tourette's:

"SIGH"? GODDAMMIT—No matter how—FUCKING USER—hard I—YIKES!—try to be cynical enough with—THAT SLIPPERY LITTLE SCUT—Bush,—I'M FROM PHILLY AND OUR CRACK WHORES CAN BEAT YOUR CRACK WHORES—it's never enough. Never. Why—THE FUCK—is that?

Sometimes I have to stop blogging and walk around a little to calm down....

At 5:42PM today...

Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, a bond trading firm that lost two-thirds of its workers in the World Trade Center attack, has sued Saudi Arabia for allegedly supporting al-Qaida prior to the Sept. 11 attack through financing, safe houses, weapons and money laundering.

The company, in a $7 billion lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and made public Friday, also named dozens of other defendants, including numerous banks and Islamic charities, in a bid to hold them accountable for its losses in the terrorism attack.

The lawsuit noted that it carried many of the same defendants, transactions, events and questions of law as an earlier $300 billion lawsuit brought by insurance companies against terrorist groups, companies and countries supporting terrorism. That lawsuit, which also names Saudi Arabia, is still pending.

The Cantor Fitzgerald lawsuit took particular aim at Saudi Arabia, saying the kingdom "knew and intended that these Saudi-based charity and relief organization defendants would provide financial and material support and substantial assistance to al-Qaida."

According to the lawsuit, Saudi Arabia engaged in a pattern of racketeering as it participated directly or indirectly in al-Qaida's work through its "alter-ego" charities and relief organizations, which it funded and controlled.

The lawsuit alleged that Saudi Arabia materially supported al-Qaida by helping to raise money for it, by knowingly and intentionally employing al-Qaida operatives, by laundering its money and by providing al-Qaida with safe houses, false documents and ways to obtain weapons and military equipment.

"This uninterrupted financial and material support and substantial assistance enabled the al-Qaida defendants to plan, orchestrate and carry out the Sept. 11 attacks," the lawsuit said..
(via AP)

Interesting....

But I don't see how that can be true. I mean, doesn't the Bush family have close ties to the Saudi royals?

Faith, we are told, is "the evidence of things not seen." The invaluable Froomkin, who got most of a week off from his "White House Briefing" column since there wasn't anybody IN the whitehouse even briefly, is back with his RNC wrapup. He notes the various and sundry items NOT mentioned in the Acceptance of Coronation speech last night:

(via Froom)

And, for the record, here are a few other things he didn't mention:

• The prison abuse scandal or allegations of torture in Iraq.

• His proposed mission to Mars.

• The value, past or future, of having a Republican-controlled Congress.

• His "miscalculation" in Iraq.

• A headcount of the dead in Iraq.

• The flawed intelligence that he used to justify the war in Iraq.

Most egregious of all, of course, was the omission of any mention of his SOTU-proposed determination to eradicate the scourge of steroids from professional sports. And the attempt of Sadaam to obtain uranium from Africa. We're sure they're with those other details of his next-term agenda on his GeorgeBush.con website he so proudly mentioned last night, even managing to both pronounce and spell it correctly. Well, almost.

President Bill Clinton has been hospitalized at Columbia-Presbyterian in NYC for bypass heart surgery. Mrs. Clinton, looking calm and gracious, made the annoucement at a state fair where she had expected to meet her husband. He'd experienced chest pains the previous evening, went to the local hospital, where tests were inconclusive. At a routine followup this morning, the President's doctors decided he needed further testing. According to reports on cable news, the operation will be a quadruple bypass. Both Hillary and Chelsea Clinton are on their way to the hospital to be with the President Clinton.

Except for Bobby Kennedy after the death of his brother, the connection I feel to Bill Clinton is like no other I've felt toward a politician, an honorable profession, in my view, too little honored. Perhaps that special feeling arises from the extraordinary and largely undeserved demonization he experienced as president, comparable to that of Lincoln. In case anyone is tempted to mention Nixon, he wasn't demonized; he earned his inquity. I suspect that Bill Clinton's many virtues have only begun to be appreciated, even while his demonization by those who consider him their enermy continues apace.

Mr. Clinton's prospects for a successful surgery are probably excellent. However, the procedure is a painful and debilitating one. Selfishly, I have to admit that my fourth of fifth thought, after hearing the lamentable news, was regret that it is unlikely he will be well enough soon enough to campaign for John Kerry.

To all the Clintons, Hillary, and Chelsea, and Bill, the thoughts of millions are with you, and the news that President Clinton's surgery is over and successful will be greeted around the world with happy relief.

President Clinton, we wish you a minimum of pain and a speedy recovery. Your absence from this world of ours is not an option; we still need you too much.

Classy people, these Republicans—booing a man going into the hospital for a triple bypass:

President Bush on Friday wished Bill Clinton ``best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery.''

``He's is in our thoughts and prayers,'' Bush said at a campaign rally.

Bush's audience of thousands in West Allis, Wis., booed. Bush did nothing to stop them.
(via CBS)

"Bush did nothing to stop them."

Silence means consent, right? Remind you of anything? Like Bush doing nothing to correct the smears of Kerry even He says aren't true..

What a coward. Always letting others do His dirty work. Then washing His hands of it all...

"Bush did nothing to stop them."

UPDATE More Republicans showing real class via the Agonist.

UPDATE We could have been mistakenly led by past Republican behavior on this one, however. If so, we'll be sure to apologize if anyone was offended...

Read the essential Howler.

Bush is stiffing the country on debates. You'd think He'd want to defend his records:

President Bush's campaign won't say for sure whether he will agree to the three debates proposed by the independent Commission on Presidential Debates, or if a Republican strategist was right this week when he said the Bush campaign would agree to only two debates.

The commission, without a formal agreement by the Bush camp, set debates for Sept. 30 in Coral Gables, Fla.; Oct. 8 in St. Louis; and Oct. 13 in Tempe. A vice presidential debate between incumbent Dick Cheney and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's running mate, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, was set for Oct. 5 in Cleveland.

GOP strategist Scott Reed was quoted by the Reuter news agency this week as saying the Bush camp's position is that "two debates are sufficient and will not dominate the entire fall schedule."

"Three debates would have a tendency to be a little overbearing on your campaign strategy and tactics," Reed was quoted as saying.
(via Arizona Republic)

Here's an idea! Maybe instead of actually attending the third debate, Bush could just claim to attend them, even though nobody saw Him... And the SCLM would just say "Oh, OK!" After all, it worked for that peskly National Guard thing....

It's always the details that trip the Republicans up.

Madison Square Garden in lock-down mode, trains re-routed from Penn Station to Hoboken (don't ask), police everywhere, helicopters everywhere, bombsniffing dogs—Hey, did any of 'em sniff Zell's speech?—a constant fear rush fed by weird rumors—remember the mice? The hookers? (back), and all that gaslighting (back)....

And how is the actual security at the Convention? Farcically bad! But that's just a detail:

Last night, as President Bush talked in his acceptance speech about fighting terrorism, a young woman with long brown hair began heckling him from 30 yards away in the California delegation.

Minutes later, another woman, in the upper deck of the Garden, was removed from the hall during the president's speech after standing up and revealing that "Give George Bush the pink slip" was written on a pink slip she was wearing.

