The Quipper

Poor O'Reilly

2005-05-10T14:47:00.000-05:00

Poor Bill. One sexual harrassment picadillo and his ratings fall through the floor.

An american icon shouldn't have to suffer so. Maybe he'll feel better if you send him a falafel

MoveOn vs. DLC

2005-04-14T12:26:00.000-05:00

Dear DLC:

Want to know why so many people hate you? Because you spend your time branding other democrats as stupid, gullible, wrong, dangerous or unpatriotic. Don't tell me I should excise Michael Moore from my party. Debate your positions with Michael Moore and try to bring him around to your point of view.

Stop making it a personal battle wherein people must choose sides. And especially, stop attacking these democrats. Debate them. We're on the same side here. Instead, you end up churning out fodder for the opposition.

Lieberman Wins One for the Dems

2005-03-16T12:00:00.000-06:00

A lot of people have been quibbling over whether Joe Lieberman is a quisling or a victim of left-wing loons. I tend to agree with atrios of Eschaton, that he spends too much time saying things critical of the party as a whole with media hostile to the democratic party for him to be good for us.

However, credit where credit is due. Lieberman has apparently turned Lindsay Graham against SS privitization. A few weeks ago everybody was in a tizzy that Joe was the one wavering. Well, say it ain't so, 'cause it ain't so.

Closer, closer....

2005-02-22T17:05:00.000-06:00

Garance Franke-Ruta of The American Prospect (of which I am now a subscriber) blog TAPPED says:

...Democrats have been following ... an utterly inexplicable course of action... Democrats outsourced a good chunk of their ground game to the 527s in 2004. This could have some serious dowsides for the party over the long term... The Republican National Committee ran its 2004 ground operations through its coordinated campaign with Bush-Cheney '04... Democrats, on the other hand, outsourced a great deal of their ground operation to 527s, such as America Coming Together, while the DNC spent millions upon millions on television ads... Thanks to this arrangement -- almost the inverse of the strategic allocation of resources on the Republican side -- the DNC won't be able to use a substantial chunk of the voter contact information gleaned in the '04 race to get ready for '06 or '08... [A] couple of Democratic field organizers... said it's definitely something that puts Democrats at a disadvantage. But... little that could be done about it in the past election cycle because no one could have known in advance that John Kerry and the DNC would have such substantial resources at their disposal, and without the 527s, they still would have had almost no ground game in some states until just the summer before the election.

The reason for this is that democrats rely on paid activists to run the ground game, and republicans primarily on volunteers. They use soft slush money to fund their base other ways, i.e. through groups like GOPUSA, "PR" spending with government funds, Scaife-funded think-tanks, etc.

Hopefully part of Dean's changes at the DNC will be use less hard money during campaigns to keep people eating, and get the outsiders to fund these people between elections so they can take a "leave of absence" to go volunteer for the campaign...

Washington Post sucks

2005-02-10T13:24:00.000-06:00

Social Security Problems Not a Crisis, Most Say

"I'm expecting to live on my own savings. I'm going to prepare for the worst so I don't get in trouble," said Sarah Kirby, 19, a political science and history major at Marquette University who said she believes Social Security is "outdated" because it did not anticipate the longevity of today's seniors.

Let me say first of all that I hate these kinds of articles, because they're stupid. "I found two retards on the street, one thinks Miller Lite Tastes Great, and the other thinks it's Less Filling!"

But I also hate when articles like this fail to mention that Sarah Kirby is a member of the Marquette College Republicans.

Sarah and Governor Pataki!

Doesn't Sarah look like a very sad lost little girl?*

Anyway, Sarah, for your edification: FDR's actuaries actually predicted the growth in longevity in 1935 and took it into account when designing the program. But thanks for playing Retarded Republican Bingo!

* Actual caption! What assmunch wrote that caption? Maybe she needs patting on the head.

Right Wing Blogger Idiocy o... WAIT!

2005-02-09T10:52:00.000-06:00

John Derbyshire has a great post at The Corner. I honestly never thought I'd say that, but he does a nice job of lining up all the creationist and meta-creationist ("ID") arguments against evolution and knocking them down.

(via archpundit)

No On Gonzales

2005-01-25T18:44:00.000-06:00

Hey guys.

Just vote no.

He's had two jobs for Bush, one in Texas, one in DC. He's done a bad job on both of them. His status as a Bush family loyalist can get him plenty of jobs, but that doesn't make him qualified for Attorney General which, perhaps more than any other cabinet level post, requires independance from the President.

Just say no.

Signed,

dbt@tQ, sean@tQ. [Steve could not be reached at press time.]

Harry Reid continues to kick ass and take names

2005-01-24T15:20:00.000-06:00

Steve Soto has the details. Good stuff.

One more thing I'd like to see, though I don't know if Senate legislation is the right place to put this.

We need to start talking about the link between the Republican economic agenda, the drop in per-person earnings, the need for two incomes, and the resulting family problems that occur.

This is not a "get your bitch ass back in the kitchen" thing, this is simply about the fact that it's very very difficult for one parent or the other to stay home and take care of the kids.

That's a family value.

Update: a commenter named RT over at MaxSpeak has another good family values + economics pitch: Cube dwellers - who are largely 'professionals', but are really the line workers of the information economy - need overtime too. Cast it as a 'family values' issue - if employers are going to take their workers away from their kids on evenings and weekends, they should at least have to pay for the privilege. Because those kids need parents.

Right Wing Bloggers are Stupid

2005-01-21T13:15:00.000-06:00

Today's "I'm stupid" moment of the day:

Overlawyered.com cites a case about a 17 year old kid suing his school district because he was given homework over summer vacation, which made him cry like a little girl. Now, this kid should suck it up, doubly so because he was given the extra work because he was in an Honors class -- dude, if you can't hack it, just shut it down.

But the irony? The boy and his father are representing themselves, probably because they couldn't get find an attorney who would take such an idiotic case. Overlawyered? I guess not...

