Feeling Secure?

From the NY Times
Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 120,000 hours of potentially valuable terrorism-related recordings have not yet been translated by linguists at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and computer problems may have led the bureau to systematically erase some Qaeda recordings, according to a declassified summary of a Justice Department investigation that was released on Monday.

Billions for tax cuts, Homeland Security spending to defend public libraries in Wyoming but we still can't be bothered to hire enough translators at the FBI to translate intercepted messages in a timely manner.

Disgraceful

The House has no shame:
The national bird, the bald eagle, will have a national tree, the oak, to alight on if legislation passed Tuesday by the House makes its way through Congress and is signed by the president.

The Oak Tree? How dare they! The Oak tree might be the worst tree in the world to pick. These losers can hardly defende themselves against fungi, walking stick bugs and caterpillars. Additionally they don't have the stones to keep their leaves on all year, instead they make a mess of the place each and every autum. Some of the older Oaks also drop acorns in the fall, which are small and ugly. The noble pine tree is way better. It stays nice and green even in winter and produces pine cones, pine cones that can be turned into bird feeders.

Thermidor

Ralphspierre is the Insufferable is now polling 1.6% according to Real Clear Politics' poll averages. That is less than the margin of error of most of the polls used by RCP, so it is possible that Nader is doing even worse. My in-depth analysis: this is the kind of thing that happens when you are jerk that no one likes (including every American civil rights group, organized labor, Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, The Greens, The Democratic Socialists of America, The Nation Editorial Board and the Communist Party USA).

Surrender Monkeys

Rumsfeld: U.S. Troops Can Leave Before Iraq Peaceful
The United States does not have to wait until Iraq "is peaceful and perfect" before it begins to withdraw military troops from that troubled country, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday.

Responding to questions from reporters, Rumsfeld said Washington was determined to provide security for scheduled January elections in Iraq, where nearly 140,000 American troops are now fighting a growing insurgency.

But "any implication that that place has to be peaceful and perfect before we can reduce coalition and U.S. forces, I think, would obviously be unwise," he told a press conference after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

I guess when John Kerry talks about reducing American forces it shows how he is unfit to be Commander-In-Chief, but when Donald Rumsfeld, the Iron Secretary of Defense and International Lawbreaker says so it is just hard headed realism and evidence of his straight talking style worthy of a one of the wits that share the spotlight with SNL drop-out Collin Quinn on "Tough Crowd".

The Wrath Of Holy Joe

Bush, Kerry, whatever
Democrats have had a field day with Sen. John McCain 's criticism of President Bush 's Iraq war management, so it seems fair play to air a Democratic senator's hit on Sen. John Kerry. Former vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman says, "I disagree with Senator Kerry's look back" at his earlier views on Iraq. Lieberman says he doesn't quibble with Kerry's call for a multilateral approach but suggests that there isn't that much original in the pitch. "I don't find much difference between what he is proposing and what President Bush is doing."

If I didn't know better I would say Senator Lieberman is still a little sore over the stomping he recieved from every single candidate other than Al Sharpton and LaRouche in the primaries. However, Lieberman has a long history of undermining the Democratic party. It is about time that Joe Lieberman's disloyalty was repaid in kind by the Democrats of Connecticut.

Major Flashback.

For all you Hunter S. Thompson fans, the Whiskey Bar has a nice little graphic for you.

For Your INFORMATION

Anyone looking for a good way to lose his or her money ought to check out this guide to C-low.

Secretary Of State Spits The Truth...Kind Of

One C. Powell is blowing George W. Bush's cover sky high:
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday said anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world had increased and the insurgency in Iraq was worsening, but the United States was taking action to improve security ahead of elections.
Reuters

I have a sneaking suspicion that the rumors that Powell wouldn't be around for Bush's second term are true. As of late he has been sprinting off the reservation at break neck speed, first owning up to the fact that the absence of WMD's undermines the case for the President's war and now recognizing that Iraq is a mess. If Collin Powell really wants to flip George W. Bush the bird on his way out the door, he could resign in protest shortly before the election. His credibility is in shreds because of Iraq (remember his presentation to the UN?) and the Bush crowd, the least he could do is take them down with him.