"I'm shocked by how easy this has been," said Medea Benjamin, 51, an antiwar protester from San Francisco. Ms. Benjamin managed to get within 20 feet of Mr. Cheney on Tuesday night and, during Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech, unfurled a banner that read: "Be Pro-life, Stop Killing in Iraq."

"I am shocked by how many passes we can get," she said.

Part of the problem for the Secret Service, which was in charge of security at the Garden, was that thousands of passes were available but there was no system to match a pass with the person it was issued to. The serial number on the credentials could be tracked only to the organization that was responsible for distributing them, which did not help after an incident had taken place.
(via the-always-ready-with-Lizzie's-kneepads-not-the-Los-Angeles Times)

"No system to match a pass with the person it was issued to." Some security system, huh? I mean, isn't "Show some ID" the basic request of security people everywhere?

And the funny thing is... Talking the talk, but not walking the walk, is exactly what the Republicans are doing on Homeland Security.

Take loose nukes, for example (back). We've got orange alerts, lots of political theatre, lots of chest-thumping and strutting and swaggering, but as far as actually securing the ports, so a loose nuke in a shipping container doesn't destroy New York, or Philly, or Los Angeles, or some other (blue) city? Forget it.

In reality, the ports are about as well protected against loose nukes as Madison Square Garden was against protesters: That is, not at all.

Which is not surprising, considering that the same people were in charge of both.

How often Orwell is appropriate!

The preparations for Hate Week were in full swing, and the staffs of all the Ministries were working overtime. Processions, meetings, military parades, lectures, waxworks, displays, film shows, telescreen programmes all had to be organized; stands had to be erected, effigies built, slogans coined, songs written, rumours circulated, photographs faked. Julia's unit in the Fiction Department had been taken off the production of novels and was rushing out a series of atrocity pamphlets. Winston, in addition to his regular work, spent long periods every day in going through back files of The Times and altering and embellishing news items which were to be quoted in speeches. Late at night, when crowds of rowdy proles roamed the streets, the town had a curiously febrile air. The rocket bombs crashed oftener than ever, and sometimes in the far distance there were enormous explosions which no one could explain and about which there were wild rumours. [Orwell even predicted gaslighting!]

The new tune which was to be the theme-song of Hate Week (the Hate Song, it was called) had already been composed and was being endlessly plugged on the telescreens.
(via 1984)

Of course, it can't happen here. No, of course not. Paul Krugman (to amplify Xan below) is acute as always, this time psychologically (and when we say "psycho"...):

Why are the Republicans so angry? One reason is that they have nothing positive to run on. ...

The promised economic boom hasn't materialized, Iraq is a bloody quagmire, and Osama bin Laden has gone from "dead or alive" to he-who-must-not-be-named.

Another reason, I'm sure, is a guilty conscience. At some level the people at that convention know that their designated hero is a man who never in his life took a risk or made a sacrifice for his country, and that they are impugning the patriotism of men who have.

That's why Band-Aids with Purple Hearts on them, mocking Mr. Kerry's war wounds and medals, have been such a hit with conventioneers, and why senior politicians are attracted to wild conspiracy theories about Mr. Soros.

It's also why Mr. Hastert, who knows how little the Bush administration has done to protect New York and help it rebuild, has accused the city of an "unseemly scramble" for cash after 9/11. Nothing makes you hate people as much as knowing in your heart that you are in the wrong and they are in the right.

But the vitriol also reflects the fact that many of the people at that convention, for all their flag-waving, hate America. They want a controlled, monolithic society; they fear and loathe our nation's freedom, diversity and complexity.

The convention opened with an invocation by Sheri Dew, a Mormon publisher and activist. Early rumors were that the invocation would be given by Jerry Falwell, who suggested just after 9/11 that the attack was God's punishment for the activities of the A.C.L.U. and People for the American Way, among others. But Ms. Dew is no more moderate: earlier this year she likened opposition to gay marriage to opposition to Hitler. [here]

The party made sure to put social moderates like Rudy Giuliani in front of the cameras. But in private events, the story was different. For example, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas told Republicans that we are in a "culture war" and urged a reduction in the separation of church and state.

Mr. Bush, it's now clear, intends to run a campaign based on fear. And for me, at least, it's working: thinking about what these people will do if they solidify their grip on power makes me very, very afraid.
(via the Times)

Ah. The Ministry of Fear. Sound familiar?

NOTE Thank heavens I copied this before I posted it and blogger went into endless-spinning-watch mode. Almost lost it. Wouldn't it be great if blogger didn't suck?

Heh.

Maybe the cattle have been talking to the goats?

Oops, mea culpa. That's just a really vile rumor, without any truth to it (So sorry!)

Krugman, as usual, nails it: (via NYT)

For many months we've been warned by tut-tutting commentators about the evils of irrational "Bush hatred." Pundits eagerly scanned the Democratic convention for the disease; some invented examples when they failed to find it. Then they waited eagerly for outrageous behavior by demonstrators in New York, only to be disappointed again.

There was plenty of hatred in Manhattan, but it was inside, not outside, Madison Square Garden.

Nothing makes you hate people as much as knowing in your heart that you are in the wrong and they are in the right.

But the vitriol also reflects the fact that many of the people at that convention, for all their flag-waving, hate America. They want a controlled, monolithic society; they fear and loathe our nation's freedom, diversity and complexity.

I cite this before mentioning that Bill Clinton is in the hospital with chest pains, looking at quadruple bypass surgery, probably Tuesday. (What kind of clout do you have to have, dammit, to get a doctor to work on a weekend?) Expect the freepers to be cackling with glee. They always have been about as funny as a heart attack, havent' they?

Here (via Atrios)

Framing, or printing up and plastering on every available surface. I think I'm going to try for the Throne Room in the Executive Club of The Mighty Corrente Building...

The operation was a success, but the patient is dying:

The fall in the unemployment rate was not unalloyed good news. Economists noted a 152,000 fall in the civilian labor force that potentially accounted for at least part of the jobless rate decline. The labor force often falls when job-seekers abandon the hunt for work.
(via Reuters)

Just enough to keep us from losing ground. As if the terrible market for jobs were some sort of accident, when in fact, it's the plan (back).

It's no accident that Bush used two words—"I" and "will"—most often in his acceptance speech (analysis, back).

When you can't run on your record, you'd better try to get people thinking about the future instead.

From Science, a journal I doubt few Republicans read, especially since ("bi-pedalism") it sounds kinda, um, X-rated:

A chimp-sized human ancestor walked upright 6 million years ago, far earlier than anyone had been able to show before, researchers reported on Thursday.

Specialized X-rays called CAT scans of the top of a fossil thighbone show clear evidence that the creature walked upright, like pre-humans, and not like apes, the researchers said.

Their findings, published in Friday's issue of the journal Science, take the dawn of human gait back another 3 million years from "Lucy," the earliest known pre-human to have walked on two legs.

"We have solid evidence of the earliest upright posture and bipedalism securely dated to six million years," said Dr. Robert Eckhardt, a professor in the Laboratory of Comparative Morphology and Mechanics at Pennsylvania State University.
(via Reuters)

Yeah, if you're unevolved, it's painful to drag your knuckles on the sidewalks of New York—but Zell Miller managed pretty well, didn't he?

