Bush Seeks to Limit Voting Rights Lawsuits

Democracy Now


In election news, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Bush administration lawyers are now attempting to overturn decades of legal precedence by claiming that only Attorney General John Ashcroft, and not individual voters, has a right to ask federal courts to enforce voting rights.

In legal briefs filed in Ohio, Michigan and Florida, the Bush administration is arguing that the new Help America Vote Act stipulates that only the Justice Department, and not voters themselves, may sue to enforce the voting rights. Veteran voting rights lawyers say this would overturn decades of legal precedent and could greatly affect any legal challenge to Tuesday's election. According to the LA Times, since the civil rights era of the 1960s, individuals have gone to federal court to enforce their right to vote, often with the support of the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, the League of Women Voters. J. Gerald Hebert, a former chief of the Justice Department's voting-rights section, said he was dismayed that the government was seeking to weaken a measure designed to protect voters.

Hebert, who worked in the voting-rights section from 1973 to 1994, told the Times, "This is the first time in history the Justice Department has gone to court to side against voters who are trying to enforce their right to vote. I think this law will mean very little if the rights of American voters have to depend on this Justice Department."

Even the Supreme Court has backed the idea of private suits. In 1969, the justices issued a ruling in a case related to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that "the achievement of the act's laudable goal would be severely hampered ... if each citizen were required to depend solely on litigation instituted at the discretion of the attorney general."



Why does bush hate America so much? Why does he fight so hard to take away the rights that we have always known? Why is he fighting so hard to shut down our jury system?

Why doesn't george w. bush trust you?

One Nation Under Bush

At a campaign rally, Republicans recite the "Bush Pledge."

Slate

"I want you to stand, raise your right hands," and recite "the Bush Pledge," said Florida state Sen. Ken Pruitt. The assembled mass of about 2,000 in this Treasure Coast town about an hour north of West Palm Beach dutifully rose, arms aloft, and repeated after Pruitt: "I care about freedom and liberty. I care about my family. I care about my country. Because I care, I promise to work hard to re-elect, re-elect George W. Bush as president of the United States."

I know the Bush-Cheney campaign occasionally requires the people who attend its events to sign loyalty oaths, but this was the first time I have ever seen an audience actually stand and utter one. Maybe they've replaced the written oath with a verbal one.

Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

Iran Moves Forward with Nuke Program

AP

Iran's parliament unanimously approved the outline of a bill Sunday that would require the government to resume uranium enrichment, legislation likely to deepen an international dispute over Iran's nuclear activities.

Separately, Iran's top nuclear negotiator said there was a 50 percent chance of a nuclear compromise with European nations, though he ruled out an indefinite suspension of key enrichment activities.

Shouts of "Death to America!" rang out in the conservative-dominated parliament after lawmakers voted to advance the nation's nuclear program, an issue of national pride that provides a rare point of agreement between conservatives and reformers.



boy... that "death to America stuff" sure makes you a warm and fuzzy inside, doesn't it?

feeling safer yet?

Canada fight's Patriot Act

CBC News

The 151-page report states that under the Patriot Act, the U.S. government can demand access to a wide range of personal and confidential information about Canadians from U.S. financial institutions, phone companies and internet providers.

"It is never possible to guarantee perfect protection of information. Regardless, our report concludes that measures can and should be put in place that meaningfully guard against access by the USA Patriot Act," said Loukidelis.


I don't know the words to the Canadian National Anthem, but about now I wish I did...

"Oh-Canada... something, something, something, something...."

Karl Rove behind the Bin Laden Tape?

So I'm reading Drudge... Could there possible be a better name for a muckraker than Drudge? I mean just the sound of it, "Druaaaa-j". Anyway, I'm reading Druaaaa-j, and he's SHOCKED! because "Walter Cronkite believes Bush adviser Karl Rove is possibly behind the new Bin Laden tape."

Shocked I tell You!!!

Druaaa-j continues:

Somewhat smiling, Cronkite said he is "inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing."

Interviewer Larry King did not ask Cronkite to elaborate on the provocative election eve observation.

Developing...


I love the "Developing..." 'cause there has got to be more to this! I mean common we're talking about a "startling" and "provocative" observation!

*sigh*


What Druaaa-j will never tell you is that Walter Cronkite was right. Karl Rove did set Bin Laden up to do this. For months we've heard how "the terrorists support Kerry", "the terrorists support Michael Moore".

Hell, ten minutes after the tape aired pundits were linking Bin Laden's comments on bush's reading of My Pet Goat to Michael Moore, and citing the connection as proof that Bin Laden had seen Fahrenheit 9/11, and that he supports liberals.

Karl Rove made Osama Bin Laden's voice, the most important voice in the country. Osama Bin Laden's "endorsement" is the most important one thanks to Karl Rove, and now Matt "muckraker" Druaaa-j, and a host of inbred republican mouthpieces are going to punish Walter Cronkite for stating the obvious.


God, I hate 'em...

Laura Ingraham; The Ann Coulter Wannabe.

I listened to Laura Ingraham last night on Larry King, and she's a total joke. She went on and on about how Kerry was out of order for critisizing bush, after the bin laden tape came out. When one of the other panelists pointed out that bush did the same thing to Kerry, she said 'so what' that 'that's just campaigning'... Even Larry was asking her 'what the hell's your point?'

And then, she acted like bin laden had endorsed Kerry just by making the tape. Excuse me?!?

I'd like to point out that bin laden probably knew exactly what he was doing, and that he was probably trying to get bush elected.

bush is the posterboy for anti-americanism.

Like Rumsfeld said "We are making enemies faster than we can kill them", and bush is the key to good recruitment.

bush's Bad News Trifecta

The latest republican spin on the missing explosives, I kid you not, is that they prove Saddam was trying to make WMD's....

So in other words Saddam had WMD's, and bush lost 'em.

So, how the hell is that gonna help bush?!? Lord knows that I wasn't gonna vote for him, but after hearing about how he let Saddams WMD's slip right through his fingers, I just can't help myself! Now I have to vote for him!


It gets worse for, junior.


BunnyGate Update (AP)

The Pentagon extended a Halliburton Co. contract for 11 months beyond its expiration despite warnings that the company was "out of control" in its work providing troop support in the Balkans, government memos showed.

"There is little or no incentive for the contractor to reduce or keep cost down," senior Army contracting officer Bunnatine Greenhouse wrote her bosses in January 2002 after a review of Halliburton's performance.

Nearly three years later, Greenhouse wrote her superior this month that it was inappropriate for the government to extend the $2 billion contract for Vice President Dick Cheney's former company



and finally...


Bin Laden lives. For three years it's been bush vs. bin laden. We heard "he can run but he can't hide" turn into "I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him. . ." We heard "dead or alive" turn into "I truly am not that concerned about him"...

So now as you look at a healthy, well tanned bin laden, you should be livid!

bush thought Iraq was the real threat, it wasn't. bush thought that Iraq would pay for rebuilding itself with it's own oil, it hasn't. bush said the people of Iraq would welcome us as liberators, they're fighting us for freedom from us.

Iraq was the wrong war. At the wrong time. For the wrong reason.

...and bin laden's living proof.

Guess Who?




CNN

Osama bin Laden delivered a new videotaped message in which he told Americans their security does not depend on the president they elect, but on U.S. policy.

He also claimed responsibility for the attacks of September 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al Qaeda," bin Laden said in the video aired on the Arabic language network Al-Jazeera.


The fact that this guy is alive is all the proof you need that bush is a failure. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out years down the road that bush knew right where he was the whole time only to pull back. Can't be a war president if you don't have anyone to fight!