"My administration will give you the resources you need to fight and win the war on terror"

or maybe not. It looks the negligent underequpping of our armed forces in Iraq has reached new lows:

About 800 members of the 98th Army Reserve Division from Rochester, New York will begin a year-long mission in Iraq next month.

The unit, which normally trains reserve and active-duty soldiers in the U.S., will find itself training Iraq’s new army.

The 98th is a non-combat unit that doesn't even have its own weapons or vehicles.

"This is a hard war and we, frankly, inside the Army Reserve have been not properly prepared for it,” said Lt. Gen. James Helmly, chief of the U.S. Army Reserve.

-Army Sends Weaponless Reserve Unit To Iraq
-2004 State of the Union Address

Winning The Ground War

Today's New York Times reports that there has been a big increase in new voters in swing states. The Democrats are leading the race to register new voters, registering 250% more than they did in 2000 (compared with the Republicans 25%) in Ohio (and lead in new registrations in Florida). Despite the much vaunted Republicans' much vaunted Get Out The Vote (GOTV) program, which was the subject of a front page story for the NY Times Magazine a few months ago, it seems that the Democrats' turnout operations are outdoing them. If the polls are at all close by election day, it is pretty likely then that Kerry will win thanks to usually below the radar factors (which do not appear in opinion polling) like this.

The Doppelganger

John Kerry on Tuesday:
:
One year ago, the administration asked for and received $18 billion to help the Iraqis and relieve the conditions that contribute to the insurgency.  Today, less than a $1 billion of those funds have actually been spent. I said at the time that we had to rethink our policies and set standards of accountability. Now we’re paying the price.

Now, the President should look at the whole reconstruction package…draw up a list of high visibility, quick impact projects… and cut through the red tape. 

Bush Today:
President Bush under election-year pressure from Democrats and some fellow Republicans over Iraq, promised on Saturday to step up the pace of spending on reconstruction contracts in that country despite the violence.

"There is nothing more important than cuttingtaxes in the face of a war"

Congress Approves a Bill to Extend Bush's Tax Cuts
The Republican-controlled Congress easily passed legislation on Thursday that would extend expiring provisions of last year's tax cuts for families as well as about 20 business tax cuts, at a cost of about $146 billion over 10 years.

Even though Democrats protested that the tax cuts would worsen the federal deficit and should be paid for with spending cuts or other tax increases, party leaders gave their members free rein to vote for the bill rather than incur the wrath of voters just a few weeks before Election Day.

I am not sure if conceding victory to the Republicans in this case was the best idea. It is irresponsible to continue cutting taxes without a way to make up for the lost revenue, but the tax cuts in and off themselves were not all that objectionable and was mentioned in the quote above there were political dangers to putting up a fight. Letting a Republican partisan like Porter Goss become CIA director is certainly worse than allowing these cuts to pass.

Update: After reading a more in-depth examination of the tax cut in question (available here), I have changed my mind. It was a bad bill with a small middle class tax breaks thrown in for political reasons. The Democrats should have opposed it outright. The legislative appeasement of our party stands in contrast to the combative rhetoric of the campaign. This soft approach is not all that good an idea, because it makes the Democrats seem unprincipled, weakens the enthusiam of the party faithful and there is the danger that we might lose the election, in which case there will be almost zero chance of retaking the ground we lost. As Patton once said (in the movie at least) I don't like paying for the same real estate twice. This strategy has failed us in the past (the 2002 congressional elections being the most recent example) and may fail us again.

Block The Vote

245 Electronic Votes Lost in Fla. Primary:
TAMPA, Fla. - A mistake by an election worker "lost" 245 electronic ballots cast in last month's Florida primary, but the mix-up didn't affect the outcome of any race when the votes were finally counted, authorities said.

Hillsborough County residents cast the ballots before the Aug. 31 election on an ATM-style machine set up at a library, said Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson. A member of Johnson's staff left the machine, made by Sequoia Voting Systems, in test mode. The votes were recorded and stored but not counted until they were found Friday


This is reassuring. Digital voting is going and going according to plan. I just hope this is the worst sort of irregularity we'll see during the Presidential Election. It isn't like certian members of the government don't have other ways to undermine democracy. Vote suppression has been practiced in the past by Bush and other Republicans in the past (Salon has a very thorough article about this ) and there is no reason to doubt they won't do it again.