But there's a typo in the article... For "six million," the writer must have meant "six thousand." Since the Bible says the earth is only six thousand years old....

And stop that! Right now! No chimp jokes! Show some respect!

The invaluable analysts at World O' Crap have provided a summary of Dear Leader's sermon (isn't that what you call a speech delivered from a pulpit? Controversy rages over whether that teleprompter supporter was supposed to represent the crumbled wreckage of the Twin Towers or a crucifix. I remain agnostic on the question) for those so lucky as to have missed the real fake thing:

During the past four years as your President, I have accomplished many great things. Most notably, 9/11.

Since 2001, Americans have been given hills to climb, streams to ford, rainbows to follow, until we find our dream. Now, because we have made the hard day's journey into night, we can see clearly, for the rain is gone -- and there ain't no mountain high enough to keep us from you. Now, because we have faced challenges with Resolve, the stains wash right out. We will build a safer world and a more hopeful America, and nothing will hold us back. And we'll do it our way, yes our way, make all our dreams come true. For me and you.

In my World of Tomorrow, you will be able to ride to your new technical job as a hamburger service technician in a personal hover car.

Senator Kerry opposed Medicare reform and health savings accounts. He opposes marriage, children, little puppies and lowered income taxes for kindly, old billionaires. To be fair, there are some things that he is for: satanic rituals, wife-swapping, and raising the taxes of innocent wealthy people. His policies are the policies of the past. Ours are the policies of the FUTURE! We are on the path to the future, and we are not turning back -- because we're lost, and we're too macho to ask for directions.

Like generations before us, we have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom. Yes, I've been talking to the space aliens again.

Now vote for me or I will kill you all!

How's the midnight Kerry thing going?

NOTE Kos is down. Let's hope it's traffic, and that he hasn't been hacked.

I like the concept of an "ownership society."

In fact, I think I'd like to own a black person!

This whole Thirteenth Amendment thing is nothing but "a policy of the past." I say it's time to look to the future! And Bush is definitely the man to take us there.

"Bush Leaves Out Complex Facts in Speech".

[Note on museum wall next to this piece:] "Also known as "November in the Unemployment Line with George." Considered a triumph of the "Big Lie" school of manufactured expectations, in which the practitioner simply repeats promises made on previous occasions expecting the audience to overlook the minor fact that none of them have been kept during the intervening years."

Haven't watched much of the talking head analysis yet, probably won't in fact. It was worth watching Dear Leader despite the vile taste in my mouth just for the number of times there were unscripted shouts of "four more years!!!" hysterically trying to cover up the fact that some patriot had managed to infiltrate this nest of vipers to speak truth to power.

Hope they get out of Gitmo North with their health and prospects intact. Atrios' readers were taking up collections earlier to donate to their legal fees.

We can win this one folks. If that's the best George has got, if that's the best he can do, Kerry's speech at midnight signals the beginning of the end. Thugs can't stop us, Diebold can't swamp our numbers, the crooks will be outed and the prosecutions begun.

Toast, I tell ya. Toast.

I did a frequency count on the words in Bush's speech tonight. Here it is:

0 Osama Bin Laden Iran North Korea (thanks to alert reader bgn) weapons of mass destruction (alert reader dgh)

1 18 1946 2001 20th 26 30 40 50 accept access accessible accountability achieve act action activist actually acute address admit advances advantage afford agenda aggression aggressive agree ahead aid aiming alarmed allied allowing alltime almighty Al Qaida's announced anything anywhere appoint appreciate approach approaches approaching Arabic areas arm armies armor Arnold around arrests arrive asked associates atrás attacks attention attract Australia authorize available away awed baby Baltics Barbara base based behind belief below Berlin Berlusconi best big bigotry Blair blessed blunt bodies body bombs boom both branded bravery breed bribed brings britain brothers buildings built bullets burdened bureaucrats businesses buyers buying call calm can't capitals capturing careers careful caring central certain chairman challenges challenging changed charge charging charities Cheney's choices circle circumstance civilized claim clinton closest coalition coerced colleges colonies combat comes comfort companies company compassion compassionate competition comply comptime confidence confirmed confront confronting congress consistent constantly contest continued continuing control convictions correct cost counsel counted county course created creating crimes crisis cruelty cunning current cut darkness DC deal decency decent deepest deeply defeating defending defense defied define dejaremos delegates demanding demands democrats denied denmark depend dependent deserves despite destruction details detained determine determined devised Dick dictator difference differently difficult dilute diploma direct disarm discounts discredit discriminate dismantling display distant does doomed door double doubling doubt doubters down drag dramatic dreams drift drug duty each early earn earned easily easy editorials egg either el elementary eligible embrace emotional empowering encouragement encouraging end ended endorsement enemies enemy english enroll ensure envisioned equality equipped especially european ever everlasting everwidening evil exam example exciting executed exiles expand expanded expansion expectations expenses explain explosion export expresses extend facing failed fair fairer faith faithful fall fallen family-friendly farmers feed feel feet fell fertile few field fight finds finish firm firms firsthand flaws flextime focusing folded folks forced forces foreheads foreign foresee forever form fortunately fought foundation founding freed friend frivolous frontiers fuel fund fundamental fundraising further Gainesville gathering George georgewbushcom Georgia gets gives global globe goal goals God's goes goodbye goodness goodwill government's governments grabbed graduation grandchildren grants graves greater greatness ground groups grow guides hall hand hands happen harboring hardest hate hats having he's headache headquarters healthy hearts helps hero heroes higherlevel higherpaying hills Hispanic Hollywood homeownership homes honorable hours housing Howard huge husbands I'm idealistic identifying ideology illness imaginary imaginative immediate important importantly incentives include including increase increasing independence information innocent innovative insisting inspired instead institutions intelligence intelligent interest interpretation intervention intimidate investment Israel it's Italy January join joined journalist journey journeys judgment justice keeps Kerry key kids kill killed killers kindness Kwasniewski labor lack land largely largest late laura law leadership leave led left legal less lessons let liberated liberating liberty's lifted line little living local loopholes love lovely lowering madman major makes manufacturing march market massachusetts maybe meaning medicine meet meetings meets mercy mess midst miles mission moments moms money mostly mountain move Mr. much murderous named nation's needed nest net Netherlands Nicaragua ningún niño noble nomination none Normandy Northeast notice noticed nuclear number OBGYNs occupation October off offensive officials often older ongoing online open opinion opponent's opposes oppressed ordering ours outdated outside overwhelmingly owning Palestinians paperwork parent parents' parties party pass passengers past patients pell penalty performance peril perilous permanent persevered person's picture piece plane planned platform playing plead point Poland police policy positive possible practice prayer prayers precious prescription pressed prevail principled prisoners problem problems progrowth promoting proportion proposals prosthetic protection provided provides punishment pursue quickly quiet radical raids ranchers reached really rebellion rebuilding received recently records reformers reforming reforms refused regimes region registered regulation relent religious remains remember remembered remind renewed renewing republicans require rescuers resentments resolute resolution resolve resounding resources responders responds responsibilities restraining rests results resurrection return returned rewarding rigorous risk road ronald rose routine run rural sacrifice saddling sadistic sadness salute salvador same sandstorms scheduled school; Schwarzenegger science scoring scorn season secret secretly secure seize seized sell send senior serious serves service serving settlers shaken share shifts shortcomings shot shouting showed shows sick silence simpler simplify sin sister sitting six skill slavery slowly soft solemn something sometimes son soon sorrow soul speak special specialist speech spend spirited sports stadium stage stake standards standing stands stars started state staying stood storming strap strengthening strengthens strengths strict striking strongholds succeeding successful such supporters surprise surprised sustained swagger system taken taliban taxfree teach teacher teachers tell terrorism test tested testing tests Texas textile thank thing think thinking threaten threats threequarters through thus tomorrow Tony tools toughest towers trade train trained transformational transit tried trillion tripled truly Truman turning twin twothirds typically tyrannies tyranny unanimous unborn uncertainty unchallenged understand understandably uninsured union unleashed urged using usually utmost valley valor value various vehicles veterans vibrant vice victories victory visit voters wake walk walking war Washington watch we'll we're weakest weakness web welcome welfare went whenever whether whitehaired why win wise wisest wives won't words worker workplace worried wounded write writing yesterday you're younger youngest yours zones
2 10 87 90 able abroad account acts advance affordable afraid allow Al Qaida anyone Arabia army ask battle begins being beside between beyond bipartisan Bush calling came cannot center changing climb college coming communities community compete confident consequences continue could council coverage credit dad danger day decade decisions deserve did died diplomacy doctors don't dramatically during economic eight elections employees encourage entrepreneurs Europe everything father fear filled final find flag force fortunate forward friends frightened gave Germany getting gift given go going goods half held him homeland honor Hussein's income involved Iraqi Japan judges kept knowing lady last laws lawsuits learn least level liability Libya look loved low lowincome made mass mate medical Medicare mom months morning next office only optimism out oval over owe owners Pakistan parents pay peaceful pension percent personal philosophy plans politician prepared presidency presidential pride priority program proposed providing purchase pursuing quote raising rather reading reagan record reducing requires respect responsibility retirement rise ruins safety saudi save savings seek seniors served services seven signed since skills societies soldier soldiers sources start states steady still strategy strengthen strong struggle superb sure systems thanks that's three throughout tough toward tragedy transform traveled try uniform use very violence vision vital within woman working worry wrote year york
3 accounts acted billion bless bring broader brought called career chance choice city code complicated courage days decision defend dollars done dream earth education effort energy face far fighting first focus generations give God greatest growing hard Hussein I've importance improve insurance into keep kind knew learned long longer lost lot marriage math matter may members met millions moment national offer once other others ownership political principal programs promise purpose relief senator set social spending stability students supporting taxes terror threat together told training transforming united used want wants way weapons yet
4 11th after ago allies always candidate cause century clear commitment different dignity election faced family fellow forget found funding generation get good grateful hear high history honored how just leaders life like man million minister moral nations opposed passed plan policies poor power prime protect proud reach September should side spirit story strength takes terrorist things today too troops two up vote voted word
5 about again another been before business character citizens conservative create even expanding federal free had heart hold job lead live message military need never nothing own peace provide right running Saddam school schools seen small then times values were whatever women
6 across also better care child economy four great here historic hope hopeful if its lives making path place progress said saw say support those tonight what young
7 against America's an back build children come democracy doing families has men opponent safer society term would
8 but future home most no opportunity president reform see take tax terrorists where which
9 Afghanistan change east from government many security some stand than there these when
10 American his liberty make me middle nation time
11 am help Iraq jobs or us was years
12 believe he now work
13 do your
14 health so
15 can country every it one them—I left noise words like "it" for a reason; see below
16 Americans as freedom must workers
17 at know
18 world
19 all they who
20 by new
21 be my
22 people
25 because
26 not
27 on
29 more
30 you
32 America
34 their this
38 with
46 for
52 are
54 have
55 is
56 that
72 I—no surprise here...
76 our will—relentlessly on the "future" message"
110 in we—He invites us to joincollude with him