Objectively Pro-Abortion

2004-12-31T11:05:00.000-06:00

I can't think of a better phrase to describe this bit of idiocy from the Bush Justice department. I mean, one of the commenters says that even Catholic hospitals hand out the morning after pill to rape victims. But the Justice Dep't says no....

Now HERE's something the DNC needs to think about

2004-12-17T16:21:00.000-06:00

I'm tired of all the hand-wringing and name-calling, so I've basically been ignoring it. But here's something perceptive that Paul Waldman pulled out of the archives recently.

When looking for a politician who's going to win, look at a politician who seems to genuinely ENJOY politics -- and not the backroom policy discussions, but the retail end of it.

Let the Eagle Sooooooooar!

2004-11-09T18:13:00.000-06:00

John Ashcroft Resigns

worth another watch:
http://www.cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html

Don't let the proverbial screen door hit you in the ass, Jerk!

Onward:
Any bets on who is replacing him? Pat Robertson? William Bennett? Let's see, what are the qualifications for being appointed to AG in a Bush administration?

Has lost a congressional race to a dead guy
Psychotic pentecostal christian
Believes that a track record of 0 convictions (for 5,000 illegally detained persons) equals 'mission accomplished'

Now accepting nominees...

Fuck The South

2004-11-08T17:33:00.000-06:00

In addition to everything else they do wrong, they also kill more cops.:

Twenty-eight of the 52 intentional killings and 37 of the 80 accidental deaths took place in the South, by far the deadliest region.

ASS-GATE ENTERS DAY 3, STILL NO COMMENT

2004-11-08T16:20:00.000-06:00

Andrew, you rubbed your ass on TV (I know, it's not TV, it's HBO) on Friday. Still no explanation, and it's now Monday.

The Internet deserves nothing less than a full and honest explanation of the truth behind ASS-GATE. Andrew, you OWE it to your readers to explain.

Update: was CBS news behind a forgery of the video footage?

Second update: it's been 10 minutes and still no response from Andrew. I say, GUILTY!

Tax Golems

2004-11-08T15:37:00.000-06:00

Today's New York Times has an article Big Tax Plans, Big Tax Risks by Richard W. Stevenson which discusses Bush's desire to reform the national tax code. As usual, the article is structured as a he-said, she-said argument with no real independent analysis.

According to the article, Bush has stated that he wants to the tax code reform to be revenue neutral. Given this goal, the most important question that needs to be asked is how the tax burden will be restructured -- who will end up paying more in taxes and who will pay less? Considering the current Administration has favored tax cuts on wealth over work, shifted the tax burden to the middle class, repeatedly cut taxes for corporations, eliminated the estate tax (which only hits the wealthiest families), and its obsession with the "flat tax" (which typically is a red herring for tax simplification through the elimination of deductions, many of which favor the poor), the Administration doesn't seem to have the working class's interests truly at heart.

I predict that, once again, the poor and middle class are going to have their pockets picked by the rich. Consider this quote from the article: "Advocates of both options say [that some tax reform proposals] would give the economy a substantial boost by effectively eliminating taxes on savings and investment". Eliminating taxes on saving and investment is another way of saying "tax work, not wealth".

Amazingly, the national sales tax is an even worse idea. Why does it not surprise me that Cheney appears to be a fan?

However, my biggest pet peeve with articles on tax policy is they never seem to consider total federal tax burden, let alone total federal, state, and local tax burden. My personal payroll tax burden (both employee and employer share) is larger than my 2003 federal income tax burden, and I'm probably in the second quintile of federal income!

"You broke it, you bought it."

2004-11-05T13:27:00.000-06:00

Slate's Dan Gross writes little preview of the mess that Dems would have had to clean up, and why the potential silver lining will be watching the market pass judgement on the faith-based economics of the Bush team:

In decades past, increasing Republican dominance of the House and Senate would have meant more fiscal discipline. But Republicans increasingly dominate the states that are net drains on Federal taxes—the Southern and Great Plains states—while fading in the coastal states that produce a disproportionate share of federal revenue. (It's Republicans, not Democrats, who are sucking on the federal teat.) What Amity Shlaes quaintly identified in today's Financial Times as the "southern culture of tax cutting" has been married to the southern culture of failing to generate wealth and the southern culture of depending on federal largesse. The offspring is an unsightly deficit monster.
Establishmentarians have long wondered when the grown-ups will asserts themselves in the Republican party. The stark truth today is that there are no grown-ups.

Kevin Drum over at Washington Monthly refers to Brad Delong's analysis of the long-run effects of this faith-based economics insanity. Time to read up on the Argentinian economy?

So, will we get unsustainable spending increases coupled with irresponsible tax reductions?
Probably.

Will we be neck-deep in an expensive occupation of a hostile foreign land with no planned exit?
Already there.

Should we start hedging with investments in the Euro?
Maybe.

Long live supply-side jaysus!

Now What?

2004-11-03T11:34:00.000-06:00

Simply put, Democrats, STOP BEING PUSSIES.

Every one of you.

Don't mince words, call the president a liar.

Don't mince words, call the anti-gay movement bigoted.

And understand that you're a minority party in the house and senate. Don't just be "obstructionist", FIGHT THE MOTHERFUCKERS.

They won't put you on conference committees? Filibuster every motherfuckin' bill. Find every damn mistake they make and hold it up to the light. When they support things like "extraordinary rendition", call it ANTI-AMERICAN. Because IT IS.

And grassroots folks -- time to get working. Time to talk to your neighbors about what's wrong with today's republican party, because it's got real problems and it's causing real problems for America.

No Retreat, No Surrender

2004-11-03T01:53:00.000-06:00

Excellent choice of campaign theme songs, Senator Kerry. Tonight, we're all going up river.

"We made a promise, one we'd always remember..."

MARS, BITCHES

2004-11-02T13:50:00.000-06:00

CRIMINEY! [Jonah Goldberg]

I went out for a brief lunch with missus and I come back to discover things are going south? What the...? From what I'm hearing, Florida's an uphill climb right now and New Hampshire's a lost cause. Trying to nail things down.