Rumsfelded Into Submission

"At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed and we’ll have enough of the Iraqi security forces that they can take over responsibility for governing that country and we’ll be able to pare down the coalition security forces in the country."

-- Secretary of Defense

Donald Rumsfeld..

Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis - most of them civilians - as attacks by insurgents, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and obtained exclusively by Knight Ridder.Via Knight Ridder.

It Takes A Budget Cut of Millions

How do you respond to a million new Americans living in poverty this year? If you are President Bush you

cut rent subsidies for the poor:

The proposals could have a "significantly detrimental impact" in some areas by forcing poor families to pay hundreds of extra dollars per month in rent, according to United States Representative Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican. That extra burden could be too much for thousands of tenants, "potentially leaving them homeless," Mr. Shays wrote in a recent letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The changes would affect most of the 1.9 million families who participate in the Section 8 program, the government's primary housing program for the poor, including 110,000 in New York City

The More The Merrier

India, Japan want seats in Security Council
Japan, Brazil, Germany and India formed a lobbying group on Tuesday to help one another get permanent seats on the UN Security Council and head off proposals that might work against them.
It is hard to argue against allowing these countries into the Security Council. They are certainly as important as some of the Council's other permanent members. Additionally, it would be nice if the Security Council better reprsented the interests of the Third World. The only problem is that increasing the number of members makes decision making less efficient, but then again those that are really interested in quick results generally don't look toward the UN anyhow.

Prophets of Rage

Kerry has gone negative, laying into into George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq War one day and ripping apart his plan to dismantle Social Security the next. TheFrom the

Polls are starting to head in the right direction again, though it is not clear that John Kerry has pulled ahead yet. It seems that the Kerry campaign is revitalized and picking up momentum. Perhaps the American people are as spiteful as even the readers and writers of this blog are.

Red On Red

From the

NY Daily News
A trio of top Republicans criticized the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq yesterday - just as Democrat John Kerry is refocusing his campaign to slam the President over the blossoming anarchy there.

"I don't think we're winning," Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) told CBS' "Face the Nation."
---
Asked if Bush has been straight about the deadly insurgency that has put several major Iraqi cities off-limits to U.S. troops, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the President has been "perhaps not as straight as maybe we'd like to see."
---
And from the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee came a scathing critique of the Bush administration's failure to spend more than $1 billion out of $18 billion for Iraq reconstruction appropriated by Congress a year ago.

"This is the incompetence in the administration," Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) told ABC's "This Week."

I guess these guys haven't heard that

"freedom is on the march".

Kerry Wins The Debate Debate

Bush, Kerry Tentatively Settle on 3 Debates
The campaigns of President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry have tentatively settled on a package of three face-to-face debates that both sides view as a potentially decisive chance to sway huge audiences ahead of the Nov. 2 election, Democrats and Republicans said yesterday.

Initially Bush was trying to blow off the third presidential debate, but now it looks like his bid has failed. Details about the three debates still have to be worked out so it isn't quite a sure thing yet. Having more debates are likely to benefit John Kerry since the polls indicate that George W. Bush is probably in the lead and the debates provide Kerry with an opportunity to change the direction of the race.

Don't Blow Saturday With Ordinary Wing-Nuts

GOP Mailing Warns Liberals Will Ban Bibles
Campaign mail with a return address of the Republican National Committee (news - web sites) warns West Virginia voters that the Bible will be prohibited and men will marry men if liberals win in November.

Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie said Friday that he wasn't aware of the mailing, but said it could be the work of the RNC. "It wouldn't surprise me if we were mailing voters on the issue of same-sex marriage," Gillespie said.

Thankfully the RNC has yet to inform the unsuspecting citizens of West Virginia of the Democratic Party's secret plan to take away their guns, make the US a UN protectorate and force all Americans over the age of 5 into work camps run by mean-spirited "peacekeepers" from the third world where they will be forced to manufacture crystal meth and package shipments of hardcore pornography under the most dangerous circumstances possible.

