Keeping a jaundiced eye on the corporate media.
Posted in Politics As Usual, The Regime, War Stories on Sep 23rd, 2004
Sid Blumenthal on Bush’s faith-based reality:
In July, the CIA delivered to the president a new National Intelligence Estimate that details three gloomy scenarios of the future of Iraq ranging up to civil war. Perhaps it was his reading of the NIE that prompted Bush to remark in August that the war on terrorism could not [...]
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
CALLING OPRAH
1. They’re picking up my old car this weekend and, thanks to all your help, will finally fix my engine. Unfortunately, I don’t know how long it will take - which leads me to my next point.
2. The car I’ve been driving is in the shop because whatever was blowing white smoke through my [...]
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
RIGHT AGAIN
This is something I’ve been talking about for twenty years, and it’s finally coming to pass: Bush is proposing to drop the mortgage interest deduction.
One of my old editors used to argue with me about it. “Nah, it’ll never happen,” Leonard would say.
“Unless they cut all the corporate taxes, in which case they [...]
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
GOD’S WORK
Heh heh heh…
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
WRITE YOUR OWN CAPTION
You can see how the young people in the audience are captivated by Bush’s speech in King of Prussia, PA today.
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
MONKEY IN THE MIDDLE
WashPo’s Glenn Kessler on Bush’s U.N. speech:
At its heart, Bush’s vision is lofty and idealistic but may appear incomplete to others. Unlike Kerry — who is more of a “realist” in the mode of Henry Kissinger — Bush has been willing to upset the established order to achieve his aims. Yet he [...]
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
LIFE IN THE BUBBLE
From Slate, a look at the legal rationale for stifling dissent:
The strange catalyst here is a new weapon in the federal antiprotest arsenal or—more precisely—a previously unused one. The government nailed Bursey with an arcane 1970 Secret Service provision—Title 18, Section 1752(a)(1)(ii) of the U.S. Code—which makes it a federal crime to [...]
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
GIVE, FER CHRISSAKE
Joe Trippi says “Give!”:
Politics is a fickle business, and it’s nearly impossible right now to say where the trouble is going to be a week or two out from November 2. Some seats that seem completely safe right now are going to be in jeopardy, while other seats that seemed a real long [...]
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
CELEBRITY CITIZEN
Bruce:
I knew after we invaded Iraq that I was going to be involved in the election. It made me angry. We started to talk about it onstage. I take my three minutes a night for what I call my public-service announcement. We talked about it almost every night on our summer tour.
I felt we [...]
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
SPREADING DEMOCRACY, ETC.
Okay, I know I have a few dozen ex-pat readers. Any of you have trouble registering to vote? Via Kos:
On Monday, the International Herald Tribune reported that the Pentagon is restricting international access to the Web site for the Federal Voting Assistance Program, the official government agency that helps Americans living abroad register [...]
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
‘NEW PROOF BUSH SNORTED COCAINE’
Via Atrios: Don’t forget to pick up tomorrow’s National Enquirer!
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
Happy Autumnal Equinox, y’all!
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
GOOD NEWS IS HARD TO FIND
Chris Allbritton from Iraq:
I don’t know if I can really put into words just how bad it is here some days. Yesterday was horrible — just horrible. While most reports show Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra as “no-go” areas, practically the entire Western part of the country is controlled by insurgents, [...]
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
CONSERVATIVE UTOPIA
Kevin Drum has a great example of tort reform, Bush style:
Do you live in Texas? You might want to think twice before buying a house. For all practical purposes, the Republican party there has eliminated the right to get home defects repaired unless the building industry itself agrees to do it. If they don’t [...]
Posted in General on Sep 22nd, 2004
SOLUTION
Here’s how the Bush administration is answering criticism about foreign outsourcing of jobs - they’re making it even easier for foreign workers to come here instead:
The Bush administration’s top trade official yesterday urged service sector companies to lobby Congress for trade pacts that include easier cross-border movement of professional workers.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick [...]
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
BUT JOE LOCKHART TALKED TO BOB BURKETT FOR THREE MINUTES
So Bob Schieffer is going to moderate the third presidential debate? Readers may be interested to know of his brother Tom’s very special relationship with George W. Bush, via an oldie but goodie from a January 2003 edition of The Daily Howler:
Is your press corps spilling [...]