[Noise]
121 to
127 a
161 of
217 the
243 and

Well. Any number of drinking games here, eh? Readers, any thoughts?

As I keep saying: Bush is very good. And if the country falls for this pack of lies it, and we, are totally hosed. Let's get to work and take our country back.

Kos has an embargoed advanced text (I guess we'll see).

Of course, it's full of Big Lies and small lies. I like this one, since it's so easy to refute:

[To the troops]: We will give you all the resources, all the tools, and all the support you need for victory.

Right. I guess that's why parents had to buy their own kids body armor. We're still waiting for the executive order to repay them.

Since I don't have a TV, I won't be able to see Inerrant Boy pop out of the cake...

So, how's He doing?

Fighting back, Democratic Sen. John Kerry called President Bush "unfit to lead this nation" because of the war in Iraq and his record on jobs, health care and energy prices. He lashed out at the incumbent and Vice President Dick Cheney for avoiding service in the Vietnam War.

"I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq," Kerry said in prepared remarks issued as the Republican was poised to accept his party's nomination for a second term.
(via USA Today)

It's about damned time.

Meanwhile, Zell Miller is now radioactive. Zell is apparently now a man without a party. Zell even lost his seat in the president's box tonight.

Good.

Boy, oh boy was last night a disaster for the RNC. It's up to Bush to save them. Zell Miller completely melted down on stage and the implosion continued on CNN and Hardball.

It's up to W to save them, folks. Otherwise, this entire convention may be a bigger disaster than the 1992 debacle.

W had better deliver the best speech of his career or he may very well lose support in the polls after this convention.

Pass the popcorn.

Make up your own jokes on "alien civilization"...

An unexplained radio signal from deep space could -- just might be -- contact from an alien civilization, New Scientist magazine reported on Thursday.
(via Reuters)

But does the alien civilization allow gay marriage?

"girly men"

[AP photo caption] Laborer James Gandolfini speaks during a Stop Bush rally organized by the Central Labor Council on the third day of the Republican National Convention in New York Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)photo

Via the NY Daily News:

At a huge afternoon union rally that stretched from W. 23rd to 30th Sts. along Seventh Ave., "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini accused the Republicans of imprisoning the city. "I can't tell you how mad I am that I have to walk around like a rat in a little maze because of them, for their security," he said. link

Tell Bu$h to Fuhgeddaboutit!

At the moment we see the president on our television screens, we will rise. We will throw open our windows. And, as George W. Bush moves to the podium in New York City, we will send him a message about his bid for reelection: we will yell, "fuggedaboudit!"

Tonight: The Great American Shout Out - "An Al Franken / Air America Radio Project"

*

"ownership society"

'Kleptocracy' at Newspaper Firm

By Frank Ahrens, Washington Post Staff Writer

Press tycoon Conrad M. Black and other top Hollinger International Inc. officials pocketed more than $400 million in company money over seven years and Black's handpicked board of directors passively approved many of the transactions, a company investigation concluded.

A report by a special board committee singled out director Richard N. Perle, a former Defense Department official, who received $5.4 million in bonuses and compensation. The report said Perle should return the money to the Chicago-based company.

[...]

The new report, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Monday, added details of what it called the "corporate kleptocracy" Black and Radler created at Hollinger. It said they treated the company as a "piggybank" and fashion accessory, with Black using the prestige of the newspapers to gain access to the wealthy, powerful and royal.

[...]