Cheaps Shots All Around

File photo of Mr. Brooks (photo credit:

Oliver Willis)

Shorter

David Brooks: Kerry is such an indecisive flip-flopper that he has actually hired advisors!

Nothing Is Our Fault

Insurgents aim to influence U.S. vote, official says
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage alleged Friday that insurgents have stepped up their deadly assaults in Iraq because they want to "influence the election against President Bush," a statement that drew a sharp condemnation from the campaign of Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry.

It is apparently the first time that a Bush administration official has linked the escalating violence in Iraq to an effort by insurgents to help defeat Bush in November.


Interesting how the Democrats are always somehow responsible for everything bad while the Republicans control all three branches of government. I guess next Elaine Chao will tell us the economy is intentionally underpeforming in an attempt to elect John Kerry.

Tunes

In addition to writing a book supporting the internment of Japanese Americans and supporting racial profiling, writing a syndicate column that appears in such respected outlets as the New York Daily News, Michelle Malkin is also into the music business. You can listen to her latest single

here, I recommend it highly.

November Surprise

Via

Drudgereport :

STATEMENT FROM REP JOHN P. MURTHA [D-PA]:
I have learned through conversations with officials at the Pentagon that at the beginning of November, 2004, the Bush Administration plans to call up large numbers of the military guard and reserves , to include plans that they previously put off to call up the Individual Ready Reserve.

I have said publicly and privately that our forces are inadequate to support our current worldwide tempo of operations. On November 21, 2003, a bipartisan group of 135 members of the House of Representatives wrote to the President urging an increase in the active duty army troop levels and expressed concern that our Armed Forces are over-extended and that we are relying too heavily on the Guard and Reserve.

We didn't get a reply until February 2004, and now as the situation in Iraq is deteriorating, it seems that the Administration will resort to calling up additional guard and reservists, again with inadequate notice.


What a lovely little stab in the back Bush has prepared for his guardsmen supporters.

Losing Bin Laden

C.I.A. Unit on bin Laden Is Understaffed, a Senior Official Tells Lawmakers

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 - Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency has fewer experienced case officers assigned to its headquarters unit dealing with Osama bin Laden than it did at the time of the attacks, despite repeated pleas from the unit's leaders for reinforcements, a senior C.I.A. officer with extensive counterterrorism experience has told Congress.

The bin Laden unit is stretched so thin that it relies on inexperienced officers rotated in and out every 60 to 90 days, and they leave before they know enough to be able to perform any meaningful work, according to a letter the C.I.A. officer has written to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

This is just grand. It looks like we are back to ignoring Osama Bin Laden like we were before 9-11. But then again the War on Terrorism is about more than just one man (even though he is still playing a

key leadership roles
) and we have other national security priorities like the greatest threat to western civilization ever, Iraq, building a magical missile shield with technology that doesn't exist and letting North Korean develop nuclear weaposn because we couldn't stand the moral degradation of negotiating.

Never again?

More disturbing news is breaking about the race murder being committed by the Sudanese government. Khartoum's inhumanity is reaching new heights if the latest reports are to be believed:

"Syria tested chemical weapons on civilians in Sudan's troubled western Darfur region in June and killed dozens of people.

The German daily Die Welt newspaper, in an advance release of its Wednesday edition, citing unnamed western security sources, said that injuries apparently caused by chemical arms were found on the bodies of the victims...

Syrian officers were reported to have met in May with Sudanese military leaders in a Khartoum suburb to discuss the possibility of improving cooperation between their armies.

According to Die Welt, the Syrians had suggested close cooperation on developing chemical weapons, and it was proposed that the arms be tested on the rebel SPLA, the Sudan People's Liberation Army, in the south.

But given that the rebels were involved in peace talks, the newspaper continued, the Sudanese government proposed testing the arms on people in Darfur."

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/106666/1/.html

Update:On Saturday the

UN passed a resolution threatening Sudan with sanctions if it fails to curb the Arab militias terrorizing refugee camps in Darfur.