The Mandate Of A Kerry Landslide

2004-11-02T09:52:00.000-06:00

Don't forget -- even though a Kerry presidency is only possible through an Electoral College victory, his mandate will be largely determined by the national popular vote. This means that even if you aren't in a swing state, a vote for Kerry is still important -- it sends the clear message that the nation as a whole rejects Bush's performance in office, and that we will stand behind our new Commander in Chief.

Get out and vote!

Andrew Sullivan calls Kaus out

2004-11-01T19:59:00.000-06:00

AS FOR MICKEY:
"It's always pleasant to be dismissed as "excitable". I do react to events instantly and with my emotions as well as my brain. And I reserve the right in blog-time to change my mind. But I have never been so excitable as to have argued last December that Kerry's campaign was so execrably bad that he should withdraw from the race before the Iowa caucuses. Let's roll the tape, shall we?"

Cue Nelson-laugh.

Despair not, part II

2004-11-01T19:29:00.000-06:00

Read.

Despair not

2004-11-01T18:40:00.000-06:00

Check out what republican poll watchers were saying the day before election day in 2000:

The real debate is not who is going to win the election, but whether Bush will win 308 electoral votes or 474 electoral votes... The worst case scenario for a Bush victory will be a 2-3 point win in the popular vote and 10-20% more than the necessary 270 EC votes... George W. Bush has a better chance of carrying New Jersey and Vermont than Al Gore does of becoming the next President of the United States.... On Tuesday night the talking heads will all be abuzz with ... the surprising strength of Ralph Nader... We continue to see a landslide of over 400 electoral votes and a Bush win by 7-10 points."

For the record, Al Gore carried New Jersey and Vermont, and should have been the next President of the United States. Ah well.

John Kerry, Contras, and Cocaine

2004-11-01T13:14:00.000-06:00

Salon ran a story a few days ago by Robert Parry entitled How John Kerry Exposed The Contra-Cocaine Scandal. Here's a passage from the article:

Behind it all was Kerry, who combined a prosecutor's sense for sniffing out criminality and a politician's instinct for pushing the limits. The Kerry whom I met during this period was a complex man who balanced a rebellious idealism with a determination not to burn his bridges to the political establishment.

The Reagan administration did everything it could to thwart Kerry's investigation, including attempting to discredit witnesses, stonewalling the Senate when it requested evidence and assigning the CIA to monitor Kerry's probe. But it couldn't stop Kerry and his investigators from discovering the explosive truth: that the Contra war was permeated with drug traffickers who gave the Contras money, weapons and equipment in exchange for help in smuggling cocaine into the United States. Even more damningly, Kerry found that U.S. government agencies knew about the Contra-drug connection, but turned a blind eye to the evidence in order to avoid undermining a top Reagan-Bush foreign policy initiative.

This and the BCCI investigation are two crystal-clear positive reasons to vote for Kerry, independent of any anti-Bush sentiments.

Joe Trippi

2004-11-01T10:02:00.000-06:00

I really don't intend to turn this into an all "powerline is stupid", all the time blog, but they really crack me up: "Joe Trippi (Is he a blogger? Not that I know of)..."

Well, dumbasses, he does have a blog on JoeTrippi.com and he posts on MSNBC's HardBlogger (probably the bit that got him on the NBC news broadcast), but he became nationally famous pimping Howard Dean's BlogForAmerica.com (now part of Dean's DemocracyForAmerica.com) during the primaries. Perhaps if you didn't have your heads up Glenn Reynold's ass you might have heard of that one.

Christopher Hitchens is, as usual, wrong.

2004-10-31T01:41:00.000-06:00

I am really tired of hearing Christopher Hitchens talk about "The far left" and "anybody but Bush". Here's a quote: "The amazing thing is the literalness with which the mantra is chanted. Anybody? Including Muqtada al-Sadr? The chilling answer is, quite often, yes. This is nihilism."

Hitchens, eat my ass. Find me a voter who says they'd vote for al-Sadr over Bush and I'll find you someone with a sense of humor. Let me tell you what "anybody but Bush" meant. It was, very simply, a slogan the Democrats used in the primary to reassure each other that nobody was going to go Nader on the rest of the party. It was not a contentious primary after New Hampshire, to be sure, but we all knew that whoever won would have the full backing of the Democratic party.

That is the meaning of Anybody But Bush.

And as someone who knows the failings and missteps of this president with such detail, you should know the truth and importance of that sentiment, that statement against failure.

Since the convention, however, you may have noticed that nobody is saying "anybody but Bush." President Clinton, the most popular ex-president in 50 years, spoke to the largest crowd he had ever addressed in his life. They gathered together in Philadelphia, the birthpace of our great nation, to not see him, but to see the next great Democratic president of the United States, John Kerry. A man of complete integrity, a man of tremendous personal and political strength and courage. As a young man, he faced death in Vietnam. As a young protester, he stood up for truth and honesty, and took the words of those who could not speak them to their own nation they had struggled to defend, and made them be heard. As a young Senator, he took the corruption of Iran-Contra on head-first, when both Democrats and Republicans would not address the scandal head on. When he found a bank funding drugs and terrorism across the globe, he ignored its political connections and brought it down. When no one else would go back to Vietnam, he sat down next to a man who resented his actions 25 years before, and was able to convince him of the justice in what he said. If John McCain can forgive him for speaking against a war while he was a prisoner of it, surely anyone can.

At the same time, he was at the forefront of the Democratic party and the left moving through the last two decades. Was one of three Democrats to vote for a balanced budget in 1985. He voted against the first Iraq war, but saw that the military had moved past its failures in Vietnam. With that experience, he voted for military action in Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan and again in Iraq. In the last, he put his faith in a president who has shown himself to be manifestly incapable of holding anyone's sacred faith or trust, shown himself to be unfit for office, and profaned his position far more than the man who proceeded him.

John Kerry will not profane the Oval Office. Had he turned to Iraq in late 2002, he would not have used it as a political tool, as cheap domestic capital. He would not have turned away allies over childish peevishness. He would have been a man. And that is why I am voting for John Kerry. Because he is a man.