...but to hear him speak.

AP
"We decided to destroy towers in America," bin Laden said, referring to the World Trade Center.

"God knows that it had not occurred to our mind to attack the towers, but after our patience ran out and we saw the injustice and inflexibility of the American-Israeli alliance toward our people in Palestine and Lebanon, this came to my mind," he said.

He accused President Bush of "misleading" the American people since the 2001 suicide airline hijackings that hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon

"Your security is not in the hands of (Democratic candidate John) Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands," bin Laden said.

"To the U.S. people, my talk is to you about the best way to avoid another disaster," he said. "I tell you: security is an important element of human life and free people do not give up their security."

"If Bush says we hate freedom, let him tell us why we didn't attack Sweden, for example. It is known that those who hate freedom do not have dignified souls, like those of the 19 blessed ones," he said, referring to the 19 hijackers.

"We fought you because we are free .. and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security we undermine yours."


It's strange really. This man that I've hated for so long... Why is he the only one talking about peace?

It's not my fault! They blew 'em up!

CNN

An Army unit removed 250 tons of ammunition from the Al-Qaqaa weapons depot in April 2003 and later destroyed it, the company's former commander said Friday. A Pentagon spokesman said some was of the same type as the missing explosives that have become a major issue in the presidential campaign.

But those 250 tons were not located under the seal of the International Atomic Energy Agency -- as the missing high-grade explosives had been -- and Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita could not definitely say whether they were part of the missing 377 tons.



If you missed this press conference, you really missed a hell-of-a show. A snake oil show, but a show none the less. They are really trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes here. First they send out one of Rumsfeld's butt buddies from the pentagon, and with him is Major Austin Pearson (a.k.a. Private Patsy). Then they proceed to confuse the fuck out of the press.

Private Patsy told his story about how he went to the Al QaQaa storage facility, and took some of the explosives away. He claimed to have taken said explosives away 5 days before the ABC video was shot showing the 380 tons of explosives.

Wasting the opportunity to expose the militaries covert use of time machines, the media simply asked " What?!?!"

Of course Private Patsy didn't claim to have removed the 380 tons in question. He simply claimed to have started the process of destroying what was stockpiled at Al QaQaa. He didn't know how much was left behind, but we have video showing that it was A LOT. He never returned to Al QaQaa, so just like the president, Private Patsy doesn't finish what he starts.


At the end of the day republicans will point to this press conference as proof that the explosives were destroyed. They will be lying, but since when has that ever stopped 'em.

IRS probes NAACP

Newsday

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether a speech by NAACP Chairman Julian Bond last summer that criticized the Bush administration violated a federal law that prohibits tax-exempt charitable organizations from engaging in most forms of political activity.

Bond said he felt the probe was politically motivated and meant to have a chilling effect on the NAACP, in particular its efforts to register black voters, who support Sen. John Kerry overwhelmingly.


If this goes anywhere, every church in the country better run for cover, 'cause I'll be filing complaints against ALL OF 'EM!

The religious right has exploited tax exempt status for years as it campaigned for the republicans. Does the GOP really think it can get away with this?

BunnyGate!

FBI Probe Launched

The FBI is investigating whether U.S. officials improperly awarded Vice President Dick Cheney's former company lucrative contract work without competition, a probe that was confirmed only days after a top Army contract officer raised the issue of favoritism.

The investigation expands an existing probe of whether Halliburton Co. overcharged for fuel deliveries in Iraq. The probe now includes the no-bid work awarded the company in Iraq, including restoration of the country's oil industry at a cost of $2.5 billion.

The expanded investigation is converging with statements made last weekend by Bunnatine Greenhouse, the chief contracting officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The FBI has requested an interview with Greenhouse, who said her agency unfairly awarded KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, the Iraq work.

[...]

In a formal whistle-blower complaint filed last week, Greenhouse alleged the award of contracts without competition to KBR puts at risk "the integrity of the federal contracting program as it relates to a major defense contractor." The contracts were to restore Iraq's oil industry.


First we had Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Now we have Bunny the Dickhead Slayer! Kickin' evil ass in the 21'st century!

Whatever It Takes!



AP

A video image of a Bush campaign ad entitled 'Whatever It Takes,' released Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004, shows a doctored photograph of soldiers the President was addressing. The Bush campaign acknowledged Thursday, Oct. 28, 2004, that the original image was edited to remove both the president and the podium where he was standing, just left of the center of the frame, and group of soldiers in the crowd was electronically copied to fill in the space, AP Photo/Bush-Cheney 2004)


if you stare at the picture long enough, you'll see sailboats ;)

Up to 100,000 Iraqi's Killed During the Occupation

AP

A survey of deaths in Iraqi households estimates that as many as 100,000 more people may have died throughout the country in the 18 months since the U.S.-led invasion than would be expected based on the death rate before the war.

There is no official figure for the number of Iraqis killed since the conflict began, but some non-governmental estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000. As of Wednesday, 1,081 U.S. servicemen had been killed, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

[...]

The survey indicated violence accounted for most of the extra deaths seen since the invasion, and airstrikes from coalition forces caused most of the violent deaths, the researchers wrote in the British-based journal.

"Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children," they said.

[...]

"We estimate that there were 98,000 extra deaths during the postwar period in the 97 percent of Iraq represented by all the clusters except Fallujah," the researchers said in the journal.

"This isn't about individual soldiers doing bad things. This appears to be a problem with the approach to occupation in Iraq," Roberts said.

[...]

The study was funded by the Center for International Emergency Disaster and Refugee Studies at Johns Hopkins University and by the Small Arms Survey in Geneva, Switzerland, a research project based at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.



You should probable read the whole thing for yourself, 'cause damn is that powerful...

3000 people died on 9/11, and bush's used it as an excuse to invade Iraq. He throws out absurd numbers that say Saddam may have killed up to 250,000 people during his reign, but during bush's short watch, the ensuing chaos has lead to the death of 100,000 or more people.

...and he expects them to love us?

If 33 times as many people died on 9/11, for whatever the reason, could you ever forgive it? Is this how we're gonna win the peace?

Al Qaeda tape warns of imminent attack on US



ABC News

A man describing himself as an American member of al Qaeda says a new wave of terror attacks against the United States could come "at any moment," according to a videotape obtained by ABC News.

[...]

The man on the tape is identified only as "Azzam the American." U.S. officials say they had not previously known of the nom de guerre. His face is never fully visible and he makes no reference to where in the United States he might have lived.

"No, my fellow countrymen you are guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. You are as guilty as Bush and Cheney. You're as guilty as Rumsfeld and Ashcroft and Powell," he says in what he calls his message to America. "After decades of American tyranny and oppression, now it's your turn to die. Allah willing, the streets of America will run red with blood matching drop for drop the
blood of America's victims."



Darth Cheney returned to his "undisclosed location" upon hearing the news, but assured the American people that, by fighting the people of Iraq, America will be victorious over the people of Al Qaeda.

Feeling safer yet?

O'Reilly, Mackris Settle Legal Dispute

AP

Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly said Thursday he and a former producer of his talk show have agreed to settle their legal dispute over her allegations of sexual harassment, and his accusations that she was trying to shake him down.

"This brutal ordeal is now officially over, and I will never speak of it again," he said on his talk show, "The O'Reilly Factor."

Andrea Mackris, 33, who was a producer on the show, filed a lawsuit against the top-rated TV host Oct. 13, alleging O'Reilly made a series of explicit phone calls to her, advised her to use a vibrator and telling her about sexual fantasies involving her.