The report said Perle "breached his fiduciary duties" as a member of the board's executive committee, signing documents without evaluating or, sometimes, reading them, including those that allowed Black and Radler to evade audit committee scrutiny. Perle received more than $3 million in bonuses and hundreds of thousands of dollars more in compensation from a Hollinger subsidiary that invested in new media companies during the dot-com boom. The report said Hollinger International put $63.6 million into 11 companies Perle recommended and lost nearly $50 million. "Perle was a faithless fiduciary . . . and . . . should not be allowed to retain any of his Hollinger compensation," the report said.

Perle did not return a call to his office and e-mails asking for comment yesterday.

*

And the message is: "Come and get it!"

"He has a wonderful dog, Barney, that likes to visit the Oval Office a lot. And he contributes to the president's ability to meet his obligations."
(via WaPo)

And here's hoping He relates to Barney in a healthy way....

Berube in the blast furnace: Thu Sep 02, 2004:

Then we introduced Zell with "The Devil Came Down to Georgia." That wasn't my idea. I don't know what it was supposed to signify. And we didn't even get to the dueling fiddle solos! Or the rousing chorus, "chicken in the bread pan, go fry dough."

Lots more on Zany Zell's rebel yell as well as the un-dead demon in Dick Cheney's head..... Third Night

NEW YORK (CNN*)--In a stunning admission on his own show "Nightline," ABC News host Ted Koppel said, in his own words, "Ted Koppel is a drug dealer and pedophile."

Upper management at ABC News and their corporate ownership at Disney Corporation had not issued any comment or defense of their highly-paid and badly-toupeed star as this article goes to press.

Koppel made the confession during an interview with Jon Stewart during a discussion of the obligation of members of the media to evaluate the factual accuracy of claims made by people like the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," a Republican organized, financed and promoted group seeking to encourage George Bush's election in the forthcoming November balloting.

Koppel described a bizarre scenario in which George Bush, during his acceptance speech at tonight's Republican National Convention, diverted from his prepared text to state that Koppel was a drug dealer and pedophile.

Such a statement would properly be repeated by the media, Koppel argued, because it was made by a public figure in a public forum. Having been recorded by the media, he claimed, made it become news.

The discussion arose after Stewart took Koppel to task for what he claimed were the deficiencies of media shown during the current election cycle. Stewart, who claims to be "merely a comedian," notes that his show is described in its own literature as "Fake News" and yet, he said, was coming to be regarded by many viewers as more honest in its coverage than legitimate news outlets like MSNBC and Fox.

Koppel said that the challenge was to find a balance between "facts" and "truth," claiming something which by this point this reviewer was finding increasingly hard to follow, since the logic seemed to be breaking down entirely, meaning that it was time to cut to a commercial.

Koppel then cut to a commercial and ended the program. Baffled viewers are expected to report in online polls tomorrow that they found the entire discussion "troubling" and would seek to console themselves by either looking for analysis of the Scott Petersen trial or fleeing from Hurricane Francis.

More on the story as it develops. Back to you at the Mighty Corrente Tower, Lambert.

*Corrente News Network: First in Snark, First in Rumor, Last in the National League East

First I'm giving warnings about bogus email and tonight's it's a nag on the subject of Counterfeiting: But It Would Be Wrong! What the fuck, I'm turning into Xan Landers here.

But I know you want one of these bills. I know once you get one (I have no idea where they came from, do some googling yourself for chrissakes) you will clutch it to your bosom and treasure it. You will fondle it, giggling, and stroke it out of pure righteous humor.

That's kinky, but it's fine. Just, after you do that and get the paper all soft and fuzzy like, you don't stick it into your wallet by mistake:

(via ABCnews.go.com)

GREENSBURG, Pa. Sept. 1, 2004 — State police aren't laughing about the person who allegedly passed some funny money a $200 bill with President Bush's picture on it at a women's clothing store.

Police on Wednesday charged Deborah Trautwine, 51, with theft by deception, for allegedly passing a bogus $200 bill at the Fashion Bug store in Hempfield Plaza on Aug. 22. There is no such denomination, even without Bush's picture on it.

Kinda like there is no such thing as a Bush healthcare policy, or a Bush plan to bring home our people from Iraq or...but I interrupt our story.

Among other things, the bill had a hokey serial number DUBYA4U2001 and didn't bear the signature of the secretary of the treasury. Instead, the bill was "signed" by Ronald Reagan, whose title was "Political Mentor" and by Bush's father, who is listed as "Campaign Advisor and Mentor."

The back of the bill was even goofier.

Kinda like the Bush energy plan, or the Bush economic program for jobs or the....but I'm interrupting again. My bad--

It depicted the White House with several signs erected on the lawn, including those reading "We Like Broccoli" and "USA Deserves A Tax Cut."

Okay, it ain't Monty Python's dead parrot sketch. But I thought it was worth a giggle just to wake you up after Cheney's speech. You sleep sitting up like that all night your neck will hurt like hell in the morning.

Just guess who Zell was talking about in such glowing terms?

(via Senate.gov, in turn thanks to Atrios):

My job tonight is an easy one: to present to you one of this nation's authentic heroes, one of this party's best-known and greatest leaders – and a good friend.

He was once a lieutenant governor – but he didn't stay in that office 16 years, like someone else I know. It just took two years before the people of Massachusetts moved him into the United States Senate in 1984.

In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington.

Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so.

John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment. Business Week magazine named him one of the top pro-technology legislators and made him a member of its "Digital Dozen."

John was re-elected in 1990 and again in 1996 – when he defeated popular Republican Governor William Weld in the most closely watched Senate race in the country.

John is a graduate of Yale University and was a gunboat officer in the Navy. He received a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three awards of the Purple Heart for combat duty in Vietnam. He later co-founded the Vietnam Veterans of America.

Who could have guessed John Kerry could have morphed into such a fiend since then? The press, amazingly enough, is not being kind either...something about "all those weapons programs Kerry voted agains" also being voted against by people named Rumsfeld, and Cheney, and....oooh, he just challenged Tweety to a duel. I take back at least half the bad things I said about Chris Matthews in the last two weeks.

What's the going rate for silver these days? I think I know somebody who is not sure he got his money's worth for those 30 pieces now in his pocket.

And Cheney didn't pause because of applause lines, he paused and waited until people started applauding. My debate teacher would have rated the performance -5 for content and -10 for delivery.

And please—no more hamster jokes, OK?

UPDATE Fake softball?! Has He no shame? Have I no shame, for asking such a rhetorical question?

Buried in Coronation hoopla, but I'll give Kerry the benefit and say he was practicing out of the limelight. If Kerry can get people to listen and think, Bush is toast. Read the whole thing. Before the VFA today:

I can’t come here and fulfill my obligation as a candidate for President of these great United States and not give you a serious appraisal of the challenge we face in Iraq and the war on terror.

No one in the United States doubted the outcome in Iraq or how swiftly the war would be won. We knew we had the best-trained troops in the world and true to form, they performed magnificently, and we are all proud and grateful.

But the certainty of winning the war placed the most solemn obligation on the civilian leadership of this country, to make certain that we had a plan to win the peace.

The Army Chief of Staff General Shinseki told Congress we would need several hundred thousand American troops to win the peace and do the job properly. His candor was rewarded with early retirement and his advice ignored, sending a chilling message through the ranks of the professional military.