And let me take exception to one more thing you say, Mr. Hitchens. "I was asked if I would also say something here about my personal evolution. I took that to mean: How do you like your new right-wing friends? I can only return the question. I prefer them to Pat Buchanan and Vladimir Putin."

Sir, both of those men have endorsed your candidate for President, George W. Bush.

Prediction

2004-10-29T19:09:00.000-05:00

This bin Laden thing buries Bush. "Dead or alive," and 3 years later he's laughing at your posse, man, not good.

120M voters. 53/45/2 Kerry/Bush/Other. 379 EV for Kerry.

(Bush holds TX ID UT MT WY ND SD KS OK IN KY TN MS AL NC SC). He's screwed.

I don't know what's going to happen in the house or senate, it's too crazy. I think we'll knock off Bunning though. Batshit crazy doesn't fly with voters anymore.

Bin Laden Speaks

2004-10-29T16:31:00.000-05:00

And really, who the fuck cares what he says? I don't want to play the game, trying to guess what he wants and vote against it. I am voting for what _I_ want, which is this fucker dead or in a cage and then dead, and a President who will accomplish that.

Update: And in case it's unclear, that's not the President who said he wanted Usama "dead or alive." Ok, he's alive -- what have you done about it?

Finally, John Ellis and I agree

2004-10-29T11:56:00.000-05:00

On what the Bush administration would be like:

"Here's to four more years of hell."

What an endorsement!

Today's Al-Qaqaa Bullshit

2004-10-29T10:59:00.000-05:00

These guys are now accusing themselves of lying...

Matt Drudge says that, within the hour, a soldier will tell reporters at the Pentagon that he was tasked with removing explosives from al Qaqaa and that he and his unit removed more than 200 tons.

Ok, let's assume this actually happens. Here's a few questions.

Doesn't this prove that the Moonie Times story that Drudge and Powerline have been pushing is completely false? Don't they owe us an apology?

Doesn't this mean all the other cover stories, including the aerial photo they released yesterday, are completely bogus?

If this guy showed up on the 13th, why were the bunkers still locked and containing explosives on the 18th?

Who ordered this operation, why didn't anybody in the white house or pentagon know about it before today, and where are the explosives now?

Given the obvious fabrications behind 1 & 2 and the inconsistancy of 3 & 4 with the external record, why should we believe THIS lie?

60 Minutes

2004-10-28T17:36:00.000-05:00

So, apparently Leslie Stahl and 60 Minutes were doing a piece on Saturday Night Live, and had cameras rolling when Ashlee Simpson had her little sync problem.

Is there anything fake these guys DON'T cover?

Kerry In Iraq

2004-10-28T14:09:00.000-05:00

Bradford Plumer has written an article for Mother Jones entitled What Kerry Can Do In Iraq which, shockingly, discusses what Kerry can do to stabilize Iraq.

The single biggest asset Kerry brings to the table is competency. A close second is a devotion to results over ideology -- a Kerry administration wouldn't have made Iraq his near-libertarian economic theory experiment, nor would it have worn anti-internationalism as a badge of honor, nor would it have favored no-bid contracts over Iraqis performing the work themselves for less money, nor would it have vindictively excluded European contractors who originally built much of the Iraqi infrastructure, nor would it have appointed 20-something Heritage Foundation ideologues into positions of extreme power, nor would it have accepted pure "democracy" over pluralism, nor would it have not fired anyone once their mistakes became obvious.

More Head-In-The-Sand-ness

2004-10-28T13:27:00.001-05:00

Hitchens ruminates on whether al-Zarqawi is worse than Hitler, or something.

I don't know, Chris, maybe he wouldn't have such sway if we had TAKEN HIM OUT in 2002.

Powerline gets it WRONG, AGAIN

2004-10-28T11:05:00.000-05:00

Typical spin from these guys desparate to ignore the stench of malfeasance coming from the White House.

They describe Keller as "backpedaling furiously" when he acknowledges the minute possibility that the weapons were removed before the US arrived (i.e. the Bush Admin cover story). While still in "forged-documents" mode, the repeat this line from the original story: "White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year."...

That statement was untrue, of course; just one of many in the Times hit piece. Keller's revisionist history shows, I suppose, that the Times knows its coverage of this "story" is indefensible. But don't expect a correction, at least not until after the election.

Are you suggesting that nobody in the Pentagon or White House admitted the obvious -- that this is part of the massive postwar looting effort carried out at weapons and dual-use tools sites ALL OVER IRAQ as documented repeatedly?

And since you're asking for corrections, how about one from you. Because the Minneapolis/Saint Paul ABC affiliate has video from April 18th, 2003 showing the explosives still in Al Qaqaa. (also reported on TAPPED, atrios, etc).

Guys? Any time now, I'm waiting.

Update: Big Media Matt over at TAPPED points out how bad their case is:

[T]he truth about this controversy is hardly unknowable. On John Kerry's side are witnesses, television footage, and officials from the U.S. Army and Iraqi Interim Government. On George W. Bush's side are Bush, Bush's political appointees, and the press aides to Bush's political appointees. It doesn't take a psychic to figure out who's wrong and who's right here.

And Newsweek points out this is the tip of the iceberg of stolen war materiel in Iraq. This isn't bad, this isn't a political problem, this is a national security disaster that we'll be paying for for a decade.

When The Facts Are Politically Unfavorable...

2004-10-27T13:04:00.000-05:00

...blame the facts! After all, that's what our highly distinguished Vice President, Dick "Pumphead" Cheney, does.

Uh-Oh

2004-10-27T11:46:00.000-05:00

Noam Schrieber finds what may be a serious 'abuse' of taxpayer funds...

Afghanistan

2004-10-27T11:39:00.000-05:00

So, Afghanistan isn't exactly going swimmingly, but it seems to be on a wobbly uphill path, rather than degrading into interminable violence like the president's My Pet War.

On the other hand, like I said, Iraq is totally fucked.

Now, where are France, Germany and the UN involved? Afghanistan. Where are France, Germany and the UN not involved? Iraq.

