comedy

fuck yeah

devastating--

"ITHACA, N.Y. -- : Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans, according to a nationwide poll. The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious. Researchers also found that respondents who paid more attention to television news were more likely to fear terrorist attacks and support limiting the rights of Muslim Americans. " How long before "nearly half of all americans" becomes "just over half of all americans?" what will happen to this country then? perhaps i am needlessly worried, and it has already happened. What amazes me is how quickly people are willing to give up other people's civil liberties. are these rights something inteneded for us only in times where they are easily afforded? i think not. we are like two farmers who make a pact to share food, but when a shortage arises, the farmer with the food renegs on the deal. it is for just such a time that the pact was made. i'm reminded of a mark twain quote: "There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry."

my secret blog-

yes, well, you see, when i was taking a independent study i set up a hidden blog for me and the prof to use together because it was so hard to get him in person or on the phone, and we met weekly online for chats, so this seems like a good way to create a more permanent place we could visit anytime. Unfortunately he never used it. now that i've graduated, no thanks to anyone in that department except the gentleman who approved my petition, i can open up this secret blog to you. if you folks want, i can make it a public place for philosophic discussion. Anyone who wants the ability to make their own posts there can get it by replying to this blog post or emailing me. odds are this won't become the next vienna circle, but i'm throwing it out there. if it's used at all we can rename it "codependant study." that would be cute.

more ass-

idunno. it's just ann coulter and tucker carlson being obnoxious, but here it is. "the average canadian is busy dog sledding" wins as the most frustratingly asinine comment. CNN and FOX should be ashamed for giving these two any mainstream legitimacy.

jordan gets swag from SCEA-

sony sent me a sweet hoiday care package. 2 games (killzone and the new ratchet and clank), some essence of emeril (something i'd never buy but am glad to try), a teflon coated chef's apron with "playstation" embroidered on it, and a george foreman lean mean grilling machine. i'm pretty happy about it, both because it's some cool swag, and because its a first in my game producing career: some serious swag from a 1st party company... sony hearts me.

"The Disappearing Dollar"

"The privilege of being able to print the world's reserve currency, a privilege which is now at risk, allows America to borrow cheaply, and thus to spend much more than it earns, on far better terms than are available to others. Imagine you could write cheques that were accepted as payment but never cashed. That is what it amounts to. If you had been granted that ability, you might take care to hang on to it. America is taking no such care, and may come to regret it." --The Economist Not only can terrorists still enter the country with relative ease, but they get a great bargain when exchanging their money.

A Cold Day in Los Angeles

It was cold today. Below 10 centigrade at midday. Wet too. The weather reminded me of France, and I was overtaken by a profound nostalgia. The reality, however, is that the details of my time there are an effort for me to remember. There are names I should remember, but which I have forgotten, including almost all of my professors, and even a member of the family I lived with. There are innumerable locations i can't recall-- a fountain here, a monument there, a chapel over yonder. I can picture them, of course, but not recall their appellations.

Strange things those that do stick in the mind. There is a live recording of Sugar Mountain which takes me to a particular metro stop in the 16^th , where i can feel the brisk wind blow through the railway tube and over my upturned collar. “Under a Marquee Moon,” will remind me always, i hope, of my RER ride crosstown, listening those mingling guitars as lady liberty waved at me from the west, wishing me well.

I was taking this ride with a close family friend just before leaving Paris. He and my brother came out, and together we all traveled a bit, but that came later. While riding, a man walked through the isle leaving notes on the chairs. These notes let us know about his four hungry children who waiting for him at home while he had no job. The note asked the reader to please leave some change on the chair, which he would come and collect. The French prefer not to look you in the eye, or even speak with you, when they beg. This could be called a weakness of vanity, or evidence of a profound dignity, depending on your point of view. This note was only in French and English, but often they were in additional languages. Thinking about this man's misfortunes, my friend smartly left a condom instead of the usual pocket change.

This route, which I took daily to school, but rarely from it, in turn triggers the memory of the route i took to the house I boarded in. The side door that I would enter. The strangely suburbanite room that was mine. The kindness that the family showed me was remarkable. We sat around at dinner, drinking wine and eating a pie of potatoes and crème fraiche, or pasta tossed with bits of salmon and crème fraiche. We usually talked about movies and the days events. I was so bad at speaking, especially at the beginning. But they were always smiling and telling me about my improvement.

Well, it was cold today. Wet too. Though I didn't mind that at all.

sasha smith show tonight

dec 3rd @ hard rock cafe beverly hills be there or be someplace else seriously it'll be fun

employees are suing Electronic Arts

over 80 hour work weeks... pussies* actually, the law suit is a major event in the industry. i think many developers --and by that i mean the workers not the organizations-- have been waiting for this to happen. if the workers win, electronic arts will probably begin to follow some standard for overtime pay or comp time, and pretty much everyone will follow. It could truly transform this nascient industry. the article i've linked to above gets some things wrong though: "The uproar at Electronic Arts is a sign of yet another gut check for high-tech workers. We've come a long way from the dot-com boom days just a few years ago, when programmers and digital artists were celebrated for their tireless ability to work inhuman hours in pursuit of the start-up dream: creating something so new, so quickly it would make them all zillionaires. Back then, members of the high-tech labor force considered themselves a privileged elite, the backbone of the way new economy. Unions were for lefty wimps, antiquated relics of a bygone era, and Silicon Valley's ability to trounce all competition was what made it great. How quickly things have changed. Today, squeezed on the one side by outsourcing and low-priced foreign labor, and on the other by employers demanding more work for lower wages, programmers and designers are no longer keyboard-jockey heroes of the digital age. Instead, they are a new era's commodity workers, reduced to desperately suing to try to get paid for the hours they work or publicly embarrassing their employers into at least giving them a free weekend now and again. In the new standard operating procedure, crunch time is all the time. And there's little that anyone can do to help." The game industry should not be associated with the .com boom. EA, as the article notes, is highly profitable. The game industry as a whole is also in the black, and this alone is a huge distinction between it and silicon valley's pre-millenial dreamers. Also, the game industry isn't based in silicon valley. It is a worldwide industry, with important developers and publishers in LA, New York, Montreal, Paris, Tokyo, and so on. The author of the article also assumes that the absurd hours are part of designers and programmers becoming "commodity workers." Anyone in the industry knows this is false. Good game programmers are extremely hard to find. In fact, there some people make a handsome living headhunting programmers for developers. If I were to refer a lead programmer who was actually hired by my employer, I would get 20,000. This cash isn't payed for commodity workers. Something more complex is at play in the current industry practice of superhuman workweeks sans remuneration. What that is, i shall ponder another day. *this word was used for effect. women rock.