By dismissing the State Department’s plan for post-war Iraq and proceeding unilaterally, the civilian leadership simply did not put the mechanism in place to secure the country. They were unprepared for the looting, insecurity, and insurgency that burst out with the fall of Saddam’s regime.

They failed to secure Iraq’s borders, and so allowed thousands of foreign terrorists, Islamist militants, and intelligence agents to penetrate and destabilize post-war Iraq.

Amazingly, they had no real plan for post-war political transition. All of this happened despite clear and precise, bipartisan, warnings from Congress, and regional experts.

Then, as the challenge grew around our troops, the civilian leadership failed to respond adequately; failed to share responsibility with NATO or the UN, which offered assistance; failed to share reconstruction or decision-making, as a way of inviting others to shoulder the burden; and failed to provide the security on the ground necessary for post-war reconstruction.

They rushed and short-changed the training and equipment of the Iraqi police; they failed to recruit enough experts in the language and culture of the region and used those they had ineffectively.

The civilian leadership disbanded the Iraqi military completely so there was no internal structure to maintain order; chose consciously to put an American, instead of an international face on the occupation; failed to prepare for a large number of prisoners; and most significantly, failed even to guard nuclear waste and ammunition storage sites, despite the fact that weapons of mass destruction was their fundamental reason for the war. And some of the weapons we didn’t guard are the very weapons being targeted at our troops today.

As a result, today terrorists have secured havens in Iraq that were not there before. And we have been forced to reach accommodation with those who have repeatedly attacked our troops. Violence has spread in Iraq; Iran has expanded its influence; and extremism has gained momentum.

President Bush now admits he miscalculated in Iraq. In truth, his miscalculation was ignoring the advice that was given to him, including the best advice of America’s own military.

So when the president says we have the same position on Iraq, I have to respectfully disagree. Our differences couldn’t be plainer. And I have set them out consistently. When it comes to Iraq, it’s not that I would have done one thing differently, I would’ve done almost everything differently.
(via Kerry.org (read the whole thing))

That's the case for the prosecution. Let's hope we can get the American people to convict.

Sometimes we forget this one:

On his Air Force pilot application, when asked about an overseas assignment, Bush checked "do not volunteer."
(via Salon)

It really is all about character, isn't it? Good to see the press all over this one, the way they were all over Clinton for "preserving his political viability." Oh, wait...

And extremely irresponsible:

After more than three decades of silence, [Linda] Allison spoke with Salon over several days before and during the Republican National Convention this week -- motivated, as she acknowledged, by a complex mixture of emotions. They include pride in her late husband's accomplishments, a desire to see him remembered, and concern about the apparent double standard in Bush surrogates attacking John Kerry's Vietnam War record while ignoring the president's irresponsible conduct during the war.

Allison's account corroborates a Washington Post investigation in February that found no credible witnesses to the service in the Alabama National Guard that Bush maintains he performed, despite a lack of documentary evidence. Asked if she'd ever seen Bush in a uniform, Allison said: "Good lord, no. I had no idea that the National Guard was involved in his life in any way." Allison also confirmed previously published accounts that Bush often showed up in the Blount campaign offices around noon, boasting about how much alcohol he had consumed the night before. (Bush has admitted that he was a heavy drinker in those years, but he has refused to say whether he also used drugs).

After Bush graduated from Yale in 1968, his slot in the Texas Air National Guard allowed him to avoid active duty service in Vietnam.

Yet, after receiving unusual permission to transfer to the Alabama Guard from Texas, Bush has produced no evidence he showed up for service for anything other than a dental exam. [Even the records of the dental exam is suspect.]

[Linda Allison] remembers watching Bush in 1964 at a campaign appearance at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, when she was 32 years old and he was running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. "He was so appealing to me. He said all the things that I believed in, and he wasn't like all the other Republicans running in Texas at that time, who were real right-wingers. He had a bigger vision of what the Republican Party could be. I volunteered for his campaign that day, and that's how I ended up being his Dallas County headquarters chairman." Over the years, Linda kept volunteering with the local Republican Party. "And they gave me bigger and bigger things to do. They appreciated me. And I felt like I belonged to something," she said.

The break happened not long after a boozy election-night wake for Blount, who lost his Senate bid to the incumbent Democrat, John Sparkman. Leaving the election-night "celebration," Allison remembers encountering George W. Bush in the parking lot, urinating on a car, and hearing later about how he'd yelled obscenities at police officers that night. Bush left a house he'd rented in Montgomery trashed -- the furniture broken, walls damaged and a chandelier destroyed, the Birmingham News reported in February. "He was just a rich kid who had no respect for other people's possessions," Mary Smith, a member of the family who rented the house, told the newspaper, adding that a bill sent to Bush for repairs was never paid. And a month later, in December, during a visit to his parents' home in Washington, Bush drunkenly challenged his father to go "mano a mano," as has often been reported.

Linda Allison watches it all from her New York apartment. About George W. Bush's disputed sojourn in Alabama, she asks simply: "Can we all be lying?"
(via Salon (go on—get they day pass, they earned it))

Little George has such a sense of entitlement!

Not that I like the idea of more nukes in the world, but isn't the timing of this announcement just a little suspicious? And in another triumph for Bush diplomacy:

Raising new alarms about Iran, the Bush administration concluded Wednesday that the country is getting ready to produce enough enriched uranium for four nuclear weapons.
(via AP)

Nice recipe for an October surprise. Eh?

Dick "Dick" Cheney is speaking tonight, right?

Is he smiling his famous one-sided smile?

Has he done his famous "ad lib" "confusing" Kerry and Kennedy yet?

I'd yawn. If I weren't screaming....

Is there anybody anywhere on this planet so naive that they don't realize that if this guy was brown-skinned, much less Arab, much less a Muslim of any hue, he'd be on death row right this minute?

(via Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

The college student accused of planting pipe bombs in rural mailboxes is scheduled for a commitment hearing today.

Lucas Helder faces indefinite commitment to a federal psychiatric hospital.

Helder, 23, made national news two years ago after planting 18 pipe bombs in a smiley-face pattern across five states. Six people were injured and mail delivery was shut down in some rural areas.

The Pine Island, Minn., native was arrested outside Reno, Nev.

Today's hearing is in Minneapolis. Helder is being held at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn.

An attorney representing Helder said the hearing probably will be the last stop in Helder's journey through the legal system for some time, at least until medical experts say he has improved.

You remember this guy...they called him the "Smiley Face Bomber." His motive, supposedly, was to set bombs across the Midwest in the pattern mentioned. I have relatives in the Midwest and I was NOT amused by this stunt.

No argument that he's nuttier than a fruitcake but we're talking about racism and equal treatment here.

Next time one of the Fetish for the Fetus people gets in your face about Republicans being the Party of Life, the party that has cut funding for anybody anywhere in the world who even thinks about telling a woman who wants one where she can get a clean, safe abortion, mention these other lives they never want to talk about:

(via BBC)

Almost 200 women die each day after having a botched abortion, according to a report.

Ipas, a non-governmental organisation based in the United States, says there are 70,000 such deaths each year.

It says unsafe abortions are also leaving thousands of women with long-term debilitating injuries. The biggest problems are in Asia.

