So tired, so sleepy.

This blog will be taking a siesta untill further notice.

Quote of the day

"How far gone are we? We're so far gone that Chris Mathews thinks it's ridiculous. That's how far gone we are."-The Poor Man

They Got Our Number

From The Guardian:

Eight terrorism suspects charged with conspiracy to murder and to launch radioactive, chemical or explosive attacks were remanded in custody amid high security at their first court appearance yesterday.

Three members of the alleged conspiracy, who are accused of holding documents including "reconnaissance" plans of the New York stock exchange, the International Monetary Fund in Washington, banks in New York and New Jersey, and recipes for explosives, are also charged with offences under the Terrorism Act.

This string of arrests confirms what is now becoming an old saw, we aren't just fighting a specific terrorist organization, but an ideology as well. As haltingly as the military and law enforcement components of our War on Terrorism are progressing, it appears that the battle for hearts and minds is going much more poorly. Right now, the government's campaign on this front seems to be comprised of publishing an Arabic version of Seventeen and photos of Americans torturing innocent people. We really, really need to do better.

Don't Forget

Register to vote here and get your absentee ballot here.

No Shame

U.S. Now Said to Support Growth for Some West Bank Settlements
The Bush administration, moving to lend political support to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a time of political turmoil, has modified its policy and signaled approval of growth in at least some Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, American and Israeli officials say.

For the last three years, American policy has called for a freeze of "all settlement activity," including "natural growth" brought about by an increase in the birthrate and other factors. As a result, when settlement expansions have been announced, American officials have called them violations.

Constructing settlements in the Occupied Territories is gravely immoral, probably violates international law and undermines the security of Israel by increasing Palestinian anger, putting more Israelis in harm's way and further reducing the chances for peace. There is no good reason why the United States should condone Sharon's decision, yet the Bush Administration is. This is almost certianly another case of George W. Bush putting short-term electoral politics over the long-term interests of America.

Bill Kristol Is A Hack

Or as Bill O'Reilly might say, a modern Joseph Goebbels. Kristol's piece,
"John Kerry Doesn't Know His Own Mind", proves hackery beyond the shadow of a doubt. Kristol wrote:

Apparently, Sen. Kerry wanted to appeal to the "get-the-boys-back-home" sentiment in the country when he spoke on This Week. Yesterday, addressing a convention of veterans, Kerry was busy burnishing his credentials as a hawk by suggesting that cutting our forces in Korea "is clearly the wrong signal to send" at this time.

Who knows what Sen. Kerry believes? Does Sen. Kerry even know?

What the crap? These are two different issues, yet Kristol acts like they are one and the same. The situations in question are not at all comparable. Kerry's point is clear, he hopes to reduce American forces in Iraq because the occupation there has created a swarm of problems for the US and is opposed to withdrawing troops from South Korea because it could weaken our hand with North Korea. William Kristol's article is nothing but cheap propaganda. It is remarkable that the Weekly Standard has the nerve to poke fun at Ann Coulter when they are no better she is.

Emergency Pork To The Rescue?

Bush Declares Major Disaster in Fla.
President Bush declared a major disaster in the state of Florida on Friday, ordering federal aid for the recovery effort just two hours after Hurricane Charley hit the mainland.

Here we have critical swing state, a chance to distribute federal money and one of the most cynically politicians in recent memory. Perhaps someone should look at this story's political angle.

The Reactionary

Keyes Wants to End Election of Senators
Alan Keyes said Friday he would like to end the system under which the people elect U.S. senators and return to pre-1913 practice in which senators were chosen by state legislatures.

Perhaps Ambassador Keyes will decide to come out in favor of the gold standard next because he just doesn't trust money that isn't backed up by shiny rocks. The Republicans did Obama a real favor by selecting a complete cook to run against him. A local, levelheaded politician would probably would have lost to Barack Obama, but he or she might have been able to get some good jabs in and done something to diminish Obama's star power. Instead they chose Alan Keyes for some reason or another and the consequences of that choice are becoming clear.

Straight Talk

"The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."
- President Bush, quoted by the AP, on the campaign trail.

The wealthy are able to avoid paying their taxes? I wonder why.

In Other News...

I am richer than the Reform Party.

An endorsement

Upon carefully examining the evidence, Board of Pomposity has decided to endorse Beer Baron Peter Coors in his race to become the Republican candidate in Colorado.

Once A Spoiler, Always A Spoiler

Nader's ballot hopes hinge on state's Greens via Daily Kos

Ralphspierre the Insufferable appears to be greasing up his guillotine for the Greens. The Nader campaign has suspended its unsuccessful signature drive, but it has not given up on its goal of getting on the California ballot. Rather than actually go out and get the signatures themselves Nader and Camejo are attempting to take the Greens' line even though they are no longer members of the Green Party and their micro-coup would actually rob the Greens' real nominee David Cobb of his spot on the California ballot. I guess Ralph Nader thinks it is time to stick it to the corporate shills of the so-called "Green" Party.