Earlier that day, O'Reilly, 55 and married with two children, had filed a lawsuit accusing Mackris and her lawyer of trying to extort $60 million in "hush money" to make the case quietly go away.


From this day forward, any republican who dares to invoke the name "Monica", shall have "Mackris" thrown back in their face.

Filthy hippocrates... O'Reilly went far beyond the realm of the consensual, and into the realm of abuse. The fact that he only had to pay off his accuser makes me sick.

What's next? Is FOX gonna give Michael Jackson a prime time show?

bush's troop photo a fake

If you head on over to georgewbush.com/ you should take a real good look at the photo appropriately named "whatever it takes" 'cause it's a fake.

It's been cropped down since CNN first noticed that the crowd had an unusually high number of "twins" in attendance.... (When I first saw the pick, it looked like a bad curtain pattern, 'cause someone working for bush Co. decided to use photo shop to triple the size of the crowd by filling in the empty spaces)

Too bad CNN gave up on the story so quick.

It's not my fault... The explosives were gone before the troops went into Iraq!

Reuters

ABC News on Thursday showed video that appeared to confirm that explosives that went missing in Iraq did not disappear until after the United States had taken control of the facility where they were stored.



guess that didn't pan out...

try again, junior.

Bush website blocks surfers outside US



BBC

Surfers outside the US have been unable to visit the official re-election site of President George W Bush.

The blocking of browsers sited outside the US began in the early hours of Monday morning.

Since then people outside the US trying to browse the site get a message saying they are not authorised to view it.

The blocking does not appear to be due to an attack by vandals or malicious hackers, but as a result of a policy decision by the Bush camp.


file it under "strange"

I should sell drugs...

News Com AU

A CONVICTED heroin dealer will be allowed to claim a $220,000 tax deduction for money he lost during a drug deal, the Federal Court has ruled.

The ruling in favor of Perth man Francesco Dominico La Rosa is the culmination of a long-running saga between Mr La Rosa and the Australian Tax Office, which began when Mr La Rosa was serving a 12-year jail term for dealing heroin and amphetamines.

The ATO has been trying to make Mr La Rosa pay tax on his 1994-95 assessable income, which it estimated amounted to $446,954.

But Mr La Rosa insisted his taxable income should be reduced for that year - because it included a sum of $224,793, which had been stolen during a drug deal that went awry in 1995.

[...]

The ATO then appealed to the Full Court of the Federal Court - which yesterday dismissed that appeal.



atleast it's not one of those "activist" rulings that get junior so upset

Missing explosives? Junior says: "It's not my fault"

Russia took 'em... "It's not my fault"

Iraq is lying... 'It's not my fault"

The troops fucked it up... "It's not my fault"


That last one is my favorite. He starts off with the standard;


"If Senator Kerry had his way... Saddam Hussein would still be in power.


Listen junior, you had it your way, and Osama Bin Laden is still in power. 9/11 changed everything, junior. And after 9/11, who's more important; Osama Bin Laden, the guy who tore down the Twin Towers, and killed almost 3000 Americans, or some other guy?


junior continues:

[some other guy] would control those all of those weapons and explosives and could share them with his terrorist friends [if he had any]. Now the senator is making wild charges about missing explosives, when his top foreign policy adviser admits, quote, 'We do not know the facts.' Think about that: The senator is denigrating the actions of our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts..."


no... He's denigrating your actions, you stupid shit.



"Our military is now investigating a number of possible scenarios, including that the explosives may have been moved before our troops even arrived at the site. This investigation is important and it's ongoing. And a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief."


So let me get this right....

Jumping to conclusions during a campaign is a bad thing.

Jumping to conclusions while making the decision to take this country to war shows strong moral convictions?????????


who the hell voted for this idiot?

How would you like to read the republicans email?

well... ok. (click here)


My favorite back and forth is this one:


With respect to the Spokane media market, Mr. Rodriguez is smoking crack -Ryan Krabill

Crack is supposed to be smoked? -Jennifer Williams

Would you have rather him said "Mr. Rodriguez is wiping crack."? -Donald Povia

I was just trying to educate myself. -Jennifer Williams


Jon can probably enlighten us. They do a lot of crack in the Bay area.

-Thomas Roberts
Bush Cheney '04
troberts@georgewbush.com
Office: (866) 660-BUSH Fax:
425) 688-0170


If you live in the Bay area, feel free to let Tom know what you think of him ;)


but not all is fun and games, the folks at the BBC have got some serious questions about these emails.


New Florida vote scandal feared

A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.

Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign's national research director in Washington DC, contain a 15-page so-called "caging list".

It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas of Jacksonville, Florida.



...scumbags. That's all they are, scumbags.

What if it's a tie?

Reuters

A freak tie result in the presidential election could mean the House of Representatives would choose the next president, a scenario that would favor Republican incumbent George W. Bush.

But since the Senate would decide the vice presidency, Bush could end up with Democrat John Edwards

[...]

Nathan Ritchey, a Youngstown State University mathematician, calculates there's a 3.25 percent chance of a 269-269 tie in the electoral college. The odds have increased since late summer.


now some talking head (I think Matthews) said there are about 33 fairly likely scenarios where there could be a tie.


the curse "May you live in interesting times" is starting to sound more and more like a curse.

Jobless Claims Up More Than Expected, again.

Reuters

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits jumped 20,000 last week, the government said on Thursday in a report that continues to be somewhat elevated by hurricane-related claims.

First-time claims for state unemployment insurance aid rose to 350,000 in the week ended Oct. 23 from an upwardly revised 330,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said.

The rise in claims was larger than Wall Street economists' expectations for a rise to 338,000 from the prior week's original measure of 329,000...



I'm about to quit my job, my dues are coming up, and since I haven't sold anything, I don't have any money to pay 'em...(sigh)

So, I've been looking at the jobs available in my area, and I'm boned...

Jobs with titles I don't even understand, that require four year degrees, that pay 7-9 dollars and hour... That's right, go to college for four years just to get a job that pays below poverty.

this country is so screwed.

Good for a laugh

CNN

Police in Sarasota, Florida, arrested a man accused of trying to run down Rep. Katherine Harris and her supporters with a car Tuesday, a police spokesman said.

A silver Cadillac "swerved off the road and drove up the sidewalk" heading "straight towards Ms. Harris," according to the police arrest report.

"Harris stated that she was afraid for her life," according to the police report, "and could not move as the vehicle approached her."

No one was injured in the alleged incident.

[...]

After police tried to contact Seltzer, he came to to the Sarasota Police station where, according to a police report, he admitted trying to "intimidate" a group of Harris supporters.

"I was exercising my political expression," Seltzer told police, according to the report.

He was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He is now in Sarasota County Jail, and is to have a court appearance Thursday.



aggravated assault? he didn't even touch her...

well, yeah I guess it is...

Impotent

CNN

Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of CARE International in Iraq, again pleaded for her life in a videotape that aired Wednesday on the Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera, urging Britons to pressure Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw troops from the country.



In the anarchy that is Iraq, bush is powerless to stop it. What bigger proof of failure can there be?

Latest poll numbers

I'm sick of poll numbers, and I don't think they have a lot of value, but some people do, so I got these from The Left Coaster

Florida: Zogby shows Kerry halving Bush’s 4% lead Tuesday to 2% Wednesday night, and the Senate race to succeed Bob Graham is deadlocked.

Iowa: Kerry has moved into a tie with Bush.

Michigan: Bush has moved into a tie with Kerry, as the candidates appear to be moving in opposite directions.

New Mexico: Zogby reports that Kerry has closed to 3% behind Bush.

Nevada: Bush has built his lead to 7%.