Facing Facts

It looks like the Killian memos aren't real:
Two document experts retained by CBS News for the disputed "60 Minutes" story on President Bush's National Guard record said yesterday they had warned the program that the memos involved had significant problems but that their concerns were not heeded.
-The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21675-2004Sep14.html

Some are saying that the Memos, though probably fakes, are accurate in the sense in that they reflect the facts found in other documents. Even so, I am sure this is likely to be a major blow for CBS News, Dan Rather and 60 Minutes.

One Dishonest Bastard

"To be fair, there are some things my opponent is for -- he's proposed more than two trillion dollars in new federal spending so far, and that's a lot, even for a senator from Massachusetts. To pay for that spending, he is running on a platform of increasing taxes -- and that's the kind of promise a politician usually keeps.

His policies of tax and spend -- of expanding government rather than expanding opportunity -- are the policies of the past."
-George W. Bush in his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention




The Washington Post Today:

:
"The expansive agenda President Bush laid out at the Republican National Convention was missing a price tag, but administration figures show the total is likely to be well in excess of $3 trillion over a decade.

A staple of Bush's stump speech is his claim that his Democratic challenger, John F. Kerry, has proposed $2 trillion in long-term spending, a figure the Massachusetts senator's campaign calls exaggerated. But the cost of the new tax breaks and spending outlined by Bush at the GOP convention far eclipses that of the Kerry plan."

What a deal! John Kerry's going to make us pay for his 2 trillion dollar Spendocrat program (you can tell he is a real LIEbrel from TAXachusetts, huh huh), but we will get Bush's 3 trillion dollar agenda for free. I am going to use the money I save to buy myself a hammock!

Sworn Enemy

Via

Teagan Goddard's Political Wire:
"In what could become a worst-case scenario for Democrats, Ralph Nader announced plans to launch a spirited new phase to his independent candidacy in swing states," the Hartford Courant reports. Nader says "part of its purpose would be to retaliate against Democrats who had fought his candidacy."

It isn't really news that Ralph Nader has been focusing on critical swing states (he's been doing that all year and was doing it days before the 2000 election, too), but now he has made his intentions clear. He wants revenge against the Democrats, his main goal is spiting the Democratic Party by helping to re-elect George W. Bush. Since the start of his absurd campaign Nader maintained that he was committed to seeing President Bush defeated in Novemeber. Now he has dropped the pretense and has all but openly embraced four more year of Republican misrule simply because he feels slighted.

Powell Refuses To Stand By Bush's War

From the WP:

"NBC's Tim Russert, using language similar to a question President Bush had posed about Kerry regarding the former Iraqi leader, asked Powell if he "knew today that Saddam did not have these weapons of mass destruction, would you still advocate an invasion?"

Powell did not answer directly, but said, 'I would have to look at the total picture, and we'd have to sit down and talk about his intention to have such weapons, the capability that was inherent.'"

So now the Secretary of State is expressing doubt about the most important part of the Administration's foreign policy, the Iraq War. I guess Colin Powell got fed up with those ""fucking crazies" and their bloody misadventure. If people on the President's payroll aren't willing to stand by their man why should anyone at all back George W. Bush? Bush has based his entire presidency on his war time leadership and it is becoming clear to everyone with eyes to see that he has driven our war on terrorism into a ditch.

I am sure the infamous Tech-9 Is Delighted

Federal Ban on Assault Weapons Expires


"The expiration Monday of a 10-year federal ban on assault weapons means firearms like AK-47s, Uzis and TEC-9s can now be legally bought — a development that has critics upset and gun owners pleased."

But it gets better! Not only can you buy an assault weapon, but you can get cool accessories for it, too:

"Now, some gun manufacturers are planning to give away high-capacity magazines as bonuses for buying their weapons. Sales of formerly banned gun accessories, such as flash suppressors and folding stocks, are also expected to take off."

Wit & Wisdom

"WWI was the most profitable thing ever happened to the United States, not withstanding WWII I mean"-Jon Chin

A Freudian Slip?