Every Dog Has His Day (Of Reckoning)

The Iraqi government has issued arrest warrants for Ahmed Chalabi and his brother Salem. I am sure the Prince of Darkness is crying himself to sleep tonight.

Buh? What's going on?

Reuters is reporting that US officials have blown the cover of one of our moles inside Al Qaeda.

Update: The original source that exposed Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan as an Al Qeada informant was Pakistani, not American (via the Political Animal).

Dark Horse Figures

A detail from Fox News' latest poll is more than a bit puzzling to me:

- More knowledgeable on the issues
Bush 43 (was 48% two weeks ago)
Kerry 40 (was 32% two weeks ago)

George W. Bush is more knowledgeable than John Kerry? Does this surprise anyone else? For objectivity and bipartisanship, President Bush barely pays attention to the news. Just look at his excerpt from the Washington Times (which I hope is spin meant to appeal to honest, simple folk):

...[T]he president often cites articles that Mrs. Bush flags for greater scrutiny, even when he has not personally slogged through those stories. Mrs. Bush routinely delves more deeply into the news pages than her husband, who prefers other sections.
"He does not dwell on the newspaper, but he reads the sports page every day," Mr. Card said with a chuckle.

I wish I could laugh along with Andrew Card, but somehow that tidbit seems a little distressing.

A Day At The Track

RealClearPolitics' poll average has Kerry leading by 1.7% in a two way race and by 2.1% when Nader is factored in, which is pretty good seeing as how RCP has a bit of a conservative bent and how averaging polls gives them an opportunity to pick surveys with favorable results and doesn't seem to consider the quality of the polls used.

Better Late Than Never

I would like to take a crack at summarizing "Unfairenheit 9/11"
(get it? eh? eh?)
Christopher Hitchens' critique of "Fahrenheit 9/11":

In different segments of Mr. Moore's film Bush portrayed is a liar, a crook and a buffoon. Well, which is it? Is Bush a liar, a crook or a buffoon? He can't be all three can he, you dangerous, depraved, dishonest dastard!

Protecting Our national Sovereignty At The Expense of National Security?

U.S. Shifts Stance on Nuclear Treaty
In a significant shift in U.S. policy, the Bush administration announced this week that it will oppose provisions for inspections and verification as part of an international treaty that would ban production of nuclear weapons materials.

Not only has the Bush Administration come out against the verification program (probably the most important part of any arms control agreement) supported by the British, the EU and previously the United States under Bill Clinton, they have yet to really explain why. In the "U.S. Proposals to the Conference on Disarmament", American representative Jackie W. Sanders simply dismisses the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty because "effective verification of an FMCT is not achievable". Does that make any sense at all? They are opposing a policy because there is a chance it might not work! It would have been nice if they had used that logic when they considered invading Iraq...but at any rate these justifications are absurd. Can this Administration be so opposed to international cooperation that it would oppose an agreement that could add to the security of the United States simply out of dogmatic unilateralism or does it have more sinister motives? The NY Times' editorial on the State Department's decision cites concerns about protecting secret American nuclear technology as one reason for Bush's refusal to support the inspections component of the FMCT. I am curious by what they mean by that, perhaps the White House doesn't want to draw attention towards the US' newly invigorated nuclear program, an effort which seems to be geared towards creating weapons intended to be used preemptively.

Kicking down the ladder he climbed up

Bush opposes 'legacy' college admissions
Another Bush Flip Flop! First he uses legacy preferences to get into Yale University and now he is denying a generation of stupid good ol' boys a chance at unearned wealth and privilege.

Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

Rick James has died of "natural causes".

Inform the Jr. Fed Reserve Group

From George W. Bush's campaign homepage:
The economy is strong and getting stronger. The President’s pro-growth policies have helped drive the economy and move the recovery forward, putting more money in the pockets of America’s families and laying a foundation for robust growth and job creation now and for years to come.

From the AP:
The nation's payroll growth slowed dramatically in July with a paltry 32,000 jobs being added-- a potentially troubling sign that the rough patch the economy hit in June was no aberration...

The 32,000 net jobs added in July represented the smallest gain in hiring since December and followed a revised gain of just 78,000 in June, even less than previously reported. May's payrolls also were revised down to show a gain of 208,000.

Where are those 300,000 jobs a month the Administration promised us? Congress did pass his "stimulus" package last year, after all. The critics of the President must be to blame! Just like how it is these infernal Democrats that are causing these high gas prices, reality be damned!