Ohio: For the first time in four days, Kerry has moved ahead of Bush by 1%.

Pennsylvania: Kerry is 3% ahead of Bush.

Wisconsin: Kerry has turned a 3% deficit four days ago into a 4% lead tonight.



Ailing Arafat Still in Serious Condition

AP

An ailing Yasser Arafat collapsed Wednesday night, was unconscious for about 10 minutes and remained in a serious condition. A team of Jordanian doctors was urgently summoned to treat the ailing Palestinian leader, whose wife headed to her husband's side from Paris.


A lot of Americans could care less about Yasser Arafat, but he is the "cap" on the volcano that is Palestine.


If America is ever going to "win" the war on terrorism, there must be peace in the Middle East.

The liberal Bible

If you haven't been to Media Matters lately, here's some of what you've been missing.

Another John O'Neill lie: Kerry "would have let them [POWs] rot in jails"

On the June 30, 1971, broadcast of The Dick Cavett Show, Kerry debated O'Neill, whom former President Richard Nixon had urged to publicly counter Kerry on the show. During that debate, Kerry advocated for the return of the prisoners of war "prior to the arrival of that date [of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Southeast Asia]:

KERRY: I'd like to come back to that again. I keep making the point -- many people have made it, Clark Clifford, former secretary of defense, has made it. The newspapers have all made this point, that the prisoners of war, the question will be settled. It's not a question of negotiations. They have said it will be settled.

Now, if we were to set a date for withdrawal from Southeast Asia, we can -- the Vietnamese, first of all, have said it will be settled prior to the arrival of that date, but we can set a time limit on that. If the prisoners of war aren't back prior to the arrival of that date, then I think we would have -- for the first time in all of our history in Vietnam we would have a legitimate reason for taking some kind of reaction to it.



Pappas Telecasting Cos. donates $325,000 to run CA GOP ads

Media giant Pappas Communications, with TV and radio stations across the nation, will give $325,000 worth of air time on their stations for GOP candidates in many of California's hottest legislative elections. Pappas is abusing its access to the public airwaves — your airwaves — to sway close elections.



MMFA asks NBC not to feature Limbaugh on election night

veryone is entitled to his or her opinion, and the conservative point of view should be represented in the media. There are plenty of conservative pundits who make tempered, intellectually honest arguments. I take issue, however, with Limbaugh's dishonesty and vitriol. His lies and hate speech have no place on your network and our public airwaves.



there are day's when I'd like to quote the entire site.

Kerry by a landslide!

The guys and gals at Slate published who they are voting for (Kerry Kerry Kerry!), but this caught my eye;

Henry Blodget, Contributor: Kerry

Not perfect, but "reality-based."


HA!

Some media links:

This is poetry, head over to Shared Voice and launch the movie (Didn't Know I Was) UnAmerican, by Ian Rhett. It's a very, very, very powerful statement. I even got a copy of the mp3 (my kind of stuff)


And for the country and western fans, there's "I'm takin' my country back" (mp3) which, as I understand it, has gotten pretty damn popular.


...and then there's the new Eminem Video

NY Post goes after NY Daily News, again...

FOX-owned NY Post

he Daily News has engaged in several practices that suggest the tabloid's circulation figures may be inflated, a Post investigation has revealed.

In interviews with The Post, retailers and home-delivery dealers for the News described deals and practices that could serve to artificially boost the News' paid circulation.

They include charging retailers for papers that are given away, then reimbursing those retailers; failing to take nonpaying home subscribers off distribution lists and keep them off; and charging home-delivery dealers for papers they don't need, then later reimbursing them.


I could really care less but, this is such BS... Go to any store that sell the NY Post, and at the end of the day count how many posts are left. I bet between 5 and 15, and at the end of the week, they all get sent back, and the store gets reimbursed.

I know I sold the NY Post and Daily News for years, and the post always sent 2 or 3 times as many papers as we needed. I never gave it a second thought until today, but after reading what they're accusing the News of...

I wonder if they've got a guilty conscience.

...and speaking of the News,






In a blizzard of confetti and a storm of cheers, Bill Clinton walked back onto the political stage in Philadelphia yesterday to tell Americans that good times will return if they give John Kerry his old job. "From time to time I've been called the Comeback Kid," Clinton said. "In eight days, John Kerry is going to make America the comeback country." link



nice headline today...

Keith Olbermann offers Makris $99,000 for the O'Reilly tapes

Bloggerman

I appreciate Ms. Mackris’s position. But I am speaking on behalf of history. I am pleading for the CD listeners as yet unborn. I am thinking of the boxed DVD sets and the orders from Amazon and the dance-mix versions of O’Reilly talking about loofas and falafels, counterpointed with his radio statement from this week: “I just made a decision that I’m just going to ride it out, and I’m going to fight them.”

Fight them. For four days. Yeah, like the Yankees fought the Red Sox.

But, as I said, I am not asking Andrea Mackris to do this alone. The NewsCorp smear machine, known by its colloquial title “The New York Post,” reports she’ s exactly $99,000 in debt due to credit card bills and student loans (thus making her about $5,000 more in debt than the average 33-year old in television who has college and grad school loans). She’s selling the tapes and her case to O’ Reilly to avoid financial calamity.

Well, if she’s going to get $4,000,000 out of it, I can’t match that.

But if she really wants to fight this, and only needs seed money to keep the legal challenge going, I’m willing to stand up and help her - and help history. I’ll pay off her $99,000 in debts. All I ask is a copy of the tapes, and her agreement not to make any deals requiring their destruction. She can settle with O’Reilly; she can sue him (with the tapes remaining in the public record)  from now until 2027; she can date the guy.

Just save the tapes - that’s all I ask.

[...]

And I’ve got a check for $99,000 here as a plea from the future.

Save the tapes! Save the tapes! Save the tapes!




I love Keith Olbermann... Hey? Have you read the Bill O'Reilly theme song?

The Bombings continue...



MSNBC

The U.S. military said Tuesday that an aide to Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in an airstrike in the militant stronghold of Fallujah.

The early-morning strike hit a known safehouse being used by al-Zarqawi’s terrorist network, killing a “known associate,” a military statement said.

Tawhid and Jihad, the group affiliated with al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for an attack over the weekend in which 50 U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers were slain by insurgents — many of them execution-style — in the deadliest ambush of the 18-month insurgency. The claim was posted Sunday on an Islamist Web site, but its authenticity could not be confirmed..


why are they killing his “known associate's”? won't that just piss him off all the more?

New Rule:

If you can't kill the bad guy, killing his friend isn't 'just as good'.

Take this job and shove it...

Democracy Now

800 Ex-GIs Refuse to Report To Duty The U.S. Army has now admitted that more than 800 former soldiers have failed to comply with orders to report back to duty to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan. All of the soldiers are on what is known as the Individual Ready Reserve.



...I ain't workin' a-here no more.

Cost of Iraq goes up

Washington Post via The Left Coaster

The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said yesterday.


...and considering juniors history of low-balling his figures, these numbers could double after the election.

The Latest Florida Election Screw-Up

Sun-Sentinel

LePore said her staff is not keeping a tally of complaints about missing absentee ballots. Wendi Lipsich, district director for Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, said the congressman's office has received "hundreds" of absentee ballot complaints.

LePore said absentee ballots have been temporarily misplaced in the past. "Usually we just call and ask [postal workers] to look around to make sure they don't have them sitting around."

McDaniel said he was sure that wasn't the case this year.

"There might be some pieces somewhere, but not hundreds," he said. "Somebody would have noticed it."