Where is George W. Bush's (and perhaps more importantly, the entire Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush team's) anti-Midas touch concentrated? Iraq.

Lucky Afghanistan.

Why Does GeorgeWBush.com hate our troops?

2004-10-27T11:28:00.000-05:00

BBC reports that it is official policy of the BC04 campaign to block non-US browsers from their website. Including overseas absentee ballot holders, including OUR TROOPS.

The State Of Energy

2004-10-27T11:05:00.000-05:00

Winds Of Change.NET has a post New Energy Currents that provides an overview of the current feasibility of long-term sustainable energy generation. Summary: We have a long way to go.

John Kerry has a plan. George W. Bush still can't get his energy bill (a.k.a. "Leave No Oilman Behind") passed with a Republican Congress.

Guest-a-hack

2004-10-26T23:47:00.000-05:00

Where does Glenn find people who haven't even heard of "Vote Or Die"? Dear lord, woman, I'm completely pop culture illiterate and I've still heard of it.

Explosives story

2004-10-26T15:03:00.000-05:00

I just received this email from the vast right wing conspiracy. Your faith-based assessment of the situation may need revising:

-- begin


The "cache emptied before US in control of Iraq" cover story is no

longer operative.  Please check POWERLINEBLOG for new cover story --

NY TIMES MEMO was forged by known LEFTIST and UN AGITATOR Mohammed El

Baradei.



BC04 ADVISES this cover story is of extremely short half-life and may

not remain operative through Nov 2 04 -- PLEASE CHECK BACK FREQUENTLY

FOR FUTURE UPDATES.

-- end quote.

Sadistic Bastards

2004-10-25T13:31:00.000-05:00

And for once, I'm not talking about the Bush Administration (though, see Eric Umansky's comment on the sudden spate of bad news for Bush right before the election.

No, I'm talking about whoever scheduled a major release at work right before Election Day. This'll be my last post until my celebratory post-victory lap Nov 2. So, for the record, here's my prediction: Kerry 330 EV. 51% popular vote.

Creeping Theocracy

2004-10-22T15:28:00.000-05:00

Beliefnet has the story (via Sully...)

Oregon Measure 36

2004-10-22T13:57:00.000-05:00

Now, I have to say, I'm generally anti-ballot measure. These things were designed as a way to circumvent the legislature when the legislature was too corrupt to implement certain policies -- a last resort, not a way of jamming crappy public policy through with misleading TV ads. However, these arguments in favor of Oregon's Measure 36 (a gay marriage ban) sure have me convinced.

Dan Drezner makes up his mind

2004-10-22T13:11:00.000-05:00

What a sane, right-thinking analysis of this election looks like.

Update: from his comments: "Vote Badnarik- at least he knows he's crazy."

A Victory Aganst the Evil Diebold

2004-10-21T14:05:00.000-05:00

"Nelson Pavlosky and Luke Smith, both 20, last month won a federal court case against Diebold for the right to post an archive of 15,000 internal Diebold memos from 1999 to 2003 that appear to expose serious flaws in the company's voting machines."

San Jose Mercury News article covers students winning a federal court case against Diebold. There are serious concerns not only about this election, but about how Diebold got so far down the path of influencing the election in the first place.

Kerry's Post-Election Strategy

2004-10-21T10:24:00.000-05:00

Chris Bowers at MyDD points out Kerry's post-election strategy -- Kerry is determined not to make the same mistakes that Al Gore did in 2000.

The Hacks Mickey Kaus And Andrew Sullivan

2004-10-21T10:21:00.000-05:00

Atrios gives them the business.

More Halliburton Goodness

2004-10-21T10:19:00.000-05:00

Andy Stern at Fight For The Future points out the following fact in his post Putting People First?:

It turns out that Cheney took away pension benefits from hundreds of Halliburton employees at the same time that the company was expanding Cheney’s own retirement benefits by $20 million.

These facts have been documented by one of the leading pension rights watchdogs in Congress, Representative George Miller of California.

Rep. Miller found that Cheney changed the corporate status of one of Halliburton’s subsidiaries, told the employees that this wouldn’t affect their pensions, and then took away pension benefits even though the workers were performing the same duties in the same location that they always had.

The employees asked Bush two years ago to take action, but the Bush Labor Department has done nothing.

Why Do People Continue To Support Bush?

2004-10-21T10:17:00.000-05:00

Paul Waldman at The Gadflyer points out it often is simply because they aren't members of the reality-based community.

More Bush Corruption

2004-10-21T09:52:00.000-05:00

This has been discussed at length, but it's worth pointing out again: The New England chair of Bush-Cheney '04 was known by the campaign to be involved in an electioneering stunt that was a felony, but remained on their payroll until his personal involvement became publicly known. Some integrity.

CIA Coverups

2004-10-21T09:49:00.000-05:00

Josh Marshall points out that the CIA is also burying a report on the Niger forgeries, in addition to the 9/11 Report we've previously covered.

What Does Social Security Reform Really Mean?

2004-10-20T15:52:00.000-05:00

Dave Johnson at The American Street puts Social Security "reform" proposals in perspective.

More Evidence That Bush Is Insane

2004-10-20T13:57:00.000-05:00

Trapper John at Daily Kos relays this anecdote from CNN:

Pat Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, said he had that conversation with the president in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 invasion U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He described Bush in the meeting as "the most self-assured man I've ever met in my life."

"You remember Mark Twain said, 'He looks like a contented Christian with four aces.' I mean he was just sitting there like, 'I'm on top of the world,' " Robertson said on the CNN show, "Paula Zahn Now."

"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' "

Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."

I think we are well overdue for a President whose brain isn't in Fantasyland.

The Upcoming GOP Civil War

2004-10-20T13:40:00.000-05:00

Steve Gilliard suggests that the current Republican party is similar to the 70s Democrats, in that they have swung too far to an extreme and a series of electoral losses will lead to long-term moderation.

I certainly hope so. I find the current Republican party's blend of Christian fundamentalist moralism and corporatism particularly distasteful. I'm hoping for a landslide Kerry victory to help accelerate the process of Republican internal revolution.