George W. Bush: i'm lovin' it

for me, one of the great lessons of the bush victory is the power of brand identity. i believe an important factor in the election was bush's strength, not as a candidate, but as a brand. if there is anything we have learned in america in the last 40 years, it is that people love a good franchise. people may not love starbucks coffee, but if they are in a new town, they will typically go to a starbucks before some local coffee joint. People may not love california pizza kitchen, but they will eat there rather than some unknown restaurant across the plaza. ignore for the moment the psychology of this phenomenon, is there any doubt that bush benefited from it? now i am not making the argument that bush benefited as the incumbent. i'm sure he did. I suspect that some overlapping forces are at play in that advantage as in the one i am attempting to describe, but they are not the same.

sure you might think it's creepy, but this is the nike swoosh of GWB imagery

George W. Bush is not a candidate so much as a brand, or perhaps more aptly, a property or franchise of a popular brand, the GOP. there is a George W. Bush font- it's a serify thing that is both bold and classy. there is a George W. Bush hairstyle and suit. not only is there a branded imagery, there is a branded worldview: the other guys are bad. we are good. tax cuts are good. jesus is good. self examination is bad. you get the idea. most of all there is a George W. Bush vernacular. his simple language is as easy to digest as his imagery and worldview. there are repeated words and phrases. oh how they repeat and repeat. and not just from his mouth. condi, cheney, mcclellan, innumerable talking head floozies and a.m. jesters. it could drive you into bloggery. there is little that comes out of the man's mouth that is not a slogan, a platitude, or a combination of the two. it works for gap, tide, electronic arts, et al., and it works for George W. Bush. Of course speaking in platitudes is not new for politics, but has anyone done it as completely, and as successfully as the very healthy duck who is leading into that dark night?

the language is one of fear, faith, and salvation. this language can't be said to only appeal to christians. the christian story of the world has an appeal in the secular world as well. we all know who plays bealzibub and who plays jesus in George W. Bush's play, instantly. who here will claim freedom from the guilt and insecurities endemic to the judeo-christian view of human and god? George W. Bush's handlers understand that approval ratings and election results are the domain marketing, and all the psychology and cynicism that entails.

those fuckers.

happy birthday to me

some tidbits from my birthday to yours. this video clip made me feel a few different emotions, but mostly it made me laugh. escalation hit store shelves this week. so did half-life 2-- perhaps the biggest PC release ever. I got a look at it today and it lives up to all the fuss. It is wonderful. Between that and the latest installments of metroid, grand theft auto, halo, and metal gear, there is a glut of quadruple A titles. The bad news is they are all sequels... so the game play and characters are rehashes. The good news is these are the very best development teams in the world, and so far I'm having more fun with this crop of games than any that has come before. i seem to have be in a band again. this time it's shaping up to be coworkers. we've practiced a couple times and everyone seems to be really digging it. expect a show in a few months.

From Tuesday's Phil Hendrie

• "Justin McElroy: Halo 2"

  Because the Halo 2 video game is so important to his generation, Justin wants Friday to be a school holiday to celebrate it. In his eyes, Halo 2 is just as important as Veterans Day or when Kennedy was shot! -Listen using: windows real

A Letter from Bob Jones III to President Bush

"President George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations!

In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn't deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.

Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.

Had your opponent won, I would have still given thanks, because the Bible says I must (I Thessalonians 5:18). It would have been hard, but because the Lord lifts up whom He will and pulls down whom He will, I would have done it. It is easy to rejoice today, because Christ has allowed you to be His servant in this nation for another presidential term. Undoubtedly, you will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. You have four years—a brief time only—to leave an imprint for righteousness upon this nation that brings with it the blessings of Almighty God.

Christ said, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my father honour” (John 12:26).

The student body, faculty, and staff at Bob Jones University commit ourselves to pray for you—that you would do right and honor the Savior. Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them. Conservative Americans would love to see one president who doesn't care whether he is liked, but cares infinitely that he does right.

Best wishes.

Sincerely your friend,

Bob Jones III President

BJIII:lw

PS: A few moments ago I read this letter to the students in Chapel. They applauded loudly their approval.

When I told them that Tom Daschle was no longer the minority leader of the Senate, they cheered again.

On occasion, Christians have not agreed with things you said during your first term. Nonetheless, we could not be more thankful that God has given you four more years to serve Him in the White House, never taking off your Christian faith and laying it aside as a man takes off a jacket, but living, speaking, and making decisions as one who knows the Bible to be eternally true."

mark crispin miller @ PBS

"So there's often a kind of official and systematic rebelliousness that's reflected in media products pitched at kids. It's part of the official rock video worldview. It's part of the official advertising worldview that your parents are creeps, teachers are nerds and idiots, authority figures are laughable, nobody can really understand kids except the corporate sponsor. That huge authority has, interestingly enough, emerged as the sort of tacit superhero of consumer culture. That's the coolest entity of all, and yet they are very busily selling the illusion that they are there to liberate the youth, to let them be free, to let them be themselves, to let them think different, and so on. But it's really just an enormous sales job." a great read. if you've seen the frontline documentary there is more here. If you haven't, check it.

"Apparently it is more moral to start an illegal war, invade a country, occupy a country that did nothing to us; kill thousands of people ... all based on falsehoods trumped up by President Bush and his hawk advisers,' she said. 'He told one falsehood after another to get us in a Vietnam-style quagmire. We have lost our moral compass. We used to be mankind's greatest hope; now we are despised around the world" -- Helen Thomas

Global Warming Exposes Arctic to Oil, Gas Drilling

"Warmer temperatures could raise global sea levels by as much as 3 feet. Such a change would threaten coastal cities, change growing patterns for vegetation and destroy habitats for some wildlife, but an energy-starved world would have new areas for oil and gas exploration, according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report. "

voting our values

a bad day for the world

if the aliens were enroute to land in washington and give us entry into the galactic community, they turned around early this morning. the whole world is scared and sad and dissapointed in us. i feel ashamed of my country this morning, i really do. right now we are like a drunken father who refuses to admit he has a problem... nonono, things are dandy, give us some more of that please. we gave the finger to the world because we didn't have the guts to admit we fucked up. we gave the finger to the world and it probably feels good to a lot of people. or we just think george bush talks to jesus or some shit. in the words of bill hicks, "how far up your ass does this guys dick have to be, before you realize that he's fucking you?" i believe this election came down to neither issues, personalities, nor principles. it came down to psychology. i am too tired and sad to analize it more deeply, but i think the country was unwilling to admit its enormous strategic and moral mistakes. from a psychological perspective, it is easier to ignore certain facts (for example, that bush tried to prevent and independant 911 comission and then first tried to appoint HENRY MOTHERFUCKING KISSINGER to head it) then it is to reorganize your beliefs about right and wrong. the bans on gay marriage as also disheartening. i would say that such laws are unamerican, but right now it feels like that would be a lie. such laws ARE what most americans seem to want. If they are stuck down by the supreme court then it will only have been by the protections afforded by our government that they were struck down, and that is sad in a way too. However, the cases better get there fast, because the supreme court is in big trouble, and so are we.

i got to vote! still finishing JO:E

today we ride

this is it. the last day. the day where we will discover if we did it. yes, today, tuesday, november 2, Joint Operations: Escalation will go gold master. it's awful timing, and it means i probably won't have a chance to vote. i tried to move my registration near work but no dice, and i just can't leave tomorrow. It would be like leaving the opening night of a play if you had an important part to play and no understudy. i'll avoid the temptation to rationalize or explain this here any further, but i feel you all should know that unless i get lucky and can leave work in time to make it to west la, i wont vote tomorrow. meanwhile it really is an important day for the nation tomorrow, and i encourage all who can vote to do so. not only do we get to fire bush, we get to fire:

• donald rumsfield
• condoleza rice
• dick cheney
• tom wolfowitz
• john ashcroft
• colin powel

and countless others whose names i do not know. awesome. also like a said the post before i for really graduated jesus christ. also halo 2 is november 9th also half-life 2 also my life also trips to places

I gradumacated!

sorry i haven't communicated. JO: Escalation is going gold muy soon and so i've been burning the 4 am oil. but fret not, i'll have even more predictibly anti-bush opinions in the very near future. actually i hope i can start focusing my criticism on kerry very soon...

meritocracy sucks

"The business meritocracy is in vogue. If meritocrats believe, as more and more of them are encouraged to, that their advancement comes from their own merits, they can feel they deserve whatever they can get.