Marvin Mehlman and his wife ordered their ballots in August and are concerned they won't arrive on time.

"I say it's a hell of a mess," said Mehlman, 79, of Boca Raton. "I just hope that the fix is not in. When are you supposed to get an absentee ballot, a week after the election?"


I've heard of "the check is in the mail", but this is ridiculous.

Ashlee Simpson blames 'SNL' gaffe on acid reflux

CNN

I know... it's not really "news", but what an excuse!

Cocaine's a hell of a drug!

NY Times

"To Bush-bashers, it may be the most infuriating revelation yet from the military records of the two presidential candidates: the young George W. Bush probably had a higher I.Q. than did the young John Kerry...

Mr.Bush's score on the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test at age 22 again suggests that his I.Q was the mid-120's, putting Mr. Bush in about the 95th percentile of the population, according to Mr. Sailer. Mr. Kerry's I.Q. was about 120, in the 91st percentile, according to Mr. Sailer's extrapolation of his score at age 22 on the Navy Officer Qualification Test."


...and after a few short years of snortin' the good stuff, Junior's a stammerin' idiot, who argues with people about what the voices are saying

Digital Protection Rackets

Los Angeles Times

Rather than brass knuckles and baseball bats, the weapons of choice for these digital extortionists are thousands of computers. They use them to launch coordinated attacks that knock targeted websites off-line for days, or even weeks, at a time.

The shakedowns generate millions of dollars. Many Internet operators would rather pay protection money than risk even greater losses if their websites go down.

After more than a year perfecting their techniques on gambling and pornographic websites, the gangs are starting to turn their talents to mainstream e-commerce operations.

"It's pretty much a daily occurrence that one of our customers is under attack, and the sophistication of the attacks is getting better," said Ken Silva, a vice president at VeriSign Inc., the company that maintains the ".com" and ".net" domain name servers and provides security to many firms.


...bastards

Stop whackin' your Google!

Woo Hoo! I'm back on Google!

Not bad considering that I only started this blog a day ago...

Reuters

Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL - news) , the world's No. 2 oil field services company, on Tuesday posted a third-quarter net loss as it took $230 million in charges to fund its asbestos liability.

The Houston-based company, formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), said its net loss totaled $44 million, or 9 cents per share, compared with year-earlier net income of $58 million, or 13 cents per share.

Excluding the charge for its asbestos settlement, profit from continuing operations was $186 million, or 42 cents per share.


it sounds bad until you realize how nice it must be, to come out of bankruptcy smelling like a rose

Gallup's polling is a bad joke



there latest poll was based on the opinions of 1195 people. 466 or 39% of which were republicans, 406 or 34% were democrats, and 321 or 27% were independents

that's:

GOP: 466 (39%)
Dem: 406 (34%)
Ind: 321 (27%)

is it any surprise that they consistantly show bush ahead?

Here's a wake-up call...

Financial Times

William Rehnquist, chief justice of the US Supreme Court, revealed on Monday that he had thyroid cancer and underwent a tracheotomy over the weekend, increasing speculation that the winner of the presidential election on November 2 might have a Supreme Court vacancy to fill soon after taking office.



To anyone who thinks the next President won't be picking Supreme Court Justices, here's your wake-up call.

Evidence of U.S. War Crimes in Iraq

AFP-Washington Post

The CIA has secretly transferred detainees out of Iraq for interrogation after the US Justice Department to write a memo justifying the practice, which violates the Geneva Conventions, The Washington Post reported.

The CIA used the draft memo as legal support for the transfer up to a dozen detainees in the last six months, concealing the move from the International Committee of the Red Cross and other authorities, the Post said, citing an intelligence official familiar with the operation.

The daily said it had obtained a copy of the confidential memo, written by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, dated March 19, 2004 and stamped "draft."

The memo covers both Iraqi citizens and foreigners in Iraq, according to the Post.

It permits the CIA to take Iraqis out of the country to be interrogated for a "brief but not indefinite period," and allows permanent removal of persons deemed to be "illegal aliens" under "local immigration law," the daily said.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention protects civilians during wartime and occupation, prohibiting "individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory... regardless of their motive."

In a footnote to the memo its author wrote that a violation of this provision constitutes a "grave breach" of the accord and a "war crime" under US federal law, the Post said.



Bo Dietl continues to threaten abused women

Today on "Imus in the Morning", Beau (Bo) Deitl, the muck raking skeez-ball hired by Bill O'Reilly to smear Andrea Mackris, stated the following:

"Lets face the fact. There comes a time, now if someone wants to make an allegation with what you say off the air, or a-around the studio. If someone was to come after you, and say that they never heard you/someone utter that word, one of those words that you use, I will come to your defense, and beware what we will uncover."


Iraq Today

CNN
Mass Executions
Iraqi authorities have discovered the bodies of 44 Iraqi soldiers and four drivers after they were ambushed and killed overnight near the Iraq-Iran border, an Iraqi military commander said Sunday.

Unification and Jihad, a group led by suspected terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility Sunday for the massacre.
The claim appeared on an Arabic-language Web site, and CNN has not confirmed its authenticity.

Col. Jassem Mohammed Alaiwa, commander of the Iraqi national guard, said the soldiers were killed "execution-style" -- along with their four drivers. They had been forced to lie down and were shot in the head. The killings occurred about 80 miles east of Baghdad.

The soldiers had just completed training and were heading toward Basra in southern Iraq, Alaiwa said...



Reuters
Car Bombings
Car bombs and clashes killed 12 Iraqis Monday and three Australian troops were wounded in the first attack on their contingent since the end of the Iraq (news - web sites) war.

The Australians were hurt when a car bomb blew up near the Australian embassy in central Baghdad. The U.S. military said the blast killed three Iraqis and wounded at least six.

"This is the first time that Australian vehicles have been attacked by a direct enemy action," Australian Defense Force spokesman Brigadier Mike Hannan said in Canberra.

Reuters television footage showed three corpses covered in blankets and an Australian armored vehicle knocked off the road at the scene of the morning blast in Hurriya Square.


AFP
oops...

Nearly 400 tons of powerful explosives that could be used in conventional or nuclear missiles disappeared from an unguarded military installation in Iraq, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

The Iraqi ministry of science and technology informed the IAEA of the disappearance of nearly 380 tons of mainly HMX and RDX explosive materiel on October 10, agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told AFP, confirming a report in The New York Times.

"It can be used in a nuclear explosion device, for the explosion," she said, adding: "That's why it was under IAEA verification and monitoring" before the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

The New York Times said the materiel "could produce bombs strong enough to shatter airplanes or tear apart buildings."


feeling safer yet?

Jimmy Carter speaks the truth

The Guardian

The US "suffered, in 9/11, a terrible and shocking attack ... and George Bush has been adroit at exploiting that attack, and he has elevated himself, in the consciousness of many Americans, to a heroic commander-in-chief, fighting a global threat against America," [President] Carter says.

"He's repeatedly played that card, and to some degree quite successfully. I think that success has dissipated. I don't know if it's dissipating fast enough to affect the election. We'll soon know."

[...]

"When your troops go to war, the prime minister or the president change overnight from an administrator, dealing with taxation and welfare and health and deteriorating roads, into the commander-in-chief," he says. "And it's just become almost unpatriotic to describe Bush's fallacious and ill-advised and mistaken and sometimes misleading actions."


What freedom of religion really looks like

CNN

A devil-worshipping sailor in the Royal Navy has become the first registered Satanist in the British Armed Forces.

Chris Cranmer, 24, a technician serving on the Type 22 frigate Cumberland, has been officially recognized as a Satanist by the ship's captain.