The reviews of the Doubletwit Twins convention speech(s) last night, at least as far as the headlines go, have not been over-kind. "Embarrassing" is one of the terms I've seen; "painful" is another. This struck me as a little odd, since presidential offspring usually get a bit of a pass. They didn't chose what line of work their parents would be in after all.

It was worse than I thought. There are some clips up over at dKos. One notes that they claim "not to be very political," but evidence suggests they strained their collective brain to watch their Democratic counterparts' speeches.

Jenna and/or Notjenna: "And we had a hamster, too. Let's just say ours didn't make it."

dKos note: Kerry saves hamsters. The Bushes kill theirs.

And it's not a pretty sight:

With attention at the convention focusing on Cheney's Wednesday night speech, Illinois Republican Senate candidate Alan Keyes labeled the vice president's lesbian daughter a sinner and called homosexuality "selfish hedonism."
(via AP)

As opposed to generous hedonism, such as that advocated.... Oh, forget it.

UPDATE Alert reader Kman comments:

I don't know what the point of this post is, Lambert.

The Republican Party is a Big Tent Party -- haters like Alan Keyes are just as welcome as haters like Dick Cheney. All haters are welcome, even if they don't always agree on what class of people to hate.

Thanks for clearing that up, Kman.

Get a load of this one:

"[WAURA BUSH]My husband didn't want to go to war..."
(via WaPo)

Oh, bullshit. Bush wanted to go to war so bad he could taste it. That why, whenever we used those Enlightenment concepts, "evidence" and "reasoning," to demolish one justification for the war, He'd pop right up with another one!

UPDATE This one seems to have hit a nerve.... Alert reader KCinDC writes:

No, she's right. Bush didn't want to go to war, as he demonstrated during Vietnam. What he wanted was for other people to go to war.
KCinDC

Alert reader erasmus:

An additional proof that Bush intended to go to war from the beginning is his insistence that Kerry voted to go to war. It is clear that Bush considers that vote, which we all know was for "authorization", a vote to go to war. Obviously, it was a foregone conclusion for Bush. In my dream world, every time Bush accused Kerry of agreeing with him on the war, some journalist would say "so you intended to go to war as soon as the Congress gave authorization? All that posturing about the UN was just window dressing?" Of course, pigs will fly out of my ass before that happens.

Wait a minute—I thought the Republicans were supposed to be compassionate? I guess Pfizer didn't get the memo:

Dr. Mark B. McClellan, the administrator of the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, declined to comment on Pfizer's action yesterday, other than to note that he had urged all of the drug makers "to continue their existing programs."

The Pfizer discount card, called the Living Share Card, was introduced two years ago and was aimed at low-income elderly people.

fizer, the nation's largest drug maker, ended its widely used discount card for the elderly yesterday, leaving several hundred thousand low-income Medicare beneficiaries at least temporarily without access to reduced prices for popular medicines like the cholesterol treatment Lipitor.

The company said that it had been warning its 536,000 cardholders for months that it would discontinue the discount program on Aug. 31 and that it had advised them to sign up for various discount cards that became available under a new Medicare program that began in June.

But consumer advocates, citing the widespread confusion over the new Medicare program, had asked Pfizer to keep its discount card in place until 2006 - the year that prescription drugs will

Sure!

become a standard part of Medicare benefits.

Under the former Pfizer card, a 30-day supply of Lipitor cost $15 - compared with $68 at one Internet pharmacy, for example, or $43.32 at one Canadian Web site.

Mr. Hayes said the Pfizer action was "a harbinger of trouble ahead" in the patchwork of Medicare drug programs, which include a welter of prices and eligibility requirements that some elderly people have found daunting to navigate.

So far only about 4.1 million of the nation's 40 million Medicare beneficiaries have signed up for Medicare-approved discount cards.

"An extremely savvy consumer can swim in these waters successfully," Mr. [Robert M.] Hayes, ]president of the Medicare Rights Center, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group] said. But many have not even tried. "Usually, the needier the person, the sicker the person, the more likely they will be shut out of these programs," he said.
(via NY Times)

So why not just have universal health insurance as the right of a US citizen? It works for every single other Western country but ours. You'd almost think God cursed us, or something.

The Crazies Are Back Here!

August 31, 2004 ~ the Palm Beach Post, Far Right Not Thrilled About Being Left Out - by Frank Cerabino

NEW YORK -- The "people of faith" are here, although you might not know by watching the convention coverage on television.

The Republicans have wisely decided to keep their sanctimonious base mostly under wraps this week so as not to scare off moderate voters.

"The Republican National Committee has failed to put a prime-time face on the majority of the party, and that's troubling," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

Ratfuckers for Jesus!

But Christian conservatives will be making an unprecedented push this fall to reelect George W. Bush, blanketing churches with their political messages while enlisting spies to "rat out a church" where "same-sex marriage or some other liberal legislative agenda" is endorsed from the pulpit.

There's even an evangelical alternative to Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. It's called George W. Bush: Faith in the White House, a straight-to-DVD million-copy release scheduled to coincide with the Oct. 5 launch of Moore's movie in stores.

[...]

The Bush documentary will first be distributed in 5,000 Christian bookstores before it goes to Wal-Mart, Kmart and other mass-market retailers. It's being marketed by Oregon-based Grizzly Adams Productions along with another one of its titles, The Evidence for Heaven.

"See evidence that Heaven is more real than Earth!" the advertisement for that movie says on the same page as the Bush movie, which proclaims: "This powerful program offers a never-before-seen insider's look at how one man's dedication to prayer and the daily application of God's Word has transformed his life."

And the world.

As the movie concludes, it summarizes how Bush's divine guidance has led to great things in Iraq.

"Things are changing in the Middle East and changing for the better," the narrator says. "For the next 100 years, in the Islamic world, he'll be remembered as a great liberator." ~ link

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Distant Mirrors: Crazy reflections from the attic:

"Some object to the Bible because it recounts how that women and innocent children were slaughtered in the wars led by God's chosen leaders, and how can God be a just and loving God and permit such as that? The answer is that the wicked people destroyed in those wars received just punishment for their crimes and the innocent ones who died in the wars were taken home to Heaven and certainly it could be no cruel thing to take a good person or an innocent child to Heaven. It is a certainty that we must all die sometime anyway, and what is wrong in God, Who gave us life, allowing us to die in a conflict such as the cruel wars mentioned in the Bible?" ~ Ben M. Bogard / editor of the 'Baptist and Commoner', Little Rock, Arkansas, 1930.

He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword His truth is marching on.......

sing-a-long with 'W' all you corporatist media clowns for "creative destruction"

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Don't have a link to a transcript because I was just watching this interview live on WABC-TV out of New York. For a little postcoital....er, I mean "postconventional" coverage they have on Christie Todd Whitman (R, former NJ Gov and head of EPA) and Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-NY.

Charlie Rangel, it happens, is black. So the interviewer is asking both of them about "Republican diversity." Christie puts a brave face on things by citing Education Secretary Rod Paige, the only person of negritude they could find to trot out to speak, Colin Powell having declined in favor of having root canal or something.

You can see Charlie has a zinger coming. He tells the guy that he has been roaming the convention floor since it started, and is always being asked for autographs by delegates who are thrilled to recognize a celebrity.