They can be insufferably smug, much more so than the people who knew they had achieved advancement not on their own merit but because they were, as somebody's son or daughter, the beneficiaries of nepotism. The newcomers can actually believe they have morality on their side." --Michael Young, the man who invented the word

Wrong for america

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debate episode II: the empire smokes crack

i thought kerry tore bush a new tuchas. i thought bush looked like a spoiled brat sans le facts, and kerry like a wordy statesman. that it is largely being called a draw makes me think of one thing:

but who cares what i thought, let's turn it over to the great factcheck.org: "Both candidates played loose with the facts at the second Presidential Debate in St. Louis Oct. 8. Bush claimed Kerry's health-care plan would lead to rationing and "ruin the quality of health care in America," a claim unsupported by neutral experts. Kerry claimed the Bush administration had forced the Army Chief of Staff to retire for pushing to send more troops to Iraq, but in fact he retired on schedule.

We offer a sampler of the dubious and sometimes false statements made by each of the candidates." -Summary of factcheck.org's post debate review

"Saddam was "a major and growing threat to the international community" with "an insatiable appetite for weapons of mass destruction," Rice said." --Edwards Disputes Rice on Iraq Invasion, Yahoo News so now we attacked another country bacause of an "appetite" for weaons? The nice thing about an appetite is that nobody can actually prove it wasn't there, unlike actual physical things... If he had an appetite for weapons it means he DIDN'T HAVE ANY. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

on a whim

i was supposed to meet up with a friend of mine that i've known since high school, but we couldn't get in touch. when i got off work around 9 or so, i visited a buddy from EAP at Chili's in thousand oaks. i had some beers and rapped with his parents about politics. We were all generally in agreement: bush is a disingenuous piece of poopy poo. A german auto mechanic and his drunk wife were also there. He told us that mercedes are pretty much bad news these days, same with bmw. Too many electronics and not enough quality control, said he. he recommended lexus. the japanese understand electronics better and keep things more streamlined. i took off around 11, planning to go home, but on a whim i dropped by Sonny's, to see if a friend was there. She was. we caught up a bit and then i took off for home again. on a whim I decided to drop into the gas lite and sing a number. the bar was packed. i got a bushmills on ice and thought of gonzo. i cued up a song and waited. my first time in a bar in months, and i was alone, and waiting. finally it was my turn, so i sang my stones song like a [hu]man, and then left. i only hope i can exit this mortal coil with such grace.

it looks like kerry was right on the wood thing, fyi , seriously, do you want this guy (the rude one) with his finger on the button? , tim ryan actually seems to care

"The Duelfer report showed that Saddam was systematically gaming the system, using the U.N. oil-for-food program to try to influence countries and companies in an effort to undermine sanctions," Bush said as he prepared to fly to campaign events in Wisconsin. "He was doing so with the intent of restarting his weapons program once the world looked away." --George W. Bush This is George's way of saying that saddam wasn't doing anything very dangerious when we invaded Iraq, violating international law and the will of the world. It would also have been a violation of the will of America except we were fed horseshit by someone. Nobody in the white house is holding anyone accountable. On Nov. 2 is a day of reckoning-- or a day of wrecking-- or a day of wreaking.

was there a plan to edward's hesitancy?

one of the criticisms i've heard regarding edwards debate performance is that cheney said a lot of BS that edwards didn't swat down. in general, i thought edwards didn't say much new, he just stuck to the same messages that kerry used successfully in the first debate. i had assumed this was because the kerry campaign didn't want to mess with what was working. cheney had clearly come up with counter-arguments to many of these messages, making the cheney-edwards match pretty much a draw. now i'm thinking/hoping that there was a reason for this strategy. cheney and the bush campaign had to retool and rebut, so they did homework and came up with defenses for some stuff... and now the kerry campaign can respond to these new arguments in the more important debates, instead of using damning evidence in a VP debate where nobody cares and giving the bush people a chance to prep him on responses. am i giving the kerry people too much credit? because if this is the plan it's pretty sweet.

sweet sweet irony

remember how cheney said go to factcheck.com, though he meant factcheck.org? kinda like the time bush sent people after saddam instead of osama. well factcheck.org, which rules, did a run down of the vp debate which is worth reading in full. here is their summarized version: "Summary

Cheney wrongly implied that FactCheck had defended his tenure as CEO of Halliburton Co., and the vice president even got our name wrong. He overstated matters when he said Edwards voted "for the war" and "to commit the troops, to send them to war." He exaggerated the number of times Kerry has voted to raise taxes, and puffed up the number of small business owners who would see a tax increase under Kerry's proposals.

Edwards falsely claimed the administration "lobbied the Congress" to cut the combat pay of troops in Iraq, something the White House never supported, and he used misleading numbers about jobs."

dick, i seriously owe you one on this factcheck thing, you should try it yourself.

best link i've posted in months

click here for the funny video (56 k take a shower)

Damnable Lies

"Paul Schur, a spokesman for the network, said Fox's chief political correspondent Carl Cameron had been disciplined for posting an item on FoxNews.com that included several made-up quotes attributed to Kerry." --Fox News Channel admits reporter posted fake story about Kerry Re-re-re-reprimanded?! Now, I understand that Carl Cameron is no Dan Rather, and that the content here is not as sombre as what is at issue in the CBS piece. However, Fox's "chief political correspondent" admitedly made stuff up! And foxnews.com published it! There are no memos here to debate, just straight from the dome falsehoods. It's so indefensible that they fessed right up to it, what else can they do? Therefore one may be led to believe that the story was indeed intended to be a joke. OK, let's assume this is the case for the sake of argument. For what venue was a fair and balanced news organization creating such a story? Intra-office humor? I don't think so. EVEN AS SATIRE, in october we expect SNL to give equal time to Bush and Kerry, but Fox's made up story that accidentially got published did no such thing. Therefore it is unfair even as satire. Any which way, if Carl is only getting reprimanded, a web producer somewhere should be getting fired.

don't forget!

the more i think about it the better it seems like the debate went. here's what the bush cheney campaign thinks: "Debate Highlights: JOHN KERRY'S INABILITY TO CLOSE HIS CREDIBILITY GAP OR ARTICULATE A CLEAR FOREIGN POLICY VISION

Kerry Flip-Flops On Iraq's Ties To Al Qaeda

Tonight's Flip: In Response To Question Four John Kerry Said Iraq Was Not Close To The War On Terror Until The President Invaded It.

Yesterday's Flop: Kerry Warned Of Saddam's Ties To Terrorism. SEN. JOHN KERRY: "[T]here are set of principles here that are very large, larger in some measure than I think has been adequately conveyed, both internationally and certainly to the American people. Saddam Hussein has already used these weapons and has made it clear that he has the intent to continue to try, by virtue of his duplicity and secrecy, to continue to do so. That is a threat to the stability of the Middle East. It is a threat with respect to the potential of terrorist activities on a global basis. It is a threat even to regions near but not exactly in the Middle East." (Sen. John Kerry, Press Conference, 2/23/98)" --georgewbush.com

Yesterday's flip is actually five and a half year's ago flip. But I guess if he said it in 1998 it must be apply to 2004, right? And by the way, tonight kerry said Iraq was not even close to the CENTER of the war on terror until the president invaded it. Details shmeetails. Being president is hard work. If this is at the top of their fact finding review, Kerry kicked ass. I think he may have marginalized the effectiveness of that tactic.

debate episode one: a new hope

the game is afoot. i think kerry was very effective and bush lost a lot of momentum. kerry didn't hit a triple, but i'll grant him a a double. he still needs to convert it into something on the scoreboard. if you like bush you still like bush, but if you are truly undecided, than i think this may have you considering kerry in a whole new light. what did you folks think?