That allows him to perform satanic rituals aboard and permits him to have a non-Christian Church of Satan funeral should he be killed in action.

A spokesman for Britain's Ministry of Defence told CNN Sunday that it had a duty to allow members of the forces to practice their religion.

He added that the MoD was an "equal opportunities employer" which did not stop anyone having their own religious values.

Veteran Sues for Libel Over Anti-Kerry Film, Stolen Honor

AP

A Vietnam veteran shown in a documentary criticizing Sen. John Kerry's anti-war activities filed a libel lawsuit against the movie's producer Monday, saying the film falsely calls him a fraud and a liar.

Kenneth J. Campbell, now a professor at the University of Delaware, said in the suit that "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" combines footage of him appearing at a 1971 war protest with narration that claims that many of the supposed veterans who took part in the event were later "discovered as frauds" who "never set foot on the battlefield, or left the comfort of the States, or even served in uniform."

The suit said viewers would be left with the perception that Campbell had lied about his military service.

"It paints me as having been a fabricator, a fraud and a liar," Campbell said.

Campbell attached copies of his military records to the lawsuit, showing he received a Purple Heart and eight other medals, ribbons and decorations for his service in Vietnam.

Sinclair Fires Washington Bureau Chief

CBS News

The program revisits the subject of Sen. John Kerry's actions in Vietnam and as an anti-war activist, and because it is running days before the election, the Democratic Party and 18 Democratic senators filed complaints with federal agencies objecting to the broadcast and demanding equal time.

They weren't the only ones to object, however. Sinclair Broadcast Group's Washington bureau chief, Jon Leiberman, says he's been fired for his public criticism of the company's plans to produce the program.

Leiberman - who had said he was uncomfortable with calling the program "news" instead of "commentary" - said he was fired by Joseph DeFeo, Sinclair's vice president for news, and "escorted out of the building."

"I was told I violated company policy by divulging information from a staff meeting to The (Baltimore) Sun in this morning's edition," Leiberman said late Monday.

"They're using news to drive their political agenda," says Leiberman. "I don't think it served the public trust."

In the interview published Monday, Leiberman, 29, called the planned Sinclair program "biased political propaganda, with clear intentions to sway the election."

The new Vietnam

.

from The Left Coaster

"Here’s another good example of the lies that our military are telling to spin the notion that we are killing terrorists in Iraq, in a Vietnam body-count way. Yesterday, while our military spokesmen in Iraq were saying that our forces killed terrorists in Fallujah in the hunt for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , and said that no civilians were killed, Reuters had the film of family members being pulled from the rubble, including children."

Reuters:

A Reuters witness saw a man and a woman and four children, two boys and two girls, being pulled out of the rubble of a razed home in the rebel-held city of Falluja, about 30 miles west of Baghdad.

The U.S. military denied a family of six was killed, saying it launched four strikes against safehouses used by Zarqawi's fighters.

"Intelligence sources indicate a known Zarqawi propagandist is passing false reports to the media," it said in a statement.

Reuters television footage showed men chanting "There is no God but Allah!" as they carried the body of the father of the family of six.

"Is this the gift that (interim Iraqi Prime Minister) Iyad Allawi is giving to the people of Falluja?" asked one man, pointing to the small bodies of two of the children lying in the trunk of a car. "Every day they strike Falluja."





Bush Relatives for Kerry



"Bush Relatives for Kerry" grew out of a series of conversations that took place between a group of people that have two things in common: they are all related to George Walker Bush, and they are all voting for John Kerry. As the election approaches, we feel it is our responsibility to speak out about why we are voting for John Kerry, and to do our small part to help America heal from the sickness it has suffered since George Bush was appointed President in 2000. We invite you to read our stories, and please, don't vote for our cousin!

Jeb Bush Ignored Felon List Advice

AP

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a flawed felon voter list before it went out to county election offices despite warnings from state officials, according to a published report Saturday.

In a May 4 e-mail obtained by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Florida Department of Law Enforcement computer expert Jeff Long told his boss that a Department of State computer expert had told him "that yesterday they recommended to the Gov that they 'pull the plug'" on the voter database.

The e-mail said state election officials "weren't comfortable with the felon matching program they've got," but added, "The Gov rejected their suggestion to pull the plug, so they're 'going live' with it this weekend."

Long, who was responsible for giving elections officials his department's felon database, confirmed the contents of the e-mail Friday to the Herald-Tribune. He said he didn't remember the specifics, but that Paul Craft, the Department of State's top computer expert, had told him about the meeting with Bush.

A software program matched data on felons with voter registration rolls to create the list of 48,000 names. Secretary of State Glenda Hood junked the database in July after acknowledging that 2,500 ex-felons on the list had had their voting rights restored.

Most were Democrats, and many were black. Hispanics, who often vote Republican in Florida, were almost entirely absent from the list due to a technical error.


Bush squashes CIA report on 9/11

By Robert Scheer, AlterNet. Posted October 19, 2004.


It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the Congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.

"It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."

When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. "We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report," she said. "We are very concerned."
Yahoo

Contrary to numerous inaccurate political and press accounts, the Sinclair stations will not be airing the documentary "Stolen Honor" in its entirety. At no time did Sinclair ever publicly announce that it intended to do so.


I wonder where we all got that idea...

La Times

Sinclair forces its stations to preempt regular prime-time programming from the networks to show the film, Stolen Honer.

Whistle-blower punished for objecting to Halliburton contracts

Time

In February 2003, less than a month before the U.S. invaded Iraq, Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse walked into a Pentagon meeting and with a quiet comment started what could be the end of her career.

On the agenda was the awarding of an up to $7 billion deal to a subsidiary of Houston-based conglomerate Halliburton to restore Iraq's oil facilities. On hand were senior officials from the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and aides to retired Lieut. General Jay Garner, who would soon become the first U.S. administrator in Iraq.

[...]


Greenhouse's objections, which had not been made public until now, will probably fuel criticism of the government's allegedly cozy relationship with Halliburton and could be greeted with calls for further investigation. Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) subsidiary has been mired in allegations of overcharging and mismanagement in Iraq, and the government in January replaced the noncompetitive oil-field contract that Greenhouse had objected to and made two competitively bid awards instead. (Halliburton won the larger contract, worth up to $1.2 billion, for repairing oil installations in southern Iraq, while Parsons Corp. got one for the north, worth up to $800 million.) Halliburton's Iraq business, which includes another government contract as well, has been under particular scrutiny because Vice President Dick Cheney was once its CEO. The Pentagon, concerned about potential controversy when it signed the original oil-work contract, gave Cheney's staff a heads-up beforehand. (TIME disclosed that alert in June.)

Greenhouse seems to have got nothing but trouble for questioning the deal. Warned to stop interfering and threatened with a demotion, the career Corps employee decided to act on her conscience, according to her lawyer, Michael Kohn. Kohn, who has represented other federal whistle-blowers, last week sent a letter—obtained by TIME from congressional sources—on her behalf to the acting Secretary of the Army. In it Kohn recounts Greenhouse's Pentagon meeting and demands an investigation of alleged violations of Army regulations in the contract's awarding. (The Pentagon justified the contract procedures as necessary in a time of war, saying KBR was the only choice because of security clearances that it had received earlier.) Kohn charges that Greenhouse's superiors have tried to silence her; he says she has agreed to be interviewed, pending approval from her employer, but the Army failed to make her available despite repeated requests from TIME.