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
THE FACTS
So. Kerry was right - Vietnam atrocities were widespread. From newly released records in the National Archives:
“They had personally raped”On August 12, 1967, Specialist S., a military intelligence interrogator, “raped . . . a 13-year-old . . . female” in an interrogation hut in a P.O.W. compound. He was convicted of assault and indecent [...]
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
ROLE MODEL
Remember all the pious hoohah about Bill Clinton’s penis undermining the very future of democracy by setting a bad example? Read this:
COLUMBIA–Only about 60 percent of reservists ordered to report to Fort Jackson have reported so far, Army officials said.
As of Tuesday, 186 of the 309 members of the Individual Ready Reserve ordered to [...]
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
I HAD A DREAM
There must be some psychedelic mold on this cheese I’m eating, because I could swear I just heard Wolf Blitzer challenge Ed Gillespie on his allegation that the Kerry campaign had anything to do with planting the CBS memos - in fact, several times.
In my dream, Blitzer let Gillespie ramble on and [...]
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
COSMETIC SURGERY
In Texas today, they indicted everyone except DeLay for illegal election contributions - even though he put the whole thing together.
AUSTIN, Texas - Three people and eight corporations — including Sears and Cracker Barrel — were indicted Tuesday in an alleged scheme to make illegal campaign contributions through a political action committee formed by [...]
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
DIRTY TRICKSTERS
Well! Digby catches a hot story in the NY Post - did well-known GOP “dirty tricks” activist Roger Stone plant the CBS memos with Dan Rather?
You may remember Roger Stone. After all, he appeared on the front page of the National Enquirer when he was a Dole staffer. Something about a wife-swapping ring…
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE STILL IN CHARGE?
Laura over at War and Piece points us to this Newsweek article on war-gaming the Iranian mullahs:
. . . The Iran crisis is more immediate in the eyes of the Bush administration, in part because Iran is among the president’s “Axis of Evil.” Israel, which has long regarded Iran [...]
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
FEAR AND LOATHING IN THE VOTING BOOTH
More from the WashPo on how the Justice Department is working to stack the deck in the November election, via Digby:
The focus on registration problems comes amid a fiercely contested presidential race and at a time when many Democrats are still angry over the 2000 election, in which ballot [...]
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
WHODUNNIT? KERRY, OF COURSE
Digby points out the latest rules under which Kerry will be blamed for the CBS memos:
This is where it’s going folks and the cable-whores are eating it up with a spoon tonight. Look for congressional and justice department investigations (maybe a grand jury) and nightly ratcheting up of leaks and speculation on [...]
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
TEE HEE
Need a chuckle? Check out the “Bush Focus Group.”
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
HOLLOW WORDS, HOLLOW MAN
Bush at the UN today:
“No human life should ever be destroyed for the benefit of another.”
But oil, now, that’s something different, see?
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Leonard Cohen is 70 today.
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
PICK ONE UP
There’s an excellent piece in the Sept. 20 New Yorker called “Polling Report.” It’s about the tilting of the Justice Department’s voting rights program away from access toward “integrity” - that is, placing so much emphasis on validating voters that they’re too intimidated to vote.
Just another example of how the Bushies took a [...]
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
EWWW
Maybe you want to go to Lowe’s instead:
“Home Depot’s chief executive, Robert Nardelli, is a “Super Ranger” for Bush’s re-election campaign, raising at least $300,000 for the Republican National Committee (news - web sites) in the 2004 election cycle, according to consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.”
Orange was never my color, anyway.
Posted in General on Sep 21st, 2004
WHAT I REALLY MEAN IS…
Here’s how to build a better candidate:
Los Angeles — Look, I want John Kerry to win, if only so I can fire my gun into the air and have it mean something for once. But, even though I think he’d be a better president, the guy’s not going to make it [...]
You are a Working Class Warrior, also known as a blue-collar Democrat. You believe that the little guy is getting screwed by conservative greed-mongers and corporate criminals, and you’re not going to take it anymore.
Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com
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