I find David Brooks' vision of "progressive conservatism" -- that of "a slightly larger government, to value balanced budgets as highly as low taxes, to stop doing so many favors for business, and to focus on entitlement reform, national service, improving teacher quality, and promoting marriage in the ghetto." -- highly compelling, assuming it is paired with social liberalism. Such a candidate would be highly likely to receive my support. Of course, as Benjamin Wallace-Wells points out in the above link, such a vision is "far closer to the majority Democratic position than the Republican one".

All Politics, All The Time

2004-10-20T13:02:00.000-05:00

The Carpetbagger Report mentions another Bush first -- the National Security Advisor clearly using her position for political purposes. More business as usual from the "Mayberry Machiavellis".

Who Told Kerry To Avoid Mentioning BCCI

2004-10-20T11:39:00.000-05:00

Jack O'Toole says it was Bob Shrum but defends the decision.

More Presidential Endorsements

2004-10-20T11:38:00.000-05:00

The Flu Vaccine Shortage

2004-10-20T11:32:00.000-05:00

DemFromCT on Daily Kos and Mark A. R. Kleiman explain why the Bush administration deserves at least some blame for this year's flu vaccine shortage.

Quiver In Fear, Bastards

2004-10-19T17:50:00.000-05:00

Atrios has a post about Tom DeLay, with links to a sample protest letter to send to your representative, if that rep has accepted money from DeLay, and to a list of who has accepted money from Tom and how much.

The strategy here is simple. Those who are most loathesome we must turn into a political liability. If accepting money from Tom DeLay means facing constituency fire and negative press at home, Republicans (especially those without extremely safe districts, who coincidentally are the ones who actually NEED the money) won't take it. This erodes his power base in the House.

This tactic needs to be used judiciously, as obviously you can't express this kind of outrage over every single republican representative, senator, or political strategist, but after this election cycle is over I have a suggestion for who should be next on the Distributed Hit List:

Karl Rove.

"Let's Roll"

2004-10-19T17:24:00.000-05:00

That's the winning caption from Salon's War Room competition....

CIA Names Names In Hidden 9/11 Report

2004-10-19T14:54:00.000-05:00

If Robert Scheer is correct then I guess we know why Porter Goss was in such a rush to get appointed...

Conservative Blogger Call To Arms

2004-10-19T13:41:00.000-05:00

Laura Rozen stumbles onto their october surprise....

Examining Kerry's Senate Record

2004-10-19T11:23:00.000-05:00

Greg at The Talent Show defends Kerry's Senate record.

Suggested MoveOn ad

2004-10-19T11:22:00.000-05:00

Clip: Bush says "compassionate conservative."
Freeze frame.
Narrator: "Sound familiar?"
Clip: Bush I says "kinder, gentler America."

Narrator: And they're at it again.

Clip: Bush: "We don't need a draft."
Freeze-frame. Narrator: "Uh-huh?"
Clip: Bush I: "Read my lips."

Gallup Again

2004-10-19T11:03:00.000-05:00

Ruy Teixeira at the Emerging Democratic Majority blasts Gallup's Presidental poll yet again.

Krugman On The Draft

2004-10-19T11:00:00.000-05:00

Paul Krugman has to be the charter member of the reality-based community. His take on the draft is here.

Tommy Franks, General Spinner

2004-10-19T10:48:00.001-05:00

Edward at Obsidian Wings takes his hand at de-spinning General Tommy Franks' New York Times Op-Ed in his post General Misunderstandings.

Mismanagement Of The Iraqi Aftermath

2004-10-19T10:43:00.000-05:00

Michael Young at Reason's Hit & Run has a post Screwing Iraq Up Big Time which discusses Michael R. Gordon's New York Times article The Strategy to Secure Iraq Did Not Foresee a 2nd War. Young interprets Gordon to place much of the blame at Bush's subordinates, most prominently Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The passage from the article which seems to be reappearing throughout the blogosphere is:

John Abizaid was the only one who really had his head in the postwar game," General Garner said, referring to the general who served as General Franks's deputy and eventually his successor. "The Bush administration did not. Condi Rice did not. Doug Feith didn't. You could go brief them, but you never saw any initiative come of them. You just kind of got a north and south nod. And so it ends with so many tragic things.

Kevin Drum has some further analysis.

*sigh* I remember when the high quality of subordinates was supposed to be a Bush selling point in 2000.

What Would Kerry Do?

2004-10-19T10:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I read Daniel Drezner's posts About That P-Value and A Long, Winding, And Long-Winded Response (and their comments) which debate whether Kerry or Bush's foreign policy would be better. It seemed to me that many Bush supporters cited his aggressiveness and willingness to use force as the critical difference between him and Kerry. While I think Kerry would be much more militarily aggressive than many Bush supporters seem to think, I agree that it is significantly more likely that Bush would desire to invade Iran, Syria, or North Korea.

However, there seems to be an overriding point. Assuming we do not have a draft, Bush's aggressive instincts will be greatly curtailed due to existing military deployments. Furthermore, once you take that advantage (if you see it such) away from Bush, how does he stack up?

It seems that hilzoy at Obsidian Wings had a similar thought and explored it quite thoroughly in his post WWKD Take 2.

Republicans For Kerry

2004-10-19T10:04:00.000-05:00

Both The Carpetbagger Report and DemWatch report that a number of high-profile Republicans and conservatives have recently endorsed John Kerry for President, including:

William G. Milliken, Republican Governor of Michigan, 1969-1982

Scott McConnell, The American Conservative writer

Clyde Prestowitz, Reagan administration Commerce Department official

Former Representative Bob Barr (R-GA)

Robert A. George, New York Post writer and former Newt Gingrich aide

This is in addition to the previous endorsements by Republicans such as Ambassador John Eisenhower (son of Dwight D. Eisenhower) and former Nixon administration EPA director Russell Train.