Born Loser

Alen Keyes, a religious fundementalist, former ambassador and infamous crowd-surfer is running against the popular, well-financed and now famous Barak Obama in the Illinois senate race. I guess the Republicans weren't able to get a more widely respected figure, like Ted Nugent, to run.

Kerry: The New Rhetorical Grenadier?

John Kerry blasts the President's Patrick-like reaction to being told of the September 11th attacks:

"Had I been reading to children and had my top aide whispered in my ear, 'America is under attack,' I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to -- and I would have attended to it,"

Tomorrow When The War Began

The second most popular man in Iraq, radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, has once again declared war on the United States and urged Iraqis to rebel against Coalition forces and those in Iraq that collaborate with them. Sadr's first uprising made April far and away the bloodiest month of the entire war and globalsecurity.org is currently projecting that August will come in second.

Beat the Press

The following was posted on the National Review's weblog, the Corner:

Aug. 2, 2004 - U.S. News and World Report (8/9, Bedard) reports in its "Washington Whispers" column, "Reporters, beware: The Democratic Party is revamping its lovey-dovey approach and telling campaign press secretaries to come down like a ton of bricks if you screw up or slip in a little attitude. 'When it comes to the media,' suggests Democratic strategist James Carville, 'intimidation works.' He offers a tactic: 'Send E-mails to the press. They do respond to pressure.' That message was part of the training new campaign press secretaries were given in Boston last week during the party's convention." Press secretaries were urged to "bully the reporter and cow the newsie into tossing you a bone, or hit hard and scare him into changing his tone and coverage."

It looks like Kerry has decided he won't get "Gored" like the last Democratic nominee was. As anyone with the correct opinions knows, the media has been giving the Democrats a pretty hard time ever since Reagan and it has only gotten worse in recent years (just read the incomparable Daily Howler to see for yourself). The conservatives have known for a long time how to work the press, establishing partisan news outlets and mericlessly beating them up for supposed "liberal bias". Now with this new aggressive strategy for dealing with the fourth estate the left could be on its way to getting better, fairer coverage.

Great Moments In Sloganeering

Is it just me or is "We're turning the corner, and we're not turning back" a rather weak slogan for a man who is not just an incumbent President, but an incumbent who enjoyed having both houses of congress under his control party's control. Isn't it basically admitting that things went wrong on your watch? Next thing you know, George W. Bush will start out his next television spot by saying "As you well know, ever since I took office, well, things have been really really bad."


An aside: And yes, I am a party hack copying our STRONG and WISE candidate's talking points nearly verbatim, which makes me no worse than my favorite whipping boy, David Brooks.

The Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade

From the AP:
RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) -- Some Democrats who signed up to hear Vice President Dick Cheney speak here Saturday were refused tickets unless they signed a pledge to endorse President Bush.

The measure was a security step designed to avoid a disruption, which Bush campaign spokesman Dan Foley alleged Democrats were planning. Democratic Party officials denied it

Kerry campaign spokesman Ruben Pulido Jr. said there had been no plan by the campaign to disrupt Cheney's event.

"I think that every American should have the right to see their vice president and hear from him firsthand what he plans to do for our country," Pulido said.

He also said the Kerry campaign had not attempted to screen Bush supporters out of Kerry's appearance at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque on July 9.

On that occasion, about a dozen Bush supporters wearing flip-flop beach sandals began chanting "Viva Bush" and waved their flip-flops over their heads. They contend Kerry has flip-flopped on the war.

Denying access to a public event for those that refuse to sign a pro-Bush pledge isn't the worst thing that the Republicans have done, but it does nicely symbolize the super-partisan governing style of the GOP's leadership, which has treated the Congress, the Presidencey, Supreme Court and various federal agencies like they were appendenges of their PR department.

I believe the proper response to this ridiculous policy is to paraphrase the pithy if not eloquent Major --- de Coverley: Gimme Speech.

MORE Convention Blogging

Air America Place has all the speeches from the 2004 Democratic Convention in MP3 format.

Convention Bounce?

Since Thursday night opinion polls have come out that have claimed to measure the impact of the Democratic Convention on the presidential race. The problem is that these polls are not all that accurate and so it may be a bit longer untill the Convention's true consequences are clear. it is clear. The latest Newsweek poll (via MSNBC) shows Kerry with a 5 point bounce, though the blog Donkey Rising calls the Newsweek unreliable since it included data that was collected before Senator Kerry's acceptance speech. Rasmussen Reports' daily presidential tracking poll (which show Kerry with a 4% post-convention boost) suffers from the same flaw, with a third of their interviews conducted before John Kerry spoke.