"These charges undercut months of assertions by Administration officials that the Halliburton contract was on the level," says Democratic Representative Henry Waxman. As the Corps's top contract specialist, the letter says, Greenhouse had noted reservations on dozens of procurement documents over seven years. But it was only after she took exception to the Halliburton deal that she was warned not to do so anymore. The letter states that the major general who admonished her, Robert Griffin, later admitted in a sworn statement that her comments on contracts had "caused trouble" for the Army and that, given the controversy surrounding the contract, it was "intolerable" and "had to stop." The letter says he threatened to downgrade her. (As with Greenhouse, the Army did not make Griffin available.) When the Pentagon's auditors accused KBR of overcharging the government $61 million for fuel, the letter says, the Army bypassed Greenhouse. Her deputy waived a requirement that KBR provide pricing data—a move that looked "politically motivated," the letter says.

Voter intimidation; republican style

Denver Post


Littleton teenager Aaron Oster-Beal woke up one morning last week to find the family's Kerry-Edwards yard sign on the porch covered with a rude surprise - a pile of dog excrement.

Voters in Jefferson County have received calls from someone posing as an election official and instructing them to throw away their absentee ballots.

A Colorado Springs woman recently received a call from someone claiming to be from Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign who expressed condolences about the death of her husband in Iraq. When the woman said she knew her husband was still alive, the caller said a vote for Kerry would help keep him that way.

The Kerry campaign said the stunt was so outrageous that it could only have been staged by someone trying to discredit the Democrat.

"Some of the tactics being perpetrated by folks as we get closer to the election are just disgusting," said Steve Haro, Kerry's spokesman in Colorado.

How the world sees this election:

Charlie Brooker- The Guardian

Heady times. The US election draws ever nearer, and the rest of the world bangs its head against the floorboards screaming "Please God, not Bush!", the candidates clash head to head in a series of live televised debates. It's a bit like American Idol, but with terrifying global ramifications. You've got to laugh.

Or have you? Have you seen the debates? I urge you to do so. The exemplary BBC News website (www.bbc.co.uk/news) hosts unexpurgated streaming footage of all the recent debates, plus clips from previous encounters, through Reagan and Carter, all the way back to Nixon versus JFK.

Watching Bush v Kerry, two things immediately strike you. First, the opening explanation of the rules makes the whole thing feel like a Radio 4 parlour game. And second, George W Bush is... well, he's... Jesus, where do you start?

The internet's a-buzz with speculation that Bush has been wearing a wire, receiving help from some off-stage lackey. Screen grabs appearing to show a mysterious bulge in the centre of his back are being traded like Top Trumps. Prior to seeing the debate footage, I regarded this with healthy scepticism: the whole "wire" scandal was just wishful thinking on behalf of some amateur Michael Moores, I figured. And
then I watched the footage.

Quite frankly, the man's either wired or mad. If it's the former, he should be flung out of office: tarred, feathered and kicked in the nuts. And if it's the latter, his behaviour goes beyond strange, and heads toward terrifying. He looks like he's listening to something we can't hear. He blinks, he mumbles, he lets a sentence trail off, starts a new one, then reverts back to whatever he was saying in the first place. Each time he recalls a statistic (either from memory or the voice in his head), he flashes us a dumb little smile, like a toddler proudly showing off its first bowel movement. Forgive me for employing the language of the playground, but the man's a tool.

So I sit there and I watch this and I start scratching my head, because I'm trying to work out why Bush is afforded any kind of credence or respect whatsoever in his native country. His performance is so transparently bizarre, so feeble and stumbling, it's a miracle he wasn't laughed off the stage. And then I start hunting around the internet, looking to see what the US media made of the whole "wire" debate. And they just let it die. They mentioned it in passing, called it a wacko conspiracy theory and moved on.

Yet whether it turns out to be true or not, right now it's certainly plausible - even if you discount the bulge photos and simply watch the president's ridiculous smirking face. Perhaps he isn't wired. Perhaps he's just gone gaga. If you don't ask the questions, you'll never know the truth.

The silence is all the more troubling since in the past the US news media has had no problem at all covering other wacko conspiracy theories, ones with far less evidence to support them. (For infuriating confirmation of this, watch the second part of the must-see documentary series The Power Of Nightmares (Wed, 9pm, BBC2) and witness the absurd hounding of Bill Clinton over the Whitewater and Vince Foster non-scandals.)

Throughout the debate, John Kerry, for his part, looks and sounds a bit like a haunted tree. But at least he's not a lying, sniggering, drink-driving, selfish, reckless, ignorant, dangerous, backward, drooling, twitching, blinking, mouse-faced little cheat. And besides, in a fight between a tree and a bush, I know who I'd favour.

On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod's law dictates he'll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?





http://theblogwarrior.blogspot.com
Daily News


Bill O'Reilly's accuser blasted him for pursuing a campaign of sleaze against her - and warned that her 74-year-old dad is out for blood.

Andrea Mackris told the Daily News yesterday that the Fox talk-show host had "a lot to answer for, to his wife and to his God."


The campaign of sleeze she's refering to is Bo Dietl (who comes off as little more than a babbling retard) has been hired by
o'reilly to discredit her.

from The Abrams Report Oct. 15
(keep in mind Dietl works for the now disgraced right-wing talk show host bill o'reilly)



DIETL:...This case now we‘ve been brought in to investigate the allegation and also to investigate the person. The person that is supposedly sexually harassed.

ABRAMS: That‘s what I was going to ask you about. Were you hired to sort of dig up dirt on her?

DIETL: Well, there is dirt—dirt of course, we got everything. I mean already we‘ve been getting phone calls from people from all over the country that know this young lady and there‘s also some substantiation that Al Franken is an associate of hers. And there‘s a lot of things going on in this case. And as we‘re talking right now, we‘re developing the case now. As far as sexual harassment goes, you have all the attorneys—you know, talk about that. You know, you have two consenting adults talking about something. The only charge that‘s really a factor here is the extortion charge against her and her attorney against Bill O‘Reilly.

ABRAMS: But Bo, he either said it or he didn‘t say it. And that may be—we‘ll still have legal questions to discuss, even if he said it, that does not necessarily mean it‘s sexual harassment, if he said it.

DIETL: Well, I think—I think the most important thing here is you have the—you have a case against a well-known person, and they thought they were going to be able to shake them down. You have an extortionist, here. It‘s the only crime that‘s really active here. As far as two people talking to each other, she could have hung up the phone at any time. There‘s no case of sexual harassment there, and now what we‘re going to do, as investigators now, is take her credibility and show the court, if it ever goes there, her credibility falling apart.


Looks like Bo didn't waste anytime getting to work on his smear campaign. Too bad he let the cat out of the bag.

The Abrams Report Oct. 19

ABRAMS: There is a new development in the lawsuit against Fox star Bill O‘Reilly...Lisa Bloom of Court TV is with us and she has gotten another amended version of the complaint in this case...

LISA BLOOM, COURT TV: ...Her second amended complaint, which is going to be filed very shortly, alleges that News Corp., which is the parent corporation of Fox News and which also owns the “New York Post” is using the “New York Post” to run a series of smear pieces against Andrea Mackris. That‘s an element of retaliation.

Of course, we know that when someone accuses an employer of sexual harassment, the employer usually backs off and tries to appear squeaky clean, not doing anything negative towards that employee. Well Fox News has taken exactly the opposite attack and really gone on the offensive against her.

There was another piece today mocking her behavior in a bar and so on. So that‘s one of their new claims. They also claim that Bo Dietl, the investigator who appeared on your program Friday, Dan, also is an aspect of retaliation against Andrea Mackris because he threatened her. He said his job is to destroy her credibility...

ABRAMS: Did they quote our program in the motion?