It seems the like the Best Secretary of Defense the US has ever had is a bit confused about who our enemies are:

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mixed up al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein twice in a speech on Friday about the war against terrorism.
on to the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan and was killed by al Qaeda two days before the Sept. 11 attacks."
- Reuters

More Technical Things

Once again the template of this weblog is undergoing some changes. The haloscan comment system was becoming increasingly problematic, Blogger's new built-in comments seem to be better and Blogger's new navbar was not meshing well with the old format. With some luck the new system will work out and maybe I will be able to add a running comments section.

Unpersons

Lawmakers Troubled by 'Ghost Detainees'


"Congress may keep up the focus on the prison abuse scandal following the disclosure that the military has concealed as many as 100 "ghost detainees" from the Red Cross...

Under the Geneva Conventions, the United States is obliged to give the neutral, Swiss-run humanitarian agency access to prisoners of war and other detainees to check on their conditions and allow them to send messages to their families."

Is it really a good idea for the United States to be joing in on the race to the bottom with regards to international law? These conventions were designed to protect all prisoners of war, by undermining them we are endangering the safety of our own soldiers.

The New New Thought Police

I guess the gentle college conservatives could take all that liberal hate speech:

"A university president and a Democratic state lawmaker said rules put in place this year to protect conservative views on Colorado campuses have led to death threats against professors and a harmful effect on free speech.

Republican lawmakers responded that conservative students are still being harassed and more needs to be done...

Colleges agreed to implement a stripped-down version of the policy after lawmakers killed a measure that would have required them to allow students to file grievances against professors if they felt they were being harassed for their political or religious beliefs. "

Colo. Educators Worry About Free Speech

Real Moral Clarity

Powell calls Sudan killings genocide

After mass murder it is common for those that could have stopped it to deny knowing of the crime while it was happening. Now that option isn't open to us, hopefully this will result in significant action.

New Blog In Town

Since I am nothing if not objective and nonpartisan, I think it is my solemn obligation to help promote a broad and informative discourse and expose my readers to other points of view. A new, young conservative opinion maker has hit the scene. Already people across the Right are flocking to read his regular rants and there is talk that he maybe given a syndicated column in dozens of respected money losing publications like the Washington Times and New York Daily News. His latest material can be found here:

bush4Ever.blogspot.com

Slander Slander!

What a cook:
"President Bush (news - web sites) on Thursday blamed the Clinton administration for the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs and warned against backing the Democratic ticket in November because of a 'hidden Kerry tax plan.'"

First, Bush tries to draw attention away from the dismal failure of his economic policy by...bringing up the Clinton era, which saw the death of millions of Americas due to the hunger caused by Bill Clinton's bungling of the economy. Then he continues by suggesting that Kerry has a secret plan to raise taxes. I guess tomorrow George W. Bush is going to warn us that John Kerry has made a covert agreement with the UN to take our guns away. Fortunately Dick Cheney and some of his buddies from Wyoming have constructed a survivalist hideaway/weapons cache and will be ready to defend America when that day comes.

Bush Warns of Secret Tax Plan

Flip Flopper!!! Flip Flopper!!!

Bush has just once again the worst thing an American politican can ever do, change their posistion on an issue. In the wake of the 9-11 Commission's Report, which proposed a cabinet level intelligence chief, the President proposed creating a post that mirrored the Commission's recommendations, but which would have denied the intelligence head almost any real power. Now President Bush is willing to grant a new intelligence director with budgetary powers. Man, with this guy you don't know whether he is coming or going!

Questions of consistency aside, Bush is still in the wrong on the merits. Even FBI Director Robert Mueller, who would actually lose some power under the commission's plan, supports implementing creating a strong intelligence czar like the one the
9-11 Commission suggests.

Bush Seeks Strong Intelligence Director

Call of Duty

The AP Reports:
"New documents unearthed in the midst of the presidential campaign fill in some blanks but raise other questions about the sometimes mysterious and spotty story of President Bush (news - web sites)'s military service during Vietnam when he won a coveted spot in the Texas Air National Guard and avoided the war."