"...the U.S. government and a representative of President Bush's reelection campaign had been heavily involved in drafting the speech given to Congress last week by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi." --The Washington Post OMFG. Shouldn't there be a stink about this?

"The debate tomorrow should not seek to discover which candidate would be more fun to have a beer with. As Jon Stewart of the "The Daily Show'' nicely put in 2000, "I want my president to be the designated driver.''" -- Al Gore, quoting Jon Stewart, in this morning's NY Times

I have an advance copy of Thursday's debate... (as seen on bartcop)

"Question: Mr. President, when the Saudis from Afghanistan attacked us on 9-11, you made the decision, over the objection of our allies, to invade Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9-11, and now we're in a quagmire with men dying in the sand over there everyday. Can you explain yourself? Pres. Fraud: If you're asking if I took necessary measures to protect America before the evil doers could launch another attack, ...the answer is yes, and if you're asking if I'll wait for permission from the French to protect America, the answer is no. The GOP-leaning crowd bursts into wild applause, Kerry rolls his eyes, and all the networks that signed loyalty oaths to Bush will call this "another slam dunk" for the never-elected Pinhead.

This is what Kerry agreed to when he caved in on the debate format. Now we need a miracle." --Bartcop

the french strike back

HAHHAAH..... HAHA...ha...... (sob)

I fear that Bart has it right in this characature of what will happen on thursday. The format doesn't allow the candidates to question each other, so that means we can expect side by side press conferences with rebuttals. Now, how do you rebut that kinda crap? The only thing I can think of is a slap in the face. Remeber in 2000 when Al tried to ask Bush his stance on affirmative action? Paraphrased: "If affermative action is quotas i'm against it, if it's what I said I'm for than I'm for it."

Facts and explanations are NOT ACCEPTABLE in [presidential] discourse anymore. Anyone listening to the pre-debate discussion has been made amply aware of that. I remember in 2000 that Gore won both of the debates I watched, and clearly. Yet after each I was astonished to watch the pundits call it for Bush. To IMMEDIATELY portray that Bush had been the victor. And who would disagree with folks on TV? In that affermative action banter, gore was "too pushy." who cares that bush would't say if he was for or against affermative aciton? this is about whose more likeable-- who makes us feel good. Watching the news is a lot like going to the movies with someone with a job reserved for smart people, like professor or doctor or... journalist. Now the movie ends and your leaving the theater and she starts telling you all the reasons why the movie was really great... Maybe you thought it sucked, but might you not allow yourself to be swayed by Ms. SAT? No, not YOU, or ME. But, what if she were a professional movie critic? And you were an avid reader of her column? What if she were the television and you were voter mcwhitey? That's why these polls are so infuriating to see tossed around all damn day. that and the fact that they are being manipulated by who knows who. 95% of the analysis and discussion in the media is about strategy and polls.... Who'se winning and why? This "horse-race" WILL affect people's vote, but not in particularly helpful ways. nobody wants to vote for a loser. ok, some people do... artsy fartsy types whose favorite film was Rushmore before it became popular... but they don't vote anyway because they aren't "into politics". is 'not wanting to vote for a loser' a consideration worth pushing ahead of everything else?

My dad says he doesn't have much faith in kerry's ability to run the country because of how badly the campaign is run. ok. i agree that a badly run campaign is evidence of something or other, but what shitty evidence it is. Shouldn't we have a press evaluating the issues of our day? people get sick and have no way to see a doctor. Most working people with HMO's get pretty shitty treatment, and anything else is really reserved for the rich or those without families. Some people are out there making nuclear weapons, others want to blow them up in the US. How will we make sure that doesn't happen? Why did we go to war on incorrect intelligence? How will we make the best of what's going on there? How will we capture osama? how will we reintegrate with the world community? how will we quit our oil habit? how will we prevent global warming, if you believe it exists?

BUT NO, lets not focus on the candidates responses to these issues. let's focus on telling the american people how stupid they are by endlessly discussing how successful bush is by "staying on message." (it's amazing what a word can do, imagine if the press said "staying on script" instead of staying on message every day. imagine if they "asked" if people trust the president after iraq instead of if they trust kerry after swiftboat questions. lets remind everyone that gore was boring and kerry might be kinda boring too. these assholes are making america dumber and calling it journalism. Maybe, instead of advising kerry to be less like gore, they should be evaluating the way they made being boring the worst thing in the world in 2000. Gosh it was so boring being a prosporus respected and admired nation. ok so maybe the 90's weren't that sweet. this shit was always brewing, but maybe it's good to have someone thoughtful, instead of a SPORTS MASCOT. Bush is a BRAND, not a leader. He makes people FEEL good. and that's what matters in america. so go ahead and glut out on the petroleum that funds al queda, if not THE TERRORISTS WIN. Gosh it must feel so good to keep shopping at wallmart, so fucking patriotic you are. Is that where you bought that flag on your house? that made in indonesia for .01 cents flag that you bought so you can FEEL good.

vital issue, or loose gossip?

yeah its a ramble... the thing is that what makes you a successful presidential candidate, and what makes you a successful president, may be quite different. One is reality tv, and the other is reality. and we all know how different those two things are, don't we?

sometimes boring gets it right

speaking of reality tv, kerry HAS to hit at least a triple on thursday. It’s easily the most important event in the rest of the election, and even a minor kerry victory will be CALLED a bush victory. I’m not suggesting [here] that the media is biased for bush, but they will say this: “kerry needed a big win (cus he’s losing), but he only looked a little better than the president, so the president came out on top. he did an amazing job of not totally losing or farting on stage. what a great debater he is.”

bullshit

There is a lot of self fulfilling prophecy with the media.

Imagine if the jurors in a criminal case (lets say murder 1) got all their evidence through a tv show they watched every night. A tv show that consisted mostly of polls of what the other jurors thought and analysis of what the lawyers need to do for things to go their way. What a cynical and uninformed jury you would have. Of course we all want to jury to focus on the evidence, but that’s just too boring.

Republican Party acknowledges sending mass mailings in two states warning that "liberals" seek to ban the Bible

"The mailings include images of the Bible labeled "banned" and of a gay marriage proposal labeled "allowed." A mailing to Arkansas residents warns: "This will be Arkansas if you don't vote." A similar mailing was sent to West Virginians." -- Republicans Admit Mailing Campaign Literature Saying Liberals Will Ban the Bible, NYT

"Michael Scheuer, the CIA analyst and terrorism expert formerly known as Anonymous, agrees with the IISS findings and goes further. He has suggested that al-Qaida is likely so pleased with Bush that its agents might try to help his campaign. In an interview last summer, Scheuer told the Guardian that the White House and Department of Homeland Security alerts about a possible pre-election strike by the terrorists are credible but wrong about the purpose.