CIA Spymaster Says Pre-War Intelligence Not "Slam-Dunk"

2004-10-18T16:21:00.000-05:00

Cosmic Iguana has the goods. The key quote by former CIA spymaster James Pavitt:

I in fact sat in a number of meetings and I said there may be a number of reasons for going to war, but I do not see the intelligence we have on weapons of mass destruction being the one that carries the day.

Stowcroft: Iraq Is A Failing Venture

2004-10-18T13:51:00.000-05:00

The Carpetbagger Report informs us that Brent Stowcroft, George H.W. Bush's National Security Advisor, is highly critical of the Bush administration's unilateralism and calls Iraq and Afghanistan a "failing venture".

Sunlight As Disinfectant

2004-10-18T13:31:00.000-05:00

Discourse.net discusses the New York Times's article on torture practices in Guantanamo.

Bush Nixes Muslim Peacekeepers For Iraq...

2004-10-18T13:25:00.000-05:00

...because they would be controlled by the U.N. instead of by U.S. military officers. How can we fight an effective global War on Terrorism while being led by knee-jerk anti-internationalists?

Heads They Win, Tails You Lose

2004-10-18T11:14:00.000-05:00

A breakdown of the Florida manual vote recount process for electronic voting machines.

Rove Is Unimpressive, Says Yglesias

2004-10-18T11:01:00.000-05:00

Matthew Yglesias posits and provides evidence that Karl Rove's skills are overrated.

Tommy Franks, General Moron

2004-10-18T10:41:00.000-05:00

According to Kevin Drum, General Tommy Franks has blamed the disbanding of the Iraqi army on Congress rather than Bush or Rumsfeld because they "never appropriated money for that purpose".

Even though Jay Garner said that money to pay the Iraqi army was budgeted (according to Drum), the real issue to The Quipper is the rhetorical question "Who is responsible for asking for the money?!?!?!"

Deconstructing The Bush Administration

2004-10-18T09:35:00.000-05:00

In the New York Times Magazine this weekend, The Price Of Loyalty author and journalist Ron Suskind wrote the lengthly article Without A Doubt which provides fascinating insight into the Bush administration. Here's a telling passage:

In the Oval Office in December 2002, the president met with a few ranking senators and members of the House, both Republicans and Democrats. In those days, there were high hopes that the United States-sponsored "road map" for the Israelis and Palestinians would be a pathway to peace, and the discussion that wintry day was, in part, about countries providing peacekeeping forces in the region. The problem, everyone agreed, was that a number of European countries, like France and Germany, had armies that were not trusted by either the Israelis or Palestinians. One congressman -- the Hungarian-born Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California and the only Holocaust survivor in Congress -- mentioned that the Scandinavian countries were viewed more positively. Lantos went on to describe for the president how the Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping force on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sweden has a well-trained force of about 25,000. The president looked at him appraisingly, several people in the room recall.

"I don't know why you're talking about Sweden," Bush said. "They're the neutral one. They don't have an army."

Lantos paused, a little shocked, and offered a gentlemanly reply: "Mr. President, you may have thought that I said Switzerland. They're the ones that are historically neutral, without an army." Then Lantos mentioned, in a gracious aside, that the Swiss do have a tough national guard to protect the country in the event of invasion.

Bush held to his view. "No, no, it's Sweden that has no army."

The room went silent, until someone changed the subject.

A few weeks later, members of Congress and their spouses gathered with administration officials and other dignitaries for the White House Christmas party. The president saw Lantos and grabbed him by the shoulder. "You were right," he said, with bonhomie. "Sweden does have an army."

Eating Your Own Seed Corn

2004-10-18T09:23:00.000-05:00

INTEL DUMP mentions that the Army is deploying the elite 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (a.k.a. the Blackhorse regiment) to Iraq, and mentions some of the rather serious consequences.

Enough Said

2004-10-18T09:20:00.000-05:00

Beautiful Horizons points to a Knight-Ridder series entitled Planning For After The War In Iraq Non-Existant.

The Many Faces Of Jonathan Stewart

2004-10-16T03:20:00.000-05:00

The many-splendored Jon Stewart has the honor of entering my home via the airwaves (yes, it's a cable show, but I have satellite so it counts!) 4 days a week (it's Daily!... about half the time) to mock anything and everything that's been in the news. He's exceedingly good at it. Over the last several years (I watched the show even before he took over, and he's been a hell of a lot better than the craphead who used to host it) (and what is up with all these fucking parentheticals?) I've noticed that there are three common faces of Jon. Note, he is capable of infinite variety. But the three that strike me the most are these:

1) That's funny! Often marked by a nasally voice and adjusting the tie, or variation 1a, straight man for on-location reporter mocking on-location reporters.

2) That's sad. Face in hands. Common when discussing the Bush administration.

3) I'm fucking pissed.

Now, I'm lying when I say these three strike me the most, because I've only seen that last one once before, and that was when the asswipe who wrote "The Connection, a National Review-sponsored roundup of the discredited intelligence that got us into this stupidass war in Iraq warmed over and presented with feigned interest". He obviously came looking for some yucks, and Jon (who gave the guy 2 segments) absolutely shredded him, calling him and everything he stands for a disgrace and a travesty and a sham and a mockery, a distraveshamockery.

If you missed it, don't worry, because that Jon is back and he's calling Tucker Carlson a dick.

Drug Reimportation

2004-10-15T18:19:00.000-05:00

Here's why I'm for it.

I'm tired of fucking Canadians and Europeans fucking freeloading while we pay higher prices to keep the drug companies profits up and R&D going. Why should we be the only country to get fucked? I say, let's take the canadian drugs until they all have to negotiate a decent price that's more in line with what we pay.

Have you ever wondered....

2004-10-15T17:50:00.000-05:00

"Where's a good middle eastern restaurant near Fox News Channel's New York Headquarters?"

The Falafel Factor can tell you!

How Ironic

2004-10-15T16:11:00.000-05:00

The Bush campaign's support for civil liberties in a nutshell.

More GOP Rewarding Of Failure

2004-10-15T12:28:00.000-05:00

Actually, this time, it's more like rewarding for criminal activity.