It is great that the press is really beginning to dig into the Bush AWOL story. I just hope the Democrats don't get too involved with it. The short term political benefits of this issue are likely to be limited. A story like this is far more usefull against a challenger rather than an incumbent. Furthermore it runs the risk of legitimizing the Swift Boat Smears in the eyes of the public because both are to some degree a manifestation of the "politics of personal destruction", even though there is much more substance to the charges against Bush. For now the Democrats should avoid using Bush's guard service directly and do what Bush's Republican surrogates have been doing by expressing "interest" in the investigation, thereby leaving the question open and keeping the story in the news while reducing the risks of blowback. At a later date the National Gaurd business go be very useful if woven into a broader attack on George W. Bush's personal courage, possibly by connecting it with Bush-Cheney '04 attempt to duck the third presidential debate or any other instances where the President has tried to bodly run away.

Questions Raised About Bush Guard Service

John Kerry: Catholic Church Approved.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, "Grand Inquisitor for Mother Rome", has determined that a Roman Catholic can vote for a pro-choice politician provided that they agree with him or her on other issues. On the whole this should help out John Kerry who outside of the abortion question, shares a lot of posistions with the Church on issues like foreign affairs (according to catholicvote.org Kerry and the Catholic Bishops are in 100% agreement in this area) and social justice.

Catholics Allowed Pro-Choice Vote

Cheney Threatens America W/Terrorist Attack

Well, not exactly, but the Vice-President's remarks were awful even compared to his other public statements:

" Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday warned Americans about voting for Democratic Sen. John Kerry, saying that if the nation makes the wrong choice on Election Day it faces the threat of another terrorist attack."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040907/D84V15AG0.html

The ugliness of the Bush-Cheney campaign has now gotten to the point of self-parody.

Abuse of Power

From the Telegraph:

"In a fresh blow to John Kerry's flagging presidential campaign, the Pentagon has ordered an official investigation into the awards of the Democratic senator's five Vietnam War decorations."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/05/wus05.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/05/ixworld.html

Anyone willing to bet this isn't politically motivated?

What Lies Ahead

It is widely believed that the moderate Republicans that spoke at the Convention, Giuliani, Pataki and McCain are trying to posistion themselves for 2008 by gaining some national exposure and getting on the good side of George W. Bush. I am not sure how good an idea that is. A second Bush term will likely strengthen the right wing of the Republican Party while a Bush defeat (which would be the fourth consecutive time the Republicans failed to win the most votes in a Presidential election) could spark a little reflection on the part of the GOP. Furthermore all the ambitious moderates will have to contend with some serious conservative rivals (Jeb Bush, Condoleeza Rice?). Based on the President's long history of screwing those that cut deals with him, it isn't likely that the loyalty of McCain and his fellow travellers will be remembered in 2008. Some of the moderates in question ought to just give up now. Pataki in particular may as well give up all hope for the future. He can either run for the Republican nomination and get crushed by any other living Republican (unlike Giuliani or McCain he has no reputation for personal heroism that could help him along) or loes to Attorney General Elliot Spitzer in New York. Governor Pataki richly deserves either of these two fates.

"Stay the course"

Because our current strategy, whatever it is, is working so well and you wouldn't want to mess it up. Don't let news stories likes these turn you into a defeatist:

"About 1,100 U.S. soldiers and Marines were wounded in Iraq during August, by far the highest combat injury toll for any month since the war began and an indication of the intensity of battles flaring in urban areas."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&ncid=716&e=18&u=/washpost/20040905/ts_washpost/a62425_2004sep4

------

"In Iraq, the list of places from which American soldiers have either withdrawn or decided to visit only rarely is growing: Falluja, where a Taliban-like regime has imposed a rigid theocracy; Ramadi, where the Sunni insurgents appear to have the run of the city; and the holy Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf to the south, where the Americans agreed last month to keep their distance from the sacred shrines of Ali and Hussein."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/weekinreview/05filk.html?hp

So Americans are spilling more blood and losing control of more and more territory. Perhaps we should take a break from demanding some specifics from John Kerry about his Iraq plan and start asking the War President (trademark) what exactly HIS plan is.