The aim would be not to depose the Bush administration but to "mount an attack that would rally the country around the president" and "keep the Republicans in power." As he put it, "I'm very sure they can't have a better administration for them than the one they have now." --Bin Laden's candidate, Salon

So, some folks whose opinions are worth a damn think like I do. osama loves bush. any any attack preceding the election would be in order to ensure a bush win. I've been saying this since spain, where perhaps the terroristst were foiled by the election results-- or maybe not, the bad guys may have different strokes for different folks.

taking this to its logical conclusion, does bush really want to capture osama n gang? we've all heard the quotes about bush not caring much about him any more. Why not? why are we diverting attention to Iraq and away from al queda? of course we have plenty of terrorists in iraq now. and we're brewing more there every day.

"You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." --Trotsky

huh?

"JIM LEHRER: What would you say to somebody in the United States who questions whether or not getting rid of Saddam Hussein was worth the cost of more than a thousand lives now and billions and billions of U.S. dollars? PRIME MINISTER IYAD ALLAWI: Well, I assure you if Saddam was still there, terrorists will be hitting there again at Washington and New York, as they did in the murderous attack in September; they'll be hitting also on other places in Europe and the Middle East."

allawi more articulate than bush, also gives good handjob

"Q Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister, I'd like to ask about the Iraqi people. Both of you have spoken for them today, and, yet, over the past several months there have been polls conducted by the Coalition Provisional Authority, by the Oxford Institute and other reputable organizations, that have found very strong majorities do not see the United States as a liberator, but as an occupier, are unhappy with American policy and want us out. Don't the real voices of the Iraqi people, themselves, contradict the rosy scenarios you're painting here today? PRESIDENT BUSH: Let me start by that. You said the poll was taken when the CPA was there? Q One poll -- PRESIDENT BUSH: Okay, let me stop you. First of all, the Iraqi people now have got Iraqi leadership. Prime Minister Allawi and his cabinet are making decisions on behalf of the Iraqi people. Secondly, I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America. (Laughter.) It's pretty darn strong. I mean, the people see a better future. Talk to the leader. I agree -- I'm not the expert on how the Iraqi people think, because I live in America, where it's nice and safe and secure. But I talk to this man. One reason I'm optimistic about our ability to get the job done is because I talk to the Iraqi Prime Minister. I'm also optimistic that people will choose freedom over tyranny every time. That's what I believe. But, Mr. Prime Minister, you might answer the question on the polls. There's a lot of polls; sometimes they show you up and sometimes they show you down, as you might remember. PRIME MINISTER ALLAWI: Let me -- let me take a minute to explain to you something, a factual event. I meet, personally, every now and then with the fringes of the so-called resistance to try and talk them into respecting law and order and withdraw their arms. And I ask them in a very honest, very open way, I say to them, "What do you want to achieve? Could you know exactly what you want to achieve? Do you want to bring Saddam back from the hole in the ground, living like a rat? Do you want to bring him back to rule Iraq? Or do you want to bring bin Laden or similar persons to bin Laden to rule Iraq? If you want to do this, we will fight you room to room, house to house. If you want to be part of the political process, you have to be part of the political process, you are welcome. If you do not want the multinational force in Iraq -- I was talking to Fallujah people recently, to tribes, ex-army officers, ex-Saddam loyalists -- if you want the multinational force out, win the elections, go to the United Nations, talk to the Security Council, and tell them we don't need the multinational forces. But I tell you what is going to happen. If you ask the multinational force to leave prematurely -- this is me talking to the Fallujah people -- your country will be in ruins, and we cannot now, on our feet, stand and fight terrorism and global terrorism. These are realities. And once you are in Iraq, I will be my (sic) host. I can put you together with these people in my home and you can talk to them. And you can find out yourselves that the Iraqis, tremendously, by and large, respect the United States, and respect the other partners in the coalition for helping Iraq, not only in liberation, but now in helping Iraq to rebuild itself and to rebuild its institutions." also Bush said "TV" or "television" 4 times during this press event about the situation in Iraq. Clearly he prefers it to the print media. This was the first time he has answered a question from the "press" in a month.

obviously there are many costs not associated with this figure, and there is the argument that the costs are acceptable. In any case, this is an amazing number to watch.

Yahoo! News - Kerry Aide Talked to Retired Guard Officer

"Joe Lockhart denied any connection between the presidential campaign and the papers. Lockhart, the second Kerry ally to confirm contact with retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, said he made the call at the suggestion of CBS producer Mary Mapes. " --Kerry Aide Talked to Retired Guard Officer, AP

so the same news organization that released these obvious fakes encouraged the kerry people to contact the source. this very conveniently allows news organizations to write headlines like "Kerry Aide Talked to Retired Guard Officer." Does this stink or what? I haven't really been following the story so there may be some facts that make my crazy conspiracy theory a non-starter. can you tell me what those facts are?

sheeeeit

COLORADO SPRINGS - Soldiers from a Fort Carson combat unit say they have been issued an ultimatum - re-enlist for three more years or be transferred to other units expected to deploy to Iraq. --GIs claim threat by Army, Rocky Mountain News

"We change and destroy countries," the statement said. "We even influence the international economy, and this is God's blessing to us. We won't accept to be an object in this world, but a player, a strong player - with God's will."

.

The statement tells Americans that Abu Hafs al-Masri supports the re-election of President George W. Bush.

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"We are very keen that Bush does not lose the upcoming elections," it said.

.

Addressing Bush, it said: "We know that a heavyweight operation would destroy your government, and this is what we don't want. We are not going to find a bigger idiot than you." The statement said Abu Hafs al-Masri needs what it called Bush's "idiocy and religious fanaticism" because they would "wake up" the Islamic world. Comparing Bush with his Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry, the statement tells the president, "Actually, there is no difference between you and Kerry, but Kerry will kill our community, while it is unaware, because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish infidelity and present it to the Arab and Islamic community as civilization." --Oldish AP article

.

i only mentioned this to a few people, but last week i was saying that my conspiracy theory about these national guard memos is that they ARE fake, and were planted by, cue star wars empire music, bushco. They will be proven false, linked to the democrats, leaving the guard service issue off limits. Meanwhile further smears on kerry will be spread while the real issues still sit dormant. Yeah, I watched "bushes brain" recently. chilling shit, and no doubt in effect to some extent or another. if bush wins, after the election, i think he will come to be have one of the lowest approval ratings in the history of our country. with less on the line, the handlers will grow sloppy and something bad will either stick, or even worse, happen.

I found this on the forums at NovaWorld. It is a quote from the latest issue of Computer Games, a popular magazine. "Bohannon is promoting his new book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Grand Theft Auto, A Study on Video Games & Psychology... Dr. Bohannon said his book is also concerned with the lessons learned in more recent games. "I've included research on Joint Operations, a new military simulation. In a study of the people who play on popular servers. I've concluded that this game will teach you that you simply don't matter. Its a realistic lesson in how the efforts of one person can't win a war. This is a valuable lesson after years of teaching our children that they have enough health to sustain seven or even eight shots before they need to find a medkit. In fact I demonstrate that this thinking might be part of the problem we're having in Irag. Many of the soldiers over there have never played a FPS with a lean key." I would ave to say that he is not accurate, but I think he is getting at something. I won't get into details, but certainly one person can make a difference in JO. However, the game was designed from the start to favor teamwork, thus its moniker. While this might be a good lesson for players, I don't know if it is part of the problem in Iraq. I believe are soldiers are trained to act effectively as teams, and teams within teams-- despite the counterevidence of the "army of one" ad campaign, which is bears as much realation to reality as a typical Pepsi commercial.