Raiding Retirement System For Political Purposes

2004-10-15T11:34:00.000-05:00

Instead of raising the debt ceiling in an election season and causing uncomfortable political blowback, the Bush Administration is planning on borrowing from the civil service retirement system until after the elections. "A tax gap", indeed.

Iraq War Has Lead to Rise Of Terror

2004-10-15T11:28:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said that the War in Iraq has made the global War on Terrorism much more difficult. Saudi Arabia concurs.

Illinois Republicans' Fatal Mistake

2004-10-15T11:21:00.000-05:00

Kos illustrates how the nomination of Illinois Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan "Loony" Keyes to run against Democrat superstar Barack Obama not only guaranteed their loss in Illinois, it may lose them much, much more.

Even The Vietnamese Debunk SBVfT Allegations

2004-10-15T10:38:00.000-05:00

Nightline went to Vietnam to investigate the allegations surrounding the battle from which Kerry earned his Silver Star, and they found that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were full of it.

Reward Failure

2004-10-15T10:24:00.000-05:00

Not only does the Bush administration not penalize failure, they actually reward it!

Surging Federal Budget Deficit

2004-10-15T10:22:00.000-05:00

AMERICAblog points out that the Federal Budget deficit has surged to $413 billion in 2004 from $377 billion in 2003. After inflation, this is the highest deficit since World War II. The linked article has a quote from Treasury Secretary John Snow who said:

All of this shows that the president's tax [cuts] are having the intended effects.

Indeed it does.

(Of course, Snow was referring to how the actual deficit is under the initial estimates, and he used the euphamism "tax relief initiatives" over "tax cuts".)

Today's Idiocy From The Corner

2004-10-14T17:11:00.000-05:00

INTO THE MUCK:

...If Mrs Edwards is being obtuse, that's nothing compared with the 'senior Kerry aide' also quoted in the story. Kerry's comments were not inappropriate, she said. "The woman is in her thirties. She's public about her sexuality. It was brought up in the last debate. So, what the hell?"
"It was brought up in the last debate." Brought up by whom, I wonder.

BY THE FUCKING MODERATOR, dumbass. Also note: Cheney talked about the issue at a town hall meeting on the stump about a month ago. Mary Cheney is 1) out with a partner for the last 6+ years at least 2) a member of her father's campaign and 3) responsible for GAY OUTREACH FOR THE CAMPAIGN.

And, Mrs. Cheney, why are you so offended now when John Kerry says something nice about you and your daughter but you had nothing to say when a member of your own party called her a "selfish hedonist" during the Republican Convention?

Update:

"Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue that our family is very familiar with. ... With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is that freedom means freedom for everyone. People ought to be able to free -- ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to."

Dick Cheney, 25 Aug 2004 (via atrios)

Note to Bush: Massachussets is 1/50th of the US

2004-10-14T13:56:00.000-05:00

Bush and Cheney have been wearing out the "Senator Kennedy... er Kerry" lines (Either it's a joke, and it's time to change up the phrasing, or is Cheney really that stupid?) -- with three slurs juxtaposing "liberal" and "Massachusetts" in last night's debate --er "chimplosion".

Today, Timothy Noah throws it back in Bush's face, in his article "Lay Off Massachusetts"

George W. Bush doesn't get to choose which United States he's president of.

Noah, one of my favorite Slate contributors, injects some facts which may be destructive to a hard core "red stater's" self-image. Namely that by and large, the red states are the ones most desperately addicted to the government teat.

Maybe they know this, and their virulent anti-government posturing is some sort of projecting?

The Cause Of The Deficit

2004-10-13T17:11:00.000-05:00

MaxSpeak shows that the primary cause of the deficit is not recession nor increased spending, but the tax cuts. In other words, this means that Bush is lying. Huh, whoda thunk it?

Dem Senate Chances Look Very Good

2004-10-13T13:55:00.000-05:00

MyDD has the latest development in the Martinez-Castor Florida U.S. Senate race and also summarizes how Democratic chances in the U.S. Senate look good nearly across the board.

Kerry Debate Advice Day

2004-10-13T13:43:00.000-05:00

Jeff Alworth has some more Kerry debate advice.

Getting Under Bush's Skin

2004-10-13T13:03:00.000-05:00

The latest Kerry campaign strategy? John Edwards had an especially nice line:

I run, I played a little football when I was in school. And the president, I think, was there at those football games too. He was, I think, on the side, maybe with his pompoms? Can you run fast with those cheerleading outfits on?

Kilvert and Forbes....

2004-10-13T11:41:00.000-05:00

(to the tune of "Gonads and Strife"?)

I really hate this kind of gotcha question, but it's extra stupid when you haven't done your homework:

You promise to create millions of jobs, but many people who run businesses say that nothing in your life has taught you how much effort, risk and sometimes heartbreak goes into creating one real job. Could you describe your experiences when you last had to meet a payroll, or when your boss had to meet a payroll?

Kilvert And Forbes

Kilvert & Forbes was originally created in 1976 when Quincy Market first opened its doors as the famous food colonnade.

At the time, founder John Kerry was practicing law, which he found to be “quite predictable and very boring”. So this chocolate lover and his friend and business partner K. Dunn Gifford opened the bakery and named it after their mothers, featuring family recipes. In 1982, Lt. Governor Kerry bought his partner’s shares of the business and sold them to Stanley and Linda Klein. A few years later, he sold his own shares to the Kleins. Even though Senator Kerry is no longer at Kilvert & Forbes, we hear that he still loves chocolate!

(also on atrios)

Flow Chart Ad

2004-10-13T11:31:00.000-05:00

Bush has a new ad on his website with a really complicated flowchart in which he tells you how horrible the Kerry plan is. Actual Kerry plan. Step 1: You do nothing. Step 2: Your premiums come down. Step 3: if you get incredibly sick, your insurance company doesn't try to bail.

I can't find it now, and it's really pissing me off, but Rep Joe Hoeffel (D-PA) (currently running for PA senate) had an awesome flowchart at one point detailing Bush's medicare prescription drug card plan and the steps users needed to take to find use the benefit. The pictures Bush is showing actually look exactly like that.