BLOOM: They do quote MSNBC. It is paragraph 109 and 110. And they quote Bo Dietl as saying what we‘re going to do now as investigators is take Andrea Mackris‘ credibility and show the court if it ever goes there, it‘s falling apart. This is a message to people.


I've said it before, and I'll say it again 'Andrea Makris is a fighter', and from the looks of things she's running circles around
o'reilly and FOX.


...and anyone who has ever seen the glory hogging Dietl on Imus In The Morning has to wonder; What the hell was FOX and
o'reilly thinking when they hired him?

They should have known that it would backfire.
InterestAlert
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has set his sights on becoming U.N. secretary-general. A Clinton insider and a senior U.N. source have told United Press International the 56-year-old former president would like to be named leader of the world body when Kofi Annan's term ends early in 2006.

"He definitely wants to do it," the Clinton insider said this week.

A Clinton candidacy is likely to receive overwhelming support from U.N. member states, particularly the Third World. Diplomats in Washington say Clinton would galvanize the United Nations and give an enormous boost to its prestige. But the former president's hopes hang on a crucial question that will not be addressed until after the presidential elections: can he get the support of the U.S. government -- a prerequisite for nomination?


I think I hear it... Yes I do hear it... Cherubs are singing!

http://www.dobhran.com/jigsaw/GRjigsaw1.htm
You may have heard about Walmart's decision not to sell the new Daily Show book, because there's a fake pic of the supreme
court naked in the book, and Walmart says that, that's too much nudity... and so on, and so on...

So tonight on the Daily show (repeats tomorrow at 10:00 am and 7:00 pm EST) Jon Stewart set his sights on Walmart. While
pointing out that Mexican Walmarts are second only to American Walmarts in employing Mexicans (ouch) Jon takes note of
the following:

CNN (Mexico)

About 300 protesters, some wearing traditional Aztec headdresses and dancing to a steady drum beat, rallied
near the entrance of the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan on Sunday to protest the construction of a Wal-Mart-owned
store nearby.

[...]

The 2,000-year-old ruins, in a valley 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of downtown Mexico City, were built by
a little-known culture whose very name has been lost, and were abandoned hundreds of years before the
Spaniards arrived.

Construction of the store, which will bear the name of a Mexican subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is nearing
completion. The site can be seen from the top of Teotihuacan's major pyramids, but so can other commercial
developments built in the community nearby.



and this CNN (Hawaii)

Wal-Mart opened a store in Hawaii on Wednesday with hundreds of eager shoppers rushing past a handful of
protesters who accuse the giant retailer of desecrating ancient gravesites.

[...]

Native Hawaiian groups had tried to stop the opening until 44 remains of Hawaiians unearthed during construction
could be reburied at the Wal-Mart site.

"Wal-Mart's pitch is that it's slashing prices for you. In this instance, it's slashing graves," said Moses Haia, a
Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. lawyer who has filed a suit against the store.



it should also be noted that the stories only have 2 days between them...

...must have been a busy week

Ann Coulter Gets Nailed (with a pie)

The Boston Channel

Air-headed, blonde, "do me" bimbo, and rightwing whackjob, Ann "The Man" Coulter spewed stupidity for 30 damn minutes
before some upstanding young citizens creme pied the bitch.

...but they only hit her shoulder. Guys, if your gonna creme Coulter, aim for the face. She should be used to that by now.


(and don't forget to take the poll)



http://theblogwarrior.blogspot.com

Real Time with Bill Maher

In regards to Kerry's "weak on terror" image

"How many times do you have to get shot in the ass, in a rice patty, before you're more rough and tumble than a cheerleader
from Andover?"

-Bradley Whitford (Josh on the West Wing) last night on Real Time with Bill Maher

The Bill Oreilly Theme Song

A Parody of "It's Me Again Margaret" by Ray Stevens


Well there once was a feller named Bill O'Reilly.
and he like to talk dirty to his fellow employee.
Every evenin' about midnight he'd slip off alone.
And call the same lady on a thee telephone.

It's me again Andrea! (hee-hee-he-he-heee!)
Hello, is this Andrea? (haw-ha-ha-ha-haw!)
You might not know it Andrea...
But, I wanna falafel you. (hu-hu-hu-hu-huy!)

Well this upset the lady, and it gave her the blues.
So she called up her lawyer gonna sue that FOX News
Well the dirty old pervert filed a suit of his own,
but the pretty young lady had taped him on the phone.

It's me again Andrea! (hee-hee-he-he-heee!)
Hello, is this Andrea? (haw-ha-ha-ha-haw!)
Andrea. I just wanted to tell you, Andrea.
That I'm a' nekkid. (hee-hee-he-he-heee!)

Well they called up ole Bill and they told him "come on down",
To a funky old warehouse on the out skirts of town.
It was there that the lawyers with their eyebrows all raised.
Heard the words of that amoris man as he said.

It's me again Andrea! (hee-hee-he-he-heee!)
Hello, is this... is it Andrea? (haw-ha-ha-ha-haw!)
I know it's you Andrea!
I bet you can't guess what I'm doin'! (*thump-thump-thump-thump-hee-he-Whoo!-ha-he-hye
whooo-thump-thump-thump-thump*)

Well the puffin' and braggin' had all settled down.
and at the media outlets, they all started to frown.
and they cursed and they spit, wanted to cut their throats,
as news of a settlement offer broke.

It's us again Andrea! (boo-hoo-hoo-hoo)
We got him Andrea! (boo-hoo-hoo-hoo)
You ain't gonna settle, are ya Andrea?
Do you know what hearin' those tapes could do?

And when they get out Andrea We'll have a party with Chris Matthews, you can call him tweeterbird, and a Keith
Olbermann, and we'll eat some PEACH PERSERVES!!! We'll have a great ol' time Andrea! Just please please don't
settle atleast not 'till we hear the tapes!!!




© COPYRIGHT 2004 THE WARRIOR LOST. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Blogs

*please take note that this is a just never ending list of blogs that I find interesting.

They are in no specific order, and they are not affiliated with me, and even though many of the sites listed here share many of my personal views, most could care less about me. For that reason alone they are listed here, and not on my main page.

Why do I bother listing site that don't support me, and I don't support? Well... it helps my google ranking, and it gives me a link list for times when I am not at my computer.






(sites dubya doesn't like)



  • The Left Coaster

  • The Blue Lemur


  • Altercation

  • Wonkette

  • Unicorns Against Bush

  • Yahoo

  • Google

  • Amy's Robot

  • Tapped

  • Over/Spun

  • Left is Right

  • Yankee from Ms

  • Lawrence Lessig

  • Angry Finger

  • BushHatesAmerica

  • Operation Truth

  • Infrared

  • Moorcock's

  • George Soros

  • Am I Patriotic?

  • AMERICAblog

  • Drinking Liberally

  • Old Right

  • Conspiracy Penpal

  • See The Forest

  • Raven's Blog

  • Bush Watch

  • Change for America

  • overwhelmed and perplexed


  • Shake It Up Baby!


  • The Nation

  • Drudge

  • Daily KOS

  • FAIR

  • The Washington Post

  • Taegan Goddard



  • Andy Pac
    Bartcop
    Steve Macek's Blog
    Counter Spin
    Eschaton
    Estimated Prophet
    K Marx The Spot
    No War Blog
    Supercres
    Radioactive Quill
    Fark
    Anthony Trumbo
    Shaking Spears
    Jim Momo
    Government NewsWatch
    Political Legal News
    Business NewsWatch
    Hearsay.com
    Smoking Gun
    BlogShares
    Amygdala