'We Lie. We Decide.'

'We Lie. We Decide.'

"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. Bush's pledge to make permanent his tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2010 or before, would reduce government revenue by about $1 trillion over 10 years, according to administration estimates. His proposed changes in Social Security to allow younger workers to invest part of their payroll taxes in stocks and bonds could cost the government $2 trillion over the coming decade, according to the calculations of independent domestic policy experts." --The Washington Post: $3 Trillion Price Tag Left Out As Bush Details His Agenda

MSNBC - Transcript for April 18

MSNBC - Transcript for April 18: "MR. RUSSERT: If you were elected one year from now, will there be 100,000 American troops in Iraq? SEN. KERRY: It depends on what the situation is you find on the ground on January 20th of 2005. I will tell you this, Tim. I will immediately reach out to other nations in a very different way from this administration. Within weeks of being inaugurated, I will return to the U.N. and I will literally, formally rejoin the community of nations and turn over a proud new chapter in America's relationship with the world, which will do a number of things. Number one, change how we're approaching North Korea. Number two, change how we're dealing with AIDS globally. Number three, change how we're doing with proliferation with Russia and other countries. Number four, change our approach to global warming and the effort of 160 nations. And that will take some of the poison out of the well that this administration has put there."

my dad thought Arnold delivered the best speech at either convention this year. I thought I'd give a quote from my governor's round endorsement of george bush: "Ladies and Gentlemen, if you believe we must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism, then you are a Republican!" Oh really. it's just a short hop from this shit to cheney's bile (quoted at the top of this blog). And from there?

"I did not say if Kerry is elected, we will be hit by a terrorist attack," he told the newspaper. "Whoever is elected president has to anticipate more attacks. My point was the question before us is: Will we have the most effective policy in place to deal with that threat? George Bush will pursue a more effective policy than John Kerry." --Dick Cheney Dick, you said the danger if we make the wrong choice is that we'll be hit again. This implies that the danger will not exist if we make the right chocie. You are a fork-tongued failure who already veeped through the largest intelligence disaster in US history. where you get the nerve i have no idea.

20 questions

absolutely phenomenal. click on the play link at the bottom of the demographics form. you don't need to fill that out, by the way.

"'You have to conclude that the war, so far, has made us substantially less safe,' said Tuchman Mathews, with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace." -CBS News is looking at campaign promises then-candidate Bush made four years ago.

the word from australia

"But go back three years. From the moment American airliners were transformed by suicidal fanatics into missiles of mass destruction, it was clear the world had changed. Now we know it has changed in ways most of us could not have imagined, and mostly for the worse. The nations of the West are more afraid, less united and, most tragically, less free. To that extent, in spite of George Bush's war against terrorism - indeed, in part, because of it - al-Qaeda has achieved its ends." - The Sydney Morning Herald

here's what some ruskies think:

"George Bush's United States is clearly in a proto-fascist condition. Of course, there's no such thing as direct equivalence between historical events. The same dangers never come around again -- not in the same form nor with precisely identical content. At every point in time, a new set of elements and circumstances coalesce to create the unique reality of that particular historical moment. But if you take the general definition of fascism provided by its founder, Benito Mussolini -- "the merger of corporate and state power" -- and apply it to the elements that are coalescing in America at this historical moment, you could hardly find a more apt description of the Bush Regime." --The Moscow Times

Inside Bush's Brain

It was Sasha who told me that the president's crew attacks the strength of his opponents, not his weakness. Similarly, they make the president's weakness the pillar of his campaign. From Altercation: -There were no WMDs -There was no nuclear program -There was no connection to Al-Qaida or any other group of anti-American terrorists. -We were not welcomed as liberators; We were “welcomed” as infidel occupiers. -The occupation did not pay for itself; it is costing us hundreds of billions of dollars. -Saddam Hussein is more popular in Iraqi opinion polls than Ahmad Chalabi, who may be an Iranian spy, (and so, too, may be some of the Neocons themselves, but that’s another story). -America is more hated and reviled in the Arab world than any time in its history. yet somehow, despite all reason and evidence, the president is currently ahead in the polls on his perceived strength in the war on terror. this president has put us in greater danger. Kerry needs to start making this argument or we are going to have a scary four years. and i believe that if Bush is reelected, he will be a very unpopular president when his term is over.

"As the towers fell, ChoicePoint's stock rose; and from Ground Zero, contracts gushed forth from War on Terror fever. Why? Because this outfit is holding no less 16 billion records on every living and dying being in the USA. They're the Little Brother with the filing system when Big Brother calls. ChoicePoint's quick route to no-bid spy contracts was not impeded by the fact that the company did something for George W. Bush that the voters would not: select him as our president. Here’s how they did it. Before the 2000 election, ChoicePoint unit Database Technologies, held a $4 million no-bid contract under the control of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, to identify felons who had illegally registered to vote. The ChoicePoint outfit altogether fingered 94,000 Florida residents. As it turned out, less than 3,000 had a verifiable criminal record; almost everyone on the list had the right to vote." --Don't Look at the Flash, Greg Palast

election shananigonometer: activated

no doubt the subject of election 2000 will come up in many conversations that we will find ourselves in during the next 2 months. its a very complex issue. there were multiple problems , multiple recounts, and byzantine results. here are some articles that i've been revisiting to remind myself of what happened. i haven't seen the documentary that was made. "Buried deeper in the stories or referenced in subheads was the fact that the new recount determined that Gore was the winner statewide, even ignoring the “butterfly ballot” and other irregularities that cost him thousands of ballots. <>The news organizations opted for the pro-Bush leads by focusing on two partial recounts that were proposed – but not completed – in the chaotic, often ugly environment of last November and December." -- "Gore's Victory," Consortium News The major caveat to keep in mind about the results is that they did show that had votes been counted in the way that Gore's attornies had requested in court, Bush would have won. Those are the partial recounts mentioned in the second paragraph above. This means had the supreme court done nothing bush still may have won. Is that the most important issue? Probably not, what matters is who would have won if the votes had been counted correctly, and that is surely Gore. However, even this pyric, in terms of legitimacy, victory for Bush might not have happened... BUT: "A document, revealed by Newsweek, indicates that the Florida recount that was stopped last year by five Republicans on the U.S. Supreme Court would have taken into account so-called “overvotes” that heavily favored Gore." -- "So Did Bush Steal the White House?," Consortium News ... more to come. this post will grow... <>

Moore on the RNC:

Don't worry! "I can't believe all of this whimpering and whining. Kerry has been ahead in many polls all summer long, but the Republicans come to New York for one week off-Broadway and suddenly everyone is dressed in mourning black and sitting shivah?"

from time's interview with laura bush:

TIME Critics throw out so many charges against the President. Is there any one that you found the most unfair?

BUSH I think they're all very unfair. [Laughter.] I really do.

TIME Do you think these swift-boat ads are unfair to John Kerry?