Technical Problems

As you may have noticed my post-siesta posts have not featured direct links to internet sources. For some reason Blogger has deprived me of certain key tools and I don't know why they are gone or how or when I can get them back. I beg your pardon.

No Baby Bounce

From Bloomberg.com

President George W. Bush opened an 11- percentage point lead in his re-election race against Democrat John Kerry, according to a Time magazine poll taken during the Republican National Convention this week.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a_INcToj77l4&refer=us

Is it getting warm in here? It looks the Republican Convention is helping Bush more than Democrats' helped John Kerry, not good. Then again this might not be the case. The Bloomberg story did not provide many details on the poll in question and other surveys suggest a much more modest lead for Bush than the Time one does. The American Research Group has a poll from 8/30 to 9/1 with Kerry enjoying a slight lead. The true impact of the Convention probably won't be clear untill after the weekend.

Weird Stuff

Thanks to the Chin and collegehumor.com I have come across "Salad Fingers", one of the most bizzare internet cartoons I have ever seen. Salad Fingers can be seen at:
http://www.newgrounds.com/collections/saladfingers.html

Watching The Convention

Regrettably I missed Zell Miller's Pat Buchanan impersonation last night so I have basically missed what was the best part of the convention. Tonight I did get to see George W. Bush accept his party's nomination. Well, what can I say about the President's speech? A bunch of bad policy ideas (privatizing social security, making his regressive tax cuts permanent, etc.) that he has been yammering about for the better part of four years, misleading statements ("lies" if you want to prove how much of a fanatical bush hater you are) and empty platitudes, just like almost every speech he has given. I admit I was surprised how much they used September 11th or more accurately how gracelessly they incorporated it into their event. Since I was watching C-SPAN in true high brow fashion I was unable to enjoy the insight and wisdom of such luminaries as Joe Scarborough and Bill O'Reilly, so I am more or less in the dark about the media elite's take on the convention, I wonder how it is playing out with the general public.

Trogdor Strikes Again

Students at the University of South Carolina ("go gamecocks!") have elected Trogdor as their Hall's representitive. It remains to be seen whether or not Trogdor will use his new found power as a member of student government for good or for awesome.

The full story is available here:
http://www.dailygamecock.com/main.cfm?include=subApplication&subApplicationName=quickRegister&fuse=registrationOrLoginRequired&thereferer=http%3A//www.dailygamecock.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/611287.htmlhttp://www.blogger.com/

Another Foreign Leader For Kerry

Looks like "Bush's poodle" is thinking about jumping the fence and making a run for it:

"John Kerry supporters in America have been told by Peter Hain that Downing Street is hoping the Democratic candidate wins the US presidential election in November...

Those who met him had the strong impression that he was acting with No 10's support, and that a Democratic victory was clearly sought. Such a supposition ought to be natural, but historic ties have been jolted by the strategic and sometimes personal alliance between George Bush and Tony Blair over Iraq. Mr Hain's visit may be seen by some as diplomatic ground-covering in the event of a Kerry victory"

From the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1294572,00.html

One D. Brooks

David Brooks is one of the favorite targets of this blog and attacks on his writing make up a signifcant portion of all my posts. So far I have had to be content with scorning Brooks and all his works from a far, but now the "liberal's conservative" is coming to my neighborhood

. I'll have more on David Brook's appearance at it develops.

Speaking of Mr. Brooks, the NY Times Magazine ran an essay by him onthe future of the Republican party titled "Reinventing the GOP"

. Brooks doesn't do a bad job recognizing the mess that the Republicans are in. He notes that the American Right is running out of useful, relevant ideas and is becoming unprincipled and undisciplined. Brooks goes on to layout a program for a largely unobjectionable progressive conservative agenda which I would love to see the other side embrace. The problem is that Brooks views the Bush Administration as an ally of progressive conservatism rather than an obstacle to it and the main cause for the the problems with conservatism that he identifies. It was George W. Bush after all who oversaw the collapse of the GOP's values, who has cynically made political calculations the basis for his policy decisions and has refused to stand up to special interests even once in the name of "conservative values" (Bush has never vetoed a single bill and has even href="http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry022102.shtml"> signed legislation which he believed to be unconstitutiona

.