The only problem is, so far he's been presumed to be: (1) Jesse Jackson, (2) the aforementioned Rod Paige, (3) J. C. Watts (who, Charlie noted, took the entire Republican Black Caucus with him when he retired), (4) the director of the Harlem Boys Choir, and (5) Don King. I think there were more but he sort of let it fade out at that point.

I think maybe Lambert isn't the only person in America who doesn't own a TV. At least that's what I hope the problem is, because otherwise there's bit of a "they all look alike" problem in the dear ol' GOP.

Not a dry seat in the house, eh?

And Schwarzenegger joked, “To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: Don’t be economic girlie men!”
(via MSNBC)

Tell that to the millions who lost their jobs, or got jobs again, but at less money than before...

Unbelievable. Or all too believable.

Nice to see the Kerry war room hopped right on this one. Oh, wait...

Who needs a drinking game when Bush is speaking? I can drink without playing games!

Once again, however, I thank God for the strength She gave me to resist getting a TV....

The twins were cruising around Brooklyn and decided they needed some pocket change so they pulled up to the ATM and.....

Lookee here what Scaramouche found online. Who has an ATM receipt like this?

Uh...., Halliburton lobbyist? Or, maybe this guy: Rear Adm. Billy "the skimmer" Schachte:

Web Of Connections Grows Wider: $40 Million Contract From The Bush Administration And A "Swift Shift In Stories" Four days ago, retired naval Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. seconded accusations made by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth seeking to discredit Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry's record in Vietnam. But since then, Democrats have discovered that Schachte is also a long-standing supporter of President Bush and a lobbyist whose client FastShip Inc. recently won a $40 million grant from the federal government. According to a March 18 legal filing by Schachtes firm, Blank Rome, Schachte was one of the lobbyists working for FastShip on issues such as the effort to win funding for a new marine cargo terminal. On Feb. 2, Philadelphia-based FastShip announced that it would receive $40 million in federal funding for the project. In addition, David Norcross, Schachte's colleague in the Washington office of Blank Rome, is chairman of this week's Republican convention in New York. Records also show that Schachte gave $1,000 to Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns. (Washington Post, 8/30/04)- USNewswire

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Because the closest Bush came to risking his sorry butt was planting it in a dentist's chair—during his "missing year" in Alabama in the Guard. Assuming the records aren't fake, of course.

Anyhow, remember this little slice of Republican life as we know it? (back)

Delegates to the Republican National Convention found a new way to take a jab at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam service record: by sporting adhesive bandages with small purple hearts on them.

As it turns out, even a Republican operative can feel shame—or at least simulate it—and Ed Gillespie shut this noxious little operation down.

I think it's going to be a while before people forget this one, though. It's the little details that are always so telling, isn't it? A nice little vignette from Terry Neal:

Last night, outside the CNN studio set up in Madison Square Garden, I ran into Jon Soltz, who served in Iraq as a captain and tank platoon leader in the 1st Armored Division. Soltz, now a coordinator for Veterans for Kerry in Pennsylvania, was fuming. This morning I talked to him again.

"This is the same kind of stuff that they pulled against Max Cleland in 2002 and John McCain in 2000," he said. "Now they're continuing to try to attack Senator Kerry. Frankly, I'm not surprised anymore. . . . You've got a vice president who turned his back on his country five times [the number of military deferments Cheney received during Vietnam], you've got a president who evaded service in Vietnam. They have no respect for men and women in uniform.

"I think it's time to talk about my war -- Iraq. It's my friends who are coming back dead and wounded and they can't even respect Purple Hearts. Any man who's been into combat knows he was lucky if he comes back alive. It's not a joking matter."
(via WaPo)

Way to support the troops there. aWol.

Power and money.

John Cassidy, in the essential New Yorker, answers the question:

The President’s ownership initiative hasn’t featured prominently in the media coverage of the campaign, which, strictly from a news perspective, is understandable: he hasn’t announced many specific proposals to back up his talk. But in downplaying the Bush Administration’s economic agenda the media is missing one of the biggest domestic stories of the 2004 campaign. When the President pledges to create an “era of ownership,” he is not talking merely about encouraging people to buy their own homes and start small businesses. To conservative Republicans who understand his coded language, [Bush] is also talking about extending and expanding the tax cuts he introduced in his first term; he is talking about allowing wealthy Americans to shelter much of their income from the I.R.S.; about using the tax code to curtail the government’s role in health care and retirement saving; and, ultimately, about a vision that has entranced but eluded conservatives for decades: the abolition of the graduated income tax and its replacement with a levy that is simpler, flatter, and more favorable to rich people.

Since the personal income tax was introduced, in 1913, it has been based on two principles: the burden of taxation is distributed according to the ability to pay; and capital and labor carry their fair share. The Bush Administration appears set on undermining both of these principles.

Roughly two-thirds of taxable income is paid to workers in the form of wages and benefits. The other third goes to reward capital, or accumulated savings, in the form of corporate profits, dividends, and interest payments. If Bush’s economic agenda was fully enacted, the vast bulk of these payments wouldn’t be taxed at all, and labor would end up shouldering practically the entire burden of financing the federal government. In a new book, “Neoconomy: George Bush’s Revolutionary Gamble with America’s Future,” Daniel Altman, a former economics reporter for the Times and The Economist, describes what such a system might look like. “The fortunate and growing minority who managed to receive all their income from stocks, bonds and other securities would pay nothing—not a dime—for America’s cancer research, its international diplomacy, its military deterrent, the maintenance of the interstate highway system, the space program or almost anything else the federal government did. . . . Broadly speaking, that fortunate minority would be free-riders.”
(via The New Yorker)

And there you have it, folks.

I don't remember voting on this. Do you? Needless to say, such a system can only be maintained by lies, violence, and where democracy is tramnpled. And there's plenty of distraction.

Sound familiar?

UPDATE Scaramouche rams this point home in graphic form.

For those too young to remember the old cop show "Hill Street Blues," the above is the admonition the Old Sergeant used to give his shift of officers after the morning briefing as they were about to go out onto the streets.

Trust no one.

(via abcnews.com)

In recent weeks, online security experts have noted a new twist on fraudulent e-mails being circulated on the Internet. The latest virtual scams trick victims with seemingly genuine political messages — and pleas for money to support candidates in tight political races.

Experts at SurfControl, a British company that provides e-mail security software, discovered two suspect e-mail solicitations purportedly from the campaign offices of Sen. John Kerry, just days after the Democratic National Convention in Boston ended.

Both messages contained subject lines that read: "President John Kerry, please vote and contribute." Inside the bogus e-mails was information on Kerry's campaign, mimicking pitches from the candidate's official sites. Each message also contained a link to a Web site where readers could submit their information — address, credit card and Social Security numbers — to make a donation to Kerry's campaign.

Both fraudulent sites were unaffiliated with the Kerry campaign, and were most likely operated by identity thieves out to steal personal information. The campaign complained and the sites — one registered in India, the other in Texas — have since been shut down. It is unknown how many e-mail users might have been duped by the phony messages.

Many of us are signed up with email lists for party or campaign websites. Thieves know the easiest cars to break into, the ones least likely to be even locked, are ones in church parking lots. (And national parks, oddly enough.) Trust, but verify.