BUSH Do I think they're unfair? Not really. There have been millions of terrible ads against my husband.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

no i didn't cut that into that order. that's how it's printed. that's the level of consciousness. yes she said millions of terrible ads.

last for today

worth the read "Speakers at this week's Republican convention have relentlessly attacked John F. Kerry for statements he has made and votes he has taken in his long political career, but a number of their specific claims -- such as his votes on military programs -- are at best selective and in many cases stripped of their context, according to a review of the documentation provided by the Bush campaign." -the washington post does some of that stuff called fact checking.

from talking points memo

from talkingpointsmemo "Our strategy is succeeding. Four years ago, Afghanistan was the home base of al-Qaida, Pakistan was a transit point for terrorist groups, Saudi Arabia was fertile ground for terrorist fundraising, Libya was secretly pursuing nuclear weapons, Iraq was a gathering threat, and al-Qaida was largely unchallenged as it planned attacks. Today, the government of a free Afghanistan is fighting terror, Pakistan is capturing terrorist leaders, Saudi Arabia is making raids and arrests, Libya is dismantling its weapons programs, the army of a free Iraq is fighting for freedom, and more than three-quarters of al-Qaida's key members and associates have been detained or killed. We have led, many have joined, and America and the world are safer."

George W. Bush Convention Acceptance Speech September 2nd, 2004

"As speakers at the GOP convention trumpet Bush administration successes in the war on terrorism, an NBC News analysis of Islamic terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, shows that attacks are on the rise worldwide — dramatically.

Of the roughly 2,929 terrorism-related deaths around the world since the attacks on New York and Washington, the NBC News analysis shows 58 percent of them — 1,709 — have occurred this year.

In the past 10 days, in fact, the number of dead has risen by 142 people in places as diverse as Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel. On Tuesday, the number of civilians killed by terrorists totaled 38 — 10 at a subway entrance bombing in Moscow, 16 in a bus bombing in Israel and 12 Nepalese executed in Iraq.

Moreover, the level of sophistication is increasing. Terrorism experts point in particular to the attacks apparently carried out by Chechen rebels during that 10-day period. The rebels, whose top military commanders have been Arabs, are operating at a whole different level."

NBC News September 2nd, 2004

a pretty good analysis of the policy bush outlined last night "More controversially, Mr Bush also revived his call for a partial privatisation of Social Security, the cornerstone federal pensions programme. Social Security is facing huge deficits once the baby-boom generation retires. The president advocates individual accounts, into which workers would put part of their pay cheques, to be invested in assets of their choosing. Mr Bush sold this as a way to guarantee benefits. But with a stockmarket slump and corporate scandals still fresh in the memory, peddling investment accounts as a guarantee against insecurity may be a tough sell."

from salon's war room

Republicans send New York Times spinning Sometimes the best way to put today's political press coverage in perspective is to contrast it with how an identical event was covered in the very near past. Take the New York Times' coverage of the Republican and Democratic conventions. The morning after the Democratic Convention concluded, the Times published two Page One stories: a straight news piece about Sen. John Kerry's address, and a separate analysis of the themes of the speech. Today, following the Republican Convention, the Times does the same: a news piece on President Bush's address, as well as an analysis. But for the Republicans, there's a bonus dispatch, a valentine of a report ("Buoyed G.O.P. Says It Has Framed Agenda for Fall") on how "confident" and "optimistic" Republican strategists were celebrating their convention, convinced they had "framed the debate for the fall" and "had succeeded in raising significant doubts" about their opponent.

If you're guessing that upon the conclusion of their convention, Democratic strategists were convinced they had framed the debate, ended on a confident note, raised doubts about their opponent, and were willing to share their spin with New York Times reporters, you're right. But for some reason, in July the Times didn't consider that dog-bites-man angle an A1 story. Today, when Republicans state the obvious, the Times senses major news at hand.

The piece plays into the media's favorite new narrative that there's been a major shift toward Bush in the last week or two. (Last night MSNBC's Chris Matthews suggested Bush might have "sealed the deal" -- i.e., the race is over.) Yet, not once in its story did the New York Times point to a single poll backing up that notion. That's because there are no polls showing Bush leading Kerry beyond the margin of error. That may change in the coming days, with the usual convention bounce. But surely the Times wouldn't go with a Page One story based on the expected convention bounce. Surely the story's prominent placement had to reflect real facts on the campaign trail, and not simply Republican wishful thinking, right? Wrong.

At one point, the Times actually quotes Bush strategist Matthew Dowd saying it was "a distinct possibility" the president would emerge from Labor Day with a lead in the polls. This is news? This is front-page news? Given the obvious fact that the race remains so close and Republicans held their convention second, which meant they'd likely enjoy a bump in the polls on the eve of Labor Day, any serious election analyst had to assume Bush might enjoy a lead come Labor Day.

So the question remains, why did the Times run a Page One story speculating about the effects of the Republican Convention, while quoting optimistic Republican strategists, if that same story wasn't worth covering coming out of Boston?

"You have to realize that a lot of people involved in the Bush campaign are CIA people. Don't be shocked, his daddy, George H. W. Bush, used to be their boss, and you know the expression, once CIA, always CIA.

You must remember how during the Florida fiasco last election it was reported that in Seminole country 14,000 Republican ballots were corrected by a "former" CIA employee on behalf of the Bushes, while the defective Democrat ones were thrown out - enough to decide the election right there. (read AP Story)

You must recognize how what the "Swift Boat Vets" are doing uses the exact sort of tactics we use in places like Iran or Venezuela to try and destabilize a government or promote our leader of choice.

And you must recognize, seeing these people be so successful at it again and again, against McCain, Cleland, now Kerry, that these are experienced, well-trained pros at work.

You saw how they completely controlled the media message last election. You saw how they did it with the Iraq war. You saw how they did it in the primaries (which we documented step by step for you as they pushed first Dean, who, not coincidentally, sprang into the lead, then pushed Kerry and Edwards for the sake of burying Clark - and, not coincidentally, Kerry and Edwards then went ahead and won. If you missed all this, go back and read our primary coverage.)

So here it is again. The Bush campaign is making "complete use of their media machine to personally attack and smear while the President seems to have nothing to do with it," as they have before, as we knew they would. And again the "inevitability" is beginning to be reported - not just in one paper, not just in a few, not even just here in this nation, but around the world, from ABC News to O Globo in Brazil."

CLICK FOR FULL CREEPY UNPROFESSIONAL INTERNET ARTICLE

success!

"Let me tell you what I think makes someone unfit for duty," Kerry says in the remarks. "Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead this nation. Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting 45 million Americans go without health care makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting the Saudi royal family control our energy costs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Handing out billions government contracts to Halliburton while you're still on their payroll makes you unfit." -John Kerry, less than an hour after the RNC ended. Please Mr. Kerry, fight now. Fight hard. You have said that you are reporting for duty, and now the battle rages-- you must enter the fray. From the quote above I hope that your finally going to get your war on! The future of the supreme court rests with you, and that's the least of our worries. Remember that Osama loves bush and vice versa. What does bush have other than the war on terror? This convention proved he has nothing else to run on. If we were to capture osama the fear that buoys his popularity would dry up in a matter of months. No, a never ending war in a far off land is far more convenient. Why did he say it can't be won? Please Kerry, fight!

"John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington…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." --Zell Miller, praising Kerry's voting record in a 2001 speech, Attribution "For more than 20 years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak, and more wobbly than any other national figure. As a war protester KErry blamed our military, as a senator he voted to weaken our military..." --Zell Miller, RNC 2004 What I want to know is how can you be the most wrong and the most wobbly? If your wobbly aren't you at least a little right some of the time?

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"The rules are simple: find a photo that has a grandparent with their baby (do a Google Image search for "smiling grandpa" for example; that comes up with a lot). Then swap their heads!" This is why somethingawful wins all

a quote from the (D) who is speaking at the rnc tonight

" MILLER (page 2): [M]y conscience travels with me everywhere I go, like some unwelcome inner companion. I cannot escape him and is he tough. He is on steroids, has a Black Belt and long fingernails, and stomps around inside of me, sometimes in hobnailed boots. He’s been there as long as I can remember. Although it’s getting tougher and tougher for me to blow out all the candles on my birthday cake, he just grows stronger—and louder." what a tough life this good man must have to live with this conscience with him all the time. What he needs is be conscious.

did he just say that?

"terminate terrorism" "The US, not the UN, is the best hope for democracy in the world" "don't be economic girlie-men" "despite of the recession they inhereted" this speech is head to toe nonsense. the crowd is chanting "USA-USA" like a pack of frat boys.

morning peeples's

"It is in moments of illness that we are compelled to recognize that we live not alone but chained to a creature of a different kingdom, whole worlds apart, who has no knowledge of us and by whom it is impossible to make ourselves understood: our body." -Marcel Proust

an oldie but a goodie

scott ridder, former head of UN iraqi weapons inspections interviewed in 2002. Here's the abridged version: Time: What were you doing in Baghdad? Ritter: Waging peace. My goal in Baghdad was to facilitate a debate here in the United States on America's policy toward Iraq, a debate that's been sadly lacking. We're facing a critical moment in American history and I believe this is something that has to be more thoroughly looked at. Why go to Iraq? You're talking to me now because I went to Iraq. I've been saying the exact same thing for years and I didn't get the call from Time magazine. Some on the right call you the new Jane Fonda, and joke about what you'll call your exercise video. (Long pause?) Those on the right who say that disgrace the 12 years of service I gave to my country as a Marine. I love my country. I'll put my record of service up against anyone, bar none. If they want to have an exercise video then why don't they come here and say it to my face and I'll give'm an exercise video, which will be called, "Scott Ritter Kicking Their Ass."

relevant to the whole "how many medals did kerry REALLY earn" thing

Quote of the Day: I got a young man named George W. Bush in the National Guard when I was Lt. Gov. of Texas and I’m not necessarily proud of that. But I did it. And I got a lot of other people into the National Guard because I thought that was what people should do, when you're in office you helped a lot of rich people. And I walked through the Vietnam Memorial the other day and I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam and I became more ashamed of myself than I have ever been because it was the worst thing that I did was that I helped a lot of wealthy supporters and a lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National Guard and I’m very sorry about that and I’m very ashamed and I apologize to you as voters of Texas. --Ben Barnes, the former Speaker of the House in Texas

rnc post 1

ok, this convention is sick. the republican's are "the 9-11 party." i have heard the word "september" at least 20 times in the first hour of listening, and the GOP isn't talking about labor day. They just had family members talking about how thier jusband's and cousin's who died in the towers speaking. Let there be no doubt now as to why the party chose NYC for this convention-- to exploit 9-11 for partisan purposes, something Bush PROMISED not to do. Remember that? Yet they will accuse kerry over and over all week of being the one without integrity. Of course bush also PROMISED to take the invasion of iraq to a vote at the UN. Instead he withdrew the measure and invaded Iraq with what sad international support he could generate without the UN. ---------------------------------------------------- morning after: ---------------------------------------------------- scroll down at the image of the bush approval numbers... when were they high? 9/12, so that's the time rove, bush, and co want us to remember. When we as a nation rallied behind the president. what they want us to forget at the intermitennt 3 years where bush squandered international support abroad, trashed the constitution at home, and gotten into a war on false pretenses and with no clear plan. The classic quote from last night is Guliani: "Some call it stubbornness. I call it principled leadership." Well you would, sir. Some more from his, admitedly well done, speech: "My point about John Kerry being inconsistent is best described in his own words when he said, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."Maybe this explains John Edwards' need for two Americas — one where John Kerry can vote for something and another where he can vote against the exact same thing." The line quoted from kerry is obviously a case where what he said is not what he meant to say. From a logical standpiont he said "A & not A." So we know that either Kerry is batshit insane OR he didn't get that sentence out right-- god forbit. From what I hear Bush does that from time too. This morning's daily howler has a different take on the same Guliani quote, certainly more informed than mine, but either way Guliani is putten polemics before politics. I know, I know, "DUH Jordan." But that attitude is why the good (or at least better) guys lose. We need to state the obvious loudly because the information war is at hand [my children]. some of MY unfair propaganda:

holy shit. so unhappy people are pretty much "smarter". ok, not really, there must be a cost to go along with the advantages of one mood or another... still, improved memory and critical thinking sound good. I guess I gotta get good and miserable so the blog can be better. Hopefully some comments to this post will really piss me off. the repub convention won't hurt either.

so who is lame in this scenario? the dude who plays this game? the company who makes it? the product itself? me for caring?

10 ways bush screwed new york (i havent read it yet, so this is a kinda note to self) READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

slant-0-meter also today i learned the difference between a hyphen and a dash. yesterday i shot a gun

People are whoring themselves to get bush out of office. Meanwhile when does Norath get to send folks to the olympics?

a highly recommended flash game

another way to spend 144 BILLION

MSNBC - Altercation

"45 percent of Americans say they think it's likely or at least possible that the Bush administration would manipulate a terrorist warning for political purposes."

britan found in prozac's water supply

Yahoo! News - Marine to Resign After Military Gag Order

Yahoo! News - Marine to Resign After Military Gag Order this story is interesting if you've seen control room. if you haven't, please do. its better than moore's latest.

Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior

Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior idunno who wrote this or what this website is, but its interesting if true.

I heart the internet

Ashtar's Trinity Main Page On August 9, 2004, Jesus, Commander Ashtar of the Galactic Federation, the Angels and the Ascended Masters will be arriving on earth to make FIRST CONTACT, or in Christian parlance, the SECOND COMING. They are coming now because Lucifer and his forces are plotting to explode a dirty bomb in the Chicago area and the Universe will not allow them to destroy this planet. I realize that it is nigh impossible for you to believe me but I send this message because when they arrive on August 9, 2004, I want you to have already heard it from a friend and hopefully you will be able to contain your fear. Fear and panic will be the greatest enemy of mankind at this time because it is fear that Lucifer feeds on. One incident I can point out that may help you to trust me is that it was the Angels who told me to telepathically communicate with the judge to tell him to settle the dispute in the Synod case. While you all recognized that it was Divine intervention that enabled you to settle the case, what you did not know was that I was the conduit for the Divine Will in this case. I have been working with the Galactic Federation actively for the past 4 months meeting with them on their ships in the Fourth Dimension. When they do make contact with earth I will be representing mankind.Here is a short history of what has been going on for the past 40 years. There are a million souls on this planet now like myself. Angels who have incarnated specifically for this day to prepare humanity for the shift of earth into the Fifth Dimension where we will experience the long prophesied Golden Age of 2000 years of peace. If you check the Internet with the key words Sananda, Ascended Masters, Galactic Federation you will find thousands of web sites explaining the situation. One of the best is Sananda’s Eagles in Sedona, Arizona. It should be obvious to most Christians that Lucifer has been in control of this planet for a long time-300,000 years in fact. And for that time Earth has been under quarantine from the rest of the Universe which is why humanity is not aware that there are a million other worlds out in the Universe with sentient beings living on them.I won’t be returning to work after today because it is time to spread the word. Whether you believe me or not you would be prudent to discuss it with your friends and family. The other most important thing you can do now is to MEDITATE, MEDITATE, MEDITATE because that is how you can connect with your inner spirit to verify what I am telling you.Yours with the utmost love, ()&*(#&